Before arrival, I have already noticed this beautiful castle from the long time Canadian friend who has sent me photos of this place back in high-school. Basically, if you go to any tourist information office across Lithuania, you will notice pictures of this beautiful castle proudly displaying in their office. And truly, when I arrived at the hostel, everybody told me this same thing, "Go to Trakai, go to Trakai, it is a beautiful place."
"Sure, that is certainly in my schedule." I murmured.
Early in the morning, I headed to the bus station and board on the next bus to Trakai. Trakai isn't far away from Vilnius, only a merely 1.5 hours away by bus, and within moments I arrived at Trakai. The bus sta
tion isn't exactly located right at the center, and it requires a 15 to 30 minutes walk towards the castle. However, as the castle draws near, the beautiful scenery already appears and I was deeply drawn into its transquilty.
tion isn't exactly located right at the center, and it requires a 15 to 30 minutes walk towards the castle. However, as the castle draws near, the beautiful scenery already appears and I was deeply drawn into its transquilty.What make Trakai so attractive is, besides its beautiful orange coloured castle, is its surrounding lakes and the availability of boats to rent. Besides, Trakai plays an important role to Lithuania's history. It was the capital of Lithaunia back in the 1300s, and the castle was built over in 100 years in order to fend itself off from the Germans.
The way to visit this place, besides walking through the castle and exploring every single floor of it, is to rent a small boat and row around the castle island. It suddenly reminds me of my childhood time, when I was murmuring this little song:
"Row, row, row a boat, gently down the stream.... "
As I row over the lake, under the bridges, over to the island, etc... I felt so relaxing, as if I was totally soaked into the scene, standing right in the middle of a perfect picture. This can't be real, I thought.
After a late lunch, a routinely diet of potatoes again, I walked back to the bus station and started my return journey back to Vilnius. Instead of taking the big slow bus, I hop onto a small matshrutka minibus instead, and within an hour, I arrived back to Vilnius, and this concluded my beautiful journey to the Trakai castle.
(Picture caption: 1. The beautiful Orange castle of Trakai. 2. The beautiful surrounding lake, Trakai. 3. Me posting myself in front of the Trakai castle, before crossing the bridge.)
4 comments:
Hey Steven,
great to read along of your travels. what are you up to now? I got tired traveling so i am resting in Geneva.
Dominic
Too bad i missed seeing you in the UK. I was only in Bristol a couple hours before flying out. Would have been great to catch up again.
Dominic
That's ok... maybe next time... :-) I had a wonderful trip anyway to the UK and Qatar, have a look at my photos at:
http://lonelytraveller01.multiply.com/photos
Hope you have a good time back in the US.
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