Lithuanian Food

Trumble and his pig leg...
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After a rather uncomfortable bus ride, we emerged into the little known Vilnius. We were so buggered the first day that we didn't really do much, except eat a pretty awful, traditional Lithuanian meal.

The restaurant we were recommended had a queue out the front, which we took to be a good sign. We ordered what looked like pretty traditional meals, only for Trumble to work out and proclaim "I've just ordered a pigs leg!". The pork came resplendant with a massive amount of fat, and copius hairs growing off the skin, that hadn't been singed off... taste was poor, as was the meat filled potato dumplings we ordered. Oh well, you live and you learn!

Lithuana's square...It was as cold as it looks!
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We were pleasantly surprised by Vilnius. It was very pretty, the streets were mostly clean and the people seemed cool. It reminded us a bit of Vienna, same sort of architecture. We spent the day exploring the city, before we boarded our train to St Petersburg, some 14 hours.

We arrived at the station, and boarded an old train that reminded us very much of Soviets, and communism! We had two beds in a four bed cabin, and luckily noone else joined us for the trip. very cosy carriage, four bunks and a little table. After a few late night stops as we went through Latvia (customs and passport checks exiting Lithuania, entering and exiting Latvia) we'd managed to grab a couple of hours sleep. When the train rolled across the border into Russia, we were woken up, it was about midnight. Scary looking Russian officials checked our passports, and there was quite a bit of hesitation with Trumbles. As we were trying to work out how much of a bribe we would have to pay, she stamped it and handed it back. Then, after being stationary for around 30 minutes, a big group of soldiers got on our carriage and started looking under our beds and in the roof spaces of the carriages. Didn't speak a word of English, so it was a little daunting! After pulling up most of the carpets and checking for hollow walls, they jumped off the train and we were once again on our way, rolling towards the most northern city we'd been to, St Petersburg.