Make your own fun.
by Canadian_girl
Vilnius has got to be one of the all-time great party towns. The best fun is found in the small, quirky, non-touristy bars. My best memory? A weekend that involved (in no particular order) a certain VT member who shall remain nameless, a pinata, a marzipan pig wearing a bowler hat, a stolen road sign, some very gay men, a cigarette burn to my face (okay, that part wasn't so much fun) and several nuns in full habit. Come to Vilnius and create your own bizarre stories!!!
The Cathedral a good meeting place as well
by Grazina
If your an artist and love to take picture, or maybe paint water, oil, whatever, this is the place, no one really bothers you here. I walked around this huge church, and no one really bothered me. Very respectable people and helpful...they do speak english.
Miraculous painting of Our Lady at Gates of Dawn
by evaanna
The painting of Our Lady, Mother of Mercy, at Gates of Dawn has been an object of pilgrimage for centuries. The cult began after the Muscovite invasion on Vilnius in 1655. The first - timber -chapel which was erected to house the picture burnt down around 1711 but the painting was saved by a young monk. It was kept for 20 years in St Theresa's church but then moved to a new brick chapel. When in 1799, under the order of the Tzar, the town walls were demolished, the Gates of Dawn remained intact.
The invocation in Mickiewicz's epic poem 'Master Tadeusz' published in 1834 brought the painting even more fame and contributed to the cult spreading not only in Lithuania but also abroad. During the partitions of Poland it was at the Gates of Dawn that patriotic demonstrations took place. The cult became part of the Polish independence movement. In 1919 a procession of scientists, students and state and church figures arrived at the Gates to thank Our Mother of Mercy for the re-opening of Vilnius University. The painting was crowned before Vilnius Cathedral in 1927 in a magnificent ceremony attended by the papal nuncio and the Polish heads of state.
During World War II thousands of the faithful came to pray at the Gates of Dawn for peace and independence. Even in Soviet times, when many of the churches in Vilnius were turned into stores or just shut down, the Gates of Dawn remained open.
Tipping Tip
by mrdarius
When taking a cab, you don't have to tip...or if you like, you can round up to the nearest litas. Anything more will be out of the ordinary.
Also for cabs, make sure to call them to pick you up from wherever you are instead of hailing them in the street. Bars and clubs will let you call for free, and the ride will be significantly cheaper this way (or I should say, "it's much more expensive to hail a cab on the street").
Public buses parked along a street
by matcrazy1
My first stop when I entered Vilnius by my car was on a wide street along southern bank of Neris River.
There where a lot of long yellow-blue public buses parked along this street. They were parked one by one on the right lane along maybe half of kilometer of a street. Was it cheap parking for public transportation company?
I could see new skyline of Vilnius with newly built, modern skyscrapers on the oposite side of Neris River.