Day five: Everybody's Working for the Weekend

So, continuing my epic battle against Jet Lag... I'm still on the losing side. After another late start to the day, I went out exploring, heading into a new direction. I thought I had a long walk ahead of me, but ended up actually very close by - which is great, because it meant I could check out more things than I thought was possible. 
My walk today took me to the north/northeast from where my BnB is. I walked past Vilnius University (though did not explore too deeply), and then saw the Lithuanian Presidential Palace:

Continuing to walk in that direction, I came up to the river that bisects the city. It showed me a very clear dividing line that coincided with what I read last night: most of Vilnius is based on an old, Baroque city. On the south side of that river is very clearly the Baroque city - edge to edge. The very center, where my BnB is, is the oldest, original part of the city - but everything on that side of the river is still a good 250-300+ years old. North of the river are modern, post-WWII buildings, modern skyscrapers, and the shopping malls.

From the same point where I took the above photo, I came across the Lithuanian National Cathedral, which is a beautiful building that blends classic Western styles with a little bit of Eastern flair. In front of that: a classic, typical European lookout/defense tower. Across the street from the Cathedral was a beautiful hotel, still decked out for Christmas. To one side of the Cathedral was one of the national museums, and behind it is the "Palace of the Grand Dukes," which is now another national museum.

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Continuing my walk around the city, I came across St. Ann's - the oldest Catholic Church in the city. I took a brief stop into the original chapel and only walked around the outside of the new, added sanctuary. The architecture is again a beautiful blend of East & West. 

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My next stop was a neighborhood called Užupio - which, technically, is actually the independent Užupio Respublika - a republic, separate from Lithuania. It's sort of like an artist colony, founded on the principles of everyone having the freedom to be who they want to be, regardless of their neighbors' choices and preferences. 
Below is a gallery of photos from walking around the area. There's a long wall down the center of the area with their constitution printed in several different languages - I made a video (to allow for close-up) of the English language version of the constitution. Rules 10-14 really stand out among the rest.

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After leaving Užupio, I circled back around and stumbled on my neighborhood and familiarity. Then I discovered that the "Holy Donut" was open. So I stopped and purchased a "Casablanca" donut. It was holy delicious.

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After a quick stop back at the BnB to get cleaned up, I left to go to dinner at a great, local Fine Dining Restaurant: Ertlio Namas. The food was magnificent, and all based on Lithuanian history. More about dinner in a separate post.
​However, on the way to dinner - I passed this:

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After dinner, around 10:45, I was walking back to my BnB and was struck just *how many* people were still out, walking around Vilnius. The city was really quite awake - and people (adults and children, along with their dogs) were walking all over sidewalks and streets. It was really a wonderful sense of community and immensely safe - nothing felt out of sorts or uneasy. 

All in all, really fantastic day today - more adventures tomorrow! Stay tuned!