A 4:30am alarm broke through my slumber and I somehow managed to get up and ready for our 5am pickup. Hot air ballooning is best done at dawn or dusk and we’d already had to delay it by a day, so no messing around this time. Our driver was waiting outside our hotel and although a certain travel blogging couple who shall remain nameless managed to sleep right through their alarm they got ready in record time. By 5:20am we were all in the van and on the road to a field near Trakai, once the capital of Lithuania and the location of an impressive stone and red-brick castle begin in the 15th century, surrounded by lakes.
Once we’d landed and found the other baIloon, Vytautas, pilot of the yellow balloon and the owner of the hot-air-ballooning company ‘baptised’ us in earth, wine and fire.
The whole thing was an amazing experience and I can’t wait to do it again. Next time I might take a flight over the city for a change (and since I know it a bit) but for first-timers, the flight over Trakai would be my choice. If you’ve never been ballooning, go! It just so happens that Lithuania is one of the cheapest places in the world to go ballooning too. Part one of an amazing final day to the #JayWayBaltics blogger trip was a resounding success!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NR55Z8uct9g