10. LITHUANIA
I was juggling with quite a few countries here who could have just made it into my top ten but in the end I went with Lithuania. I think it deserves to be in there if only for the amazing castle in Trakai, which is an hour or so outside of Vilnius. When you imagine a fairyale castle the likelihood is that it will have many of the features found here, pointed turrets, surrounded by a large and mystical lake and wooden bridges linking it to the mainland. This was such a surprise for me as I went to Vilnius not knowing this place existed until I spotted it inconspicuously advertised at the train station. This is somewhere that is off the beaten track but that's what makes it special - on the day I visited there was just a handful of people wandering around, it makes a change from the most well known attractions in the world where you are fighting to take a picture.
Vilnius was also a wonderfuly surprising city and it was fascinating throughout my time there to see the mixture between its communist past and modern development. The centre of the city is spotlessly clean and full of lively cafes, restaurants and green space which can be admired from the Gediminas Castle which is free to climb up to. As one might expect everything here was affordable and I was pleasantly surprised, as I often am these days, by the quality of its public transport - the trains I used were very comfortable, had charging points and cost the equivalent of £1 for the journey to Trakai. With the increased number of Lithuanians living in the UK now there are numerous and local cheap flights to Vilnius all year round and it makes for a great city break.
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