Lithuania: the fairytale adventure continues...

The advantage of having been knocked out on the first day of the tournament meant we could spend Sunday enjoying the spectacle - and what a day to be part of the crowd! At first light, the lads in military kit who'd been hovering at the entrance the day before came pouring out of their transits and started donning mail. We learned later that the 'official parade uniform' for ceremonial events IS 13th century kit! It was weird to watch boys in Khaki fit on another's coifs, but they made a gorgeous honour guard.But who were they guarding? As it happens, this being the 10th Medieval Festival at Trakai, the final was to be watched by no less a man than the Lithuanian President. So after the bomb squad had been through to make sure we weren't carrying any nasty weapons (yeah, right), and the presidential PR crew had rebuilt the pavillion so the president could arrive and leave without ever turning his back on the crowd, the dignitaries rolled in.

To our surprise, we were sought after too. The UK Defence Attache to the Baltic states had, it seems, been part of the drive to find UK fighters for the tournament, and wanted to personally thank us for coming. He had an amazing perspective on this developing country, reminding us that the affluent, gorgeous young folk in the Brethren are all probably from wealthy families, and that 30% of homes still don't have power or running water. We thanked him for his time and watched the fighting - won by a Templar from Poland, I think, with a Russian runner up and our friend Karolys 4th - although the commentary wasn't ever in English, so I can't be sure.

Late in the day, hospitality (which had already included the boys' flights, our accommodation and meals and abundant charming conversation) wound up a notch. Our hosts took us for a guided tour of Trakai castle - which is stunning. I'm going to let the pictures speak for themselves.

gAs the camp around us began to pack up, we took ourselves off for a dip in the lake, to freshen up ahead of dinner that night, which featured lashings of leftovers from the President's luncheon, all authentic medieval dishes, plus bottles of leftover booze. As dusk fell (around 11pm) Anthony was invited to fire the hand cannon, we were eaten alive by the mosquitoes and eventually poured ourselves, exhausted, into bed.By Monday morning we felt as if we'd been away for a fortnight, but our hosts had one more adventure for us - a trip to the Ducal castle in Vilnius, on our way to the airport.

Back in Oxford, surrounded by luggage and dirty linen, I still feel like a fairytale princess. ust like in the story books, I feel like I've been gone a month, not just a few days. And I know it's going to be hard to face the office tomorrow....