Hello!
This is our last blog! I can’t believe it’s already over and done with! Our journey has gone so incredibly fast! I really cannot believe that we are taking a plane tomorrow eve to head back home..
It has been an amazing journey, but of course, we still have to visit the capital of our last country, Vilnius! Vilnius is the largest city of Lithuania and therefore the capital. It’s a very pleasant and beautiful city, probably because it displays a variety of architectural expressions. In 1994, the Old Town of Vilnius was listed on the UNESCO World Heritage list, we expected something like that seeing you get a sense of the interesting history throughout the whole town. In 2009, Vilnius was also the European Capital of Culture. However, we noticed the city still has to grow concerning tourist attraction. We saw a lot of advertisements for its festivals, we crossed several churches and buildings in different styles because of its many occupations,… but tourists are hard to spot. A shame though, Vilnius is truly a beautiful city with a lot of things to discover and very kind people who live there.
If we look at the city’s business development, we can be surprised by its quick growth, the whole wide world can be surprised actually. Sophie also mentioned in her blog that poverty is almost non-existing in Lithuania and you can very much see that with your own eyes, even when you go to the ‘less fortunate’ neighborhoods of the city. It seems Lithuania is the perfect country to start in if you want to do business in the Baltic countries.
Seeing we only have a day and a half to visit the city (we lost a couple of days along the road), we chose our things-to-see carefully. We started with the Cathedral Basilica and Bell Tower. When we entered the Cathedral, we were overwhelmed by St Casimir chapel, it’s an old baroque chapel with beautiful drawings. Once we came out the Cathedral, we went up Bell Tower, a symbol of Vilnius from which we had an amazing view over Vilnius city.
The Cathedral and Bell Tower are located in the middle of the Old Town. It was a bit hard walking through the town because the small streets bended and they went up and down, but we managed. Shredding through the streets we passed squares, churches, monasteries and synagogues. We also found lots of little shops where we could buy souvenirs and artifacts made by hand. The Old Town is small, but really lovely to walk through, it’s like a postcard.
Last but not least we visited the President’s Palace which is located near the Vilnius University. It was the residence of bishops and many General Governors. The palace has a beautiful yard and a wine cellar which we visited. It is still used as a home and a workplace to President Valda Adamkus. Also, many delegations from foreign countries are often received in this palace. When we walked back to the hotel, we saw some people protesting against nuclear power near the Prime Minister’s office, more detailed information we found in an article of which you can find the link below.
Tired of this day and (a little) happy to be going home tomorrow, we went to sleep in one of the many hostels in Vilnius. Tomorrow we are going to have a walk around town, visit the nearest lake for a last swim, pack our bags and take a taxi to the airport. Around midnight we will arrive in Belgium again!
Thanks a lot for following our blog, you guys! See you again in our next blog (when we saved enough money to organize a similar trip) Bye!!
Sources:
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten