Breakfast was also included at the Artagonist Hotel, and judging from the décor of our room and the lobby I was really looking forward to seeing what the breakfast buffet was like. We took the elevator to the basement level, and then walked through a cave-like entrance painted white and found a bar, some tables and a big buffet spread waiting for us. The staff working the counter looked bored and kept checking her smartphone, but we had fresh squeezed OJ in a carafe at every table, some excellent bacon and eggs, and plenty of other goodies. The real treasures were a charcuterie plate with homemade salami and a cheese plate with several different Lithuanian cheeses. The coffee came from a much nicer machine and we really enjoyed breakfast there. Sadly, we couldn’t come back the next day for reasons that I’ll explain later.
Outside the weather was a little cloudy, and we packed our little umbrella just in case. We spent the morning walking around the streets checking out the Old Town in more detail. The layout of the town was a long rectangle rather than a square, and our hotel was basically at the lower midpoint of the rectangle, with the Gate of Dawn at the top and the clock tower and cathedral at the bottom. We went up and down this rectangle many times, and got to know it well. Just outside of Old Town Kuniko had located a market which was worth a walk through. Unlike the other markets that we’ve visited on this trip, this one had no seafood as Vilnius is far from the ocean. They made up for that in the meat section with an impressive display, and an old woman urged me in Lithuanian to buy half a hog that she had displayed. There was a stylish bakery and even some bars (that weren’t open yet). The market had lots of local people selling goods – especially clothes, and I think tourists were not the target customers here.
From here we walked to Uzpis, the artsy counter-cultural part of town. It was actually declared (half-jokingly) as an independent republic by the residents, and they prominently display their constitution written on plaques in ten languages on a wall of the neighborhood. At the time we were there it was pretty early, and most Uzpisians were busy sleeping. Now and then a drop or two of rain would fall, but we were generally lucky to avoid any big weather events.
Back in Old Town we walked through the Vilnius University, which reminded me vaguely of Hogwarts from Harry Potter. A big crowd of Chinese tourists were trying to get in but turned back when they saw that an admission fee was required. We paid the fee and I’m glad we did – otherwise we would have missed the impressive University Cathedral. The interior was one of the most elaborate and striking of all the cathedrals of this trip – and we ended up seeing at least twenty by the end of the journey.
By now it was getting close to opening time for the highly recommended potato dumpling restaurant, called Leiciai. The restaurant was actually a brewery, so while we waited for our potato dumplings we could try their homemade beers. We sat outside despite the threat of rain, with other customers joining us at various tables on the outdoor patio. The potato dumplings ended up taking about 50 minutes to arrive, so we went through 5 beers between us while we waited. I liked the beers generally – we even tried their cannabis beer that is infused with cannabis oil. Lots of unusual food and drink on this trip.
When the potato dumplings finally made it to our table our appetite was at a peak, so we ate them rather quickly. They were very good Рa steamy browned potato wrapper stuffed with meat, accompanied with sour cream and topped with saut̩ed bacon. Salty, creamy, and good with beer! I really liked them, but they were a bit on the heavy side.
A kind of funny situation happened while we were at this restaurant waiting for our meal. While we sipped beer I noticed that the staff walked up to the table near us and asked them not to smoke. I hadn’t noticed them smoking because smoking is pretty common in Europe, especially outside, but right above their table was a little sign that had the symbol for “no smoking”. As I was taking in the scene and noticing the sign the guilty smoker got up and followed the staff past our table, I guess to go to the smoking area. As the smoker walked past us he apologized to us for smoking (in English), and I realized that he thought that we had complained to the staff. His companions looked over at us when the smoker apologized, and suddenly we were the bad guys in this situation. It really wasn’t a big deal but it was interesting to see that it is possible to get yourself in trouble even if you don’t even open your mouth.
We headed back to the hotel and proceeded to do our halfway-point laundry. We travel light and one of the drawbacks to that is that we have to do a little laundry on our own midway through a long trip. I washed my socks and some underwear in the stylish sink, and then we hung things out to dry all over the room. It is oddly relaxing to do chores like this in the middle of a vacation – kind of a taste of home, in a way.
After a short nap we were back out to look around town. In the afternoon we noticed that there were a lot of brides and grooms walking around town getting their pictures taken. At first we noticed one or two couples, but then more and more started showing up. In each of the cathedrals that we visited that day we saw couples getting married. Outside the cathedral the wedding party was always waiting – 3-4 stylish cars, friends all dressed up and some finger food and bubbles were all prepared. I think that day we saw around 10-15 couples getting married or celebrating their marriage. Was there some kind of significance to Saturday, August 11th in Lithuania?
We made a long walk to see just one more cathedral (St. Peter and St. Paul’s Cathedral) a little outside of the main part of town. It was getting hit hard by tour buses and we realized it was a popular destination. Inside there was (of course) a wedding going on, but also it was built in a more gothic style. There was a statue of skeleton behind us too – a little spooky! After that we walked the long way around back to Uzpis which was a bit more lively the second time around. I had heard that since they were an “independent republic” they would stamp your passports, but we couldn’t figure out where to go to have them do it. Oh well!
By now the clouds were getting a little thicker and there was a distinct humidity in the air. We started worrying more about rain and decided to head for a wine bar to wait out the weather until our dinner reservation came up. We stopped at “In Vino” near the Gate of Dawn. It looked closed from the outside, but when we came in the door the staff who had gathered around the bar talking sprang up and tried to look busy. We had a couple of glasses of wine while relaxing, and soon the staff realized we were no threat and went back to lounging and joking around. The waiters and waitresses got along really well with each other and it seemed like everyone was friendly, so it was a nice vibe in there. They played old 80’s American pop from my high school days, and outside the rain started to fall in a big way.
We waited for a break in the rain but it became apparent that it wasn’t going to come. Finally, we got out our pitifully small umbrella and decided to share it as we walked the ten minutes or so to the restaurant. Sharing the umbrella worked for a little while, but the volume of rain suddenly increased dramatically. There were streams of water in the streets rapidly becoming rivers and by the time we got to our hotel we thought it would be a good idea to change into dry clothes before reaching the restaurant.
In the lobby of our hotel a large group of people were waiting for the rain to stop, and they were still there a few minutes later when we walked back out in dry clothes. It was just a few minutes to the restaurant from there, but in that few minutes the rain changed from “very heavy” to “ridiculous”. The drain spouts on the sides of the buildings couldn’t keep up and water started spraying out the seams of the pipes like some kind of weird fountains. We walked below these fountains and hopped over floods and by the time we reached our restaurant, Mykolo 4, we were completely soaked again.
Although the torrents outside were dramatic, things inside our restaurant were calm and serene. I think a lot of people cancelled their reservations – there was just two or three other tables occupied, including a couple of surprisingly loud Japanese ladies. Kuniko tried to use her table napkins and even the candle to dry herself off, but we resigned ourselves to eating our dinner while wet. The staff didn’t seem to mind our moist appearance, and the (once again) attractive blonde staff took our order in English very gracefully.
Dinner was impressive – our salad was black quinoa with carrots of different colors (some soaked in beet juice to turn almost black?) and almond cream, we also had some beetroot soup with dumplings to warm up. The chef sent out some duck confit with apples to spread on some dark bread, and then it was on to the main courses. Kuniko had buckwheat pancakes with pickled red cabbage and the cut-off top of a camembert cheese, and I had beef stuffed with wild mushrooms and a soft-boiled quail egg with a generous slab of unsalted halloumi cheese on top. For dessert we asked for a platter of Lithuanian cheeses (we do love cheese), and they came with pickled sweet onions, fruits and nuts. We also had some good wines here by the glass – especially a Langdouc red. It was a great dinner and by the time we finished the meal the rain had slowed but not stopped.
We made a break for the hotel, but Kuniko was craving a glass of something stronger before bed. We tried a little convenience store nearby but they were packed with people and they didn’t have any small bottles. Disappointed, we went back to the hotel and took off our clothes, took a steaming hot shower, and then used the big fluffy bathrobes the rest of the night. Outside the rain was starting up again, so we ended up raiding the hotel minibar for a couple of little Jack Daniel’s bottles and also the little mini bottle of red wine.
It was a nice romantic way to end a wet and wild day in Vilnius. Tomorrow we’re off to see a completely different sort of city: Minsk, Belarus.
