Vilnius. About some sights and daily beer
Start of Vilnius Review – "Vilnius day and evening outfits"
Vilnius is an ancient city with a rich history. There are many antiquities, there are also remakes, there are enough museums of various kinds, there are theaters and concert halls. In general, it will not be difficult to find an object for inspection to your liking. Let's go over some popular Turkish places, which, perhaps, not a single guest who has looked into Vilnius ignores. And let's look at everything with a simple layman's eye. Well, let's go over, of course, loudly said. Vilnius is good because that everything that interests the average tourist is located within walking distance between objects.
Castle Hill with Gediminas' Tower. Oh, this place is impossible not to visit. Firstly, this is the beginning of all the beginnings of Vilnius as a city, a capital.
National Museum of Lithuania. Old arsenal
There is some confusion about who built this castle - Prince Gediminas or his grandson Vytovat. It is known that the first buildings were on this mountain long before the beginning of the reign of Gediminas. . . But the part of the once powerful Upper Castle that has survived to this day - the western tower - is considered to be built in 1419-22, i. e. 600 (! ) years ago. Anniversary, however : )).
I will not reprint chronicles. For a general idea: Gediminas– Grand Duke, during whose reign (1316-1341) the Grand Duchy of Lithuania became a strong and significant state in Eastern Europe. It was Gediminas who moved his residence to Vilna, the modern Vilnius, thereby making the city the capital of the principality. For more details, if you are interested, you can read here or here.
Near the mountain itself, the view, of course, is not very good.
A few years ago, the hill began to collapse. What was the cause of these processes - cutting down trees, construction work during the reconstruction of The Palace of the Rulers or just time - is completely incomprehensible. Now the mountain is "decorated" with patches, fences, blue cabins. . . The mountain is strengthened and supported in every possible way, it's already good. I read that ideas were expressed to demolish it altogether as unnecessary.
The Palace of the Rulers, restored in 2002-2016
But while it is there, while it is holding, we need to go up:
The tower itself is a branch of the Lithuanian National Museum, where an exposition dedicated to the history of Vilnius is presented. But the vast majority of tourists come here not because of the museum tower. Kinds! Freaky!
And now, when I am a little familiar with some places in Vilnius, it is even more interesting to look at them from above.
Since there are repair and restoration works around, access is not available to all corners of the observation deck. Therefore, the neighboring mountain - mountain of the Three Crosses - to see really failed.
You can also climb the Castle Hill by funicular. But I deliberately kept silent about this possibility, breakfast was too heavy at the hotel : )), and something urgently needed to be done about it. Hiking ascent turned up very handy. Oh, girls, never hide the whole truth from your husbands! About the desire to get rid of the legal spouse as soon as possible through exorbitant physical exertion - this does not even touch : )). But the fact that I wanted to deprive the opportunity to use such a nice miracle of technology, just a cutie, and not a funicular, is a completely unforgivable offense for me, almost insulting towards my dearest spouse. . .
Seriously, the husband, of course, was indignant, but curiosity and boyishness that sometimes arises from nowhere was satisfied with rides down : )). True, such a funny funicular, a little work, and scurries back and forth, back and forth.
Republic of Zarechye (Už upis).
No matter how "caressed" the Russian-speaking ear the word Už upis, in translation it means only the District : )).
This place is replicated in all guidebooks, reviews and reports about Vilnius. Of course, we also need to go there.
We are people far from modern creativity and creativity, but it's time to get involved in this business, otherwise, sometimes, you feel like a dinosaur when communicating in modern society : )). Therefore, I really wanted to take a look at the abode of creative personalities, and suddenly some curious realization of the flight of their thoughts would come across.
But, to be honest, we did not see anything so super extravagant or stand out from the general picture of the area. Did Monday play its role or did we invent something for ourselves... Or the exposition has not been changed for a long time, we have already seen the swing under the bridge in the photo of other tourists : )).
Except that the Christmas tree, decorated with all sorts of garbage (ennobled, of course), and the miracle pig attracted the eyes of a few tourists at that time.
Wonder Pig
Well, and the obligatory process of studying the local Constitution, translated into various languages of the world.
Nothing like that, a pretty old district.
Yes, and, perhaps, visiting Už upis was remembered for us by buying bags of chocolate money in a local supermarket for our children, children of friends, numerous nephews. Even if it’s a chocolate trifle, there was no limit to children’s happiness.
We never managed to try a single cent ourselves, the little one quickly found a use for them. Yes, everything is put into the growth of young developing organisms : )).
We, nevertheless, faced creativity. Walking along some alley in Vilnius, we looked into a shop. And there, everything, everything, all stone products: jewelry, interior items, and just souvenirs. A lot of bullshit is bullshit, of course, but there are also very curious little things.
Stone Jewelry
Stone Jewelry
Another place worth visiting while in Vilnius is the small Amber Museum-Gallery at Š v. Mykolog g. 8.
In fact, this is a branch of Museum in Nida, created by enthusiastic photographer Kazimieras Mizgiris in 1993.
You can see the exhibits yourself: this is the largest amber weighing 3800 g, and a rich collection of inclusions (inclusions inside the stone). . .
. . . and various types of solar stone, but it turns out that it is not only yellow.
And if you meet raw amber somewhere on the coast, you will kick it and pass by your happiness. For 60 euro cents per person, you can walk with a guide, we were incredibly lucky, at that moment only two tourists gathered - it was us. Oh, yes, just staring at the beauty of jewelry and various works of amber art is already a pleasure, even without an excursion. Of course, this business is designed for sale. And even I, who was absolutely indifferent to gold and diamonds jewelry, could not resist. She groaned and gasped, tried it on, modestly looking at sponsor husband... And she became the owner of a charming set of red amber, and took it to her daughter : )). Well, it's beautiful, damn it!
Lunch break.
Museums and attractions are a good thing. But sometimes you want to drink and eat. Just as the hero of Nikolai Leikin’s humorous collection “Ours are traveling around Europe” wanted to try something “the most Spanish” in Madrid or German in the Nemetchyna and so on in different countries, so my companion had to taste something of the kind Lithuanian in Vilnius. (Here girls are somehow simpler about food in general, and about the gastronomic features of a region in particular). But somehow we were not very lucky with this case. In the main restaurant of the popular food chain of national cuisine Etno Dvaras, located on Pilies pedestrian street, 16, in advance table reservation we they refused, they say, they only have a first-come-first-served basis. Somehow, by some tourist routes, we ended up next to this establishment during the day. There were no queues, but we weren't hungry yet, but in a strange way, we suddenly wanted to drink : )). The local beer turned out to be very good!
We had a lot of fun. There is no such variety of varieties as in Prague, but the taste and hop characteristics are comparable, as it seemed to us. And the price tag in comparison with Moscow was pleasantly pleased (photo of the menu in the album).
If we went to Lithuania under the clinking of bottles of sparkling wine, then back we were accompanied by a sweet quiet chime - loaded with local beer : )). As practice has shown, they loaded a little.
Toward evening, the tourist gods again took us to the restaurant Etno Dvaras, but at the address of st. A. Vartu, 2. Well, this is fate, we decided and got in line, we were second. What can I say. . . If not for the delicious beer, it would be a complete disappointment. Either the wrong dishes were ordered, or on our order the chef went out to smoke and cooked it... uh... not a chef.
Bloody Vedarai
Zeppelins with meat
Or our destiny is to drink, not eat : )). And the service, to be honest, did not please, it reminded me of the recent painfully long border crossing with Lithuania (description in previous part). But beer! Beer brightened up all the flaws!
Trakai Castle passing through.
It is located very close to Vilnius. And being in a car, it was a sin not to look there. Moreover, we leave for Klaipeda in the morning, and Trakai is practically on the way. But when I studied Klaipeda in more detail, it became clear that Trakai was something, or I had time to look at Klaipeda. Well, okay, in any case, we’ll stop by, and there, according to the situation, as they say...
For those who have a car: city parking in Trakai is paid, the cost depends on the "centrality" of the location. Some locals made a fuss - adapted their gardens for parking lots for 3 euros. I won't tell you in a day or an hour – : )). We parked the car somewhere in front of the old post office of the Russian Empire, next to some restaurant. Nobody took money from us. . .
And again, the Lithuanian weather decided to tease us a little. Trakai met us with rain.
But soon the clouds parted, and a bright New Year's sun came out.
As soon as the rain stopped drizzling, the boats were uncovered. And water rides around the castle began.
And as if more and more people were arriving. And yet to the castle - and we are with the crowd. Everyone gives 8 euros, and we - well, let's go, all of a sudden, really something interesting...
They say people used to be smaller. . . Dimensions 185 cm x 100+ kg fit : ) Cramped, of course. . .
Inside the castle itself, it became quite uncomfortable due to the flea market, traffic jams on the stairs and in the doors. And, nevertheless, there was something that had not been seen before... Christmas decorations brought an unusual effect to the strict stone appearance.
We planned to quickly run through the halls, but, as it turned out, we spent quite a lot of time looking at the windows with historical objects. Although not particularly interesting already. Time wasted - but no pleasure.
To be honest, I probably should have walked around the town more, to eat the famous Karaite pies. There was a certain feeling of unfinished business : )). In general, on Trakai, if on your own, you need to lay the whole day.
Well, most of it is.
And we were already running out of time, it was time to go towards the sea. My old wishlist was waiting there - Curonian Spit.
You can learn how it was and what came of it from the story "The sea, sun and sand… Winter sketches of the Curonian Spit”.
