Lithuania

My birthday was coming up so I thought, why not go to a poor country like Lithuania and then to Ukraine, where there's a war going on, to celebrate it with an old friend that I almost don't see anymore since we live in separate parts of Sweden? I don't think my brain function as others but hey my friend Erik was up for it and so we paid some cents (plus taxes) to fly to Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania.
We left a rainy day in Malmö, Sweden for a damn hot summer's day in Vilnius and the first thing I noticed was the perfect panorama view from the hotel over the city. I was excited to explore the city even though I had little hope for it, and I took Erik for a guided tour since I knew some places I wanted to see.

First we went to the statue of the American artist Frank Zappa, and the first thing that comes to mind is why is there a statue of him in Lithuania? The Lithuanians were desperate to mark the end of communism and statues of people like Lenin and Marx, so the weird choice was that Zappa would symbolize the new. I can really enjoy weird choices like that and even though I probably only know one Zappa song, just like everybody else who isn't a hardcore fan, it was fun to meet him in real life although he seemed a bit stiff, bad pun intended.

While I pretended to be Erik's guide for the day I noticed how beautiful and picturesque the city of Vilnius is. It seems to be a creative city and the vibe is nice and while you can see it's not a rich town it has its charm even in the most worn down places. On one of the ugliest buildings it says "In the future every building will be world-famous for fifteen minutes" and I love that they (almost) quote Andy Warhol and that they have a weird sense of humour. We came across a writing on the ground that said "I <3 Vilnius" and I agreed!
I took Erik to a belly that hangs on a wall in the city center and we rubbed it for good luck, and it would turn out it worked. 

Because soon after we found a mall where we could try virtual reality and I have always wanted to try that. Erik who is a virtual reality veteran went first and then he gave me a shot at it as a birthday gift, and I couldn't ask for anything better. Even though I could tell virtual reality is just in the beginning of development right now, it was still immersive and I found myself throwing a stick to a robot dog on a mountain and enjoying it. I almost got real feelings for the dog and thought it was me and him against the world after knowing him for 1 minute while others in the mall who saw me saw a stupid man waving his arms in the air and walking around without knowing that I existed in real life too.

I then understood how life-changing virtual reality can be for the future, and my first reaction was, will people even care to see each other in real life anymore when you can stay at home between four walls and be walking the Great Wall of China one minute, swimming with dolphins the other and then fighting zombies in the dark forest? Unfortunately the last thing came true for me and I found myself suddenly fighting zombies with just a flashlight and a shotgun to help me out. It got so intense that I feared for my life and I felt that if a zombie would catch me I would die for real and not just in the game as you think when you play games like this on a TV screen. Suddenly I got a hand on my shoulder but thank god it wasn't a zombie, it was just the guy who ran the virtual reality place, and he told me that the time was up. It had only gone like 10-15 minutes but I had completely forgot that real life existed too so I was surprised to find myself in a mall in Lithuania with Erik. 

We went on to see the leaning tower but not the one of Pisa, Vilnius got its own and there my guided tour ended. 

Erik insisted that we should go up to Gediminas Tower which is a castle ruin on a huge hill in the middle of the city. I loved the fact that they hadn't turned it into a tourist spot that you have to pay to get in or something like that, because now people could use the perfect views for a place to go and read a book and have a picnic and just sit and talk. It was an amazing place, it felt so warm and inviting and if I lived there I would sure visit this a lot just to hang around. Every city should have a place like this.

It's impossible to capture the relaxed feeling at Gediminas Tower in an image so just go there yourself

Maybe Lithuania doesn't have the best economic conditions right now but the people seem progressive and I hope for a bright future for the country that surprised me as one of the best I've ever visited! 

* Best things about Lithuania – I love almost everything about Vilnius but the thing that stood out was when I had the perfect view of the city from the Panorama Hotel and hot air balloons arose one by one, it felt like a movie scene

* Most mediocre thing about Lithuania – I've always wanted to see the leaning tower of Pisa in Italy, I got to see the leaning tower of Vilnius instead and even though I liked it, it felt like the cheap version

* Worst things about Lithuania – being in a dark forest with zombies approaching while I only had a flashlight and a shotgun, yes I'm talking about virtual reality here, in real life the only bad thing was the food and that one guy that roamed the streets and seemed up to no good

Best countries in the world according to the nerd (will be updated with every post):

1. Croatia
2. Andorra
3. Cyprus
4. Greece
5. Italy
6. Iceland
7. Denmark
8. Lithuania (very hard to rank this one, it will probably go higher on the list if I revisit it)
9. Ireland
10. Belgium
11. Estonia
12. Kosovo
13. Finland
14. Latvia
15. France
16. Bulgaria
17. Liechtenstein
18. China
19. Bosnia And Herzegovina
20. Albania