On Tuesday morning I booked a flight for Wednesday morning from Luton to Vilnius, price £24. The Bedfordshire airport has made eastern Europe its specialist subject: had I missed the 6.35am Ryanair departure to the Lithuanian capital, another would be along in 80 minutes on Wizz Air. But I arrived at gate 6 in time, and the Boeing 737 Max left two minutes ahead of schedule.

In all senses, it was a smooth flight – no unexpected turbulence of the kind that unfortunately hit Ryanair flight FR8 from Berlin to Milan on Wednesday, injuring nine people – always keep that seat belt fastened. And unlike FR4978 from Athens to Vilnius in 2021, we were not the subject of state-sponsored hijacking. On that shocking occasion, the Belarus authorities forced the plane to divert to Minsk, with a couple of MiG fighters in attendance to encourage compliance. The aim: to arrest a Belarusian dissident. The flight was later allowed to complete its journey, leaving behind the wanted man and some interesting characters who chose not to rejoin the plane after its unexpected arrival in Minsk.

Instead, we arrived in Vilnius 20 minutes early, with a full compliment of passengers. A shiny new airport terminal eclipses the neo-classical Soviet terminal. But the grandiose original structure, proclaiming the opportunity to travel far and wide, still remains – as does the irony of the USSR actually doing all it could to stop Lithuanians venturing any further west than Poland.

Within an hour, I was walking through the Gates of Dawn into the most expansive Old Town in eastern Europe – a feast of Baroque churches, palaces and red-roofed terraces punctuated by medieval clocktowers and modern cranes. Vilnius is the same latitude as Durham and Belfast, and last night daylight lingered beyond 10pm; June is the best of times for a northerly journey.

Writer at the Gates of Dawn

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