Strange times.

Day 12 – 17:51 – 06/06/2010 – Vilnius, Lithuania

Today has been OK. My cold is leaving, slowly, but it seems to be escaping via Laura who seems to be feeling like I was 2 days ago. We are back in the hotel room and she is resting as I’m writing my blog! We got up reasonably late today as we were knackered from yesterday.

We hadn’t seen much of town yesterday, just the bit between our hotel and the restaurant we went to, which was one that sponsored the city map provided by the hotel. I had a very juicy steak with potato wedges and salad for around £6 – prices are very similar to Poland! I splashed out on a steak which was probably the most expensive thing on the menu as I felt I needed some much needed iron! From what we saw though it looked nice.

Today we got up at about quarter to 10, which is late for us, but breakfast was until 11. I don’t know if it’s just at the hotel we are staying at or it’s a Lithuanian thing but breakfast was horrible, and that’s being kind. You had two choices of bread… sour and… even more sour. You also had rice cakes. Then you had cereal with beige coloured milk, also used for the tea/coffee although to its credit the milk wasn’t that bad.

Anyway, we headed out after breakfast. Once again there are lots of old churches/synagogues to see. We even saw our first Orthodox church today, which will be the first of many I’m sure. We do feel a little churched out in fairness, but the buildings are very nice. Even though I’m not religious and cannot appreciate the meaning behind it all, I think that anything that can invoke such a creation through architecture must be a good thing.

After we’d seen a lot of old down we sat in the town square and had some lunch that we’d prepared earlier. We then went up to the castle (walking not the funicular!) and up the reconstructed tower for a nice panorama of the city.

We slowly made our way back through other streets in old town, admiring all the amber shops and musicians on the street. My camera cap for the battery broke earlier in the day and so we went back via the 24 hour supermarket that is a 5 minute walk away to get some superglue, as well as some washing power for the laundry service back at the hotel. Although we had fun trying to get change for the machines, which people in Lithuania (as well as Poland) don’t like giving their precious change away, which is the complete opposite in the UK – everyone wants the notes!!

The hotel here is weird. It’s very clean, neat, and up to date and the room is nice. I think they have some deal with students of the local University though as there are messages to students everywhere and there are communal kitchens and dining rooms on each floor. Bizarre. But it’s nice enough and we’re making use of the washing machines at the moment! Did I mention the breakfast is weird too? Oh yes, I did!