Lithuania; back to the motherland

For our first wedding anniversary Billy and I decided to visit Lithuania. Both sides of my family are 100% Lithuanian and my dad was going to be in the capital (Vilnius) for the summer teaching a study abroad group of students so the timing was perfect to go. It was such an incredible trip, it’s actually hard to put into words! Showing Billy where my family is from, to have him experience the culture and history first hand and to meet up with family that I hadn’t seen since I was five years old was overall an insane experience.

Here are some highlights from the trip! We first flew into Vilnius and explored the capital city with my dad, who was a very helpful tour guide.

Our second day in Lithuania we went to Traku Pilis (Trakai Island Castle) which was built in the 14th century! The castle is on an island and you can rent paddle boards or little boats to cruise around the water and admire the castle from the water which Billy and I did after touring the castle and naturally taking tons of pics. There are tons of restaurants on the other side of the water where you can grab lunch or a glass of wine.

One of the highlights from our trip was going to the town of Utena to visit with family. It was so fun to see their town and explore the farm that my family owns.

From Utena we traveled to Nida which is the summer getaway for most Lithuanians (and other Europeans). Nida is such a quaint resort town that sits on the Baltic Sea.

On the way back from Nida we checked out the town of Klaipeda which is a beautiful seaside town that also sits on the Baltic Sea coast.

We had the best time on this trip, it was the perfect way to spend our first anniversary! We’re already planning our next trip, hopefully summer of 2018 we can go back.