Fairytale Melting Pot of Cultures

inspiring sights in city of spirest anyone arriving in Vilnius can be forgiven for thinking they have been transported to a fairytale world. its old town is full of higgledy-piggledy cobbled streets with ancient wobbly buildings and fine old castles and churches that leap straight from the pages of classic fairy tales.

It is one of the biggest Old Towns in Europe and so outstanding is its architectural legacy that the city has UNESCO World Heritage status. Like Tbilisi in Georgia, Orthodox churches and cathedrals rub along with their Catholic counterparts, synagogues and other centres of worship. Vilnius is a cultural melting pot, with Russians and Poles combining to comprise almost as big a percentage of the population as native Lithuanians. You will find this place welcoming though perhaps a little reticent; Lithuanians lack the exuberance and wildness of the Ukrainians or the natural warmth of the Georgians. But they are understanding and tolerant, they brew excellent, but strong, beers (around 5% alcohol is the average) and know how to feed you cheaply and well.

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Big Steppesto Cossack Culture Scotland with Swagger

Spread across the eastern bounds of Central europe, Ukraine is kissed by the shores of the Black Sea. its other boundaries are less exotic, but at least you don’t need a visa these days. though the tourism industry is in its infancy, foreigners are welcome in this erstwhile bread basket of the Soviet Union and since hosting the 2005 eurovision Song Contest much has been learned.Ukraine borders on Russia, Belarus, Moldova, Slovakia, Romania, Hungary and Poland. At 232,000 square miles it is slightly bigger than France and if you exclude Russia – as the Ukrainians most affirmatively do – it is the largest country in Europe. Much of Ukraine com-prises a level, treeless plain, or steppe.

The Crimea, with its moun-tainous peninsula, juts into the Black Sea in the south; in the west lie the Carpathians, whose high-est peak, Mount Hoverla, is almost 7,000 feet. The north is thick forest and the country is bissected by the River Dnepr, one of the biggest in Europe. Kyiv (the Ukrainian spelling, as opposed to Russian Kiev) is the ancient capital of Slavic civilisation and it is to this golden-domed centre of old Europe that most of you will fly, even though there is a chance the game will be played in Donetsk, near the Russian border.

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