Rūta Kazlauskienė

I have lived in Užupis for twenty years, since before it declared itself a republic with its own constitution, which you can read in thirty languages on a wall near my house. I worked as a tour manager for a travel company for many years and have now returned to what I enjoy most, which is walking small groups around my own city. Vilnius has the largest baroque old town in central Europe, and my walk goes through the university courtyards, the Gates of Dawn, the churches of St Anne and St Peter and Paul, and then over the bridge into Užupis. My second tour is about Jewish Vilnius, the Jerusalem of the North, from the old ghetto streets to the site of the Great Synagogue and the Vilna Gaon monument. I speak Polish because my grandmother did. I prepare every tour carefully and I finish on time. Now I show Vilnius live on a video call, phone in hand, and I answer questions as they come.