We decided to make Christmas holidays a bit different and went for 3 days to Vilnius, capital of Lithuania.
So, what to do in Vilnius on Christmas? It turned out that it is a nice unexplored destination!
First of all, main Lithuanian Christmas tree is featured in many travel articles and it is really beautiful, especially in the night.
Near the Christmas tree you could find Christmas market wich was open, full of national food and clothes, and hot wine of course.
Vilnius is not very big city, and if you live close to the city centre (not neccesarily inside city centre) everything you can reach by foot. If you think about the taxi - here the tip from the locals: in Vilnius it is cheaper to call for it then to take from the street.
We were aware that on Christmas Eve restaurants and shops could be closed, that's why we booked an appartment instead of hotel, so we were able to cook.
In practice, it turned out that many restaurants and cafes closed afternoon/evening December, 24, and started to open afternoonon December 25, and by the evening there were a lot of places to eat or drink. Same was with souvenir shops and Christmas market.
The currency in Lithuania since 2015 is Euro (before was litas).
Vilnius is a great small city. The Old Town is divided from "New Town" by the river. Small little steets, old buildings - it is nice to get lost in the city, folow the streets and find your own small little gems, such as the street with contemporary art on the walls.
For the Christmas Eve we went to the main cathedral at Cathedral Square. We had no idea, what is going to be there but it turned to be one of the most beautiful moments of our short trip. There was a big mess (which seemed to be live on TV - we saw transmission van nearby). The huge cathedral was full of people, it was hard to find place to stand, not even to seat. The entrance was free. I don't understand Lithuanian so I had no idea what was spoken by priest (but you can still guess - it's Christmas:). But the choir and music part was something amazing. There was live orchestra and choir, singing Christmas carols. It felt like a beautiful magical concert more than mess.
That was the moment and place when you really feel the athmosphere of Christams - the athmoshere of light, hope, magic and joy.
After we popped by into some Gothic church, but the mess was already finished there. But what we found there was beautiful silence in beautiful and atmospheric palce with high ceilings and stylish Christmas decorations.
The next day (on December, 25) we went to the Cathedral square again hoping for the same mess, but there were no orchestra any more. Instead there was a big crowd in front of the Cathedral. Tha crowd was waiting for something. So did we. In few minutes started the projection of video mapping on the Cathedral walls.
We came to Athens during the strike. It seems, strikes in Greece are normal thing. So before your trip check if there is no strike is planned. We found out about strike just several hours before the flight, and it seemed like a trouble. In that case strike meant that nor public transport nor ferries are working. As far as our travel plans involved islands, it seemed there is no sense to go. But we decided to go anyway and to find some way out.