Baltics24: Day 14 – Vilnius

Our last full day in Vilnius, and indeed the Baltic states.

Eastern Europe has apparently just one castle built on an island in a lake, and that’s in Lithuania at Trakai, about 20km out of Vilnius. Having travelled through Scotland several times, including just last year, I’ve seen my fair share of castles in lakes, it’s basically mandatory there to have a castle, or the ruins of one, wherever an island exists in a lake/loch. Mandatory, Bonnie Prince Charlie said so. Eastern Europe, not mandatory, maybe the folks at Trakai did it and then paid everyone else not to, so they’d be unique, or maybe in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania times, when the Duchy extended all the way to the Black Sea (making it hard to pass on the left hand side) they removed all other castles in lakes. Or maybe only Lithuania had a Castle Builders in Lakes Guild.

Anyway, the town of Trakai, by the shores of Lake Galve, has an island, with a castle. The castle was started in the 14th Century, then some Teutonic Knights came through and made a mess of things, pointing to the need for the castle even more, and it was finished in the early 15th Century. It then did what most castles do, and by the 19th Century it was mostly ruins. Over the next 100 or so years the castle was restored, just in time for the invention of tourism.

Vilnius to Trakai can be by car, train or bus. Trains are a bit on the infrequent side, car seemed a bit expensive/wasteful, so we chose bus. Catching busses from the main Vilnius station is more challenging than it needs to be. Some bus tickets can be pre-bought, either at a counter or machine, while others can only be bought from the driver. And you don’t really know which is which until you go to the counter or machine to buy the ticket. We got there at 10am, and there was a 10.15am bus (pay driver) and a 10.40am bus (prebuy ticket). After buying the ticket, we wondered if it was possible to swap to the 10.15am bus, so we asked at a counter, who kindly refunded our pre-bought and directed us to the driver. He was a typical abrupt Lithuanian, so when we asked if he was going to Trakai he said no, even though it was on the front of the bus. Why he said that, we don’t know, we’re guessing the bus may have had no spare seats (we didn’t really check) or he was just an arse. Either way, we had to trudge back into the station and buy new tickets to the 10.40am.

We finally got to Trakai, where the next challenge presented, as the lake and castle are over 2km from the bus station. As we were short on time and shorter on the inclination to do the walk in 32 degree heat, we managed to get a car. We had a quick stop for an iced coffee before heading down to the shore where for 5 euro we took a 30 minute boat tour of the lake. Back on shore we went for a walk to the castle, past the saxophone-playing buskers who we could hear from a distance playing things like “How Deep Is You Love”, “Can’t Help Falling In Love”, and “Your Song”, multiple times. We took a stroll around the castle, admiring the very solid stonework (I think most of the lower level stone was original, while the upper red brickwork is restoration). We could see that a number of areas are still undergoing restoration, and I’d imagine that many old buildings in these parts, where they have to deal with extreme temperature ranges (in winter it’s possible to walk to the island) will require ongoing restoration.

After a stroll we grabbed lunch by the lake, where I had the local dark beer (like most Lithuanian dark beers I’ve sampled, it was likely a dark lager, clean malty flavours) and a couple of Lithuanian pasties (kibinai), one filled with mutton, the other ham, cheese, and mushroom. Mutton, I’m not even sure that many folks today under about 30-35 actually know what mutton is, or have ever had it. And they are missing out, as cooked right it’s beautiful, and it was in my kibinai. The other was also delicious, one thing about this part of the world is that mushrooms have great flavour, and it was the case here. Kinibai pastry is quite interesting too, it’s somewhat short, not puff at all, and I wouldn’t be surprised if suet is also part of the recipe, as the pastry had an extra bit of umami going on, but google tells me it might be kefir or sour cream being added. Whatever it was, they were good.

Then we had the challenge to get back to the bus station in time for the 2.15pm bus that we’d booked tickets for. Bolt, the regional rideshare service that have been generally okay, decided to suck, with two cars cancelling on us. Fortunately, the good people of Lithuania came to our rescue as we stood by a bus stop in front of the tourist info centre. A kind lady pointed out that the stop we were at was only going into Trakai, and directed us to the stop we wanted. The bus between the bus station and the waterfront runs infrequently, but there was one coming soon (and by bus, we’re talking minibus, not some huge articulated number). There was a brief moment when we drove past the bus station, but the route has a weird loop that brought us back in time to catch our Vilnius bound.

Back in Vilnius, we’d agreed to catch up with Perth-based Middle Eastern Dance Legend B, who hails from Lithuania and was in Vilnius spending time with her extended family, but when she heard we were coming insisted on taking us for a bit of a tour around her other city (it probably also gave her a break from her family). She was excited to hear about our visit to Trakai, as the only time she’d been there was in winter during the Cold War, so was constantly followed by the KGB/secret police even walking to the castle over the ice. We grabbed a late lunch, where I had some more meat filled dumplings, covered in cheese and a mushroom sauce. These were smaller dumplings (the menu said they were apkepti koldunai, but apparently apkepti just means baked, and koldunai seems to mean any one of several types of dumpling) with lots of good flavour.

Then we took a stroll through old town, eventually getting to the cathedral where we decided to take the funicular to the top of the hill right behind it. Along the way we were stopped by a couple of women with their children who gave us roses, something to do with this time of year being festival season and they were part of a group who exercised in the main park and would give flowers to other women walking in the park (I got one either because the young girl was confused by my long hair, or after B told the women that we’d come from Australia).

Gediminas Hill is only about 50 metres tall, but sticks out very abruptly from the surrounding flat. It used to have a large castle complex on top, but like many old things over time (and thanks to countless attacks and invasions) all that is left are remnants of the keep and Gediminas’ Tower. Legend has it the Grand Duke Gediminas had a dream where an iron wolf appeared on top of the hill, and this was interpreted that he should build a castle there (this is back in the days before Freud obviously, who would never have interpreted a dream as an instruction to build a large phallic object, right). We took the little funicular up the hill but didn’t feel like exploring the inside of the tower, as my legs have had a bit of a workout these last few days o didn’t really need the extra 4 flights of stairs. The view from outside was magnificent enough, in one direction the new town, all shiny steel and glass, and concrete; while in the other the red roofs of the old town, plus some amazing church spires and other tall baroqueness.

Back at the cathedral we found an area being set up for an event of some sort. B, who I believe is one person that I believe will never die wondering anything, went up to some of the event crew and got the lowdown: opera. The whole city is gearing up for the four-yearly Song Festival, so there are many musical events happening just after we leave town. I don’t dislike opera, but I’ll be honest that it’s nuances are lost on me. I can watch the spectacle and admire the talent involved and performance, but I couldn’t tell what a good opera is from a bad one.

Instead we went looking for the miracle tile, the tile where you stand and make a wish and then hope that the wish doesn’t get misdirected or stuck in traffic. Next to this were a group playing music and dancing, contemporary hip hip style. So L and B, being dancers, joined in, much to some amusement of the younger crowd.

We headed down an alley in the old town for some drinks and dessert, I went for a “black lemon sorbet” which was mostly tart lemon, with a black powder that we’re not sure what it was. It had a slight burnt or smoke flavour, but didn’t really stand out against the sorbet, which dominated. So it was refreshing, but a little disappointing that the black part didn’t really add much to the flavour.

The conversation was great, however, talking about dance and lithuania and egypt and turkey and travel and so many things. B asked us why we travel, and why we choose our destinations. The latter has come up a few times on this trip, it just seems to be that Baltic folks can’t automatically comprehend why folks from Australia would travel 20 or more hours to come to their countries. Prior to coming here, I guess my answer would have been a bit vague, an elaboration of “because they are there” with random cool things gleaned about these countries, and an interest in former soviet states that simply weren’t accessible when I was younger. Having been here, I’d build on that, the people are generally friendly, the countryside and cities and towns are beautiful, the food is amazing (though a few more gf options could be looked at), there’s so much history and culture that we’ve only barely scratched the surface of, there’s great beer, good shopping, and why wouldn’t anyone travel 20 hours to get amongst this.

As to why I travel, there’s no 25 word or less answer for that. Different destinations for different reasons. Sometimes I travel to places that have seen incredible suffering and hardship (Kosovo, Cambodia, Poland, BiH) to ground myself never to take anything for granted, any entitlement or freedom or liberty I have is down to where I was born and the governments that Australians vote for, and are never guaranteed. Also destinations where recently oppressed/challenged people are now finding and reimagining themselves (the above, and Vietnam, Albania, the Baltic states) do give me hope that the human spirit is resilient, and can rebound from the most dark things. Maybe I go to these places knowing that I’ll find kind and brave and generous people and tales, because I always do.

Maybe I just want to go everywhere, eat everything, drink everything, see everything, for no reason that I can explain.