Vilnius

I spent three days in Vilnius, the capital city of Lithuania, and it was really pleasant. Vilnius is known to have the biggest old town of Europe, which is quite nice to look at. They have a huge university with several courtyards, lots of small parks and churches everywhere. 

Besides the Repubic of Uzupis there are severall other things I found that are nice to see. So for example the tile with the star on the cathedral square. It marks one end of the human chain going from Vilnius to Tallinn to peacefully protest for independence from Russia. It was 650 km or 2 million people long. After the start of the second world war, first the Sovjets then the Nazis and then the Sovjets again deported or killed loads of Lithuanians. I saw the genocide museum that focussed on crimes to surpress lithuanian independence through Stalin and afterwards. And while it surely was a harsh time for jews there when the Nazis had Lithuania, it was still a better time for everyone else than when Stalin had the country. It got better after he died but most of the deported people (about a tenth of them were children) never saw Lithuania again. Good to know: one big player in reaching independence in Lithuania was the church fighting for their right to believe. So when they made this human chain and it finally lead to independence of the baltic states, they placed the tile and wrote "stebukla" around which means "wish" and they say if you spin once on that tile your wish comes true.

Of course I tried it – but first I had to figure out what to wish for. Love, money, success? Way too ordinary and boring. I won’t tell you what I wished for but I will tell you if it comes true.

Another great thing was the hill of the three crosses – another memorial for the resistance against the Sovjets. In the 17th century three missionaries were cruzified there, and the crosses where kept in shape by the population. But the Sovjets destroyed them as well as all other crosses anywhere. So the people of Vilnius just put up new ones and left the destroyed ones there to see. Nevertheless, you have a great sight over all the city from up there.

I even went up once in the late evening to get some pictures of the skyline. It turned out afterwards that I forgot my SD-card, therefore I only have one picture in bad phone quality. But at least I could enjoy the great sight up there. Also, it was the same day when while walking through the old town of Vilnius and all ist parks I saw in total ten different brides, mostly shooting photos or on their way to their wedding party. But on the three crosses hill in front of the skyline of Vilnius, while enjoying the warm evening, I could even see a guy proposing to his girlfriend. Of course she said yes and then they were both so happy, it was really heartwarming to see. Who says Paris is the city of love? Come to Vilnius!

Some of you may have heard about the urban knitting thend – in Vilnius I found, as I would call it, urban sewing! Found in front of the St. Annes church.

And of course, for one day I went to Trakai, a village on a peninsula of a lake with a really beautiful castle on an island (but connected to the peninsula with a bridge). The village was originally inhabitated by the Karaites („Karäer“), a turkspeaking jewish community. They had a quite original style of houses, with the gables facing the street and having exactly three windows there. I only have a photo in bad phone quality as well because I forgot my SD-card, but it is totally worth to google for pictures of „Trakai“, because it is really beautiful there! Still, I had a wonderful hot day on the castle island. The water of the lake was cristal clear, you could see every fish, and the temperature was just right for swimming. And besides, it was just half an hour from Vilnius.

Republic of Uzupis

Today I arrived in Vilnius and got some time to discover the inner city. I will write about the city seperately when I saw all of it but today I really want to share a part of the city I discovered and really enjoyed: the Republic of Uzupis.

It is a small district in the center of Vilnius, directly next to the old town, just seperated by the Vilnia river, so you have to cross the bridge to get there. In 1997 one person living there decided they should be independent from Vilnius as well as Lithuania and therefore became president. I read they even established a military force consisting of 12 soldiers, but when nobody feared them they became obsolete. And by now, they are still independent.

To make their republic official, they also have a parliament, which is the first building after the bridge on the left - the "Uzupis Kavine", the café next to the river. And on their national holiday, the first of April, they place guides on the bridge so people who enter have to apply for visa. Which they get by a stamp on their hands. Also there are parades where people who participate borrow costumes from the circus. But since the district is really not that big, the parade does not take long.

In the middle of the district, there is the landmark of the republic: the liberty angel. When I first heard about the republic, I thought it to be like Cristiania, the freetown in Copenhagen - but while Cristiania is more like a hippie town with its main focus on weed, the focus of Uzupis seems to be celebrating life.

They also have a constitution, it is written in about ten different languages on one of the streets in the center of the district. The constitution consists of 41 articles, which all make pretty a lot of sense. So just to show you an abstract:

1. Everybody has the right to live by the River Vilnelé, and the River Vilnelé has the right to flow by everyone.
10. Everybody has the right to love and take care of the cat.
12. A dog has the right to be a dog.
13. A cat is not obliged to love its owner, but must help in times of need.
14. Sometimes everybody has the right to be unaware of their duties.
16. Everybody has the right to be happy.
17. Everybody has the right to be unhappy.
20. No one has the right to violence.
37. Everyone has the right to be individual.
39. Do not defeat.
40. Do not fight back.
41. Do not surrender.

Klaipeda

First I want to say, sorry for having such a huge gap between Tallinn and Riga, but I had some technical problems which seem to be solved now. Also, if you want to, I added a function where you can receive a mail as soon as I post something new, so if you are interested, just sign up! Who knows where I am going next ;)

Klaipeda is the third biggest city of Lithuania and more or less the "door to the Curonian Split". Inside the city itself there is actually little to see. I spend some time in the sculpture park with some weird sculptures just in the middle of trees, and even more time in the very small old town with one popular square in front of the theater, a place where a fort used to be which is now a park and a really nice alley with lots of different restaurants.

What was really worth the trip was the visit on the Curonian Split. Like the hostel recommended, I rented a biketook it to Nida, the village at the russian border, by bus. From there I cycled all the way back, which is about 50 km. But first, I visited the really high dunes just in the south of Nida. The top of the highest dune is 52 meters above sea level, so it is definitiely not just a part of a beach.

Then I started cycling back the path just as long until I reached a beach. I passed a lot of very cute buildings, but unfortunately I did not take a picture because it was midday heat and I really didn't want to stop. Furthermore I didn't bring enough water with me, so at some point I was just looking where I could buy something to drink and not what to see. But luckily I found water as well as a very beautiful beach.

The beach goes down all the way of at least the lithuanian side of the Corunian Split so it never gets crowded. And the sand is so soft like I haven't seen anywhere else in Europe. The water was quite cold but just as refreshing as it should be after a bike ride.

All in all, I really think this is one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever been, and definitely the best sand beach in whole Europe. And if you are here by bike you are free to choose which part of the 52 km long beach you want to enjoy, depending on how long you want to go there.

The bike trail itself was really nice and there was no way to get lost. It gave me the opportunity to see all of the beautiful nature as well as the nice villages on my own. Especially the forests are quite great, there is
moss everywhere on the ground, and you can see that underneath is not earth but sand.

It was definitely the best decision to discover the peninsula by bike!