Tag Archives: Lithuania

Jul11

The Lithuanian museum of art

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Sunday, 16-June-2024


So… The art museum in Vilnius wasn’t quite as large as I was expecting. Nor as broad-reaching. Which was, honestly, quite a bit of a surprise to me… the rest of the city was so expansively beautiful, with so many placards and beautiful storefronts, universities and churches, I had it in my mind that the art museum would be a similarly centric part of the city.

That’s not saying that it was bad, of course! Just that, as far as city art museums go, the collection was quite a bit smaller than I’d expected, and didn’t give me a particularly strong sense of the history or culture of Vilnius.

Instead, it was a really interesting deep dive into a specific artist – Boleslaw Rusiecki.


Personally, I resonated quite a bit with this exhibition. Or, more accurately, with the artist being exhibited – Boleslaw was a skilled painter, to be sure, but one of the key takeaways I got from the exhibition was that he wasn’t a standout, and instead helped to advance artistry as a whole… while not standing out himself. I like that idea – working to advance the overarching state of the art, while not drawing too much of a spotlight on the self.

It was an interesting exhibition, and one that I really enjoyed. I wasn’t expecting a dive into a specific artist, but I’m quite thankful that I was given the opportunity to see it!

Jul10

Cathedral Square and Gedimino kalnas in Vilnius

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Sunday, 16-June-2024

My exploration of Vilnius started in Cathedral Square – which shouldn’t be a surprise, since I was staying at the Cathedral Square hotel. Efficient, right? Past-me really did do a great job at picking out places to stay, and detailing all the info for traveling… Definitely thankful to that guy. Great dude.

Anyways.

I headed out from my hotel, crossed the street, and sort of just stopped to stare for a little bit.


Cathedral Square is gorgeous. Seriously – it’s straight out of Rome, or Florence, or some ancient Greco-Roman saga. A huge marble square stretched out ahead of me, with a massive belltower and equally massive cathedral dominating the space… but still leaving room for a ton of open area for the slowly gathering people, and the slightly-weird statue off to the far side.

Behind, Gedimino Castle stood on a massive hill, overlooking it all.


I was still feeling a little weak on my feet, only a few days recovered from the ill-advised takeout, but I’ve always held that getting some good physical activity helps my body throw off the lethargy and miasma of being sick. Looking up, past the marble expanse and toward the castle up on the huge hill, I saw a great opportunity to get that physical activity going.

I… made it up. I did, in fact, make it up to to the top. It wasn’t quick, and it wasn’t easy, but it was successful. We’ll stick to that.



From the top, I not only got a chance to catch my breath… but also amazing views of the city. I stared out across the stunning landscape, picked out a few interesting places that I wanted to see closer up, and even spent a few moments watching some reenactors fencing down in the nearby square.

And then?

Back down the way I came, off to continued exploration!

Jul9

The bus ride from Riga to Vilnius

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Saturday, 15-June-2024


I survived the bus ride.

That’s really all I can say about it – I wasn’t quite recovered from my food poisoning, but I was stable at least. I was able to take some Dramamine ahead of time, and made sure to spend what little time I was awake with a ginger candy in my mouth to help double-protect against any possible nausea. I mainly drifted in and out of sleep, thankfully, with quick bouts of staring out the windows at the passing fields.

The bus was comfortable, thankfully – I can’t recall if I mentioned that about the bus from Tallinn to Riga, but they’re from the same company and were quite nice. Lux Comfort, specifically, and I definitely recommend them quite heartily.

Simple and easy – I made it to the bus station, took the bus, slept, got off the bus, and took a cab to my hotel in Vilnius. Left my jacket on the bus, but… c’est la vie. It was an older jacket anyways, that I’d been planning on replacing once I got to Dublin, so… guess I get to keep an eye out for jackets on my adventures, now!