Day 18 - Revisiting Northway

Georgia woke up with an even more colorful rash and we decided to try a second opinion. We made an appointment at Northway Medical Center where we used to go a lot last year. The dermatologist was very nice, courteous, and attentive. It is still the same thing - the allergy. The doctor spent a half an hour with us. In the end Georgia rolled up in the examination chair and pretented to go to sleep - as of - hint, hint.

Apparently lots of kids get allergy this time of the year because all the fruits and veggies are treated with pesticides. (You were right, mom!) So she advised not to eat any fruits or vegetables from the market or the stores. Wild strawberries are OK though. She prescribed the same zinc creme and also the antihistamine. Well, the peace of mind is worth extra $30 bucks and anyway the rash had started to fade. We also did away with milk, honey, and the daily bath.

We had an uneventful morning - the youth park. It was fun to watch parents drag their kids away anytime when Georgia approached. It really is not that scary - she looks like matryoshka. In the afternoon we walked around Traku gatve and later the Gediminas. Found a new eatery to try out. Left a few lustful looks in the direction of McDonalds. I know, I know. But the place always has huge crowds inside and around and the last time we checked years ago, it tasted nothing like the real thing.

This is the photo of Kavine on Syrvido 6:

Day 17 - Vilnius Elegies

Today was practically 100% rain. In the morning we stayed at home. At lunch we got out to go to the Vilnius Picture Gallery next door at Didzioji 4. They are having Vilnius Elegies (interesting history in the link here) exhibition. It is based on the set of pictures of Vilnius in 1930-40s taken by Boleslawa and Edmund Zdanowscy, members of Wilno Photo Club.

The pictures were great. The city did not change that much. It used to be much greener and it used to have more character based on pictures showing the little stores lining the City Hall square and Stikliu street. Not sure if the whole collection was shown but some neighborhoods, particularly around Vokieciu were missing. Some areas we could not recognize. Others used to be better. For example where there is now an empty asphalted hole in the youth park used to be a little pond with swans and a fountain. Missionnaries church on the outskirts of Subaciaus used to be majestic, and poor St. Francis church was much more to look at as well. It is interesting to think that another couple was here 80 years ago documenting the beautiful city, somewhat similar to how we are doing today (if you replace churches with food).

The rest of the museum, located in the former Chodkiewicz Palace, is not nothing much special, though would be worth a second look if we decided to go into the history of the city in a heavy duty way. There are lots of portraits, many of the famous people living in Vilnius or associated with it.

After the museum, we made a quick run to the orphan student eatery at the conservatory we found a few days ago. Kibinai were great, and hot pea soup was a good replacement for Saltibarsciai (Cold Lithuanian Beet Soup), which they don't serve on the cold weather. That would mean EVER? We wondered how do they deternime whether the weather is going to be cold. Weekly weather predictions? Or daily?

Then we put Georgia to sleep as I had made a few calls looking for a dermatologist to take her too. She's gotten red raised rash on her face and upper arms. It did not bother her but did not seem to be getting better. It was recommended that I contact the Medical Diagnostic Center on Grybo since they handle lots of children's cases and dermatology at that. I called them in the morning but the Russian receptionist said dermatologists are booked for weeks ahead and suggested that I call in the afternoon when a dermatologist will be in the office and she could give some idea about the next available opening. So I called in the afternoon. This time the receptionist spoke English and her idea of schedule was "What time is good for you to come in today?"

So we brought Georgia in at 4pm. The center was brand new and well designed for the wide range of private medical services that they provide. They have receiptionists that book you and alert specific doctor's nurse to come to the reception and bring you to the doctors office. We did not have to wait at all. The doctor, dermatologist/venerologist, looked bored. She probably expected a syphilis. She said it was allergy and provided a list of brand name soaps and zinc cremes to get rid of the rash. Then she and the nurse very professionally convinced me to sign up for an appointment for Georgia to see an allergist. I cracked. Will have to call and cancel that one tomorrow.

We put the creme on Georgia - had to run to a few pharmacies to find this specific brand. The University pharmacy seems to be the best stocked and the strongest smelling too. It positively strikes you when you come in.

Then I prepared Saltibarsciai 2.0. This time I diluted with water and used a half of lemon to neutralize the sweetness of beets. Dan said it was ruined because tasted like nothing else but the lemon. I put my second ugly creation in the fridge and hoped that lemon acid will break down by dinner time. I must have atrophied sense of smell - I could hardly notice it.

It was very good to have Diana and Jonas over. It was the most we heard him talk ever. And he is really good to talk to. He suggested an interesting detour on our Riga trip next month. Will have to try it out. My theory about the lemon acid was correct, or they were all generous with me. Could not smell or taste it either way.

The branded creme did not seem to be working so I tried some of Georgia's California Baby butt creme - it also is high in zinc but also has anti-allergenic base and a mild natural antibiotic. It seems to have done much better. Now the trick is to find what it is she is allergic to. We did not give her any sweets, fruits, or milk today and still it did not go away.

Hopefully there will be nothing left to rain out tomorrow. Another social evening is planned :)

Day 16 - Walking around

Not a lot happened today. We started the day by walking around the University Gatve, followed by some chases on the Cathedral square, followed by the Radvilaites gatve and the youth park. Georgia is quite good at walking for nearly two hours continuously.

We had lunch at the mysterious place we found on Syrvido 6. Now I had some time to make out the name of the place. Something like Tabakos and Boheme. And it looked like Boheme all right. It used to be a really beautiful sitting room or something like it but now the gold guilding is crumbling from the ceiling, the luxurious furniture is mix and match, the piano is blocking the tiled fireplace, and some (mildly said) ugly modern artworks adorn on the walls. They had a menu in chalk on the wall - about 7 items. Cold beet soup, cutlets, meat stew, blinnies, and hering. Waitress/bartender was a different one but very courteous as well translated everything and helped with the order. It was one of the tastiest, cheapest, fastest, and picturesque meals we had. Normally the place caters to the office people working in the building. Incidentally a couple of writers associations and similar organizations have offices in the building. But they have expanded to cover the outside people too, which I assume they don't get too many of. Need to find more places like this.

In the afternoon Alicia came and we spent some time playing with Georgia. Then we went to the Double Coffee for dinner. Not a lot to write home about. But the waitress was having a bad day and kept dropping and breaking dishes. Luckily none had our meal inside. But the poor girl must have gone through a good portion of their coffee cup stock.

Tomorrow we will check out a new gallery that we found in the courtyard of Radvilaites gatve, go inside the St. Anne's church, and see the exhibition of the historical photographs of Vilnius in the museum next door. And at night, Diana and Jonas are coming for dinner.

We are also trying to figure out the optimal plan for St. John's celebration. There will be multiple events going on at the same time. What is the best place to be at and when is the question.

Day 15 - In the city

We got out this morning looking for some place to have our breakfast. Georgia was not in the best of moods and we had to find something quick. Double Coffee was still closed and we went to Cili Pica across the street. It already had some customers in.

Georgia opted in for pizza.

If it sounds like an unusual choice at 9am, consider other customers who were starting or rather continuing their day with beer. Dan and I got really nice omelettes. There were a few more customers coming in to have their breakfast with kids.

Then we got the stroller and went to the market. It was difficult to get through the crowd on the market, especially with the stroller. Every merchant had long lines. We got strawberries, sour cherries, some veggies, farmer cheese, thin sausages and smoked ham.

It appears that some tables belong to the same owner. It was definitely true with several tables owned by the vegetable trader. Based on the prices and goods on the meats and milk products it might have been the case with them as well. In general not that much self-made products are sold - most of the products were resold brand name sausages, milk, butter, and farmer cheese.

Speaking of the crowds, there were groves of tourists near the Gates of Dawn - 4-5 groups were being dropped off there at the same time so the place was buzzing.

After we dropped off the food at home we went to the city to walk around a bit. This arch memorable because "Smells like Teen Spirit" is regularly performed by the different street musicians. I don't know why they always pick this spot. Might need to examine it for the signs that it is a "Nirvana" performance corner.

The sky that started out being clear blue in the morning ended up overcast by the lunchtime. Drizzle also had started. When it began to look worse we headed back to our apartment.

We put Georgia in her room to try to catch some sleep, while Dan went to sleep himself and I worked on my blog. It did not work out. She was out in minutes and spend her time playing with the jump rope.

At 4 we packed up and went to visit Vitalik's parents at their datcha. On the way we picked up Corona beers and smoked mini-sausages. Vitalik asked for Coronas. We were surprised - with the plentitude of some of the best beers in the world, Coronas?? However the family really liked the exotic delicacy :) Will remember to bring more of them next time. We had a great time - it is awesome to go there, always. The only thing, Vitalik gave us the access code to enter their gated community. When we arrived and saw the gates, there did not seem any place to punch in the code. We walked around looking for the code place and did not find anything. We tried calling Vitalik and then Diana but their phones were off. Just when Dan was ready to climb the fence to walk over to datcha and ask for help I found the code plate on the inside of the gates.

Day 14 - Druskininkai

In the morning we checked the weather and it still looked pretty bleak. 70% chance of the rain in Vilnius, 60% in Kaunas. However the weather bug said it was 0% chance of rain in Druskininkai. So that was it. Dan had his quick morning run to the collector hill and picked up some bandeles on the way. After that we drove off to understand what the droves of elderly Israeli tourists arriving here in chartered planes come for.

It is about 126km southwest of Vilnius. The road was pretty scenic -tall wild flowers, pine and birch forests, and an occasional horse or cow sunbathing in a field. We stopped once and Dan got a bag of wild strawberries. Hurray! They are here.

When we arrived to Druskininkai, at first we were not sure if we already passed through town until we reached the Holy Virgin Mary Scapular Church. The word scapular did not sit well with me for some reason. So I looked it up later (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scapular) but it does not seem to explain that the whole combination of words mean.

First we stopped at the tourist information office. They are here about every 1km. We got the directions for the sculpture park to go to afterwards and a mini In Your Pocket guide for Druskininkai. Rough Guide for Baltics is next to useless when it comes to the detailed information about smaller towns. Then we stopped at the local version of Svejais Bandeles. Theirs were 4 times the size and just as great tasting.

Finally we were ready to explore. Walked around the Druskonis lake and down the Ciurlionio

gatve to Liepu gatve. The old wooden houses are intermixed with occasional neo-classical buildings and Soviet cement uglinesses. The town had a thoroughly provincial feel to it and did not feel like much of the resort town, other than more plentiful than usual souvenir and jewelry shops. We stopped to take some pictures near the Russian Orthodox Church. Really tiny and pretty. I liked the frescos of the chubby baby angel heads sitting on the tiny dove bodies.

Next was the final highlight of town - Laives alley. (Sorry, skipped the museums) Their version of the shopping/walking alley had metal kiosk type shops, with the old wooden houses behind. Some were selling cheap plastic trinkets, label imitations, and mass quality amber jewelry. There were some futuristic looking Soviet era sanatories on the left and on the right.

We passed between them and walked out to Nemunas river. The area near the river where all the major sanatories were coming out to was well developed with good walking paths, occasional coffee kiosks, statues, and sitting nooks. We walked around a little and headed out to get to some of the out of town activities.

First we wanted to see Svendubre. We looked at the map from the guide we bought, it showed just the general direction of town. We drove until it started to look like the Byelorussian border was approaching and turned around. It would have been really helpful to have the real road map. Will remedy it when we are back in Vilnius.

Next, we followed excellent directions provided at the information office to get to Cesnulis Sculpture Park. It is a really beautiful park with lots of interesting areas. Pictures really tell a good story.



What was striking is the attention to detail and creativeness of the author. He carved an entire village including the different homes with people of different trades, the lake with a rain spewing snake monster, and a little covered hut with a pressure activated floor. Once Dan and Georgia got inside, dance music had started and the water snake started making water, and the carved figures on dancers inside the hut started dancing. There was also a dragon and St.George. Dragon had a proximity sensor on it. When people approached, it started making clicking noise, and light lit up in its mouth representing the flames. It was very cute and 70s like. At the end of the village there was a carved group of moonshiners making and testing their product.

After that we were off to the Gruto Parkas. Read the description on the link. It provides a pretty good idea on the feeling one gets after getting out of the park. On one hand there is excellent collection of propaganda, repression, and genocide (including that of green brothers) documentation, a full collection of Lenins, Stalins, and some other people from the major cities in Lithuania.


On the other hand, there are also statues of Marx and Engels (those theoretics), DOSAAF lottery bus where one could win real Soviet era momentos, shooting range bus, beautiful abstract color glass murals, where it is hard to make out what was going on, a working KVAS barrel and a carbonated water machine, the latter one for some reason had stuffed real bunny sitting on top, and restaurant waiters wearing pioneer scarfs. Now, add to it one of the biggest and complete playground I have ever seen, where seasaws were intermixed with the real machine guns, a mini zoo with animals in incredible quantities. Imagine a cage with no less than 100 guinea pigs in it fighting over a dandelion that you slip inside. Maybe there was a message behind it too? Incidentally one of the propaganda rooms, fully furnished with the rich selection of newspapers, projectors, photos, stories, busts, and such also was playing "Nu Pogodi" cartoon, the cult Tom and Jerry rip off that several generations of people in the entire country had grown up with. A hell of the message in that one.

The starting and finishing impression at the entrance to the museum really said it all: on the left there was real train car on which the people were taken to Siberia and tortured, on the right there was a fence in front of what we assumed to the front lawn of the millionnaire owner of the park with a real zebra grazing on it. Later we could also make out a camel, some rheas, and a kangaroo. We could only imagine that the hyppo is in the covered pool of the actual house.

I guess the park creator gathered anything and everything that was rapidly and randomly disposed of by the people in the country that was recently liberated and was seeking to find its identity. It included some real objects of oppression, and some objects that were brought there as a part of building the unified infrastructure and common base of consumer products - like the carbonated machine and quality heavy iron fence whose only fault was having a star on it. It is good that he preserved all of these things and even tried to make some sense out of them. And it was clear that not all of them make sense.

But in the end it was a good business decision as I imagine this is one of those requisite places that all the Lithuanian children must go to, and good number of adults too. At a whooping 20lt entry fee, the owner should be raking up enough to have those guinea pigs well fed. Compared to its counterpart, the museum of oppression in Riga, this one was interesting, entertaining, and multidimentional.

We drove off perplexed. As we approached Vilnius, we arranged to meet for dinner with Sasha, Vika, Klim and Lisa at the giant kibinai place right on the Trakai road. The place was really impressive. Georgia and Lisa had a blast in a little children's corner and running around the enormous restaurant. Kibinai were not stellar but it was good to sit down, relax and catch up. We finished off the catching up at our home, having stocked up on more beer and sweets.

Day 13 - The streets behind the post office

In the morning we continued our exploring. We found a bookstore that sold large books in English - mostly photo, art, travel, and cooking. It is on Traku and is called Humanatas or something. There were lots of people inside.

On the way we looked inside the courtyard on Ogminiu gatve. There was a little airplane hanging in the air. We walked inside to see more, but it was the usual courtyard with crumbing walls, some decaying sheds, and patches of peony bushes. Maybe the plane belongs to the gallery that is located there.

We ended up covering the streets behind the post office and up to the opera therater. Buildings are less well repaired and less nicer looking than in the old city. There was noticeable quantity of the private objyn/urology offices compared to the other places.

We did find an interesting restaurant for lunch on Syrvido. Don't know about the food quality but it is set on the first floor in a really beautiful building. We saw the chalkboard menu but no other signs. We walked through the two sets of very heavy doors at the entrance and then hit a building receptioninst booth. The setting inside was heavy duty luxury of the before the war type - guilded wall decorations, opera house quality chandeliers, and a massive wrought iron staircase. Pretending to look like the belong we went behind the staircase, and, at the end of the corridor, having passed some offices with buzzing computers and copymachines found another heavy door. There was a sign of in "Kavine ... Clubas" and some other word in the middle. We walked inside and saw a pretty comfortable eatery with few remaining signs of luxury including the large mirrors and large windows with excellent views of the back of the post office. I asked the bartentender lady whether the Kavine was only for the club members and she said no, anyone can come. Hurray, we will be back.

We noticed people walking around with produce bags from the little valley on the Vienuolio Gatve. Turns out that in addition to the regular flower market they also had some farmer mini-buses come in and sell their wares. There was one of each - raw meat, cheeses, sausages, fruit, and vegetables. City folk were responding gloriously to it. There were long lines to each bus. What a good idea. I wonder if they do it every day. We never ventured this far on Gediminas during lunch, would be nice to check it out.

We made our orders at the Wok to Walk - Georgia wanted rice for lunch. Dan joined us in a few minutes and we had a nice lunch there. They had another guy from Asia and the same girl operate the woks. They still had not resolved the speed issue but we got lucky. When we came in, there was a bunch of girls studying the food ordering plan in front of us and several people waiting for their food. As we stood there contemplating leaving because the wait would translate into at least a half an hour, the girls decided against Wok and walked out. Within minutes the waiting crowd got their orders and so it was just us :) As we ate, we watched another marvel of efficiency - a Coca Cola truck came and their delivery guy must have made 15 trips back, and forth each time carrying one case of Coke products.

The number of tourists seems higher than last year. There are especially many tourist groups from Poland.

At the Cathedral square they had set up a small stage and chairs getting ready to make the presentation of something related to the lower castle. Possibly a dedication. There was a sign in Lithuanian on the wall. That might explain why they had tried to finish at least the front of the building so frantically in the 2 weeks prior.

In the afternoon we walked up to Subaciaus gatve to take a look at the contruction progress. Last year they were rebuilding the Subaciaus gate at it was beginning to look very beautiful. However, unfortunately no further progress had been made, at least on the outside. It is very sad - this is the year of the Vilnius Culture and crisis had interfered with the conclusion of these projects that would make the city even better looking.

It was raining and we were hoping to walk to Carskoje Selo on Savanoriu. But we did not get very far - Georgia was starting to get cold. So we looked for the pizza place on Gedimino. Cilli Pica and Cancan Pizza were full so that left Pizza Jazz, the place where we last were on the girls night out. This time the place had plenty of men and children too. Right away Georgia got hot chocolate to warm up. It was more like a hot dark chocolate mousse, similar to the one they have in the tiny place on the Harvard square, and totally awesome when we were allowed a quick supervised tasting. Dan and I got our pizza, and Georgia got hers - with a smilie face done in ketchup. It sounds a bit like a sin, but we seem OK here eating pizza with ketchup and salsa.

There was not a lot to do in the rain so we returned home. Our apartment owners were still there finishing their cleaning. They've brought two brand new garbage cans for the bathrooms when they had noticed that we were using adopted water bottles there. Very attentive. Nona said that they are strugging to find enough people to stay in the apartment. 2-3 year rentals to the embassy employees is a thing of the past. She is advertising in the "In Your Pocket" and it seems to be bringing back some short term summer leads, but nothing solid for the fall and winter months.

Day 12 - Vilnoja sculpture park, some parts of it

In the morning we went to the youth park. Georgia enjoyed hanging out with other kids. There were also some school kids on the day trip so it was a full playground.

Almost forgot, on the way there we stopped by St.Anne's church and got up on the lawn to take pictures. Georgia sat down on the grass. And then we got attacked by the Taiwanese tourists again. About 50 of them. They were snapping like crazy. Georgia got up and ran to me and as they turned on us both I got a taste of what it feels like to have your picture taken by the crowds. I now totally empathize with famous people chased by paparazzi. We wanted to be nice and there was no way out. They were blocking the back of the lawn and I was not sure I would be able to jump with from the tall ledge Georgia at the front. So Georgia did a heroic thing and stood still posing for a few minutes so they could take their shots. Then we started inching our way out. A few were still not done as they wanted some pictures in motion as well. They chanted "Achu, achu" and offered Georgia candies, gum, and even sunflower seeds on our way out. Ah, she is getting used to fame from the early childhood.

Georgia resisted a lunch walk and we settled for the copycat soup and bun place located in the basement of conservatory. It had the air of the orphan home and we felt like we were intruding of the starved students lined up for their sour pickle soup and kibinai. We grabbed some kibinai and sausage buns and left. Georgia refused to walk the final portion of the way and Dan carried her as she started working on her sausage bun.

At home I made the first unsuccessful attempt to prepare the Lithuanian Cold Beet Soup (http://www.soupsong.com/rbeet5.html). Apparently if the beets are too sweet it is bad. How do you find the less-sweets beets? Ours were the size of small apples. Maybe they should be more like the size of the plum? Anyway, I neutralized mine with some bologna and lots of salt, which is OK for the one not born here. Dan would not do such sacrelige. So I will be finishing his tomorrow.

In the afternoon we went to Vilnoja Sculpture park (http://www.stoneart.lt/en/). It is on route 171, on the way to Kernave, about 20km short. After a really wonderful day it started to rain in Vilnius but we thought we might get lucky outside the city and dropped in to pick up Alicia and went.

And for the moment it seemed like it worked - the sky got clearer as we approached the park. But as soon as we got out it started to rain. The weather had caught up with us. We walked to the lake and got to see some for the sculptures before it was clear that we had turn around. The park and the lake are beautiful. There are lots of T&A and lots of statues that are without either and are still very nice. There was a small bathhouse near the lake with acovered patio and a grill. It was rented at the moment by the group of Polish tourists who got stuck in the park because their unionized driver had hit an 8 hour driving mark (This place is about 15km short of Vilnius). Based on the amount of booze every person we met carried in their hands they were going to use the down time well. A few though had opted in for the water bikes. Either they started early or they were at the point that the rain did not matter anymore or both but they kept going.

We spoke to the really friendly and courteous man who was probably the hotel owner at the lake and he told us about the tourists and also said to call anytime to reserve the bathhouse, umbrellas, grills, tables or anything else we would like. They had dinner prepared for the Polish tourists at the hotel that they offered to us but we did not want the selection so got on our way. We are totally coming back!!!

We stopped in about 1km at what looked like a roadside restaurant. They had a few cars parked outside. There was a large playground like it usually is around the places like that. And there was a sign of a fisherman getting a fish. Dan sent me in to investigate. The restaurant is very cozy inside - all wood with an old tiled fireplace. The way they work is either you catch your fish at the lake behind the restaurant or they catch it for you within 20-30 minutes with the help of the dynamite (kidding about that last part). And then they prepare the fish for you in the way you choose. It sounded exciting too but we weren't ready to fish in the rain and did not want them to either.

So we kept going and very shortly reached the watering hole of Vilnius - Acropolis mill restaurant. It was not anything thrilling, nor did they pretend it would be. At least we had investigated a great way to spend another afternoon or the whole day.

Day 11 - Refining Palanga plans and a day trip for tomorrow

In the morning we walked to the playground next to the building where we used to live. Georgia recognized it and our building too. The playground had suffered some damage in the past year. One of the swings is done, the little merry-go-around sounds like a dental drill, and the sand is all kitty litter. But Georgia enjoyed hanging out with other kinds. That's one thing she seems to be really missing. None of them seem to understand each other but they don't seem to mind.

After that we went to the market and got greedy from all the smells. We got strawberries, sour cherries, grapes, and thin little sausages - thinner than a pinky. And we also got 3 bouquets of daisies. Georgia was very happy about that. She carried the whole bunch and was very pround. Tourists made comments. As we walked we identified three more potential eateries for lunch in the days ahead. And disqualified a few too.

At home Georgia set out to systematically consume the fruit. It was worth it to be consumed this fast. Next time I will put plastic bags all around her though, and keep her away from the wall paper.

On the way out to lunch we saw an incredible thing. There is a theater large poster stand on Pilies. They decided to advertise the upcoming performance of the Romanov ballet and put a live ballerina into the glass stand. She was dancing with the music and everything. It was like watching a human sized ballerina toy in a musical box. This was incredibly creative.

Then we walked out to Tomazz'Inn - a new eatery on Pilies that promised 9LT pasta in 3 minutes. First we panicked because the waitress said there are no menus in Russian and she seemed unwilling to translate the list from the blackboard. But then she suggested an English menu (oh, the savior). The food did not come in 3 minutes but came in faster than we had expected. We went back and forth with the waitress because they did not have the advertised dumplings in Bolognese sauce, so I ended up getting sweet cheese ravioli in spinach sauce. With some extra salt it is not a bad combination. Dan had a pasta dish that was OK.

During the afternoon we exchanged a few chats with Dina and finalized our Palanga hotel. Really looking forward to it. We will be staying right next to the main street in 2 little apartments next to each other.

Alicia came a little later and we went out together to Cilli Kaima's for dinner. The food was great and the service was excellent - the waitress perfectly emulated the English lady brought up in the best bordering schools. We walked around and saw resident snake and a chicken and a rooster. The only thing, the little brown crawly friend who shall not be named appeared towards the end of the dinner on my table, and ruined the fun. Yak. Never again. I did not want to tell anyone but Dan noticed my change in mood and suggested to move to a cake place next door to finish off our dinner. There, again everything started great, but I got a rotten green hazelnut in my hazelnut cake. It is definitely not my day when it comes to eating. But at least the nut was not crawling.. yet.

We dropped off Alicia at home and Georgia got to see her friends from last year on the playground. Everyone has grown. It is really neat. Not to say that the parties expressed tremedous interest in each other. They looked at each other and went their separate ways. You just don't know with kids..

Georgia said something really funny today. I asked if she wants to grow a really long hair, all the way to the floor like those princesses in the Russian fairytales. She said "No" because she would constantly get it dirty by pooping on it - because it is goes right past her butt. Makes sense.

BTW, "In your pocket" review of Zoe's is downright trippy. Should have given us some clues.

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.

Day 9 - All over the town

Today we had ambitious goals for the morning: find the book Dan was looking for, burn calories for the past week of overeating and underwalking, draw the Gediminas statue that stands on the Catherdal square, and find new eateries.

Georgia figured that I will be walking her to death this morning and tried to stay in with any excuse. Once we did go outside she tried to sit her butt down on any sittable surface on the way. But I prevailed in the end.

We visited 4 book stores looking for the book and had the most luck in the University book store. They had a related book and we got it for completeness sake. The cashier/information lady at the door was pretty unhelpful and said they don't have anything like it. We said thank you and went inside. Inside there was another information booth and the guy who was working there was much better. He walked us to the history shelf and showed the related book. And tried to help with suggestions on where we can find what we are looking for.

Next we slipped in unnoticed into the courtyard of the Italian department of the university. A connecting courtyard offers a nice view of the courtyard (yet another one) inside the President's Palace. This was pretty neat. Georgia really liked the mystery and forgot for the time to sit down.

We walked down some of the backpaths of the old town where we haven't walked before keeping in mind our final goal. On the way we also went inside the Japanese garden in the first courtyard on Pilies (the one that has Rioja sign outside). I wrote about it in our blog last year. This year we wanted to see if we could go inside the store. But it was the same story again. Inside there was a bunch of middle aged ladies getting high off the smell of paint as they were practicing drawing with Japanese brushes and leafing through the Asian art albums. Seriously. They had the door closed and everything. We did not want to break their reverie and left.

On the way we stopped by the store in the same courtyard that sold gifts in "non-traditional" style. A lady who could easily be my mom not for piecings and tattoos on her face and alternating shaved and colored head sections met us at the door and said that the store is closed today, to open tomorrow. Closed on Monday, just like a museum. With so many people sporting piercings all over their face here, if that's what they offer, they may as well switch to "traditional" here. Unless there is something really untraditional inside.

After that we sat down on the monument in the Cathedral square and Georgia made a painting. She was supposed to color the picture I was asked to do for her - King Gediminas and the Princess. But I stupidly drew him with a sword so that was rejected. Next we walked around Ogminiu and Totoriu gatves trying to complete our plan. Zoe's grill review coming up soon. We finished at Vaga and waited for Dan to join us for lunch.

Somehow several paragraphs got eaten when I saved this post last. I was saying that we had lunch at Pilies Kepyklele, the wonderful pastry place on Pilies. Georgia and I opted in straight for the cake. Though she did help herself to Dan's omelette. In the afternoon we walked around the backstreets surrounding our building. And in the evening we walked along the river and enjoyed the nice weather. As did many other people as well.

On the subject of the "tough economic times" here, to use DanR's favorite quote. It is noticeable. There are more drunks in old town, service is way nicer in the restarants, and homeless guy from last year who wandered the streets with a Maxima bag is still around only now he talks to himself. Some of the construction projects that were in progress when we were here last are still at the same stage. Vitalik and Dina painted a pretty bleak picture too. But, at least, the country is not at war. I bet things were worse even as recently as in early 90s. And none of us certainly had lived during the war times.

We have a big walk coming up tomorrow so will drop off early - it is only midnight.

Here are 2 mystery objects along the river. Any guesses welcome.