I noticed Rimi just tends to be more expensive than other grocery stores and. Lidl and Maxima (with the Ačiū card) is a cheaper alternative.

love the ice rink

I can't keep up with Christmas eco trends. Once, we gave up natural Christmas trees in the name of being eco-friendly. Now they’re back, but we’ve ditched fireworks - in the name of being eco-friendly. A little bird told me that next season, we’ll be getting rid of Christmas lights so we can bring fireworks back - in the name of being eco-friendly :-)

Vilnius 2025 👍

Excellent video. I'm quite happy with the natural Christmas tree, even if I'm not a big fan of those metal arches which, in my opinion, are not necessary. As for "shaky footage", I'm sorry if I will sound like being too nosy and giving advice when it wasn''t requested, but as a vlogger I would consider getting top of the range flagship phone (no matter the brand, they're all very good these days) and/or something like a DJI Osmo handheld camera thingie which is not much short of incredible when it comes to making such videos. It really makes a massive difference in video quality you'll be able to deliver, walking or standing.

Very beautiful Christmas Lofi music and nice video footage :). Thanks for sharing!

there's costco all over the world you know

>non-white hands yeap and the fact you sound asian explains everything

you got this! Once your son starts talking, he will teach YOU (that's what happened with me and my godson, Kevinas - all the mistakes I made, or not knowing words, really forced him to figure out a way to correct me) - you are lucky, also, in one regard: you CAN practice daily in your enviroment! I wish I had that - at home, here in the USA, we speak a rough 60/40 (english, lithuanian) - but a lot of times I will speak to Nijole in LT and she answers in English, so, the fact that you live in a city where it's the main language is to your advantage. Belt out those mistakes, learn from them, and continue to get better! (I think we found you in the pic, btw, lol - not 100% sure though)

One thing that those classes probably miss is the "slang" or real words that people use in real life. Not only swear words (which are an absolute must!), but also some less ordinary sentence constructions or use of words that aren't the norm in formal language. I would probably recommend to watch something like Samoshka travel vlog who speaks in a rather funny Žemaitian dialect, but often uses structures and words which are more "real" than the formal language which you'll be learning in class. Good luck with your studies.

Get lists of the 100, 500, 1000, & 3000 most used words in conversation. The top few hundred words comprise something like 80% of conversation.

But you are Canadian. What was your exposure to french? No idea if that would even be useful in learning Lithuanian though.

Who will learn faster Lithuanian.. son or father? :P

Smagu, kad mokaisi lietuvių kalbos 👍. Linkiu sėkmės ir kantrybės!

I had a beautiful working holiday in Vancouver for a year. I remember people always kept smiling and being polite EVERYWHERE you go. Once I came back to Lithuania I remember my first visit to get groceries - an employee walked past me as a faceless zombie and almost knocked me down not saying a word. Of course I was surprised because I was already accustomed to a bit more civilized behaviour and I hardly imagine that kind of situation happening in Canada. I guess it's part of how people are raised, and luckily the young generation is different. As for older people (like me :D) the more people get to travel the world, the more opportunities to learn good habits and despite all the odds to become more positive. BTW, I really loved the Skytrain - in my opinion it would fit in Vilnius perfectly. Though it's sad there would be no mountains to look at here :) The nature around Vancouver was just amazing. And East Hastings... ummmm... I worked next to Waterfront so I saw a lot of downtown things every day.... and I can't really comprehend. Though here in Vilnius life is tough for some people as well, maybe we just don't see it that obviously...

Ha I don't think your wife will be in a hurry to return. Canada looks very uncivilised and overcrowded compared to Lithuania. Grim.

3:52 looks India bro what the hell haha, Trudeau properly destroyed Canada

Oh ny god, I always say thank you to the bus drivers and I am a lithuanian living in Lithuania for more than 40 years!! 😂 Talk for yourself, if you never do that, but at least around me many people do that in Kaunas and Kaunas region buses

My family also wanted to take my Lithuanian girlfriend to Costo! Hahah...

When I think about Canada it's not cities, but rather nature.

20 minutes trafic to cross Neris river... so true brother :D

We need better walkability all over the world! Too much car centric design.

American here , so , OUR stereotype of Canadians is that they are UBER -friendly ... the Americans could invade Canada tomorrow, burst in with guns blazing, and the Canadians would appologize that they didn't INVITE us to invade, lol (this is all hyperbole, of course, and all meant in good fun --- I'm sure the stereotype of us Americans, to Canadians, is a gun-toting, rude, drunk , red-neck wearing a shirt with Donald Trump, riding on an eagle, holding the American flag and an AR-15, lol) - I can imagine that the "friendly factor", to a Lithuanian in Canada is a bit ... 'strange'? ... honestly, it's very similar here in the USA :) The big difference is, Canadians are genuinley friendly - it's real, Americans play friendly, but it's mostly just going through the motions or being fake. - also, very interesting about the blinking green lights, I've never seen that here - I wouldn't quite know what to do in that situation, but I like the transition at 1:26 to show it in Lithuania - luvs me sum Kaisiadorys! :)

Cool concept to include your family's perspective in a video. Can't wait for the baby to narrate a future video :)

I like the politeness of the society in public spaces on the west coast of the USA. I hope Lithuanians will become more polite soon (I noticed some positive progress already). But the homeless situation here in California is getting out of control, unfortunately. Enjoy thanksgiving!

As a wheelchair girl wanting to go to Vilnius, the lack of curb cuts hurts. C'mon, Vilnius, do better.

A young Canadian visiting his country for first time.

i lived in Kaunas and when i lived in Vilnius. Vilnius felt as such a big city, so long with public transport to go to someplace while Kaunas felt comfortable small and not much time wasted traveling by bus.

I was shocked when I visited my extended family in the US, specifically in San Francisco. The things I've seen there should not belong in a first-world country, hell, not even a second-world country. I hope it's not nearly as bad in Canada as it is in the US.

It's crazy that downtown areas are the shittiest places to live while in Europe the closer you are to the city center the better and more expensive the properties are.

Biggest problem of Lithuania is lack of maintainance of the highways. Its not normal if Highway with E number is full of potholes.

The loop at the bridge works like aroundabout. Great solution.

This is such a great critique, couldn’t agree more. I hope somebody from transportation department are watching your videos and can improve the situation. Thank you!

About those junctions. You're absolutely right. I can relate like 100% as a vehicle owner that needs to drive there to work every day. It's just so messy that you literally have to be an aggressive driver there or you will be stuck dead in the water.

fun fact about vilnius elevators - if they're maintained by "baltijos liftai" then there's a bigger chance of them being broken than working.

As someone who works in public trasport i can say that "roudabout" near žaliasis tiltas definitely is pain. Even some slowdown can cause masive backups that go across multiple streets. For gedimino prospekas tho... Well, im just going to say: pedestrians, dont expect that public transport lets you go via road crossing even tho rules say they must. With tight scedules there is no time to wait for everyone to cross so often we force people to let us go through. I dont even need to tell about stupid car drivers that park wherever they want and makes it hard to pass them. Btw this all part applies to train station too. Oh yea, ticket control: the longer they delay the bus the bigger a chance that driver them self will kick them out (I speak from experience).

It's interesting how different opinions could be, depending on where you are from. I consider accessibility and the public transportation system to be an advantage of Vilnius 😀. I'm originally from Belarus, and hell no, you didn't see what is a "bad" accessibility or public transportation system. Public transport is much slower, half as often and twice as crowder. Paper tickets are available only. A11y is relatively good in new districts only, in the vast majority of places it's an obstacle course for people with strollers or disabilities. Also, I absolutely agree that having a child with a stroller makes accessibility issues much more noticeable. Hope that once, the people who make renovation decisions or approve the results will use a wheelchair as a marker. Great video though, made very professionally!

Totally agree. I feel deep shame that accessibility there is so far behind any normal European city, including not so rich countries. We need to fix our heads first, it is not difficult to fix the city. We had two members of parliament in wheelchairs in previous Seimas - not much happened.

I find it funny how you could replace Vilnius with Riga and it would still be true

Problem 4: The wasps

Hi, I WISH I could contribute to your channel but as I wrote earlier, I can't in my current situation, at nearly 80 years old.... But I have to say this video moved my emotions in a big way. Although I was born in Argentina, I lived 40 years, the best of my life, in BC Canada, in my beloved Vancouver... I am lucky I still have a Canadian passport, but I had to return to my native town for family reasons, and it's mighty hard to live here now. I know Canada is going through stuff along the rest of the planet. I keep in touch and I know the DTES has gone even worse (comparing to my arrival in 1975 as a new immigrant when the "worst" walking along Hastings would have been someone a bit disheveled asking you for "a dime"!!!) So I've lived through many cganges, went to anti war rallies, and I think I learned values from truly wonderful folks, sone elderly people, some younger, some new Canadians, some Aboriginal...worked as a volunteer in fantastic music festivals gosh I could go on forever....and yes, what a pleasure to walk along the Seawall not worrying about bumping onto someone walking the other way. I know downtown Vancouver is now filled with tall glass towers since I left, but my spirit still roams around the beaches, the forest, the parks and whatever still remains of the wonderful city, province and country I consider forever mine... apologies for the long writing, one thing I didn't learn is "word economy"! All the best to you, looking forward to watch your videos...

Honestly, public transport isn't all that bad. Quite a large number of my friends and family take the buses regularly, and so do I every so often. Before I got my drivers license I had no other option and all things considered, it was... fine. From what I've experienced the key issues lie in the poor routes themselves (you'd be lucky to have a direct route to where you need to go), the fact that many of those routes are very infrequent and that they take you to scarcely located bus stops. You get to a stop and spend 10 more minutes waiting to transfer to another bus. Lucky you if that bus leads you to a stop somewhere near your destination. My school was across most of the city and not only would I need to walk close to two kilometers to the nearest bus stop, I'd have to transfer buses. Then walk half a kilometer to the school itself. When I started driving, that entire commute (one way) was cut down from about an hour to 15-20 minutes. Now my route by car is phenomenal, but that leads me to my main point: driving by car is extremely good here. You can drive from anywhere to anywhere in the city and get there in 30 minutes. Even during peak hour taking the busiest roads during my daily commute I only spend 10 to 20 extra minutes in traffic. The layout of the city itself is really great, there are proper arterial and collector roads and streets are designed as such: mainly pedestrian focused and most drivers actually drive to a location within them rather than transiting through (keep in mind I'm talking about the city wide picture here, not how great the sidewalks are and so on, rather which route a driver takes). Which leads to public transit having a really hard time competing with cars. However, I (being a student) only pay just over 5 euros for a monthly ticket. It is insanely cheap compared to owning a car, which is the main reason my friends take the bus instead. I truly hope that we stop neglecting public transportation and the extremely delayed metro. P.S. Most traffic jams in Vilnius are caused by poor intersections, most of them - soviet remnants. Massive transport hubs such as the Gerosios Vilties roundabout and the abomination of Saltoniškių roundabout with the Geležinio Vilko - Ukmergės and Žalgirio streets interchange. Its insane how the centerpiece of a 4 arterial road interchange is a roundabout. Also funny how sometimes congestion on the former roundabout causes congestion on the latter :D.

Really wish they’d add some kind of regional rail / city tram. Right now any metropolitan trips must be made by bus or by an infrequent train.

3:54 (reposting:) There are plans to renew(again) this intersection but NOTHING will be done to improve public transport!! The public discussion will take place just next week on 20/11/2024. Please, everyone who cares about Vilnius write to the road designers and pretend a better project!

Curb problem is your lack of condoms

I feel like vilnius outside of the centre is pretty car centric and pretty uncomfortable to get around by foot, also the suburbs tend to not have paved roads and no space for sidewalks i hope we do more extreme changes so we can one day become like the netherlands

I was in Vilnius and it sholud have metro 100%

I dont like the "Kontrolė" as well. Their rules are not clear and can be interpreted as they want.

Transport in Vilnius is awful. No need to sugarcoat. There's way too many cars, buses and trolleys suck and they get almost no exclusivity, trains suck too and pedestrian infrastructure is just horrendous. But the outskirts are the worst. They lack everything. The new mayor doesn't give a fuck about that so we're stuck for a few more years (optimistically) at least.

I'd add loud BMWs and motorcycles, cars with deleted converters and smokers in the city center