On the train to Trakai, a woman on across from me had what I thought was ASMR playing out loud on her phone. If you don’t know what ASMR is, count yourself lucky. Take a gross sound, like someone eating, record it really close so it picks up all the slurps and plops, now fetishise it. It’s the worst.

After the woman started waving her arms around to the camera, I just had to look what horror was befolding. I instantly realised she was using sign language. I saw the hearing aid. On her mobile screen she was video chatting with four others. All signing, and making those weird noises deaf/mute people make when they talking. I kinda felt bad thinking it was ASMR sounds, but man after the 30min ride to Trakai with that playing the entire time, I got just a wee bit irritating.

From the train station, Trakai castle is 2km away. It was a blissful walk there, it was all flat and a slight breeze cooled the air. I wondered why they didn’t have transport closer to the castle, and after passing the city centre it became apparent.

I don’t think I’ve ever come across a quieter, tranquil, tree covered main road in my life. The double road changed to a single lane, and what few cars did drive by they lazily floated along at around 20km/hr. Birds chirped in the branches above, the blue lake nearby glistened in the sun rays, it was such a nice walk in the older part of town.

There was a surprising number of people here. The two big restaurants on the lake shore were totally packed out (it was 12:30pm at this point), so I headed straight over the bridge connecting the mainland to the first small island, and then over the main bridge to the castle island itself.

Built on an island, Trakai castle construction began in the 14th century by Grand Duke Kęstutis, and completed by his son Vytautas in 1409. Vytautas would up and die here in 1430.

The castle would fall into disrepair, like all these places have a tendency to do. It wasn’t until the 19th century would the castle reconstruction begin. A surprising mix of different countries would be involved in this, from the Russians, Germans, Polish, and of course the Lithuanians themselves.

The terracotta colour, and I’ve seen this in other castles in the Baltics, really throws you off on the age of the castle. In my head, at least, this colour in a castle just looks modern and recently built. I think my brain is looking for old worn out grey stone to show age, and instead I’m seeing well preserved coppery orange tiles.

The 2km walk there and back had me limping a bit. I had finally overworked the ankle a bit too much, a sharp stabbing pain telling me to cut it out with all the walking and just rest for a day.

I had two days left in Vilnius, and then I was onward home. There was just one more attraction I wanted to see, then I’ll have a day of rest before leaving the Baltics. And there was a restaurant I wanted to go to for my birthday dinner too on that final day of rest, and to celebrate the last night here.