The Baltics are one of the last post-Soviet European republics missing from our list. Due to the precarious metallic, and especially war situation, the decision was made to visit these countries. And while we are in Tallinn, why not cross the Baltic and see Helsinki for a day. And we needed something cheaper after the costly Scotland.
Our journey starts at half past five in the morning from Ostrava. Our parents will take us to Chalupek in Poland, from where we will continue by train to Warsaw. We are travelling from Chalupek instead of Ostrava to avoid the Czech-Polish border crossing fee, which is at best about 8 EUR. If you don't believe it, you can enter the route from Ostrava at ČD and from Chalupek at PKP IC in the search engine. The ride is supposed to take four and a half hours, but we arrive at our destination, Warsaw Centralna, forty minutes late, which disrupts the schedule of our short stay in Warsaw a bit. Our first step is to go shopping for food supplies at Biedrunka, located on the top floor of the station. The second step is lunch at the well-established Mleczarnia Jerozolimska dairy bar. Two tomato soups and two steak and potatoes for a great 8 EUR. As I told Janet after lunch: you can't help but love this country :D.
We have a quick lunch and move at a brisker pace back to the central station, where a Lux express bus will be waiting to take us to Vilnius. Lux express is the equivalent of the Baltic Regiojet. Each seat has a screen with infotainment, you get a bottle of water for the journey and you have unlimited hot drinks during the ride. The only downside is that the journey takes 8 hours. We pass the time by watching movies and playing Angry birds on the screen next to the seat.
We arrive in Vilnius at half past nine in the evening. I buy trolleybus tickets on the Traffi app, which is used to search for public transport in the city and to buy tickets. Ticket prices here are very cheap at 0.65 EUR for a 30-minute ride. The downside of the Traffi app is that the minimum spend is 5 Euro, so at that price you have to buy a lot of tickets. You get one free ticket when you install and register a credit card. We get on trolleybus 2 and ride for about 15 minutes to the Šv. Petro ir Povilo bažnyčia. Along the way we are amazed at the amount of Ukrainian flags and all the support Ukraine has here. From the bus stop, it's a 10-minute walk to the residential area where our apartment, House of Sun, is located and will be our new home for the next three nights. We can't do more than shower tonight and go to bed almost around midnight.
Useful links:
Czech Railways
PKP Intercity
Lux Express
Trafi app
House of Sun
Accommodation around Vilnius
