Memories and hints of a travelling IT professional.
It is not only a bar, it is a legend: the Mutter (mother) at Kassel, Germany. The bar is located close to the university in the city quarter Nord-Holland and it looks like it has never been renovated. This maximum shabby chic lets you know that you can be whoever you are or whatever you are here without feeling strange. And it ensures that no in-crowd people will distract you from relaxing.
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A well-designed burger bar in US-American style at Kassel, Germany – with a Chevy above its front door. If you like burgers, chicken wings, baked potatoes, milkshakes and donuts this is a good option for you (and they also offer salads and vegetarian options). The diner is a little bit hidden in a backyard close to the university, but it is easily reachable from the city center.
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You can for sure spend months in the Baltic states to enjoy the beautiful landscape. But they are gives you also the chance to easily visit three countries in one week: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. And it is not one homogenous area without differences – that can easily be observed in the capital cities: Tallinn with its wonderful old city fortifications, Rīga with its fantastic art nouveau quarter and Vilnius with its nice baroque style buildings and more than 50 churches.
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It is the airport with the most unexpected and beautiful entrance building ever: the airport of Vilnius, Lithuania (Vilniaus oro uostas, airport code VNO). The airport is located seven kilometers south of the city center and was built in 1932. It has two runways and transports approximitely 3.7 million passengers every year. VNO is a small airport and you don’t need to arrive too early before your flight – but waiting times for baggage drop-off can be quite long if you arrive at the wrong time.
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The Lithuanian language belongs – like Latvian to the balto-slavic branch of the Indo-European languages. 3.2 million people speak this language and it is also spoken in regions of Belorussia and Poland. A strong Lithuanian community also exists in Ireland. Lithuanian seems to be close to Latvian (in contrast to Estonian), but they are different languages that even the locals have to learn.
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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.
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Vilnius is with more than 570.000 inhabitants the biggest city and the capital city of Lithuania. It is beautifully located on different hills and next to two rivers (Neris, Vilnia – giving the city its name). The city contains many baroque style buildings of Italian original and it contains more than 50 churches. That’s why it is sometimes called the ‘Rome of the East‘. A legend says that Grand Duke Gediminas dreamt of an iron wolf that howled extremely loud while he was sleeping on a hill next to the confluence of rivers Neris and Vilnia.
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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.
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In 1939 Nazi Germany and the Soviet union signed the Hitler-Stalin Pact also called Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact because it was in fact signed by the two foreign ministers at Москва́. As part of this treaty of non-aggression the Baltic states were declared to be part of the Soviet union in the future. 50 years later the people of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania declared their desire for independence by creating a 650 kilometers long humain chain – the longest human chain in history.
Continue reading “The Road of Freedom”
TV towers are always a good option to get another view on the city. The one at Vilnius, Lithuania (Televizijos bokštas) is a bit special as it doesn’t have an outdoor platform. Instead you’ll find a restaurant inside with seats at the windows – and these seats continuously rotate around the tower. Therefore you can sit back, relax and see all of the surroundings of the tower while sipping a coffee or having dinner.
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