Money Museum and Eateries

On Wednesday we went to the newly restored Money museum on Gediminas across the post office. It is the best museum of its sort that we had ever been too – lots of thought went into creating interacting exhibits that convey the subject matter in a way that will get even the most disinterested visitor really excited. Not like there were any visitors of that sort. And it is free, and they give out souvenirs. For example they have the scale that will measure your weight in the current value of gold, silver and Byelorussia money.  And they pull live figures off the Internet. If I was made of gold, my value would be in excess of $2,000,000. That’s an exciting additional reason to continue our gluttonous quest to which I am about to get. We also spoke with a curator – she was very engaging and knowledgeable and clearly loved her job very much.

So on to the food. Did our morning studying at Coffee Hill – the new opposition to Coffee Inn. Décor, taste, and pricing about the same. The guy at the bar spoke flawless English with a beautiful British accent, Russian and Lithuanian. So amazing.

Wishing many years of success to the Kibin Inn. I think we are starting to scare them with our repeat visits and predatory buying behaviors – we dropped in at 5:30 on Wednesday and bought off all the meat ones for our dinner with Natasha, Andrey, Alicia, Inga and Danik. Poor other customers J. They have perhaps 30 different kinds of kibinai.

Ekaterinburg crew were on the Kuronian spit last week and brought SMOKED FISH. I know it is a little lame to capitalize, but I meant it. Inga brought Israeli food goodies. So our weight in gold is probably well ahead of the market rate.

On other subjects, other than the dying playgrounds near St. Catherine’s and our backyard there are no functional playgrounds anymore in the old town – the ones in the park are all vandalized. Very sad. I wish someone would make them build new ones while they are in prison.

 Had dinner w. Vitalik’s family. It was very relaxing and pleasant. Ilyusha is very tall for his age tonight. Very nice kid. There was supposed to be an open air concept near St. Francis’ church and a great number of youths J gathered there but it started late and we left without waiting.

Visited Dominican church on Traku. I know it isn’t St. Peter’s in Rome but it is awe-inspiring. It is restored beautifully to show its age and history and wealth in a dignified way. Macabre frescoes are my type of thing. Walked down Literatu in the evening. Even more art on the walls. There was some kind of a corporate scavenger hunt doing on and young adults were running at deathly speeds and looking for something among those artworks. Dan was out after dark yesterday and he says that there were some lighting changes on the Cathedral square and now it looks like Gediminas statue is projecting a shadow on the lower castle.