Day 34 - A Tour of Europe in a Day

This morning was my final morning in Riga. Conscious of wanting to make sure that I got to the bus station in plenty of time, I decided to not be too ambitious, and prioritised a good cup of tea in a cafe and some more geocaching. The geocaching worked out very well for me, as it took me first to the Latvian Opera House and then to a gorgeous little park called Vermanes Park.

I bought a few bits from a small shop for a picnic, and considered myself to be a proper traveller when I found myself eating a slightly stale cheese sandwich in the Riga coach station. Very rock and roll.

With there being no tickets available for the train to Vilnius, I had paid the princely sum of about £15 for the 4 hour trip by bus with Luxexpress. Absolute game changer! We are talking about free WiFi, hot drinks, charging points, and individual Tv screens like on an aeroplane with loads of movies, games and TV series. I did limit myself to mainly listening to podcasts as I didn’t entirely trust myself not to feel coach-sick, but it was a great journey, and I think I saw more of Latvia and Lithuania than I would have on the train.

I arrived in Vilnius in the early evening and quickly found my hotel, which seems pretty nice and well-located. I then made the short walk into the centre of town and was delighted to find a concert going on! It is part of the Rotuses Kolonada 2025 festival, and I gathered that the artist performing is a Ukrainian singer called KARYN. There are apparently other Ukrainian performers tonight to mark Ukrainian Independence Day, as part of an event called ‘Together Until Victory’. In fact, as I type this, KARYN has finished and been replaced on the stage by who I believe to be the Lithuanian Armed Forces wind orchestra with possibly some Ukrainian singers. Don’t quote me on that though!

Across all of the Baltic countries, I have been really struck by how they reflect on their twentieth century history, and seemingly embrace being European and part of a globalised world with liberal democratic values, yet how the shadow of Russia really does loom over them with events in Ukraine.

This was even more striking as right near the stage where this concert is taking place is a portal - a 24/7 video feed with other countries. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen one before, but it was oddly joyous to wave at people at similar portals in Poland and Ireland!

I am now sat at a lovely little Italian restaurant from where I can still see the stage. I have to love that I have been in two countries today (Latvia and Lithuania), waved at people in two others (Poland and Ireland), heard Ukrainian music and eaten Italian food.

On a separate note, reaching Vilnius feels like a significant moment on my travels. When I was initially coming up with my Interrail idea, it was very much ‘up through Scandinavia, down through the Baltics to Vilnius’. When I was feeling a bit nervous about this adventure, Vilnius was the potential place that I was going to go home from if I wanted to break the trip. It marks the most easterly place I am staying, and also, with my current plan, the half way point. Here’s to the second half being even close to as fun as the first.