Dragging ourselves out of bed at about 0600, we struggled the short distance to Riga’s bus station with the sad news that our penultimate bus would be our final ‘Lux Express’ journey.  While NM went to buy a distinctly dodgy chicken sandwich from the terminal kiosk, I admired this wheeled black beauty (this ebony chariot, this dark diesel carriage…) for one last time.

Four hours later (with a brief stop for a charming Lithuanian man in combat fatigues to check our passports) we were in Vilnius – European Capital of Culture 2009.  Apparently, though, due to the credit crunch and the bankruptcy of the national carrier, tourism and investment this year was at an all-time low, which meant fewer tourists and more travellers like us.  We had reached our final stop before storming Central Europe, and personally I was excited at the promise of completing our Baltic Bingo.

Winding through the pretty cobbled streets, we found Hostelgate to be a pleasantly accomodating place.  Grabbing a map and dumping our bags, we went round the corner to sample some Lithuanian cuisine for lunch – we were starving.  Seeing as carbohydrates are standard fare for the Baltics, we knew what to expect & ordered ourselves some meat dumplings.  Nicknamed ‘Zepplins’, these things are freaking huge.  And gelatinous.  I couldn’t finish mine, and I was absolutely ravenous when I’d started.

To kick things off in a leisurely fashion, we wandered around the generically-named Old Town square, had a walk down to the monasterial Holy Trinity Church, saw the perimeter governed by the Gates Of Dawn and went inside the magnificently-Baroque Jesuit Church of St Casimir.

Less impressive, however, was Vilnius University, which had a pricey entrance fee  (much like UK universities, then…) and the Vilnius Defence Wall Bastion, which probably couldn’t withstand an attack from two Surrey guys.

Before returning to our hostel, we managed to find another local pancake house for an evening meal.  The oven looked like a giant pancake, there was pancake-themed décoor on the tables and walls, and the ceiling had lampshades in the exact style of….our Young Enterprise moodlamps, circa 2007.  Yep, for those who remember ‘thinkbright’, tesselating quadrilaterals and all, the ceiling was adorned with precise replicas of these things.

I had a pork-filled pancake, followed by one with banana and chocolate, but could barely contain my outrage when, upon being presented with the bill, it appeared these pancakes were almost £2.  That’s a whopping £1.50 more expensive than Riga.

Suppressing my rage, we trundled back to find our roommates – two Slovenians, an American man and a British (yep, one of us) man about to go on a pub crawl hosted by an Australian who’s been living across the street for nearly three years.

For ten litai (about £2.50) we got into a club at the end of our four-bar-tour, with no free drinks.  Our host blamed the fact it was a Thursday, everyone else just blamed him.  It was pretty sub-par, as we marched from bar to bar, raising our hands for beers and being instructed as to how long we had left in each location.  The club was little more than an oversized TGI Friday’s, with a Lithuanian man half-heartedly stripping as part of ‘Ladies’ Night’.  The Australian and Danish ladies who were part of our group weren’t particularly impressed.

We made a hasty exit soon after, straight to the kebab house where NM again braved the unknown meat and I settled for some paprika-fried chips.  Then, predictably, we turned in for the night, dreaming of what starchy-treats and stories of Soviet oppression might await us.