I'm happy to announce that, as required by my program, I have found a 6-month internship related to my career interests! I will be working at Kompakt Medien, a PR and communications firm in Berlin that focuses on political issues and works mainly with the German federal ministries. I'm fairly relieved to have finally found a position - I applied and interviewed for internship spots exclusively in German, which was a great learning process but very taxing and time-consuming.
Now, getting back to the pictures: this time, from the Lithuanian capital city of Vilnius! My American friend Tony and I wanted to get off the beaten path and visit a country neither of us had ever seen before. After finding a decently priced bus ticket, Vilnius became our destination! And after the 18-hour ride, we finally arrived safely.
Time to think about geography - where exactly is Lithuania? Well, it's the southern- and eastern-most of the three Baltic States in north-eastern Europe, and it even borders a chunk of Russia. So it is quite far removed from comfy Western Europe. Despite their relative geographical remoteness, all three Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) are European Union members. And on January 1, 2015, Lithuania became the last Baltic State and 19th European state to adopt the Euro currency.
What day were Tony and I in Lithuania? January 2! So just the day before, Lithuanians had seen the introduction of the Euro in their country. It was an exciting time to be there, and all the prices were in both Litas (the old currency) as well as Euros. But the best part was that the prices were CHEAP, cheaper than you could ever imagine! Lithuania is probably going to be the cheapest country I'll visit all year. What a great decision it was to go to Vilnius!
Ever since gaining independence in 1990, Lithuania has been doing quite well for itself. As a city, Vilnius is known for being vibrant, open, and forward-looking with spectacularly clean tap water and some of the fastest internet speeds in the world to boot. It is located near the geographical center of Europe, has a population of 540,000, and has well-preserved Old Town architecture that was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994. As far as personal observations, Tony and I found that it is not at all touristy, and any tourists we did see running around were not speaking English. It was a wholly different but neat environment!
Tony and I only had 36 hours to experience the city, so we got right to work. We had a, shall we say, neutral start: right off the bat, a passing car splashed us with water from a puddle and we had to navigate down some treacherously icy hills by foot (which Tony, who has experienced Polish and Nebraskan winters, did with significantly more ease than me). But it got much better from there.
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| This is the Ensemble of St. Anne and Bernardine Church. The Church of St. Anne is the Gothic-styled one on the left, and it has survived the past 500 years without any changes |
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| Bernardine Church was built at the end of the 15th century. We were able to enter this one |
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| Well. I've never seen that before! The little antechamber in the church had a pasture with sheep, a goat, and a donkey (not pictured) |
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| Tony and I continued to wander. All over the Old Town, you can duck into arches and emerge in little courtyards like this |
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| At one point, we found ourselves in the Užupis Republic, which is sort of like an unofficial city of artists within the city of Vilnius. Užupis has its own anthem, constitution (the English version is pictured), president, bishop, and guardian angel (who you will see in the next post about our Day Two adventures) |
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| This is Lithuania's version of the White House - the Presidential Palace. Built at the end of the 18th century, the President and his Chancellery occupy the buildings today and receive foreign leaders here |
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| More Presidential Palace. The President's flag was waving on the top of the building, which indicates he was in the country |
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| Next stop: college! We visited the grounds of Vilnius University and ran into this extremely friendly and fat cat |
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| Vilnius University is the oldest in the Baltics, having been founded in 1579 by Jesuits eager to counter the reformation. It had 13 courtyards we could explore, including this one |
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| The Church of St. John the Baptist and the Evangelist is part of Vilnius University and was first built in 1387, but rebuilt in 1748 (hence the Baroque styling) |
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| This impressive fresco is in the University's Center for Lithuanian Studies. Painted by Petras Repsys, it is entitled "The Seasons of the Year" and features scenes from Lithuanian mythology |
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| A PSA about the currency switch |
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| This is it - Vilnius' biggest square! The Belfry is on the left and the Vilnius Cathedral on the right. The cathedral was built in the 13th to 15th centuries |
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| This is one of Lithuania's most important rulers, Grand Duke Gediminas. Gediminas made Vilnius the capital city in 1323. In this statue, he is depicted at the moment when he made the decision to dismount his horse and bless the land that would become the capital. The capital's glory was prophesied to echo like the sound of an iron wolf's cry throughout the world - hence the wolf on the right |
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| Inside the cathedral |
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| St. Casimir's Chapel, also inside the cathedral, has a Baroque cupola and colored marble and granite on the walls, as well as white stucco carvings and scenes from the life of St. Casimir (Lithuania's patron saint) |
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| We found a free temporary exhibit about money and the Euro, once again due to the currency change. They had a real gold bar you could pick up! It was super heavy |
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| Gediminas Avenue is one of the Old Town's most important streets and was named after Grand Duke Gediminas, naturally |
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| Time for the other major Vilnius landmark - the Gediminas Tower |
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| From the top of Gediminas Hill, below Gediminas Tower, looking out over the Neris River |
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| This all used to be a castle, starting in the 9th century. Thanks to the Russians in the 17th century and the two World Wars, only this tower and the ruins pictured below still exist |
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| Now from the top of Gediminas Tower |
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| The big building on the bottom right is a reconstruction of the Palace of the Grand Dukes of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which used to be the Lithuanian center of state in the 15th to 17th centuries |
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| Moving on, away from Gediminas Hill |
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| Modern Vilnius |
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| Some Communist-era statues still adorn one of the city's bridges |
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| Back on Gediminas Avenue |
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| This monument honors Vincas Kudirka, author of the Lithuanian Anthem |
We then popped into the Money Museum, a free exhibition space with lots of rare coins and bills from all over the world. The nice Lithuanian staff led us to a counter where we could take a test about money. We successfully passed the test for under-14-year-olds. With our confidence level high, we skipped the intermediate test and dove straight into the financial test for "connoisseurs." After some time and lots of deductive logic and lucky guesses, we got a 78%: just 2% below passing. Oh, well. We could still take home our prize from the under-14-year-old test, which was a toy bill with our picture on it:
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| We took a beer break in a bar and then continued doing some wandering before dinner. The Presidential Palace looks way cooler at night |
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| One of the Old Town's most vibrant streets. We had our enormous dinner at a fancy restaurant nearby, which consisted of a platter of Lithuanian food meant for 2-3 people and two beers. It came out to a ridiculously reasonable $10 for each of us |
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| Finally, we were ready to head back, and we passed by the same site where our day began - the Ensemble of St. Anne and Bernardine Church |