Memories and hints of a travelling IT professional.
The Artagonist hotel is a wonderful art hotel in the center of Vilnius, Lithuania and located not far away from the university, the town hall square, the cathedral square and Užupis. It is in the heart of the city and a good place from where to explore Vilnius on foot. The rooms are beautifully designed and the hotel includes a restaurant and a bar.
Continue reading “Artagonist”
If you like good cocktails and modern Asian cuisine combined with wonderful views on Vilnius, Lithuania than the Skybar at the hotel Lietuva (belonging to the Radisson hotel chain) might be your place to be. They take classic cocktails and insert the flavour of the Baltics – the Aperol Spritz there doesn’t contain the Italian liqueur, but local spirits and herbs.
Continue reading “Skybar”
It is the cosiest place in Vilnius, Lithuania: the cat café (Kačių Kavinė). Fifteen cats live in the coffee bar located at the gedimino prospektas, a street full of bars and restaurants. But this place is very simple to find – most time lots of people are standing in front of the café to have a look at the cats sleeping, playing or getting petted by guests.
Continue reading “Purrfect”
The Gediminas tower or Gedimino pilies bokštas is the town’s landmark of Vilnius, Lithuania. It is a tower made of red bricks standing on a 142 meters high hill close to the river Neris. It is the only preserved tower of the castle built in 1323 by Gediminas the Grand Duke of Lithuana. You can take the Gediminas hill lift, visit the museum inside the tower and climb on top of it to enjoy good views.
Continue reading “Gediminas tower”
Kaunas is the second largest city of Lithuania with around 300.000 inhabitants and is located at the confluence of the two rivers Nemunas and Neris. A castle at this place was first mentioned in the year 1361. It later became an important center of Jewish life in the region. When in 1920 Vilnius, the capital city of Lithuania became Polnish the city of Kaunas became provisory capital city until 1940.
Continue reading “Kaunas”
The most famous place in rural Lithuana is the hill of crosses (Kryžių kalnas) near Šiauliai. It is a catholic place of pilgrimage that many tourists visit. Countless crosses are assembled on a ten meters high hill and you can walk on a wooden path between the more than 100.000 crosses – or buy one at the shop yourself and add it to the collection.
Continue reading “Kryžių kalnas”
A traditional dish in Lithuania is Cepelinai and it is named like this as it looks like zeppelins. Cepelinai are potato dumplings filled with minced meat or quarg. The dish is also famous in Belorussia and Poland and is typically served with a sauce made of cream, onions and bacon.
Continue reading “Cepelinai”
Somewhere in rural Latvia, not far away from the border to Lithuania you can find an impressive castle in baroque style: Rundāles pils, the Rundāle palace. It was designed with Versailles in mind and also has a french landscape garden – it is therefore often referred to as the Versailles of the Baltics. The palace was built between 1735 and 1740 by the order of empress Anna of Russia.
Continue reading “Rundāle palace”
In 1941 Latvia was occupied by Nazi Germany and a forced labour camp was created at Salaspils – 18 kilometers south of Rīga. Captives were intended to do peat cutting and the Nazis wanted to detain Jewish people here. The camp was built by Soviet prisoners of war and Jews mostly from the ghetto of Rīga – and it was used mostly for political prisoners and deserted soldiers. But what really happened here remains unclear because of insufficient research and political motives.
Continue reading “Aiz šiem vārtiem vaid zeme”
The owners of the hotel Monte Kristo at Rīga, Latvia must be fans of the adventure novel ‘The Count of Monte Cristo‘ by Alexandre Dumas. The hotel looks pretty ancient, everywhere you can see paintings of ships and harbours and in the corridors there are barrels and trading sacks. Even though you won’t see much of the Baltic sea during your visit you’ll at least have maritime flair.
Continue reading “Monte Kristo”