Vilnius, Lithuania

Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, has Lithuanian, Polish and Russian heritage. We spent two days there including a day trip to the lake resort town of Trakai.

First, we have a cold beer.


Locals start a run from in front of the Cathedral Bell Tower.


View from our apartment.


The Literatu Street Project with plaques honoring poets and writes; and some nearby graffiti that caught my eye.






This canal marks the end of the Old Town and the beginning of the Užupio Respublika, an artists district which has a viewpoint.








The Cathedral Square is a popular hangout in the evenings.




The Town Hall is the central building in the Old Town. Also a place to hangout in the evening.




Our Lady of the Gate of Dawn, with its painting of St Mary, is a busy pilgrimage site at all hours of the day. Here, with the chapel closed, pilgrims are praying out loud in unison on the street below.


We set out early Saturday morning by bus to Trakai where there was a weekend festival ie the Galves Cup Festival which is centered around a weekend of sailing on Galves Lake. From the bus station, we walked into town passing some food stands and traditional wooded houses.


Then we visited the castle which is on an island in Galves Lake and practically in the middle of the regatta.






The start of the sailing regatta was one of the coolest things ever, having never before seen the start of a sailing regatta. The boats in front of us jockeyed back in forth behind the start line, sometimes appearing as feverish chaos and other times as synchronized order.






And there were singers in traditional costumes.


And a parade. What a great festival!


Back in town, we visited the beautiful synagogue.




And watched the velobaras "cycling bar" pedal by.


Being the capital of Lithuania, there is a modest Changing of the Flag ceremony each Sunday at noon. Check out the guys in medieval costumes at back left.






The Market Hall.




Our Lady of the Gate of Dawn, again.


There are many churches in Vilnius; in fact, the June 1938 National Geographic describes Wilno, then part of Poland, as a "City of Churches".










On Sunday there was Sports Fair of sorts near the Cathedral where some young men where working hard to drum up interest in American Football. They told me they were players for the Riga Lions in the Baltic Sea League; then tried to recruit me to be a coach when I told them I was an American.


One can buy Sierra Nevada alus "beer" in the supermarket in Vilnius although the price is over 3 US dollars a bottle. Yikes!


And finally some evening/night shots from atop Castle Hill. As the calendar moved towards the summer solstice and we traveled farther north, the days became longer and longer, so much that getting true "night shots" meant losing sleep as the sun set after 10pm and "night" did not start until after midnight. All the shots below were taken between 10pm and 10:30pm.