Day 16 – The First Beach

The clouds had parted and the sky was bright blue in the morning. We decided to go to the first beach (Valakampiai) in Vilnius. As we passed the Cathedral we saw many worshippers coming out – they were mostly older people, very nicely dressed.

We took trolleybus #3 for about 20-25 minutes to the final stop (2 and 4 also work). It is only 2-3 stops after SPP. Had to ask a nasty looking woman to pick up her handbag so that Georgia could sit down – she enjoyed her first ride. Riding public transport with kid and a stroller is not so bad (when you are not alone).

After we got off we walked further down for another 20 minutes. Pine forest smells great. The only thing that is strange is that the place looks perfect for some animals to be around - a deer, a squirrel, and there did not seem to be any.

A bunch of cars packed haphazardly around the road signaled that we had arrived. We passed some volleyball and soccer fields actively occupied and went to sit by the river. It got pretty chilly when the sun went behind the clouds. But when it came out, it got very pleasant.

Georgia played in the sand for about 45 minutes and we decided to head back and grab some ice-cream on the way. There was just fully dressed woman and a teenage girl sitting on the bench reading. Across the river there is a new abandoned building looking like a small hotel – with all the windows broken and graffiti. There are also some ruins of a coffee shop with metal elevator shaft going to the second floor of nowhere. Dan found some pretty poppy flowers.

Hotel Valakampiai is a pretty new hotel, so we went inside the restaurant and waited for 15 minutes. There was some staff passing by but no one paid any attention. We went down to Villa Valakampiai next door and asked for take out ice-cream. Luckily they had very nice one, on the stick, chocolate covered, and whipped strawberry vanilla inside. We played a little on the dilapidated playground and went home.

On the way back we found closed Keramics gallery at the end of St.Ignoto The place looks very nice, will come back.

In the afternoon Sasha and Vika, Klem, and Lisa came over. We walked around the old town and Gedomino. They did not know about St.George statue. Sasha told us about one of his friends who is processional paintball player. Did not realize it is such a popular sport.

Went to Cili Kaimas for dinner and to Gusto for deserts and some capuchino froth tasting. While we were waiting for our dinner, we went home to grab Georgia’s water bottle and a few toys, to the supermarket downstairs to grab some baby food for Klem, back home to warm it up. Little conveniences of the city living.

Georgia picked up a funky way of walking from Lisa. They’ve played very well together and she was very good at staying nearby on Vokieciu walking way. She was exhausted towards the end and fell asleep without the usual cartoons.

Guess where is the dwarf.