June 26
We returned to Vilnius for one final evening of food and drinks before my group caught flights to the UK the following day. Whilst I tried to remain excited by having a few days of overland adventures to come, festival comedown hit me hard, and I also wished I could spend a bit longer in Vilnius too. However we still enjoyed our last evening together before the parting of the ways:
Top from left: outside our holiday apartment, mural in Vilnius, cocktail at a nearby bar.
Bottom: Evening street scene in Vilnius.
Selfie of me, plus three of my intrepid fellow travellers.
June 27
The beginning of my return journey did not go according to plan – thanks to a brief lapse in concentration some months prior which meant I had booked a coach back to Warsaw for the previous day. After a brief panic where I made my way to a green patch outside the bus station to figure out how to mitigate this unfortunate turn of events, I booked myself on the next bus heading that way – which left in a few hours time. This, in turn meant I had a few extra hours to spend in Vilnius after all, and made the most of it even though I had to lug my rucksack across town in the heat, and find a print shop in order to get my PDF ticket printed. Eventually I said farewell to Vilnius and Lithuania at 2.15pm, arriving onto Warsaw just before 10 in the evening (although I regained an hour crossing the border). Whilst it would have been better if I had checked my dates beforehand I felt a sense of achievement in not going into full meltdown over this slight mishap. And I got to see a bit more of Vilnius as a result!
Clockwise from bottom left: Vilnius Town Hall Square, Stiklių gatve,
Vilnius Cathedral’s bell tower, far corner of Town Hall Square,
and a mosaic demonstrating love and solidarity to the Ukrainians.
Panorama of central Warsaw just after finally stepping off the coach.