Canopy walkway 

Just freshly opened a few months ago, the canopy walkaway is the first of its kind not only in the Baltic States but also in the whole Eastern Europe. It is a 300 meter long walkway at the top of the trees, its height is 21 meters. It is found in Anykščiai. 

It is about a 1 hour drive from Vilnius if you are living there. At the end of the walkway, there is a observation tower which is at 35 meters high. If you have motion sickness, beware,  you can actually feel  at the top of the tower how it moves from side to side.Canopy walkway has an astounding view of the nature around. 

Most importantly, the entrance is a symbolic 1 euro for everyone for the preservation of the environment! It is an opportunity for tourists from other countries to see and walk through it, because the nearest places with this type of structures in Europe are built only in Germany, Austria and Czech republic. 

If you are interested in traveling there, here is the information on how to get there:
Mobile number: +370 381 51227

Working hours:

April – October, everyday from 10-19h.

November – March, everyday from 9-18h.

Lithuanian Public Transport

Just to help those,who are planing to visit Lithuania, I will describe the main etiquette, rules, and fun facts about the Lithuanian public transport system, as it is very accurate for use, when you want to go and visit a few places in one day.                                                                                           

Sometimes the public transport "trolleybus" and bus can be confusing even for the locals. Some people think that you can only come in through the first door (next to the driver) and leave from the rest. But no one actually follows this rule anymore, especially in Vilnius. This would be maybe more accurate to Kaunas buses. 

When you get in, you have to immediately buy a one time ticket (the price depends on your age and weather you're a student, scholar or a regular worker. Seniors and students get the biggest discounts.|| http://www.vilniustransport.lt/lt/pages/view/?id=53 || http://www.kvt.lt/bilietu_kainos ||) or mark your travel card "Vilniečio kortelė" (in Kaunas "Kauno e-bilietas"). It is not necessary to mark the travel card every time!  If the travel card is paid for one month, the you have to mark it one time per month and ride calmly.  The schemes where each trolleybus and bus goes can usually be found on each bus stop, as well as online -->> http://www.vilniausviesasistransportas.lt/images/2015-04-01_marsrutu_schema.pdf

Now for some etiquette rules: 

1st - decency requires that you give your seat to women  with small children, pregnant women, seniors or a person with a disability.

2nd - The person, who was given a seat by other  must thank for that, but it should not be the basis for establishing the beneficent conversation, not everyone needs/wants to hear about your day and may have some business of their own to sort over in their heads. 

3d - you should respect people sitting around you: 

- if you have a crying child, try to calm him down instead of ignoring him/her. 

- make sure that  your headphones are not on too loud so that even others around you can hear your beats. AND DO NOT PLAY MUSIC ON YOUR PHONE SPEAKER - no one wants to hear what you concider to be good music :)))

- do not eat smelly foods, and avoid drinking when the transport is shaky not to spill anything on anyone. Alcohol is not sloud on public transport but of  course, most people going to/ from parties forget it or just don't care and it usually ends in unpleasant vomit and smelly situations. 

4th - if you are the one to get in the bus, first, let everyone who needs to get out before coming in. 

These are just some of the basics, apart from those which might be obvious. 

And now for some fun facts... Very popular and quite true portray of where you belong in the society through the place you chose in the Lithuanian public transport. 

1,2,3 - The place where homeless people are sitting. 

4,5 and 6,7 - aggressive guys and girls, usually with training clothes and "sėmačkos" (suflower seeds) and horribly exhausted girls coming home from "klubasai" (clubs) with the first morning bus.

8,9 and 10,11 - well, here sits the gray mass. No one will notice you. 

12 and 13 - all the "chicas" sit here so if you want to check out some nice girl stand next to these seats, but anyway, if you sit in one of  these there is a  possibility that the elderly will make you leave. 

14, 15, 16,17,18 - individualists, artists and so on, dreamily looking out the window, so if you are not one of them, this place has overtaken.

19,20 and 21,22 - don't even think about them. It does not matter whether you are an accountant or a young lady, this place can be left blank, because it will always be stolen by the elderly from you or you will be facing some angry stares if you don't stand up for them. It is called THE RED ZONE (or otherwise knows as the grumpy old people zone).

23, 24 - will sit on the youth of what the **** orchestral lessons and going home with a backpack, or pink zone (almost old men)

25,26 - Best location if today you feel self-satisfied and confident, you're happy and just feel like "the man". 

27,28 - reverse 25/26 place. If you are feeling a little down and just having a horrible hair day, just sit here. You can watch advertisements or you can calmly see the wall and you will not see nobody. 

So which one are you??? :) 

Šnekutis (part 2)

On this second week I went back to the same restaurant, mainly because I mentioned this project to one of my dorm mates, and in two months he hadn´t tried any lithuanian tradicional food, being a good friend I could not allow this to continue!!!




Before entering, I suggested him to split the dishes, you will understand why I did that ;).

And we started by order soups:

Cucumbers soup ("Agurkinė") for me, and the Peas Soup ("Žirnių") for my friend, and as usually a nice light tradicional beer for each!!
Since I´ve already tried both soups I can say that I enjoyed more the cucumbers one, just because its flavour was stronger, but it is not so different for both contains almost the same ingredients, including the sour cream.

Now, since my friend was very hungry, I order, obviously:

 Zeppelins with meat ("Cepelinai su mėsa") for him, and Pancakes "Zemaiciai" with meat ("Žemaičių blynai") for me.

The first dish looks  harmless, however, a good challenge is too eat them both. Basically we have two monsters potatoes with meat inside, with a mushroom sauce. My friend was already full after the first one, and remember, he was hungry!!!

 And finally, the second dish, potato pancakes with pork meat inside. it was very good, I enjoyed it very much, mainly because the pancakes were incredible soft (they have a similar dish but they don´t boil the potatoes as long, which makes the dish, for me, tougher and it has a very strong taste, making it harder to eat ).

After this meal we went crawling to home!!!

Pea soup: 1.80 €

Cucumbers Soup: 1.80€

light beer beer: 2€

Zeppelins with meat: 3.80€

Pancakes "Zemaiciai" with meat: 3.80€

Camping

There are many different sports and outdoor activities that you could choose to do in Lithuania, from running to flying, or just to do some photography. In this blog I will talk about what are the most famous activities travelers and locals do to have a great time.

 

Brace yourselves, winter is coming! It is the middle of autumn and you know what that means? It is getting colder by the day. But before that, every traveler must go and see the true nature of Lithuania. Camping is the best way to do so. Lithuania is well known as a highly forested area. Many wonderful camping places are welcoming visitors while offering nice and relaxing staying in natural surroundings. People are able to choose staying in their own tents or in cottages built near lakes, rivers or near the Baltic sea. Cooler, dryer weather means fewer bugs and fewer people, so fall is one of the best times to go camping. One of the places to go is Trakai. You can sleep with the view of the forest and the lake or take a trip with the boat in the lake or just walk around the shores of it and through the small village of Trakai. It is very peaceful, air is fresh and the scenery is beautiful.

You like staying or walking on the beach, the sea and the waves? No doubt, you need a booking by the Baltic sea! If on top of this you happen to be a water sports fanatic, you will just have a great time sailing, surfing or sea kayaking. The best place you could choose from is “Nidos kempingas”. It is located in the town of Nida.  It is located only a couple hundred meters to the whitest beaches, sundial with an observation deck and to the village center.

Contacts:

Taikos g. 45A, LT-93121 Neringa, Nida

e-mail: info@kempingas.lt

mobile phone: +370 682 41150

„Dirty Duck“ pub – from 11 a.m. till Rock’N’ROLLA!

There are great variety of bars and pubs in Vilnius. We would like to start from the real one British pub "Dirty Duck". Why? Because where more you can find pub which offer you "fish&chips" in Vilnius? This is inseparable from the traditional British pub.

The environment is really spacious and bright, overlooking the view is worth a million. A large part of the premises occupied by the angle formed by a bar with comfortable bar chairs, the rest of the space is devoted to a table. The place is cozy, comfortable to sit here. Here everything is clean, art, shiny and smells.

Probably the most interesting topic for you is BEER. And YES, they have 12 types of beer.

LIGHT : Heineken, Kalnapilis Grand Select (local), Krušovice Imperial, Vilkmergės šviesusis (local)

DARK: Vilkmergės tamusis (local), Leffe Bruin, Newcastle Brown Ale

WHEAT: Hoegaarden, Vilkmergės Kvietinis (local), Edelweiss Weissbier

STOUT: Murphy‘s , Guinness

  

You can easily find beer for every taste and interest and of course local beer what is obligatory to try! If you don't like beer- DRINK WHISKEY! 120 types of whisky: Irish, Scotch, Japanese, American, Kanadian, Taiwan , Indian , New Zealand, Tasmania, Swedish, Czech...

 And it is just a beginning of the night, so in order not to get drunk so fast, we kindly recommend you to try so delicious meals. In their kitchen they are using only especially fresh products, not freezed, not stored, that's why their meniu is rather narrow and reflects a typical pub meniu.

How to find them?

Dirty Duck Pub
Didžioji g. 28, Vilnius 
+370 5 231 2641
info@dirtyduck.eu

Working hours: VII - IV 11:00 – 03:00 V, VI 11:00-06:00
Daily lunch: I - V 11 :30 - 15:00
English breakfast: VI, VII - 11:00 - 14:00
DJs perfomances: IV, V, VI from 22:00 till  Rock'N'ROLLA !

Vilnius Nightlife

Introduction

The Lithuanian capital’s disparate nightlife options run the breath of all things imaginable for any taste and budget, from quiet cafés full of serious-looking men huddled over a game of chess to steamy underground caverns dedicated to the time- honored pursuit of getting ordinarily level-headed businessmen so horribly drunk that they willingly empty the contents of their bank account inside a stripper’s knickers.

Vilnius offers a variety of choices for going out at night.  The number of clubs and bars in Vilnius is impressive for a city inhabited by just half a million people. The only thing that you need to know is the right places. You can easily find bars and pubs all over the main Vilnius streets.

There are two main areas of clubbing in Vilnius. Both are within walking distance away from each other, so if you don’t like one place just move on to another right next door. Vokiečių street district – the busiest place of Vilnius nightlife. Usually more active during the summer period: with plenty of outdoor seating and some good clubs. Note that face control is currently on the rise in Vilnius: if yours doesn’t fit, forget it. Wearing a decent pair of shoes usually helps. Leave your trainers at home and have fun!

Here you can check some moments of Vilnius nightlife and maybe after some days staying in Vilnius you will create your own video with even more crazy parties: 

Follow our blog to know the best bars and clubs in Vilnius!!!

Short Intro to Culture

Hey fellow students! 

My name is Ruta and I'll be your guide through this crazy Lithuanian culture that is "weirdly" unknown by most of you. If you are reading this blog, you are probably planning to visit us. Mostly because you think it is a dangerous, unexplored place that you heard mind-blowing tales about. And believe me, they are  probably true! But my task here is to share with you all of the sides - good, fun, weird, crazy cultural facts. Also, you might say that some of my posts will be as a "survival guide", which should help you understand the Lithuanian gestures, facial expressions, what is appropriate and not appropriate to say, I will write about behavior in public places, public transport, what is expected when you arrive as a guest, or when you go to a part, and many other topics.  

You can expect my first article to be published this Saturday ! :) 

And remember, I am always interested to hear what you, readers, are interested in reading about, what are you most nervous to encounter here, and hopefully I could give you some info and advice on the situations.  

Too much exams during the weekdays??? Tired of everything??? No plans for weekend???
We can help you! See in our blog the best places to visit, eat and of cource- PARTY HARD!!!

Šnekutis

Šnekutis is one of the most known restaurants in Vilnius. They provide traditional food at very accessible prices in a big portion ;)

Today, I went there, I started with a "pea soup" (Žirnių), which is a hot soup, dark traditional beer and the main dish: "Potatoes pie with pig's feet or ears" (Plokštainis su koja ar kiaulės ausimi).

First, I could kill my thirst with a nice black local beer.

 The pea soup, was a mixed of peas, onions, leek, bacon, potatoes and sour cream. It tasted very good, neither too intense nor tasteless, and the sour cream, like in most of Lithuanian soups combines very well.

Now, the main dish was, for me, after the soup, very heavy, being a portuguese I am used to eat soup, main dish and dessert, but in this case I had actually to leave some food on the plate!! However, the flavor was amazing, it´s a different way to eat potatoes, and lithuanians do it very well, I would recommend you to taste it!! I can also add that the proportion between the potatoes and meat was reasonable, in some places it may not happen.

Pea soup: 1.80 €

Dark beer (0,5 l): 2€

Potatoes pie with pig´s feet or ears: 3.80€





Address of Šnekutis:  Šv.Stepono g. 8, Vilnius   (catch the trolleybus number 2, stotis, until you see a big and colourful egg on your right, then being in front of the egg, follow the left road, and you will find this amazing restaurant)

I will leave here their website:
http://www.snekucio-alaus-pasaulis.lt/

Introduction

Hey everyone!

Autumn time in Lithuania, and we bet that most of the foreigners can already be preparing for the Lithuanian cold weather. It's about time that we start posting to our travel blog where each week you will find a new post under each page:

Nightlife - covered by a Lithuanian student Aira,
Culture- covered by a Lithuanian student Ruta,
Traditional Foods - covered by a foreign Portuguese student Bruno,
and Outdoor Activities - covered by a Lithuanian student Vidmantas.

This week you can find Introductory posts from each of us, and we are looking forward to expanding our blog and giving you some awesome advice, reviews and survival information all related to Wonderful Lithuania.