Review of LOT Polish flight from Vilnius to Warsaw in Economy

Hi everyone,
Let me share with you some pictures and impressions from my flight back from Vilnius to Warsaw. At the end of this report I will post some bonus pictures from my stay in the beautiful capital of Lithuania. Let's start with the flight first :)
GETTING TO THE AIRPORT AND CHECK-IN
The distance between the airport and the city center is only 6 km. There is a train from Vilnius central station, many buses, minibuses or taxi. From my hotel bus 3G seemed the best option. It took me not more than 15 minutes and the ticket cost was 1 euro.
Arriving at the airport I dicovered that the old looking building is used only for the arrivals, while in order to get to the departures area you have to follow a strange road covered by the roof that takes you right behind the old building and a little bit up so the standard scheme: departures 1st floor, arrivals ground floor is maintained.

Let's see who loves Vilnius ;)

The departures area is not as small as it first seemed, there are check-in and self check-in kiosks both sides, a small airplane hanging from the ceiling and AirBaltic everywhere as it slowly becomes the airline of all the Baltic states and not only Latvia.

Once again I checked us in the day before using LOT app to discover our seats have been automatically chosen by the airline (seats 5b and 16c - even though we had one reservation and it was quite obvious we were travelling together) and that all I can do is to reseat us one behind another. It wasn't any better at check-in desk so the only hope was to change our seats with fellow passengers. Are we flying Ryanair or something?
The security check was fast, polite and nothing to write about. The airside of the terminal is quite small, divided in Shengen and non-Shengen zone with quite a lot of shops as for an airport of this size. What for sure is missing is a food court with a McDonald or Burger King.

The airport doesn't provide a lot of spotting opportunities and there is not much air traffic in VNO to be honest.

BOARDING
Boarding starts on time and we need to get downstairs to get to the bus that will take us to the aircraft.

Some spotting during the bus ride, TK 738 and our Q400.

Boarding again was very slow, I have never seen the LO Q400 using the back door that in case of a LF of almost 100% would be very useful.

While getting on board we discover that in both rows 15 and 16 there are passengers that wanted to fly together but were split by the airline sitting system, a quick chat and we all seat together with our mates. It seems that if a system fails there are always people who can solve the problem.
INFLIGHT
Taxi was very short and we bacame airborne on time.

There's a senior female FA and a young male FA with instructor - looks like it is his exam flight. We took tea from the BOB and it was served as it should be, the guy was a little bit nervous but polite and quick. The standard chocolate bar and water were served by the instructor and that was the moment when we could see the difference - her calmness, politeness, smile were all what one expects from a flight attendant. It's great that there are experienced FAs in LOT that are not rude and unfriendly as some of their colleagues.

The flight was full, even in the C class all seats were taken. Again there were many young athletes on this flight, I had a chat with the coach of the small Greek team and he explained us they were on their way back home from junior rowing championships in Trakai with gold and silver medals.

The flight lasts exactly 56 minutes but deboarding of a full Q400 is again very slow as some luggage must be collected before entering the bus.

While waiting for our bags we discover to be the only passengers flying to Warsaw with a checked in luggage. Generally most of the pax to and from VNO are transfer passengers taking other LO flights from WAW.

Here you'll find some bonus pics from my stay in Vilnius and a trip to Trakai castle
My favourite place in Vilnius, the catherdral square in different times of the day and weather conditions

Prince Gediminas monument

Gediminas castle - you cen get there by funicular

Fully reconstructed lower castle

Vilnius university church

Gate of dawn with fameous painting of St Mary

Inside Dominican's church

St Ann's and Bernardine's churches

Railway station

A detail from one of the Old Town houses

Trakai castle - only 28 km from Vilnius by bus (every 30 minutes for 1,80 euro one way), definitely worth seeing

And now a small food guide as Lithuania is home of great cuisine that in many cases is similar to Polish (many dishes became popular in both countries during ages of being united as one state)
Cold beetroot soup and fantastic Svyturys wheat bear

Potato pancakes

Dumplings

Karaim style dumplings in Trakai

Sakotis cake

Potato, herring, beetroot and egg salad

The best bread in the world

Lithuania's most fameous cheese

Zeppelins

Lithuanians bitters named "999"

Thanks for reading!