Lithuania. The name conjures up images of, well - I'm at a loss for words, actually. Sometimes we get it confused with Ljubljana, but that's in Slovenia. It is Connie's 100th country, if that's worth anything. The language is totally foreign, no pun intended and few people that we have encountered speak English, making everything a bit difficult.
Orthodox Church, Vilnius
Lithuania takes pride in its pagan heritage, bragging that it is the last European country to be Christianized, which seems ironic considering the number of Catholic and Orthodox churches in the Old Town. And the Old Town of Vilnius, rebuilt several times, isn't as old as Riga, which isn't as old as Tallinn. Skapo Apartments, our hotel, was build in the 1800s, while our place in Tallinn was around in the 14th Century. The four-room apartment sits up a flight of worn wooden stairs off a courtyard behind an unmarked door, not the kind of place to come home to drunk late at night, but wonderful if you are sober. Full kitchen, living room with sat TV and WiFi, even a washing machine!
Kernave World Heritage Site
We spent the morning taking care of business; an appointment for additional passport pages, bus reservations to Poland and a local bus to Kernave, a World Heritage site about 30 km from Vilnius that Connie uncovered. Kernave was the first capital of Lithuania but visitors come to see the site of the five hill forts from 1000 BC. It isn't much to look at but it was nice to get out into the country.
