Day 10 - Going up the Gediminas tower

This morning we had a light workout in the morning. Only about an hour of walking around street followed by a short visit to Svejais Bandeles to get some lunch to go and preparatory fortifying pastry for Georgia.

We stayed at bit near the San Francisco church. It it one of the most charming churches and is a really sad state of disrepair. There were several groups of kindergarten kids hanging out in the closed church courtyard overgrown with grass.

We dropped in a few other places on the way. One was the Lutheran church across the building we lived at last summer. Georgia liked the red roof of its bellfry. It makes the building look like an overgrown gnome. We also stopped by yet another bookstore. Still no luck. And a few home design shops in one of which Georgia picked out a pink jump rope so that we could do a proper role playing for the Sleeping Beauty re-enactment. I am unvariably the evil witch who ties up the prince.

Good weather brought out drunks like fresh poop the flies. But I guess they need fresh air too and their quantity is only proportional to the number of other people on the streets.

For lunch we walked up the Gediminas hill and the tower. Georgia walked up the entire way. She was really proud. Granted it was not as much as we thought it would be. The road wraps halfway around the hill and there are just over 70 steps in the tower. About half of the stairs of our building that we climb 3-4 times a day at least.

The view was wonderful. There was surprisingly many locals - schoolgirls going up to have their lunch on the hill, mom's with little kids and such. On the way we stopped at the tower museum. Georgia got screamed at by the museum worker for walking around the exhibit table. We spoke to the evil witch and she apologized. But you really can't do anything about the reflexes that were burned in for years. At least we told Georgia that it is never OK to scream at kids and she saw up telling the same to the person who did it.

The whole trip was less than an hour. We ate our many goodies from Bandeles at home - kibinai, croissant with ham and cheese, and cheese danish. We certainly would not starve here.

In the afternoon we went to the railway station to see the Russian book store. The selection of books is staggering, particularly in the weird categories like "Magic Sciences." We wanted to get some coloring and easy to read books for Georgia but they are way too expensive. It is much cheaper to find and print interesting coloring pages from the Internet. And easy to read books can be found in any Lithuanian bookstore. They are much cheaper there.

Georgia wanted to get on the train to go to the zoo. It is amazing that she remembered our trip from last year.

After a long walk we finished the day at Zoe's bar and grill. It is recommended as one of the highlights of the city in the "In Your Pocket Guide". The location is great - right next to the Indian and facing the Cathedral square. Service is good too - fast and responsive. Ambience is there as well - they have a wall with lamps that change colors covered by another wall with holes, comfy seats with pillows, and there is even a children's potty in the bathroom. The bartender, possibly Irish or Brit goes around his business with the air of high priest.

But the food was so so and very overpriced. I don't know.. somehow the recommendations and the place really build up your expectations and then, when you get a burger that is clearly inferior to the one you could get next door at McDonalds it is kind of disapointing. On the positive side, the portions are big :)

With Dina's help we made plans for a quick getaway in Palanga in early July. Hopefully the weather will comply this weekend - we have big plans for the South of the country.

Another little city mystery. Whoever designed this building must be turning in their grave from this abomination.