Lithuania: Why Vilnius has more than meets the eye

Vilnius is not on the average traveller’s radar.  This is not surprising. Who in the heck goes to Vilnius?

For one, most people have never even heard of the European country that has Vilnius as its capital (Lithuania, in case you were wondering).

And at first glance, this Baltic city doesn’t have anything particularly remarkable about it: like most European towns, there is a central square with stately-looking buildings, and markets housed on cobblestoned streets.  The only reason I came is because of my Scandi-Baltic adventure with Busabout- even after having travelled to 60 countries, this here traveller had to look up Vilnius on a map.

But then you scratch a little deeper and realize this small city has its quirks.

Like the strange, unpronounceable neighbourhood of Užupis (trust me, the name sounds completely different from the way it looks). This teeny tiny commune, home to bohemians and artists, declared itself an independent republic in the late 90′s and has its own currency, president, and bizarre constitution seen below:

And the teeth bolted to the wall on Literatu Street, a lane whose walls are completely decorated with artwork dedicated to Lithuanian authors/writers and author/writers who have shown love to Lithuania in some way.

Another item of note: Vilnius (and Lithuania, by extension) is cheap compared to its Central and Western European neighbours.  Lunch in a local restaurant only ran me $5 USD.

And lovely accommodation in the center, like the Hotel Rinno where I stayed, can be had for half the cost of equivalent digs in places like France or Italy.

Best of all, most of the pretty things to see are free. I really like free!

Have you ever heard of Vilnius or Lithuania?

I was a guest of Busabout and Hostelbookers on this trip but all opinions are mine.

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