Thank you Vilnius

It was a pleasure for us. Another beautiful Baltic capital. As big as Paris, but only 550,000 inhabitants. It's spread out well. Everywhere there are large squares, statues, magnificent buildings, and dilapidated facades. A colorful mix that is fun.

Many good and very good restaurants, a playground here, a beautiful park there.

We are doing as usual and just walk around. Luckily, we are staying quite centrally at the Downtown Forest Hostel. They even have some parking spaces for campers in the courtyard.

First, we discover the Uzupis district for logistical reasons. It is right outside the door and is known as the art district of Vilnius.

It feels like the Schanze of Vilnius and is probably on a similar path.

I'll summarize it with suspiciously many cafes and even more people with Macs. :) Still a nice atmosphere. The district is bordered on three sides by the Vilnia River from the city center/old town. It even has its own constitution through an art project. Section 13 states, for example, "A cat is not obliged to love its master, but in difficult moments it must stand by him", but there are also more profound sections such as number 21 "Every person has the right to understand their insignificance and greatness".

But enough about Uzupis, let's go to the old town. We stroll past the cathedral, churches, statues, government buildings, and surprisingly few souvenir shops.

Overall, it's not crowded here at all. You can move freely without any hustle and bustle. This is doubly remarkable and pleasant with a stroller. We spend the rest of the day in the park and at the playground. The child also needs to be able to run around. Otherwise, it gets uncomfortable.

Then Mom really wants to have some traditional Lithuanian food. That goes really wrong. Dingy dark dive. Greasy food. Yuck. Well, you can't always be lucky.

After 1.5 days, we decide to stay for another night and another day because there is still so much to discover.

Off to the Pancake House for breakfast, then we stroll to the Gate of Dawn.

Henry tries to race Ole for the first time and practices jumping diligently. Since the first trampoline experiences, the little human has developed a certain ambition to jump like the other children.

So we are making slow progress. That's okay.

Detour to buy an amber necklace for the child. Maybe it will help with the ongoing toothache. You shouldn't leave anything untried and the unpolished amber looks very good on the boy. Even if it's just an accessory, the purchase was worth it.

Turning in circles, we move towards the market halls. When we arrive, Henry sits completely still in the cart (we've never seen that before) because there is so much to see, and I get into a tiny shopping frenzy for fruits and vegetables. I love shopping like this, so I happily carry the new bag with its delicacies through the city and up to the Hill of Three Crosses. Not.

Afterwards, we go eat delicious food, quickly to the playground, across the market, and back home. That's enough, really.

Tomorrow we're going to Poland. I recently read an article about the attacks in Bialystok. There was a demonstration of queer people who were pelted with stones and bottles. There were 40! Counter-demonstrations by Christians and nationalists. Phew.

The motto is to stay open and unbiased.