Lithuania

Lithuania caught me off guard in the best way. I'd come expecting flat, grey, post-Soviet — and instead Vilnius gave me red-brick Gothic spires, a Presidential Palace the colour of fresh cream, and a sunset from Gediminas Hill that painted the whole old town amber and rose. The light here in summer stays for so long; I kept thinking I had more time and then suddenly the sky was on fire.

The Hill of Crosses up near Šiauliai was the moment that actually got under my skin. I'd read about it, but standing there inside that forest of thousands and thousands of crosses stacked on top of each other — wooden, metal, carved, tiny — it felt like an accumulation of something very old and very stubborn. There's a quiet weight to the place that doesn't come through in any photo.

The food was a revelation too. At Dvaras in Vilnius I had cepelinai — those dense potato dumplings stuffed with meat — and cold pink šaltibarščiai beet soup, which sounds strange and tastes completely right on a warm evening. Lithuania is the kind of place where you think you're just passing through and then you start planning when to come back.