Glad I checked the board - you've come to the right person, in the period since Nov 1990 to date I've visited Lithuania some 30 times (USG official), on temp duty have spent more than one and a half years there. The exchange rate is now much less favorable than it used to be - hangs around 3 to 1 USD, and it used to be pegged at 4. VIlnius is a charming city, features highlights of baroque & gothic ecclesiastical architecture - it had been a center of free-thinkers in the 16th & 17th centuries, so the church had to wow the locals with its might. Service encounters in Vilnius can all be negotiated in English (hotels & restaurants esp., some shops). Polish & Russian useful, too, as about 35-40% of the population of Vilnius itself is Slav - eg., taxidrivers tend to be Slavs. To buy: amber, linens, on the former feel free to negotiate, esp. with the open-air merchants in Pilies street. Any specific questions (hotels, restaurants, what to do outside Vilnius, car rental), post them here, I'll check again rytoje (tomorrow). Iki pasimatymo, Gummer.