Experience a Hot Air Balloon Ride in Vilnius, Lithuania

I don’t think riding in a hot air balloon was really ever a bucket list item for me, unless someone could put me up in a balloon over the Eiffel Tower. If that’s the case, then sign me right up! But it is something I wanted to experience at least once, and I am very glad we did. I am also really glad we had the experience in Vilnius. Although I have nothing to compare it to as of yet, it was a really special and well done excursion from beginning to end.

How it started

One of the best parts about this experience was being able to see the whole process from start to finish. We didn’t just walk up and hop into a ready & waiting basket. When we arrived at the big open field just outside of the city, we got to see how they prep and inflate the balloons.

The whole process starts with anchoring the baskets to large trucks and filling the balloons with air using giant fans. Once the balloons are decently full of air, they start to lean the basket upright and use the burner to add hot air to complete the inflation. Before you know it, the balloons are upright and ready to go. The whole concept of a hot air balloon is still kind of hard to believe; that a group of people just climb into a basket beneath a giant balloon and take off into the air, at the mercy of the winds. Also very hard to believe, is that I was one of those people.

The actual flight

It was definitely scary and incredible all at the same time. It is a surreal sensation to gently lift off into the air, it feels more like the ground is falling away rather than us rising up off of it. One thing that I found comforting was that several balloons took off at once, and we were all flying in the sky together. This somehow helped to ease my mind, I guess because I could see that they were all floating safe & happy, so we must be as well. Once I got over the initial fear, it was very peaceful to be floating in the wind over farm fields with the city in the distance.

It was really wild to be floating above the world and for it all to be so quiet. Apart from the intermittent blasts of the burner to help keep altitude, all we could hear were dogs barking at us from the ground down below (according to our pilot, dogs don’t like hot air balloons). We floated for about an hour while our pilot monitored our elevation and the wind speed, and answering any questions we had. The “pick-up team” tracked us by both GPS and sight on the roads below, and were ready for us when the flight eventually came to an end in one of those large fields. Before landing, they taught us how to brace ourselves as the balloon touches down just in case of a hard landing, but luckily our landing was very easy.

After the flight

Now that the ride was over, it was time to get to work by helping to deflate the balloon. This literally involved all of us jumping on and squishing down the balloon like a bunch of little kids. It was comical seeing a bunch of adults laughing while throwing their bodies on the deflating fabric, and when we were finished it was time for the “ceremony”.

They started by telling us a story about when the first hot air balloons started flying. As the story goes, when hot air balloons first flew and landed in fields far away from where they took off, the farmers and townspeople feared them or were angered by them. They had never seen a flying balloon before, so didn’t even know if it was humans, and if those humans were friend or foe. On one of these first successful balloon flights, they happened to have a bottle of champagne with them and presented it to the bewildered spectators upon landing, proving they were both human and friend. This started a tradition of sorts that is still continued for fun in many places, such as Vilnius.

There was also a special “baptism” during the ceremony in which each of us had a few strands of our hair lit on fire and put out by pouring Champagne on it. Then, ashes were pressed onto our foreheads and the baptism was complete! To be honest, the purpose of the baptism has been lost on me, however the whole experience is one we will never forget. It was truly an incredible flight! We were given a certificate of a successful flight and driven back into town to enjoy the rest of our evening. We hope to experience a hot air balloon ride again someday in another special place.