Paco´s Life: Madrid

Easter Europe V: Vilnius, vodka lituano / Lithuanian vodka

Afer a short flight in which the most remarkable thing was that I threw a glass of tomato juice all over me, I arrived in Vilnius, capital of Lithuania and second last stop of my tour. More hospitalityclub there, in this case a known face, Karolina, a girl who hosted in Madrid on that period all Lithuania seemed to be visiting Spain. Even though I insisted to find my own way, she came all the way to the airport to pick me up so the arrival was easy, one hour later I was already in her place. Karoline lives in the outskirts of Vilnius, sharing a house with a Lithuanian family and a room with Raimunda and a bottle of Lithuanian vodka that we drunk in minutes. That’s a really nice way to start a visit! Thursday, 11 pm and already drunk as hell, the two Lithuanians and I went partying to the wildest place in town (night punisher visitors: you definitely have to pay a visit to Prospekt). Hot Lithuanian girls all over, foreign guys trying to pick them up and close dance music. In fact, I had enough with the company I was bringing with me, my two hosts took their turns to make me dance. As many of you know that´s not exactly my main skill (some sucker even called me Robocop) but, compared to the Lithuanians, and we the right provision of vodka, at least in my drunk mind I felt Juanes and had a great time. Surrealistic and wild night that, at least this time, did not cost me a friend. Anyway don’t let your imagination fly, the two Lithuanians slept in one bed and I slept in the other

Lithuanian vodka must be good stuff cause I woke up in a very good condition. My two Lithuanians had to work but no problem, I still knew another Lithuanian girl in the city that called another one (a lot of Lithuanian girls I know…) and party animal became cultural animal and started the Vilnius tour with local guides included. Once a again, a very complete itinerary. Starting from the local castle, from which you have a complete view over the city. Vilnius is a curious place, few tall buildings and surrounded everywhere by forests. There is green all over and many churches spread all over the city. One of them is so nice that it is said that Napoleon wanted to take it back to France with him. Dovile and Kristine were, again, a perfect company for the visit, riding me by car from one interesting place to the next one. I was in a very typical place called Balmonte, looks like this kind of countryside villages we have in Spain where people go to marry. As usual, I totally fill my stomach with local food (the pink soup you can see in the pics is just delicious!) so I needed another of my already classical travelling siestas. After that…oh surprise! Around the corner an unique and delicious smell hit my nose… A nargilee place!! Someone said I would not be able to survive all the trip without smoking “cachimba” and she was right, Lithuanian nargilee moment  Besides, there was some sort of Baltic festival going on in the city: music, food an typical beer to spend the afternoon.

Anyway, the touristic tour did not finish there, back to the car and heading to Trakai castle,20 km away from Vilnius, in the middle of a national park containing more than 200 lakes. Very nice place, even though we could not get inside the castle, just the view was worth the trip. Besides, we arrived there with the sunset so we got quite a few very nice pictures. I really recommend the trip! The castle was started to be built in the XIV century and, after been abandon and reconstructed a few times, nowadays it´s been used for music concertas and opera. I couldn’t get it so there is not much else to say about the interior. Well, you know, culture is not my best, at least not the culture out of the bars.. So just have a look at the pics and here is the link to the Wikipedia

Not too much party that night. We got to Karolina´s place around 11 and I had to fly at 5am to Riga so getting drunk and risk the flight as I did in Budapest did not seem the best idea at this point of the trip. I just drunk the last shots of Lithuanian vodka with two (male!) friends of Karol. It might sound weird but I really appreciated some male company, some basketball chatting (basketball is very big in Lithuania) and a couple of hours of sleep before getting the taxi to the airport. It had been quite a rough week and my body was starting to seriously complain but that was the idea wasn’t it? It is not so easy to be in 6 countries in one week and good the trip ended up been by plane instead of car, otherways it would have been even harder.

So, once again, the local people were just perfect. This trip has made me reconsider my value as a host. Partying is the only thing I do with people coming to Madrid and only if I feel in the mood. I am hardly able to tell them what to visit in Madrid. My Lithuanian hosts, on the other hand, spend all their time with me, taking me to the places to visit. So, once again, a series of “thank you”, to Karolina, Raimunda, Doville and Kristine! You are welcome in Madrid any time, just tell me in advance so I can really plan some touristic stuff and not only drinking

I am aware that my posts are becoming less deep and what I write is probably less interesting but the fact is that I feel quite lazy to write about something that happened two weeks ago. And, besides, lets be honest, what is really interesting in these posts is when something goes wrong. Disgraces, funny histories, risky situations… Nothing of that happened in Vilnius nor in Lublin. Everything went just perfect from the beginning till the end. Just another great hospitalityclub experience. Very funny for me to live it but probably very boring for you to read it. Another nice and small town, more food degustation and, once again, I was leaving a place with the feeling I had seen everything which was to be seen there.