Vilnius, Lithuania

We awoke late today to walk around beautiful Vilnius. The bell tower and church pictured above are stunningly white in the late afternoon light. Vilnius has a small old town, easily seen within an hour or two. The people here seem to be the friendliest of the Baltics. When we arrived at our hotel, the clerk couldnt make change for us when we wanted to purchase a few beers from their fridge. Instead she said to take whatever we wanted and just pay tomorrow. This would contrast sharply with our hotel in Estonia where the clerk looked us up and down and after evaluating our grubby, unlaundered, backpack-laden appearance; demanded that we pay for our room immediately rather than upon checkout.

Vilnius is quite inexpensive. We found several places serving great Lithuanian beer for $2.60 a pint. Right down the street from our hotel was a rockin club called Prospekto that we visited both nights. Once you get past the massive Lithuanian bouncer at the door, we found a place playing American music, full of expats from all over Europe.