Day 19 - St.Casimir's and St.Theresa's churches

In the morning we headed out to the market to get some smoked sausages and farmer cheese. On the way we stopped at St. Casimir's church. During our time here we had hoped to go in many times but the entrance seemed to always have some construction going on. The outside is very beautiful, but the inside was nothing to write home about. Possibly because of it long history of takeovers and destruction. But I still have hopes for its crypt - supposedly it was inaccessible and its frescos excaped the damage. Will have to go back with Dan though.

They were playing organ at St. Casimir's. It sounded really beautiful, and a bit on a scary side, like in the Addams family movie. Georgia sat with her hand on her chest during the entire piece, deeply impressed. Don't know where she got this gesture from. She was willing to sit through longer but I had to drag her away halfway through the second song because it was getting boring. Yeah, I know - the kid expressed interest in music, and here is me dragging her away. Will try it again tomorrow. Hopefully they will lighten up the tune.

Next, we stopped at St. Theresa's church near the Gates of Dawn. Now, this one seems to have escaped destruction much better. Frescos and sculptures are amazing. Some look really medieval and with interesting subject matter featured. For example, near the door, there is this figure holding the enormous two sided saw. I wonder was was the significance of it.

I think I wrote about the history of St.Kazimir in the last blog, so here is the history of St. Theresa. Pretty dramatic. By the terms of those times and even more so by ours, she could probably be classified as a bit extreme. The description of her encounters with the angel was downright graphic.

We got lots of goodies at the market and went home. We did not get any berries or vegetables because we are waiting for Georgia to clear up. It is definitely starting to get better. I might have found a good way to buy milk products. There is a section of the market where milk products are sold. I noticed that the biggest line is near the booth where a lady was selling only farm made products. She did not have any branded packages to reselll. She only had non-brand sour cream, farmer cheese, and boiled farmer cheese variety that resembles mozarella. We did not try sour cream but got the other two things - they are great!

At home our apartment owners were busy cleaning. This time they brought in a pretty laundry basket. Until now our laundry was lying on the washing machine and occasionally on the floor and it was probably offending their esthetic senses. I hope that certain friends from up north who deal with real estate are learning from this glorious example.

We went to McDonalds for lunch. Yes, we cracked. To my horrible embarrasement I found out that Happy Meal is not equivalent to the combo meal package. Though it does come in as a small package with the key components - fries, soda, and the cheeseburger accompanied by a plastic toy. Dan sent me back to get the adult sized package. Today was not my day - I came back with the extra double cheeseburger in the new package. Though this time it was closer to the appropriate size. The quality is approaching American. Revealing my ignorance in all things McDonalds, they have two people servicing each register. Don't know if it is done like that in US. One takes your order, and the other fulfills. Technically it is fast but there about 6 counters and at least 12 many people behind the registers. As they move past one another (fries are on one side of the counter, soda on the other) that I wonder if this does not result in a slowdown and run-ins. Or does equalize by the fact that service is still faster and salaries lower.

We noticed that in the last two days the souvenir booths near our apartment are empty. Today we saw the signs indicating that this was not a volunteer vacation that the vendors were taking. Not sure what happened but this is very sad. Not only have these booths become the symbol of Vilnius, but they are also providing jobs to vendors, and to the Lithuanian artisans who produce the handicrafts. The giant souvenir stand and outdoor painting gallery on the other side are still in operation.


When we got out for the afternoon walk we witnessed an interesting bit of action in our backyard. There was a bunch of people cleaning the rain gutters having removed grated iron covers from the pavement. Another bunch was removing the few weeds that humbly spotted several areas of the backyard. Nona was cleaning the pavement with the groom and Gintaris, her husband, had removed some stones from the pavement of the parking area with a few other people and was doing something in the resulting hole. Other than Nona, they had the familiar cheerless look of being on Subbotnik. We came over to say that we left the keys to our car upstairs in case she needs to move it. I commented how nice it was that everyone got together to work on this. Nona said, "why wouldn't they - I organized this."

We met with Vitalik's family in the youth park in the evening. Had a good time. We also met Danik's former classmate Irina with her kids. Ended the evening at Pilies Kepiklele. They are training Ilyusha to eat at the restaurant. We are training Georgia to share her stroller. Both still need some work.

Vitalik told us about the bachelor party he went to yesterday. The boys took a boat on a lake about an hour into the bog and waded for another hour and a half through the bog - wearing clothing and everything, neck high in the water, taking care not to get caught on the underwater tree trunks and water weeds, and swimming where possible. It was totally wild. Straying from the trail could have unpredictable consequences. The guide, who is enthusiast of this wild type of thing has discovered this this trail and now offers daily and nightly tours. He went through the whole thing holding a videocamera above his head with his one hand. Vitalik got his arm strained and came back with a bandage. After going through the trail, the boys washed up and had a meal and drinks. And then they dressed up the bachelor into Borat swimsuit and put him on the bike to the special massage place. And that's how they party here.