I've been doing too much stuff lately, I've completely neglected blogging! Not that I was ever any good at regularly blogging in the first place. I realise I hadn't posted anything about my little trip to Lithuania yet, so here it is.
We arrived in the city of Kaunas on Thursday afternoon and got a bus to the capital city Vilnius. The bus journey was a little terrifying, as Lithuanians have a reputation for being the worst drivers in Europe; even worse than the Italians! After arriving safely in Vilnius we walked through the snow to the guest house which was very conveniently situated on one of the main streets of the Old Town - right where all the action is. The old town is one of the largest 'old towns' in Europe, and very pretty with cobblestone streets and old buildings. Quite nearby to where we were staying was the Vilnius Cathedral, and St Anne's Church. Two extremely beautiful but very contrasting pieces of architecture both homes for the Roman Catholic religion.
On Friday, my 24th birthday, we went for a wander around Vilnius, and up a hill to Vilnius Castle. There was a thick layer of snow covering everything so it was a bit of work trudging around. I noticed that there was a lot of graffiti sprawled over almost every blank surface.
Later, we visited the most popular museum in Vilnius; The Museum of Genocide Victims. Unfortunately, photography was prohibited so I couldn't take any photos of what was inside, but I can tell you it was gruesome. Reading about thousands of Lithuanians being forced out of their country to the Siberian forests by the Soviet regime was awful, but what really got me was the prison downstairs. The cells where punishments and torture were carried out are still preserved, and there was also a padded cell, extremely freaky. It shocks me that such a thing went on until very recently.
In the evening we decided to try out the local cuisine, which turned out to be a big mistake. We sat in a Lithuanian pub watching an 80s pop countdown on TV and ordered a mixed starter, and a mixed main. I tweeted a picture of the starter which consisted of various items such as hard rye bread, pickled onion, fish, salami, other mysterious meat and cheese. The main was no better than the starter featuring many potato based items. Potato with meat, potato with potato, and some weird cheesy potato thing. Most of it was pretty plain, but more troublesome than that was the texture of eating a plate of nothing but potato and meat. It was quite sickly, and sure enough, the next morning, we both fell ill.
So that pretty much wrote off the rest of our little holiday, though we did get to go to Uzupis--a bizarre independent republic focussed on arts and a bohemian atmosphere--on Saturday morning before Ath had to rush back to the hotel to spew his guts up. On our way back, I took a photo of this cute little art gallery alleyway.
In all it was a nice time, but I really wish we hadn't got ill, then I would have been able to visit some yarn shops, do some geocaching and a bit more exploring than we managed to. :( I would visit again, just perhaps not eat the food next time!
Next on our itinerary was Milan. However, upon reaching the train station in Verona I felt rather sick. I didn't fancy braving a train so we missed the first one, and the next train was two hours later. We decided it wouldn't be worth the trouble and, sadly, gave Milan a miss. Instead, we made a stop in Lazise - another of the multitude of little towns dotted around the lakeside.
The highlight of our trip was, of course, Venice. Full to the brim with tourists and like many have said before us, not the cleanest place in the world, but other than that was exactly what I expected it to be... quite surreal! There are no roads, only canals going right up to people's front doors!
And no, it's not just you, the tower in the above photo is skewed.
We travelled around by walking on whatever footpaths and bridges existed and also on the Vaporetto - a bit like a water-based tube network with boats running up and down the Grand Canal. I'll tell you, spending just a couple of days travelling by boat will mess you up for ages - I was still rocking from side to side a day after leaving. :(
No trip to Venice would be complete without a visit to St Mark's Square, the Doge's Palace and St Mark's Basilica. Unfortunately photography is disallowed in the palace and basilica, which is a shame, because the mosaics inside the basilica were simply breathtaking. There is a 'taster' of what's inside on the outside...
We had a bit of a wander in the evening and watched a beautiful sky at dusk.
Then settled down to drink a €13 (£11, $18 US) hot chocolate at Cafe Florian in St Mark's Square. I wasn't too happy at the extortion at first but came round and allowed my mum to purchase it for me. It didn't taste as good as you might expect - it was like a cup of melted plain chocolate. Sickly and not-sweet!
The last stop of our trip was to Riva del Garda - the northernmost town on Lake Garda that was formerly occupied by the Austrians.
Unfortunately it was a horrible day - the only really horrible day we'd had all trip. It was pouring with rain almost the whole time we were there, and we had to make a hasty retreat to a café where we drank coffee until our ferry back to the hotel was due. We did see a black swan, though.
In all I had a lovely trip to Italy. We didn't get to see all of the things we wanted to see, but we still got to see a lot! I highly recommend visiting - places are beautiful and the Italians are largely friendly and the food is nothing short of fantastic (and large portions!). However, be warned that the high numbers of German tourists did not leave a good impression on me, and neither did the lack of queuing in place at various establishments.
Taking my time over blogging this, I know, but I've been rather busy since I got back - finishing off at one job and moving onto a new one... but that's a story for another day. Onwards!
We stayed in 3-star half-board accommodation Le Palme which was about what we expected in terms of quality. Basic, but in very good proximity to the lake, ferry and bus services.
On our first full day in Italy we caught a (very fast) ferry boat to Sermione, a spit at the southern end of the lake. We had our first taste of Italian gelato (mine's coffee!) and wandered around an old castle. The below photo is from the castle's tallest tower, looking north out over the lake.
Our next outing took us to fair Verona, where I was accosted by a gladiator and... wait, what is that? (am I being dense?)...
... I can't believe I actually shared that photo (if you look at the next in the series you can see just how genuinely horrified I really was). Despite that hustling, we went on up a watch tower, stood underneath Juliet's balcony (ahem, yeah right - the graffiti was amusing, though!), and traipsed up some hundreds of steps to reach a Geocache with a view.
No visit to Lake Garda is complete without a trip by cable car up Monte Baldo and the views, yet again, did not disappoint.
On the way up it was a beautiful day, hot, but not too hot. When we got to the top we were met by a nice breeze and snow. As we sat down to eat lunch it started thundering. As we reached Malcesine at the bottom it started pouring with rain and the thunderstorm was well and truly on top of us.
There are castle ruins in Garda called Rocca di Garda, up a bit of a mountain. There is a gravel trail that leads up to the top, a steep climb that took about an hour in a dress and sandals as everyone else strolled past us in full hiking gear. I'd advise against it, but there was another Geocache to be had.
To be continued... (in the meantime you can view the full series of Italy photos in my Italy, May 2011 set on Flickr.)
In two days I am off to Italy - the third annual mother-daughter overseas excursion. (Others in the series: Japan 2009, Fuerteventura 2010) After last year's laid back beach holiday we opted for a 10-day package holiday to Garda, Lake Garda for approximately £400pp half board. Essentially we just wanted somewhere cheap and cheerful to serve as a hub, where we can access other places in Northern Italy easily using public transportation.
We land at Verona airport on Wednesday morning but catch a transfer to Garda right away. There are regular buses from Garda to Verona, though, so no doubt we will be spending some time there. Verona is of course famous for its artistic heritage as well as being the setting for Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.
In addition to visiting Verona, we have booked a night's stay in Venice from 25th to 26th May, and I also hope that we can visit Milan. I am of course taking my trusty GPS device with which I hope to partake in some Geocaching in the cities as well as around Lake Garda and the mountains. Must remember to pack my walking boots!
I can already tell that my smartphone is going to come in incredibly handy during this trip. Using 3G data overseas is expensive, but at least I can pre-load Open Street Map data onto my phone for offline use. I intend to buy a data bundle to use 3G abroad for slightly cheaper so that I can book train tickets online, use Google translate to decipher menus, tweet things, and check my email every so often!
