Short visit to Vilnius

Manana and I had the chance to accompany a group of students from Didzdvaris Gymnasium and from another Gymnasium (I have to admit I can't remember the name of the school now, but the students and teachers were very nice and active) to Vilnius yesterday. Manana has already spent some time in the capital of Lithuania at Christmas, but for me it was the first time when I really had the time to visit the center of the city. Of course we both visited Vilnius before, but except for the bus and train station we haven't seen much (not counting Mananas trip in December).

We started at 7.30 from Siauliai, which is very early for Manana and me. Actually, during the last 12 years of my life I always had to get up at 6am, because school starts earlier in Austria than in Lithuania (Hurray on the Lithuanian school system!). But now, after I have spent some month here, getting up between 8 and 9 usually, waking up before sunrise is torture. :)

But, it was worth it. At first we visited a presentation about volunteering with the students and surprisingly we met some of our friends, who are also international volunteers in Lithuania, at this event. 

Afterwards Manana and I separated from the students, who were about to have some guided tours (in Lithuanian). 

So we explored the Old Town by our self, visiting some tiny galleries, strange churches and a very nice arts museum with a temporary exhibition about the development of fashion.

I might admit, that the weather was not always very suitable for a sight seeing trip, as it was snowing heavily most of the time and windy and cold all the time. However, we saw some parts of the very nice city (We even found the Austrian embassy ... it was a coincidence, but still, we found it) and laughed a lot.

Exploring narrow streets in Old Town

Nice building of the Swedish embassy

Church, which had a door that was too heavy for us to open, so we saw it only from outside :D