The main goal this day, was to find as many highly favorited caches in Vilnius as possible, and caches featured in the last year’s GIFF movie. Sadly, a lot of the highly favorited caches was disabled.
Approximate time out caching/traveling: 11 hours
Total walking distance: 20,82 km / 12.94 mi (31 499 steps)
Flights taken: 0
Total cahes found: 29
Total DNF: 5
Cities visited: Vilnius
Famous places visited: Several caches from the GIFF movie
Most memorable cache: GC1J8J5 ITD
Biggest surprise: Having time to find even more caches than we had planned
Weather: Overcast
Temperature range: ~3°C / 37°F
Starting at the same spot
The first cache on our list was at the train station, the same cache as the GIFF movie started with: GC57RPB Vilnius train station. The weather wasn’t too bad (as long as it’s neither raining nor snowing, it’s good enough), and it wasn’t very far to walk from the hotel.
Looks like a lot of things have deteriorated since the movie was made, both in the city itself and the caches. So several sections of the bridge where the cache was had changed significantly, and most of the stairs were closed off. Which we didn’t realize until we had walked all the way the wrong way… But once we got to the one that was open, finding the cache itself was easy – our first Lithuanian find 😀
Meeting the local police
We continued from the train station to the bus station (with a short stop for supplies at a local store), where we apparently looked a bit suspicious. A local police officer approached us, and said something neither of us understood. We tried to ask him to repeat it in English, and he just answered “Russian?”. With him not able to say anything else than “Russian” in English, and us not able to understand anything of what he said, he just gave up 😛
We also had to give up, because we couldn’t find the cache anywhere. We almost ended up giving up the next one as well, but I refused to do so. No way we were going to start this trip with two DNFs in a row! And luckily we didn’t have to either, because we did eventually find it.
Help from one of the locals
After finding another of the caches from the movie, and a couple other, we arrived at a park full of muggles. Tiny muggles. We did our best to not look suspicious, and tried to be as stealthy as we could while searching. Apparently, we weren’t stealthy enough. One of the tiny muggles came over, and tried to tell us something in Lithuanian. When he realized that we didn’t understand him, he walked away. Shortly after, he brought a bigger muggle back, and they somehow together managed to tell us where the cache was hidden, by using gestures. That’s our kind of muggles! They did what they could to help us, even though none of us understood each other.
The next caches was a bit easier, and we didn’t need more help from the local muggles 😛
Meeting more people
At GC1J8J5 ITD, right outside the Lithuanian presidential palace, we came just in time to watch them raise the flags.
It didn’t take too long to locate the cache, but signing it did. It was hard to reach, and we had to use one of our TOTTs to get it out. While we stood there, trying our best to get the cache out of it’s hiding spot, a couple other geocachers came by. We finally managed to get it out, so we could all sign the log. Always nice meeting other cachers!
From the palace, we continued towards the Cathedral Square, finding a couple other caches along the way – one of them from the movie.
A very difficult cache
It was time to get some food, so we did a quick stop nearby. After crossing the road, we noticed a car driving with a huge metal sheet on the roof. That isn’t very unusual in itself. The unusual part was that it was held in place by both the driver and the passenger!
The next on the list, GC4RX8N Valdovų rūmai/Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuan, turned out to be very difficult. It was impossible to find. One of the muggles walking past us recognized what we were doing, and showed us where it was. But we couldn’t find anything there either.
While expanding the search area a bit, two muggles arrived at GZ. One of them started taking of her clothes, the other started taking photographs. And they just stood there forever! Dropping rose petals on the ground, taking photos of it. And then repeating that a gazillion times. Why!!?? Only 2 meters from GZ!
Eventually we just had to give up, and return later. But we didn’t find anything later either. So we think this one must be gone (since we had the required TOTT, we got help from back home and we got help from the local muggle).
Just a couple extra
While waiting for the rose muggles to leave, we continued to the next on the list. And when I realized that we could get another highly favorited cache by walking just across the river, and that we had plenty of time to do it, it was easy to decide that the short detour was well worth it. A nice way to forget the previous DNF.
And you know how it works. Just one more, and then there was this one more over there, so we just had to find that one as well. All in all, we ended up finding five extra caches 😛 Some of them a bit more difficult than others, one difficult enough that we had to get help from back home (from previous finders).
But realizing that one of the bonus caches (what we call caches that we find that are not on our plan) was another cache from the movie, was a pleasant surprise. It is fun when you arrive at a place you’ve never been to before, and immediately thinks “Oh, we’re here now – there it is” 😀
A walk in the park
A few caches later, we arrived at the city park. A nice and large park, that sadly looked like it was partly shut down for the winter. But we still got to find the cache 😀 The cache was wet and rusty, but with our trusty pen we still managed to sign the log. I guess it would have been better to visit Vilnius in the summer. But on the other side, it is nice walking around when the muggles are inside!
Bridges
After finding another cache from the movie, GC3NGZ4 Gotikos perlas/A pearl of Gothic, we arrived at one of the most difficult caches of the day. GC2NFJD Bernardinai bridge V3.0 was not easy to find. And the constant stream of muggles on the extremely narrow sidewalk didn’t make it easier. But with a little help from back home, we eventually did find it 😀
The next cache, at another bridge of the same type, was a lot easier to find. And since we still had plenty of daylight left, we decided to find a few extra caches.
Only a few left on the plan
We initially thought that our plan was a bit ambitious, and was a bit unsure if we would manage to find them all. Turned out we had plenty of time to find the ones we had planned, a few more and the caches we had planned to find before heading to the airport the next day. We even had time to sit down for a nice dinner in the old town.
We also made sure to find the virtual cache, GC7BA4E The Gate of Dawn, which was one of the caches closest to our hotel.
I guess we’re not finding this one
The last cache on our list (for tomorrow), was GC6YTTA Hales market. But with unclear coordinates/hint and too much police in the area, we decided to head to the hotel instead. After all, we had found a lot more than we had hoped to find – so we were very pleased with the day 😀
Trip report
Curious about which caches we found?
You can see all of them on our trip report in cachetur.no, which you can find here.