Vilnius For Stag Weekends and Bachelor Weekends - Great
Pre-Wedding Fun!
Your Wedding is meant to be the greatest day of your life but
who says that your stag weekend can't be the greatest weekend of
your life? Read on for some excellent stag
party ideas in Vilnius, the Newest kid on the Eastern Bloc.
When it comes to the perfect stag weekend, Prague is having its
moment in the sun. For the better part of ten years the Czech
capital has been the 'it girl' of the former Eastern bloc. And
just like 'it girls' from Essex to Primrose Hill, Prague is
being done like a dinner. Those who aren't already going there
are thinking of going there and everybody else already went in
the 80s before, like, it became so popular. Now there's nothing
wrong with abandoning Bournemouth and Skegness in favour of a
bit of Iron curtain history and culture, in fact it's where the
smart money is. But listen up people, there's a whole map out
there filled with quirky, exotic and down right crazy locations
that are just champing at the bit to show you a good time. So
let's start with the new kids on the Eastern Bloc; Riga,
Vilnius, Tallinn and Moscow. Think of them as best friends
you're yet to meet. Lovers you're yet to kiss, you get the
drift. So here are some handy hints, interesting facts, useless
trivia and some slap-your-granny-you-can't-be-serious exchange
rates on places that you might want to consider upon organizing
the mother of all stag weekends. Gentlemen, get your phrase
books ready.
Vilnius
S veiki atvyke Lietuvos! Welcome to Lithuania! It's the largest
and most southerly of the three Baltic republics also home to an
annual cucumber festival, pea beer and the world's finest (and
only) Soviet-era theme park. Here in Lithuania a beer bicycle is
not just a fantasy but a legitimate form of transport and stewed
beaver a perfectly reasonable alternative to toad in the hole.
They ditched communism to score independence in 1991 and are now
eating lunch in the EU with the cool kids. They walloped the
2001 Eurovision song contest with a princely 13th place and, as
Paul McCartney would say, things just keep getting better all
the time. The small and quirky republic of Lithuania, perched on
the Baltic Sea and sandwiched between Poland, Belarus and
Latvia, is simply one of the hottest travel destinations of the
moment and making a stag weekend of Vilnius has never been so
easy. So polish your Kankles, get in, get down and get ready to
party Vilnius Style. Where it's always 1991.
Why in the name of sweet Monica Lewinsky* should I go to
Vilnius for My Stag Weekend?
What all those earnest Professor Boring travel guides won't tell
you is that Vilnius is home to some of the best legal fun a man
could ever want. And the best part is the hordes are yet to
climb on the bandwagon so there's plenty of Lithuanian goodwill
still in the barrel to go round. This is a good thing to keep in
mind when planning the mother of all stag weekends. Now
technically your wedding is supposed to be the best day of your
life, but that doesn't mean that your stag weekend can't be the
best weekend of your life. So, for the greatest weekend of your
life Lithuanian style here's what you need to know:
It's the Geographical Centre of Europe (Yes! Really!)
Thanks to the nice people of the European Union extending their
warm Belgian welcome to Lithuania, it is now officially part of
Europe. And not content to simply be a part of the action, it
also home to the European Geographical centre. I know. It's
rather like paying twenty Euro for a chunk of cement said to
have been part of the Berlin wall, little more than a tawdry
marketing tool and barely worth the photo opportunity. But.
Still. You're drawn to the idea. Like one may be drawn to
standing with your left arm in the Northern Hemisphere and the
beer clenching right arm in the South, or going to Korea to
moonwalk across the border of communism and capitalism. Or going
to York. Period. In any case Lithuania has the honour of housing
the centre of Europe. And like all fledgling capitalists worth
their coca cola they have embraced the fact by building a
commemorative park - the 'Europos Parkas' - just in case one
mistook the precise yet indistinguishable point for an alien
crop circle or Stalin's summer mud bath cabana. So they've got
the centre and nowhere else does.
*A fine specimen of Lithuanian-descended womanhood