Guide to Vilnius: Read this before you go

Every time you decide to take your backpack and go on an adventure, you  can hear all kinds of tales and scary stories about your destination. Well, Vilnius isn’t an exception – we’ve heard a lot of stories too! The truth is Vilnius could be city of tales, but those without dragons and monsters. And the scariest creature here would probably be a trolleybus. An old one.

Photo Ⓒ Akvilė Jodkauskaitė

So here are some most popular tales about Vilnius – let’s check if it is true.

There’s a story saying that… it takes ages to go to Vilnius

Well… no. Actually, it’s really simple to reach Vilnius. One of the simplest ways is to take a plane. Don’t listen the stories about long, tiring flights – for example, it takes no more than 2,5 hours to come here from London. So it’s like a perfect time to admire the view, chit-chat with a neighbor, take a nap and voilà! Welcome to Vilnius!

Photo Ⓒ Antanas Minkevičius

There’s a story saying that… the prices of taxi are really high

Not true. We have a lot of different taxi companies and they are ready to drive you everywhere you need for a decent price. The journey from airport to the city center takes about 15 minutes and costs about 10€. Convenient and fast train ride (7 minutes) costs less then 2€. Sounds good deal, right? Or you can always use Uber!

Photo Ⓒ Akvilė Jodkauskaitė

There’s a story saying that… it’s hard to reach other cities from Vilnius

It’s the question for science-fiction writers. Since there is no problem traveling to Vilnius, there is absolutely no problem to go away. You can choose a flight to 47 different cities from VNO. Soon, there will be 4 more. So this tale might be true only for one reason – once you visit Vilnius, it is too hard to leave!

Photo Ⓒ Akvilė Jodkauskaitė

There’s a story saying that… Vilnius is like a medieval city

Actually, this is true. We do have medieval old town. You’ve probably heard that it is one of the largest surviving medieval old towns in Northern Europe. And we are proud of it! But that doesn’t mean that we live here without electricity and other facilities. It’s a joke, but we know – a lot of people think that instead of modern capital city Vilnius is more like a big village. Well, it could be true if village means nature. The best part about Vilnius is that here you can find everything from the groves and parks to modern city signs. Some say that Vilnius reminds Paris – with cozy historical old town and a small island of skyscrapers like Défence.

Photo Ⓒ Rytis Šeškaitis

There’s a story saying that… there’s no chance to talk in English here

This one is my favorite! And of course it isn’t true. 20 years ago, it probably would be difficult to find someone who could tell you the right direction on the street. Instead of telling you the price the cashier would write it down. But today everyone knows English. Maybe not everyone could retell Harry Potter fluently, but communication and navigation might be easier than you expect! So next time in Vilnius feel free to ask anything you need to know!

 

There’s a story saying that… Lithuanians don’t smile. At all

Yes, we do. It is true that Lithuanians are serious people and sometimes our face looks like we’ve been eating lemons all morning. But that’s just a camouflage. The truth is that Lithuanians are kind, sincere people who sometimes… just forget to smile. But we always, always smile back. And that’s a good start. I think…

Photo Ⓒ Akvilė Jodkauskaitė

Let’s come and ruin those myths yourself!

Written by Edita Norkevičiūtė

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

Leave a Reply