Trakai

Visited: Sep 28, 2024

We decided to take a day trip to Trakai to learn more about the Karaite people who live there as well as getting a look at the rather spectacular castle there with our own eyes.

To get there we took a trip from Vilnius on a first class train for around €22 (around £18/$24) for the both of us. The journey took around 30 minutes to get there and the train crew were friendly and accommodating and we even got a complimentary bottle of water which was a nice touch too!

Once we arrived the first thing we set out to do was ask a local how to pronounce the name of the place, it was there we realised we had been pronouncing it wrong, it was not Track-I but Track-A!

Not only a few minutes later Bobby's shoe broke and we had to set off to look for some glue to repair it so the journey could continue! After 10 minutes of walking we eventually found a supermarket called Iki where Tam found some glue to repair it (and we grabbed some water too as we were parched, turned out it was fizzy water which Tam does not like!), she fixed Bob's shoe and once we were sure it was safe we started the next phase of our journey!

We had around a 30 minute walk from the supermarket to the castle where it became immediately obvious that it was quite a bit more touristy than we had anticipated!

Regardless we pushed through the hustle and bustle and got speaking to a few of the locals who were very friendly and helpful, we then made our way to the castle with the goal of looking around, but we had limited time in Trakai and there was a MASSIVE queue of tourists to get past so we decided to go and visit the Karaite museum instead.

The museum was watched over by an incredibly lovely woman who did not speak English so we used Google Translate to get through the language barrier between us. She explained that the museum was free tomorrow but we wouldn't be there then so we paid €18 to visit instead.

We learnt a lot about the Karaite people and the lovely lady even gave us a book which now sits proudly in Bobby's office at home as a reminder of the kindness of the people of Lithuania ❤️🇱🇹

We also grabbed some Kibinai which is a lovely local dish and is somewhat similar to a Cornish pasty in the UK, we had the Lamb and the Beef varieties which were great and cooked to order too.

Time was drawing near and we had limited time in Trakai due to the trains finishing at around 8:00pm and so we got the 6:30pm train home so had a 40 or so minute walk back to the train station, we arrived and sat in the waiting room as we got there a little earlier than expected and finally got the train home.

It was nice to experience a relaxing ride through the Lithuanian countryside back to the bustling capital city of Vilnius where we went to the nearest supermarket and stocked up on supplies to have at some which included some local Skilandis (similar to salami), smoked cheese, spreads and pastries to do as part of our Lithuanian food vlog video back at the apartment.

All in all we really enjoyed our time in Trakai and would recommend it to anyone who is interested in unique history and buildings alike.

Want to see the story from Vilnius, you can here!