Saturday June 27th, Our travel day from Krakow to Vilnius was pretty typical. Rush to pack up and check out, then sit around and do nothing for a bit. Although we did find a very cute coffee house. Go back and grab our luggage, waste a few minutes deciding whether we are going to Uber or take the train to the airport, end up running down the platform to catch the train, just barely making it. Sit sweating and completely out of breath on the train to the airport then check in and go through security in record time-no lines! So then we have over two hours to do nothing. First flight to Warsaw leaves a bit late so run to our next flight to have it delayed as well! More sitting and waiting. Finally make it to Vilnius tiny airport, get a Bolt (out of Uber territory) to our hotel. There’s an hour time change here so it’s already close to 8 PM when we get there so quickly unpack and walk to old town area to have a nice late dinner.

Sunday. Unfortunately the hotel has terrible air conditioning and we are still in the middle of the heat wave, we all slept miserably, but got up for the buffet breakfast in the morning. We decided to rent bikes and ride around the city which was really nice, at least there’s a bit of a breeze when you’re riding. We went through some very pretty parks providing shade, then following the river a bit, and back up to old town-although cobblestone streets are not ideal for biking on. We decided to stop and grab lunch at an Italian cafe with outdoor seating (the inside areas tend to be hotter) I asked the waiter if they by chance had gluten free pizza, his response surprised me, “of course! You can make anything pizza or pasta gluten free!” So apparently they understand gluten free in Lithuania, who would’ve thought. Casa Della Pasta was yummy. We returned our bikes and walked to the KGB museum of occupations and freedom fighters. This museum is the actual building that the Nazis and the Soviet Union used for prisons and torture of their inmates. It was sobering. But it does make you realize after the German and the Soviet occupation of Lithuania for so long why the Lithuanians are so mad about Russia invading Ukraine because they don’t want this kind of thing to happen again. Learn from the past. There are Ukrainian flags everywhere, with signs saying we love Ukraine and other signs against Putin. Sunday night we decided it was going to be our last night in Vilnius and changed our plans. We were supposed to take a hot air balloon ride, but unfortunately, they canceled all the rides due to the heat wave. Since the air-conditioning in our hotel was terrible and none of us were sleeping well because of it, we decided to leave for Riga on Monday. We scrambled a bit but we were able to change our bus tickets and our hotel reservation, although having to pay a little bit extra of course. 

So Monday, we took the funicular up Gedimas Hill to see the views and walked back down, then walked through a park. It was a nice last Hurrah for Vilnius, which is a very quiet city very nice but quiet.