roamandwander
14 Oct 2019
My partner and I were planning to stay in Vilnius for a few days and decided we wanted to do something more nature oriented during our trip. We booked the Trakai canoe tour online a week in advance and decided to pay a little extra to have Janis pick us up from our hotel in Old Town and drop us off. He was very friendly and professional and we enjoyed chatting with him about the local history, the natural features of the area, and even his own experiences growing up in Lithuania and traveling to various places. Janis let us make some choices in the routing of our tour, such as whether to paddle through some reeds to a peaceful spot or to head into an area with more traffic. We liked being able to choose. The canoe he provided was truly beautiful, which we also really enjoyed. Another thing to note was that he had a dry-bag for us, so we were able to keep our belongings with us in the canoe. It was a great afternoon—we’d recommend highly. About 10 days after our tour, Janis sent us photos he’d taken of us while we were on the lakes, another nice feature of the experience.
Our family traveled through Scandinavia, Russia and the Baltic Countries this summer. We toured the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, hiked Pulpit Rock in Norway and soaked in authentic saunas in Tallinn and Riga. But I can safely say that our canoe trip with Janis through the Trakai National Historic Park was one of our very favorite experiences of them all. My wife contacted Janis after searching the Internet for activities in and around Vilnius. She found many large tour activities, but she knew that she had hit gold when she ran across Janis and Wet Weim. Janis made planning our trip easy, and we couldn’t wait to hit the water!
We stayed in Vilnius while in Lithuania, so we had to take the train out to Trakai, an easy thirty-minute trip. Janis was waiting at the station when we arrived. Two beautiful, handmade cedar canoes were on a rack behind his comfortable, modern van. We piled in and headed for the put-in. We unpacked the van and put the two canoes in the water. My wife and I and our four-year-old son took the three-seater while Janis and our six-year-old daughter were in the two-seater. Janis had all of the necessary safety equipment, and he made sure that we felt comfortable maneuvering the canoe. Our plan was to put in, head over to the Trakai Castle, cross the lake to another historic home, and then head down to a quiet end of the lake where we would stop on a tiny island for a picnic of Lithuanian delicacies. Janis had procured fishing licenses for us and rigged up two rods with lures. We were going to stop and fish and even troll along the way. Yes, it sounds awesome. And yes, it was!
Canoeing past the castle was spectacular. The large majority of the visitors are on land, so our view from the water was both privileged and calm. We drifted in a little cove while Janis told us about the castle and answered all of our questions, even explaining how many of the original castle stones made it into the foundations of nearby homes! We crossed the lake in heavy wind, but Janis chose angles and approaches that made the trip manageable for my wife and me.
The next special moment was our picnic on the little island. We pulled up on shore and stretched our legs. I began casting from shore and my wife pulled the lifejackets off of the children. Before we knew what had happened, Janis had a table and five chairs set up, and a feast was being put together. Janis had brought Lithuanian Dziugas cheese, baguette with tuna pâté, mixed nuts, dried fruits, beautifully ripe peaches, and a couple small bottles of white wine. It was almost surreal to be on a tiny island in the middle of an immense lake, surrounded by forest, drinking wine and enjoying the tastiest hard cheese I’d ever had. We enjoyed so much visiting with Janis—who spoke excellent English—and won’t soon forget our conversations about Lithuanian politics, geography, cuisine, education, and ecology. The meal ended with a box of local chocolates and freshly brewed coffee. Yes, freshly brewed coffee! After two glasses of wine and two cups of coffee, my paddling powers were refreshed, and we set off to continue our journey.
We paddled a bit longer to different fishing spots. There was a light rain, but nothing that even required putting on a jacket. My wife and I enjoyed our time together, and our daughter loved talking Janis. He made her time very special. We eventually made our way back to Trakai Castle around 9:00 pm, where to our surprise we found six hot air balloons in the air. We drifted along, watching the balloons over the castle, and Janis took out his drone and captured amazing photos: our canoes with the castle in the background, balloons over our heads, balloons over the castle, our children smiling with shimmering water behind them.
We were planning on catching the last train back to Vilnius, but we didn’t make it off of the water in time. No worries, said Janis, he would happily drive us back to our apartment. Janis dropped us off at our front door after 10:00, and we said our goodbyes. The trip had been amazing. Janis was easy to work with when planning our trip. He was a conscientious and kind guide to my family and me. He put together one of the more memorable meals from our summer travels. And he helped make Lithuania our favorite country of the trip.