A feast. A flood. A castle. A kiss.

It was the Feast of St John, a national holiday, and as a result, the locals seemed to have deserted Old Town Vilnius.


We didn't mind. The buildings were still beautiful and from a tourist's point of view, it was business as usual.

To gather our strength for the day ahead, we decided to take a break from the rich Baltic food and burger up.


Fast food fashion was the theme at Burger House.


We tried to blend in.


Vilnius boasts both the largest Old Town in the Baltics and best preserved Baroque town center in all of Europe.


Do we know the features of baroque architecture?


We'd need to Google that. Let's just say there were many ornate buildings and lotsa churches.


We didn't stop in at the Church of the Holy Mother of God, but we did utter those words a lot during our stay here. (Lots more mack trucks here.)


We did, however, stop and check out the Frank Zappa monument.

You didn't know that Frank Zappa was Lithuanian??? Well, he's actually not. In fact, he has absolutely no connection to Lithuania. (I did Google that.) Some Lithuanian fans just decided the town needed a monument of him and wouldn't take no for an answer.


Many fans felt that the statue did not really reflect Frank's eclectic style, so some art students did some airbrushing next to it to liven things up.

While Jeff was comtemplating a shoe purchase, we suddenly found ourselves waiting out a torrential downpour in Vilnius. It probably only rained for about 30 minutes or so, but it rained hard and long enough to cause some serious flooding in the streets.


On our way out of town to Trakai, we came upon this scene.


So we did what the locals were doing -- got out of our car and gawked for a few.

Trakai is about 25 km west of Vilnius, and is home to another gorgeous castle. We arrived a little too late to enter, because of the flood gawking, but also because we made a pit stop.



This was our shorthand version of "berry picking."


Adorable miniature strawberries.

The Trakai castle grounds were pretty cool...




And even though we were a little leery of the restaurant right next to the major tourist attraction, we ended up having a fantastic dinner.


There were meat filled pasties. (Jeff said they rivaled yours, Sue.)


Perfect potato pancakes. (Jeff says just pretend the smoked salmon isn't there, Sue.)


Goulash. (Delish.)


Pork Pot. (You are what you eat.)


And a local fish "filet" gratin with some bones thrown in for authenticity.

We returned to our hotel on a series of back roads, and discovered more gorgeous farmland. Perhaps too full to raise our arms for photos. I don't recall.

Finally, after a full day of touring, it was time for happy hour.


The featured beverage was a cherry cider we had bought at the little market at the Latvian border.

We also may or may not have watched an episode of MTV's A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila. What the Lithuanians must think of us...