26 July- travel day from Stockholm. Only a short 1 hour plane trip and met at airport in Vilnius so easy. Caught airport bus in Stockholm as right near apartment. Carefully did our homework to allow plenty of time to get to airport. Of course we're so cautious that in the end caught a bus that was even earlier than the earlier one we were planning to catch. Arrived at Arlansa airport in plenty of time. This also gave us plenty of time to work out the self serve checkin and baggage drop. SA now so relaxed about the process he did it all in Swedish. Was slightly alarmed but luckily ( for SA) the bags both arrived in Vilnius.
Did short walk after checking in and very initial impression is firstly not unsurprising, is considerably cheaper than Scandinavia. Secondly reminds us somewhat of East Germany in 1991- lots of expensive cars whizzing around tourist area which is upmarket, some expensive clothes etc but a lot of run down buildings still and the average person still looks a bit like Hungary circa 1987 when we were there. Could be wrong but looks like a few wealthy people/businesses have swarmed in and are doing very well, while for a lot of people, their standard of living has not changed hugely. SA swears he saw some bullet holes in some buildings still. Signs seem to be in Lithuanian and often Russian. More English signs and English spoken than was expecting in tourist parts. May have come across some Amber jewellery in our wandering.
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