Lithuania

We spent Wednesday looking around Warsaw some more and enjoyed the sights, had some lunch then headed off to see the Warsaw Zoo. It was a nice little zoo with some good exhibits. Got up early on Thursday morning and headed out of Warsaw and drove due east heading for a Polish National Park on the border of Poland and Belarus. It is an ancient forest preserve that has never been touched and is home to tarpons and European Bison among many other animals. It was very beautiful and we spent the night at a tiny hotel in the village of Bialowieza. The afternoon we were able to get a 3 hour long ride in a buggy pulled by a nice old horse that took us through the forest to see some of the animals. It was quite enjoyable. Just inside the park are the remains of the Tsar's Hunting Lodge which was interesting to see.
This morning we got up early and headed north into Lithuania. The roads here are pretty bad and have lots of trucks and potholes. Mark says that there are 3 things you don't need here: l, sunglasses, 2, a fast car, 3, a radio. (you can't understand a word they say anyway!) The radio here is stuck in the 70s and 80s. They like lots of disco sounds!
We got into the capital city of Vilnius and Mark felt right at home here with his Lithuanian roots.
By the way, I see where he gets his appetite for fast driving. Its genetic.
We checked into out hotel and walked around the city for several hours. The old town here is quite nice and quirky because it was built upon an ancient swamp so the old buildings, well some of them, have sunk about 3 feet in places. We like it here. The people are friendly and a lot of them speak English, which they don't do in Poland. The girls here look very scandinavian and are tall, compared to the shorter stockier folk in Poland. (the Poles were friendly too though)
Tomorrow we will continue to explore Vilnius, and we're glad that they know what the internet is here, which the forest village people didn't seem to know anything about.