Long weekend in Lithuania
We flew from the tiny London City airport to the capital, Vilnius and set about exploring this compact but impactful city. Having finally gained independence in 1991 after successive occupations by the Russians and Nazis, the architecture of the capital eloquently tells the story of those decades, whilst the people remember the past and celebrate the present as a republic.
We met our lovely guide, Lena, whose walking tour gave us a fascinating insight into the history of the city and how it was formed. We visited several important sites including the cathedral, with a stunning chapel decorated by Italian artists; the breakaway state within the city – Uzupis – an artist colony with its own constitution; and, most unforgettably, the Museum of Genocide Victims, telling the story of thousands of Lithuanians who were killed or deported under occupation.
The following day we headed over to Kaunas, Lithuania’s second city and former temporary capital. We drove but it is an easy train ride from Vilnius. In 2022 Kaunas celebrates being European Capital of Culture and a huge amount of investment has gone into ensuring it is ready to welcome guests for a year-long arts programme. Similarly to Vilnius, there’s a cobbled Old Town where the restaurants and bars spill out into the streets in the summer. Kaunas is also known for its inter-war architecture, with numerous buildings showcasing the Baltic take on the Art Deco movement.
While we did a heck of a lot of walking in Vilnius and Kaunas this was regularly punctuated by stops for food! Lithuania has several special dishes that everyone should try, some of which even this vegetarian can (and did) eat. Some more unusual offerings are based around local game (beaver stew, anyone?) or ensuring the whole animal is used (smoked pig’s ears and baked pig’s intestine come to mind) whilst others are a reminder of how similar food can be across countries, such as some delicious ‘dumplings’ I had that were akin to ravioli.
I think our group’s favourite eating experience involved a brewery, which is hardly surprising, where we were given a tour by the owner followed by beer tasting. This was accompanied by ‘beer snacks’ which were so good we could barely manage our dinner later that evening (yes, they fed us afterwards!). Beer snacks have a staple of dark rye bread fried with garlic which is easily the most delicious garlic bread I have ever tasted, then cold meats, cheese, usually including a popular local curd cheese, pickles etc. This is also where the pig’s ears, looking a lot like jerky, make an appearance.
Our last morning was spent doing another easy side-trip from Vilnius to the stunning lakeside location of Trakai, with a restored 14th century castle situated on an island. This makes for an incredibly popular destination during the summer months, with boat trips and a lakeside cycle route. The Duke who built the original castle brought over a group of people known as the Karaims from Crimea to act as his personal bodyguards. Their ancestors still live there and our final destination was a restaurant featuring their typical cuisine. Little did we know we would actually be making it! Similar to Cornish pasties or empanadas, we learned how to roll out, fill and shape ‘kybyn’ before they were whisked away for cooking and returned to us along with several other wonderful dishes. Naturally, there’s a national drink the Karaims accompany their meals with, Krupnik, although usually only on special occasions – as this was our last meal in Lithuania it seemed only fitting to give it a try before heading to the airport for our flight home. After all that eating I’m surprised we weren’t classed as excess baggage.