Vilnius and Trakai, a romantic corner of Europe (picture heavy)
Geography
Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania and located in the south eastern part of the nation. Close to the Polish and Belorussian borders. Trakai is a historical town located 35 minutes by bus away from Vilnius.
Brief history
Trakai is the old capital of Lithuania with it's castle located on an isolated island in the middle of a lake. Only reachable through a wooden bridge that connects it to the peninsula hosting the village of Trakai. Vilnius overtook Trakai in importance during the 15th century and therafter became the traditional seat of power in the duchy of Lithuania. When the Jagiellonian dynasty rose to power both in the kingdom of Poland and grand duchy of Lithuana the seat of power became Krakow despite the Jagiellonians coming from Lithuana.
After the fall of the Russian empire in 1918 both Lithuania and Poland returned as independant nations. The old alliances were however no more and Poland conquered Vilnius by force inorder to protect the native Poles living in the area. Vilnius was however returned to Lithuania through the treaty of occupation in 1940 when Sovjet forces annexed the nation.
Climate
Typical inland climate. Warm summer, cold winters.
Food and drinks
The Čili restaurants chain are an excellent source of food. Providing restaurants with different specialities, pizza, Lithuanian style, chinese and café.
Svyturys Ekstra is the most popular lager beer in Lithuania and also one of the absolutely best. The 2nd most popular beer, Kalnapalis should be avoided. It's not bad by Svyturys is just plain better. Svyturus Baltas is a wheat ale served with a lemon. Also a very good beer. Beer of the bran Utenos also tend to be very good but as common on restaurants.
Pictures from Vilnius
The Cathedral, the absolute centre of Vilnius
The view of Vilnius from Gediminas tower. The last rmaining piece of the fortress overlooking the city.
Same hill different direction (south)
The museum in Gediminas tower. The national museum is located just north of the Cathedral and contains more items than the tower museum. Students enter at half price if they got a student identity card.
Gediminas himself, standing on the cathedral square
St Annes church to the left. The picture show how crowded this city is when it comes to churches
The guardian angel of the city behind the river. St Annes church is a beautiful church built of bricks, just cross the Vilna river on one of the bridges and your reach the city of artists. The Angel is the symbol of this area.
One of the houses in the artists area
A street in the old town. The "bridge house" at the end of the street consists of a small chapel dedicated to Mary. Many Polish people come here to pray.
Trakai
Trakai is located 35 minutes by bus away from Vilnius and is a very popular summer resort with a beautiful castle, great restaurants and a lovely lake suitable for both sailing and swimming
The island castle is located far out into the lake and only accesable through this wooden bridge. It's remote location made it a very safe place for the Grand Dukes of Lithuania. Now it is a unique and well preserved castle with a museum that attract alot of tourism. There is a mixture of Russian German and English translations in the exhibitions making it suitable for most tourists. I must however criticize the antagonism against the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth that is shown in the exhibition. Unlike the national museum the Trakai museum tries to show Lithuania as an independant nation despite it's important position in the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth. The war of 1655 where Sweden and Russia made a joint attack against the Polish Lithuanian commonwealth is for example here described as "The Russian Lithuanians war".
To give some perspective on how long the bridge is. There is another bridge on the other side of the island that you see on the left.
It is also possible to rent canoes, boats and even proper sailing ships at the lakeside
Wather can change quickly in Vilnius. This picture is taken 1 hour after the pictures from Trakai, it managed to rain alot between these pictures.
I might also add a map of interesting locations/museums later if people are interested.
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Originally Posted by Henry of Grosmont
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