Vilnius Park

These are pictures of the park where we go for our 40-60 minute walk each morning. It is probably at least 100 acres of woods with lots of paved paths going through it. It is shaped like an arrow or sideways "v" with the amphitheater at the point. Behind the amphitheater is an area where there are some very rusty small amusement-park type kiddy rides. I can't tell if they're used still or not. The playground is all wood- including the slides! It is just along the main path. The street we are living on basically ends at this park then the buildings end and the path narrows a little to go into the wooded area. There are two rivers that meet in Vilnius and they run along the sides of the park. Maybe it's more pleasant in the spring and summer. We have never seen kids playing there. We see lots of people walking, jogging, bike riding, and even exercising. (They always bring a plastic bag or something to sit on even on the benches because it's always damp.) There are several small restaurants or cafes there, closed now. It's kept quite clean but sunshine would certainly be welcome...........

We saw the sun!

It may seem a strange comment, but we actually got to see the sun yesterday for the first time in at least a month. At noon time it sat in a mostly blue sky very near the horizon. The temperatures here have been quite moderate, other than the week at the beginning of the month when we took the trip to the coast and it snowed. It has hovered around 40 degrees. The street lights come on around 4 in the afternoon and go off around 8 in the morning. Most of the time it is totally overcast and fairly dreary. I would think seasonal depression would be a major problem here! It was also strange to see the sun so near the horizon knowing that it was the highest it would get until spring.
Russ and I will be spending the next two mornings being teacher assistants in the school here. The pre-K teacher for the 4-year olds is taking a personal leave. The teacher of the 3-year olds will leave her class in the charge of her assistant with Russ as a helper and go into the 4-year old class with me as a helper. We love working with the children but are nearly as frustrated as the kids with the language barrier. Over half of the kids in both classes speak mostly or entirely Lithuanian. We know they are trying to learn English, at least that's what their parents want, but they are so young and sometimes resent having to try to communicate in a way that is so inefficient for them. Unlike their regular teachers, we can't get any message they may try to communicate unless they use English. For the past several weeks, we have been going in for just an hour or so three days a week. This will be for 4 hours straight two days in a row. We'll just have to see how it goes................

Driving in Vilnius

It will be difficult to describe what driving is like here in just a few words. It really needs the support of personal experiences. These experiences only take one time on the road to gain. The first image is a crosswalk. You can see that it is clearly marked by both the lines on the pavement and the road sign on the post. As in many places, pedestrians have the right of way and all traffic is supposed to stop if anyone is in the crosswalk. This has not necessarily what we have experienced. It is more like, if a person in the crosswalk is not directly in front of you and you can get through the cross walk without hitting him then why not? Most of the crosswalks here are just the usual white stripes on the pavement but some are red and white like the one shown. These are indications that a pedestrian was killed in this crosswalk. I have not yet decided if the red is supposed to draw attention to this crosswalk for the drivers or the walkers. (Hmmmmm?) The second is a picture of just one of many streets. I took this in an effort to show how congested it can be even when traffic is light. You are looking at a two way street!!! It is obvious to even the most casual observer that there is not room enough here for two cars to bypass each other. Oh what to do? You play a game of chicken combined with leap frog. Basically, you charge ahead as far as you dare. In some cases the oncoming car will find a street, driveway,or empty parking place to pull over in. In others, you will climb the curb and park on the sidewalk until he passes. This sounds very polite and giving but it is not. It is much more like every man for himself. I have been at a stop sign turning left onto a two lane street and had a car on each side of me also turning left. This is because this particular intersection is flared to provide space for right turns. If a Lithuanian driver sees a space or a chance to go by you he will. Hence three cars all trying to turn left onto the same lane at the same time. I have other stories that are much worse but I only wanted to give you a flavor of what it is like to drive here.

INTERESTING FACTOID: There are more cell phone contracts here than there are people. Some folks have more than one phone but more often it is teens with several SIM cards. As services offer different rates if you call someone with the same service, they carry cards for the services of all their friends etc. and just use the one that gives them the best rate depending on who they are calling.

Cultural Events

We have been to 3 what could be considered cultural events here in Lithuania. The first one we went to was the dance concert sponsored by the embassy of India. The music and dancing were ancient Indian forms and totally foreign to us. Since we were taking James and Susanne's place (it was on my birthday), we had second row seats. The first row was ambassadors and wives or higher-ups than we were. It was held in a theater hall that must be at least 100 years old. The seats were made for people that didn't eat as well as many people today- except for most Lithuanians I guess. Lithuanians seem to be genetically quite thin and usually fairly tall. Considering the amount of fat and carbohydrate in their diet, it has to be genetic! They use lots of real butter and cream (I haven't even seen margarine in the store although I suppose I just don't recognize the packaging) and eat lots of bread (mostly rye) and lots of forms of potato.
The second event we went to was in a much larger, more modern theater. We went to see the new James Bond movie, Casino Royale. When movies first come out, they show them in their original form just adding Lithuanian subtitles so it's easy enough to see. After the movie has been out for awhile, they eventually have it only with dubbed in Russian or Lithuanian soundtracks. The theater is much like a big 14 separate screen theater would be anywhere. It costs about 7 litas per person(a little over $2) to get in the movie and you actually purchase a specific seat, just as you would in a concert hall. Ironically, there weren't many people in the theater when we went (James and Susanne went at a different time so there would be someone home with the kids) and there was only one couple seated in the whole row we had seats in. Our assigned seats were right next to them! Through the beginning ads and previews, this young couple obviously had other activities in mind preferable to watching the film. I felt a little like I was invading their privacy so I would have liked to move. Not knowing what the proper protocol is here, we didn't dare occupy a seat other than our assigned seats so we stayed put. Once the movie started for real, it was exciting action nonstop so the young couple paid more attention to the movie. We got a bucket of popcorn (you can get it "sweet" or "salty"- we chose the latter) and two nearly a quart drinks (we wanted the next size smaller but the counter person didn't speak English so we took what she gave us) for 14 litas which would be just over 4 dollars.
The third event we just went to last night. It was a symphony concert of works of Brahms and Rachmaninoff. The concert hall is fairly modern though small compared to many we have been in. The music was wonderful! Brahms was the first part and the conductor and featured pianist were Russian. I'm always awed by musicians who can play flawlessly a piece that lasts over an hour totally by memory!! I don't think my brain is big enough. I guess many in the crowd came to hear the pianist because they left at intermission and didn't return. Too bad. The pianist was phenomenal but we preferred the music they chose to play of Rachmaninoff. The seats for this concert were 15, 25, 30, or 70 litas (a lita is nearly 3 times the value of a dollar). Since we bought the tickets for James and Susanne as well, we went for the 30 lita seats. They were fine. The babysitter had the kids safely in bed when we returned so the evening was a success.

Thanksgiving. too

It is always wonderful to be around a large group of LDS missionaries. They are at an age when they have lots of energy, are optomistic, and have their lives ahead of them to choose whatever they want to choose. The one in the picture with James cutting the turkey is making a salad. He is from Russia but speaks perfect English as well as Lithuanian. He is outgoing and bright and funny. One of the other missionaries here, I think he's the zone leader, is from Denmark. He also speaks English with no accent as well as Lithuanian. He is tall and handsome and very pleasant. All of the others are from the US, mostly Utah and California. The older gentleman with the beard is a former doctor from Idaho who has married a Lithuanian woman and now lives here. (His wife couldn't be with us as she had to work since this is not a Lithuanian holiday.) He speaks some Lithuanian and currently serves as a member of the Russian branch of the church here in Vilnius. For Thanksgiving Day, this huge house the US government rents for James's family became a little island of America in the sea of Lithuania.

I continue to feel, as I visit with people from all different countries, that if there is to be peace in the world, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the most likely vehicle to bring that peace. We see people from all different backgrounds all coming together in a common effort to learn about God and Jesus Christ. They are all working to be like Christ, humbling themselves to serve others and opening their minds to an appreciation of our differences as people while also striving to become united. They are not blind followers of anyone and not bullied into false submission but are genuinely reaching out to others by learning languages, no matter how difficult, sacrificing time and money to serve full-time missions, sacrificing time and money to support the organization that will bring us all together to learn more, and generally making a real effort to get along. It's a wonderful plan which can include whatever number of people have a desire to participate.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is only an American holiday. We were able to celebrate it because James works for the U.S. State Department so the embassy was closed. Otherwise, Lithuania went on as on any other work day. Turkey is available but it takes a little work to get a big one. We got ours from a farmer (producer?) who brought the freshly slaughtered birds to the embassy parking lot in the trunk of his car. We had all the missionaries in the area (10) and another guest for dinner. Each group contributed to the feast. We had: rolls, turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, stuffing, crab salad, fruit salad, home made pickles, corn, broccoli, fresh cranberry sauce, apple, pecan, and pumpkin pies, cake, peanut butter fudge. I don't thing anyone went away hungry. The bread basket was a "family home evening" project on Monday. We cut and colored paper plates to made feathers, wings and the face of a turkey and mounted them on a bread basket. The other picture is not too inspiring but it is the food ready for serving less the deserts. We have so much to be thankful for as Americans. Our lives are enriched in ways people here can't even imagine. Have great Thanksgiving and give thanks.

Trying to be more cheerful!

We had snow here at the beginning of November but since then it has just been overcast and in the 30's to 40's with occasional rain. I prefer the snow and look forward to its return. It at least lightens things up so they're not so dreary. These pictures were taken when we took our trip to the coast of Lithuania. We walked to a "Chinese" restaurant for dinner and took the first picture just outside the door of the restaurant. We walked by the ship on the way there. We want to take some pictures of the park where we walk every morning and the sidewalk sweepers and dumpsters on the way, since we have mentioned them, but it's just so dark and dreary all day every day! We're not sure if the pictures would come out well. I guess all we can do is try because it doesn't look as if waiting is going to be profitable.
Update: last night I went with Susanne to the "book club" dinner to discuss Elie Wiesel's book, NIGHT. It was held at a little Jewish restaurant. We almost didn't find it. We walked there because James had taken the car to go teach Institute (a religion class for college-aged students for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). Besides, it was a fairly warm evening and it wasn't raining. There aren't a lot of street lights here and the buildings are right up close to the narrow streets. We walked down the little side street where the restaurant was supposed to be and nearly gave up just before we finally saw lights through an open window and the name of the place on the wall above it. There were probably 7-8 little tables. They had pushed 2 together for our group of 7, the only patrons for the first hour and a half. We were there starting at 6:30. Besides Susanne and me, there was an English woman (she and her husband have lived here for 3 years and will "leave when they get tired of it"), a Lithuanian woman who seemed about my age (I never did find out how she connected to the group), a Lithuanian woman who runs the library in the American school (her husband is from India and they met in Russia at school), and 2 American women who teach at the school. The discussion went pretty much as one might expect considering the subject of the book. (You could read the book if you are interested and willing to be depressed.) The most interesting part of the evening for me was near the end of our time there when a slightly stooped man with wavy white hair entered and was seated at a table, obviously there for a meal. He sat by himself for awhile then came over to our table and excused himself for interrupting and asked if some of us were Americans. We said that, indeed, some of us were. He spoke quite fluent English but had a hint of an accent. As we found out, he was from America recently but was originally from Germany. He is here in Vilnius because he is a photographer whose pictures are on a month-long exhibition in the "photographer's union gallery" on the main street of the old city. His photographs are of Holocaust survivors. Here we were sitting in a Jewish restaurant in a city that was once known as the Jerusalem of Europe discussing a book written by a Holocaust survivor talking to the only other patron in the place who happened to be from Germany and is a photographer exhibiting pictures of Holocaust survivors. Interesting, don't you think?...................

Streets of Vilnius

I still don't know why the blogger space puts my pictures and text In a different place than I intended but it does. One of the things we find different here is the way they "pave". Not all but many of the streets, walks and driveways are made by grading and compacting sand to lay paving blocks on. Some are the size of a small brick and used mainly for vehicle traffic and others are about a third of a meter and used as sidewalks. There are many shapes and sizes but the end result is the same. The picture of the square is the main square in the center of town and is being fixed up for some celebration I can't remember now. The use of colored pavers is a nice improvement. Most of the pavement or walks are cement gray like you see surrounding the very "Roman" looking church. I guess others thought it looked very Roman as well because on the day we did a walking tour, they were filming some kind of movie. That would be the picture of the actors standing around between scene shootings. When you look behind them it looks very Roman in the shot. There were even burning torch cauldrons that don't show in the picture. The town square will be driven on when the construction is done. When a pipe or something needs repair they just stack up the pavers fix it and put them back. It seems a lot more sensible to us than the way we do it back home. The jobs do vary in quality of placement. Most are well tamped before setting the blocks but some are not. You can picture what the latter look like after a month or so. On the whole, it is done very well.

No Pictures today

Elie (short for Eliezer) Wiesel- up until a couple of days ago, that was a name I knew mostly as a crossword puzzle answer. I guess I knew he was an author but had never read any of his work. Susanne, my daughter-in-law here in Lithuania, reads a lot, as do most members of the embassy community. Several of the wives here gather occasionally to discuss a book they have read recently. Their choice this time was Night by Elie Wiesel. Since it's such a short book, Susanne thought maybe I might want to read it and join them for their dinner and discussion. If any of you have ever read this book, you will understand how it might affect me. Perhaps it has affected me even more because I am here in the area of the world where this tragedy occurred. Elie Wiesel is a survivor of the Holocaust. This short book is his memoirs of the events he endured as a young teenager. He makes no attempt to clean up the grotesque circumstances but he also reports factually, without Hollywood-type exaggerations to create horror. It took me longer than it could have to read the book because I had to read it in small sections. Often when I read a book, I lose myself in the "world" created by the author- picturing people and places and almost living the events. I couldn't let myself do that with this book. When at last I finished it, I immediately went to the piano to play some hymns, then I sought out conversation withh my family and wanted to play a game to get the book out of my mind. That has caused me to wonder, if I have had to make such an effort to forget merely a story I have read because it causes me such pain and revulsion, how did the survivors or even rescuers or, most especially, perpetrators, ever go on living with such memories? When we went on our walking tour of Vilnius, our guide pointed out what was formerly the Jewish quarter. At one time there were so many Jews in Vilnius that it had the name Jerusalem of Europe or something like that. During the years 1941-1944, 90% of the city's Jewish population was exterminated. There are still some Jews here but not many. Russia, when they came in after Germany, was looked on as a "rescuer", especially to the Jews. But after going to the KGB Museum, I have to wonder if life under Stalin was much better for anybody here. My heart bleeds for the people here and in the surrounding areas who have endured such pain. No wonder they don't smile when you encounter them on the street. I know I can tend to get deeply philosophical and that is tedious to some people. I'm sorry if my ponderings here are unpleasant to read. But what I am discussing is not just a remote philosophy or opinion of types of government or vague idea of some author. People have justified total cruelty to other human beings for no sane reason! Saddam Hussein idolized Stalin and believed in similar tactics. Now people all over the world are jumping on George Bush and the US government for getting rid of Hussein. At the time of WWII many people wanted to avoid getting involved. I remember hearing of people being mugged in NYC within earshot and even sight of other people who "didn't want to get involved". I understand the phrase people often use "we can't be the world's policeman". But I don't understand how we can, or should, avert our gaze and not try to do something to help others. I used to weep when pictures of Ethiopia first came to the tv screen in the 1970's of the little swollen bellied children with flies swarming about their faces and limbs so thin their knees and elbows looked hugely out of proportion. I wanted to send money to help but knew, rationally, that I could not erase hunger from the world. Maybe sending our loved ones to Iraq and Afghanistan, just as they were sent to Germany and Poland, will not erase evil men from the world. But maybe it can give hope to good people that they are not alone in the world. Maybe it can send a message to the bullies and power-hungry despots that they cannot reign in terror unchecked by the rest of the civilized world. Maybe people may believe in different "gods" but I want to choose a loving God. I want to encourage and help and love.

It is said in local lore that you can look down any street in Vilnius and see a church. It is not literally true but nearly. On our walking tour of the city I just snapped a couple of shots down streets and guess what? Yes, there is a church visible in the distance. We have addressed religion before so forgive any repeated information. Most Lithuanians are Catholic. All of the churches have steeples with crosses but many are not the simple crossed poles we are familiar with. Many of the crosses incorporate their long held pagan beliefs. The crosses are imposed over sun rays and moon symbols. In fact, they were chided by the Pope when he visited here for not converting completely to Christianity. The last church pictured is St. Annes. It is interesting to me because of the building materials. It is brick but unlike our usual concept of all bricks being rectangular like Legos, there are over thirty different types and shapes of bricks in it. The ornate face you see here has many curved or round bricks. It may be hard to see at a distance but few of the bricks you see are the kind we usually think of. I was impressed with the beauty of the facade. The close-up shows, the best that I could, some of the special brick used.

This is the American School of Vilnius where our grandkids attend and Susanne and we volunteer. James serves on the schoolboard as the representative for the American interest. The school is run by Lithuania but a major part of the funding is from the US. Nearly half of the students are Lithuanian whose parents can afford to send them to a school taught in English. The principal is an American, several of the teachers are, also, but probably most of the staff are fluent English speaking Lithuanians. The other picture is the marvelous panorama of the city of Vilnius from the school grounds. Russ and I go 3 mornings a week to assist in the pre-K class for 4 year olds. One of the native English speakers is from England and then there is our little Louisa. The other 6 kids are Lithuanian. We help them with worksheets or playing games to give them the opportunity to communicate with native English speakers. Since they know their teacher is Lithuanian they too easily revert to speaking their native tongue, which is certainly understandable! With us, they have no choice since we don't speak Lithuanian.

I tried to smile at the little man who sweeps the sidewalk with the besom this morning. He did the usual averting of eyes as soon as he saw me look at him. I wish I could communicate with him and tell him he's doing a good job or something. We usually see him on our way to the park and back when we go for our walks. He was absent for a week or so and we worried about him. I was amazed at how much it added to my day when he was back at his usual post!

While in Helsinki, we rode another ferry, smaller than the one from Talinn, over to a fortress called Swomenlina. The spelling may not be totally accurate but the name is interesting because it is Finnish for "Finnish fortress". The Baltic waters are full of a wonderful assortment of ships and boats: cruise ships, small rowboats, fishing boats, tugboats, and lots of the magnificent sailing ships that I'm including a picture of. The island fortress we visited is currently the year-round home of a few hundred people maybe but at one time, centuries ago, it had a larger population than the city of Helsinki. It is no longer functioning as a strategic defense point but serves more as a tourist destination. We were able to see the outside of this small German u-boat but it was locked so we couldn't go inside. Maybe they unlock it in the summer during the tourist season. We enjoyed the freedom to walk about the island without crowds of people. We're so grateful that James and Susanne and our grandkids are not averse to being out in weather that may not be ideal at times (windy, rainy, chilly) so we have the opportunity to see and experience so much despite the season! As long as the kids have food (which they're good about accepting what is available even if they don't recognize it) and books and occasionally (on long trips in the car especially) a video, they are good little troopers.

These images are supposed to be stacked along the left side of the page but it seems the blog spot has a better idea. They aren't even in the order I posted them but still it is an improvement over having no pictures at all.
Sorry for doing things a little out of order but since we can now show you things, we are going back a month or so to tell you of our trip to Finland.
The church is a Russian Orthodox church built in the middle of Talinn on a prominant hill. It is kind of an "in your face" display. It was placed there to obscure the visabilty of the local churches which were already there. In addition, it is decorated with portraits of the "famous" generals and other leaders of the defeat of Estonia. To get to Finland from Talinn you can take a number of different ferries. James chose the fastest (and consequently the most expensive) one. The picture is a little dark but you can see two levels of vehicle parking on the lower deck. Passengers are not allowed to stay in their vehicles but required to ride on an upper deck that is much like a train or other passenger vehicle. In addition to the seats you see there were duty free shops and resturaunts and bars on board. There was even a small play room for the children. The most surprising thing about the ship was the speed. With all this load it still did in excess of 30 knots. We did go outside but with the headwind caused by our speed and the weather being a little damp and chilly you had to really like being outside at sea. (which I do) It is quite expensive to use this boat. I think it was over $400 for the car and the seven of us but it does beat swimming and it is over twice as fast as the other choices. Anyone who lives in the Baltic region who wants to attend the Temple has to either; drive all the way up and around by land, or take a ferry some way or another. You can take the ferry without a car but you would have to make other transportation arrangements on both ends. We in the States, and especially those of you in Utah, should be grateful for the ease of and inexpense of Temple attendance. Two people working full-time here in Lithuania at the average wage will spend a third of that income on a "not so nice" one bedroom apartment with utilities.

Talinn, Estonia

We went to Finland within hours of having arrived here. We had to drive through Latvia then Estonia to get there. Since the drive was rather long, we stopped in Estonia for the night before going on to Finland. Although these pictures are from early October, I'm just posting them because I couldn't get pictures on before. The picture on the left is a building over 500 years old that is still in use now. It is a restaurant and we had dinner there. They had advertised a fencing match as dinner entertainment but, much to our grandsons' disappointment, the fencers never showed. Instead there was a belly dancer. Had the boys been 10 years older I'm sure they wouldn't have been so disappointed! The picture on the right is an interesting contrast: a city wall built in the middle ages through which you can see another restaurant which is considerably newer. They're EVERYWHERE! At the bottom of this page you can see our little group (minus the photographer, Russ) standing in front of an overview of the capital city, Talinn. It is one of the oldest cities in Europe and is located across the Baltic from Helsinki, Finland.

Things foreign, things familiar

Leaves fall from trees in Lithuania just as they do in NY or Utah or anywhere in the world that has different seasons. And children love playing in the piles of fallen leaves as in the first picture of our grandson Nicholas jumping into a pile he had just helped Grandpa rake up.
Halloween isn't celebrated in Lithuania but Americans have fun with it even when they're away from home. Rather than going to trick-or-treat from house to house, or in some LDS communities, trunk to trunk (for the safety of the children), the embassy's CLO (cultural liaison officer) planned fun things for the children here. First, they were bussed to the embassy from school in their costumes then went trick-or-treating door to door throughout the embassy. In the second picture, the American Ambassador Cloud (that's his last name) and wife, Mary, are joining in the fun to hand out candy just before the ambassador had a 4:30 meeting. From here the kids went to the "Marine House" which is a house (duh!) in the embassy compound where Marines (another duh!) live while stationed here as inside security. (Outside, at the gate, are Lithuanian security officers.) The CLO had set up all kinds of Halloween games, Halloween twister, that video dance craze that our daughter Lisa is so good at, a ghost pinata, little pumpkins in hay that the kids had to pick up without using hands, and a curtained-off haunted house complete with an inhabited coffin! For "dinner" the kids had "mummy fingers" (hot dogs wrapped in tortillas because they don't have hot dog buns here), McDonald's burgers, and fries
(cold, but the kids ate them anyway).
The last picture is taken at Gruto Parkas. An enterprising and wealthy Lithuanian set up a park on his estate that includes a playground for kids, a small zoo, and lots of statues from the Soviet era that were torn down and sometimes nearly destroyed spread out on a pleasant wooded walking trail. There are placards everywhere describing where the statue was originally placed and a brief history of the person. The intent was not to glorify these people but to remind people of what once was in the hopes that Lithuania will be able to remain forever free, never so cruelly dominated again. It will be good when enough time has passed that people can remember the cost of freedom and be happy and grateful, as I hope all Americans feel about the USA. Our tour guide on our walking tour of Vilnius commented at one point that "all Lithuanian holidays are sad and depressing". Americans should be appropriately somber on Memorial Day but I'm grateful for the joy of the Fourth of July and the peaceful, homey gratitude we feel on Thanksgiving.

A Day at the Beach

The picture in the middle is the beach on the Curonian Spit off the coast of Lithuania. The picture at the bottom is a closeup to prove that we were really standing on a sand dune. I found the little retaining walls (to hold the sand) made of interweaving branches to be ingeniously resourceful and very picturesque. The Spit is interesting because it is very long (about 100 miles) and goes from several miles wide to a matter of 100 yards wide. It was, long ago, a series of small islands but the sand eventually built up to form this narrow peninsula that begins in a small broken off part of Russia just to the southwest of Lithuania and on north to just across from the port city of Klaipeda, Lithuania. So there is actually a Russian border crossing in the southern end of the spit. We didn't go that far. We reached the north end of the spit by driving our car onto a ferry that crosses every 20 minutes with a fee to get out to the spit but no fee for the return trip. This is a fairly popular tourist area (especially with Germans as this has been a part of Germany in the past) but usually in the summer. The Baltic Sea in November is far from enticing! It was choppy and dark and we could only imagine how cold it must be. From the top of the sand dune we could see across the bay to the mainland of Lithuania on the east and the expanse of the Baltic on the west, with an offshore oil rig in the distance. We wanted to go to the maritime museum and to the aquarium but both were closed- not surprisingly considering the absence of any tourists besides our little band. Nearly all of the restaurants and shops were closed. Finding bathroom facilities became interesting. There were no gas stations. There were a couple of WC (water closet for the less traveled readers) buildings which were closed. This spit is a national park so I'm sure they just close them down at the end of the season. Next to them stood single port-a-potties that were open. However, they looked to have been neglected for quite some time. The boys chose trees in the open air instead. Louisa and I decided we didn't need them so badly. Soon after we had stopped, we came to an small open bus station with a large WC sign on the side. Hallelujah! For a mere 1 lita (about $.35) paid to the cashier in the terminal we could use a clean, warm toilet. After that we sat in the car in an empty parking lot near the sea to eat the lunch we had brought with us. After lunch we went to a statue park.

The picture on the top is on "Witches Hill", a walk through the forest with wooden statues. Louisa is standing in front of a malicious looking ogre. The statues throughout the fairly long walk made me think of Grimms fairy tales and Hansel and Gretel- stories that can be frightening for children. I wondered if this kind of culture developed from the long nights and dense forests of this area of the world causing fearful imaginings in children and adults alike.

HIll of Crosses

One of the places we visited on our way to the coast was a place called The Hill of Crosses. It started simply enough many years ago as a place where friends and families of fallen soldiers placed a cross in memory of their sacrifice. At that time it contained only some thirty crosses. When the Soviet occupation came, it was decided that this outward diplay of religion had to be removed. They used bulldozers to clear the hill. In defiance, the local people would sneak in at night and replace them at great risk to themselves as it was at times guarded by army troops. This happened repeatedly until the Soviets finally gave up. It has since become a symbol of solidarity and defiance and now contains innumerable crosses. These pictures show just how massive it has become. People from all over the world now come and place crosses here including the Pope. It still is a statement of faith in Jesus Christ and was completely overwhelming to me. (Russ) There are places where there are literally mounds of small wood crosses. (shown in the picture above) The hill itself is not particularly large or worthy of note but the tributes are beyond description. Not all of the crosses are wood. Some are metal and a few are crocheted or of strung beads.

It worked again!

Here are the pictures I promised in the last blog of the cemeteries all decorated. We went in the evening and found the candlelight quite picturesque despite the fact that we were walking amidst graves. It was rainy and cold but quiet and peaceful.

All Saints Day

Imentioned before that Halloween is not celebrated here but All Saints Day, Nov. 1, is. The picture on the left is the traffic jam we sat in for probably close to an hour just outside a moderately sized city approaching the cemetery. People of every age and description flock to the cemeteries with flowers and candles. The picture on the right is people waiting for busses to pick them up. In the background you can see the hordes of people in the cemetery. If I can get the browse window to open to allow another picture, I'll post pictures taken in a cemetery.

I still am having no luck overcoming my problem with adding images to my blog. So I thought I would talk a little about the Lithuanian language. It's in a separate language group from most European languages. It's in a group with only two other languages:Estonian and Finnish, I think. Most of the basic words are totally foreign to me. However, thanks to international communication and recent innovations, there are some words I recognize on signs: internetas, computeriai, autoservisas, and I saw an advertisement for something with a picture and the name Charlesas Dickensas. Can you guess who that was? Thank you is spelled something like aciu (with a scidilla or little curlique thing under the c) and is pronounced like you would sneeze achoo! To say a casual goodbye would be iki (like icky). So we're managing to pick up a few words despite not really knowing anything.
I mentioned that the milk tastes different. A major food item here is potatoes. They do things with potatoes I have never experienced before. They make a kind of dumpling with potato starch. I would have to see a cookbook with instructions to understand. Anyway, they use a lot of cream and real butter. In fact, at a restaurant I order a stuffed chicken breast thinking it would be safely mild. It consisted entirely of a chicken breast wrapped around a cube of butter, covered with a dough then deep-fried. Lots of FAT!! I think the relative poverty as well as the need to stay warm has had a lot of influence on what is considered traditional Lithuanian fare. Rye is used in most of the breads. Oh, and for something also very different, we went to a Chinese restaurant. I ordered egg-drop soup (by the English description on the Lithuanian menu) and was surprised at the flavor. The broth was basically sugar water with the expected egg and corn in it. I added some soy sauce to try to make it a little saltier but it didn't help much. I ate it anyway because I was hungry and it wasn't awful- just not what I expected. Cheeses and processed meat, especially pork, are common items. Cabbage and carrots are probably the most common vegetables. Mushrooms are grown throughout the countryside and are available at little roadside stands, along with apples. The bakery sections of the grocery stores have all kinds of wonderful looking treats. We haven't tried many of them but the ones we have tried often have sweetened sour cream and cheese in them.
We're going to continue working on this popups blocked problem because that seems to be the source of our inability to post pictures.