Day 27 - Dinner in front of the prison

We went to the youth park in the morning for communication purposes :) On the way we passed French tourists. One of them went into his pocket and pulled out some candies aiming to give them to Georgia. I said "Absolutely Not" and we kept going.

Where do people get such ridiculous habits? It is wrong on so many levels. Starting with developing expectations in children that strangers would give them candies and it is OK to accept them and go begging for some more. Now send in a child molester and you could start getting children to do things for you for candies. It's besides the point that mom (me) was walking next to the kid at the time and I might not be OK with it. And the kid could be diabetic. And I don't know of any kids in this country whose parents could not afford to get their kids candy. I've seen gypsies beg for bread, cheese and other things at fairs and invariably get them from the stall owners so there is always a way. When we were traveling in India kids did beg for candies or ANYTHING. Undoubtedly it was the tourists that got them used to this humiliating behavior.

Two more thoughts on to add to this long ramble. What would this guy think if someone offered candies to his kids in his country? And, it somehow felt different from Taiwanese tourists offering Georgia candies for allowing to take a picture of her as a way of thanks. They are also probably used to this being OK in their country. But in either case this is not acceptable. Incidentally Georgia does not very much like tourists. She says "Here is another flock" and tries to stay away.

Anyway, off to the youth park we went. One the way we made another stop and walked into the St. Anne's church. It had been beautifully restored, the walls freshly plastered. Medieval stations of the cross hang on the walls. Somehow I expected to see exposed red brick inside as well. It is very pretty but not as outstanding on the inside as it is on the outside.

At the park we met the lady I spoke with during my last visit - she is a Russian living in Germany and married to a German who got some contract work in Lithuania. She has 2 kids, one the same age as Georgia. So they live here now, in the old town as well. She gave me a little update about the daycare Georgia went to last year since her younger kid is going there now. They were hit with the crisis pretty bad and much of their funds were cut. In the summer they had to send most teachers on unpaid leave. Georgia's age group was now condensed from three groups and consisted of 30 children with only one teacher. When they take naps they have to do it in separate rooms and the teacher has to run between the rooms maintaining the order. Plus parents are responsible for utilities, cleaning, and have to bring the toilet paper for their kid. Pretty grim picture. Not sure why she is still keeping her kid here if she does not work. I think she is secretly relishes the post-Soviet experience. She could go back to Germany, even if she gets unemployment there and support for kids to go to school it should be more comfortable there.

For lunch we went Trattoria Da Antionio on Pilies. We kept passing by this place and decided to finally honor its superior location. Well, we were not fans of Italian and the place did nothing to turn us into them. The usual breakdown of dishes: pizza, pasta, and lasagna that we ordered was so so. Plus, they bring bread only to priveledged customers and we had to ask for ours especially. There were some foreigners in the place, oh, well, we were there too. For the last time.

In the evening we were invited to Diana and Jonas on who live Kražių g. We started out early and walked past Jaksto again and checked out the soup place. They only have soups and salad but the place smells really good so we will be back. We continued on Kastonu - another beautiful street. They also have the second branch of the orphan kibinai. Definitely a great street. We passed the church of St. Philip and James on the way. It is almost as big as the cathedral but looks pretty delapidated and we did not see an information plaque. There is very little useful info about it on the Internet.

Beautiful houses on Savickio Gatve:

We walked past Dan's school, and the prison, and then onto Kražių a few blocks away. When we found the right house an old lady wearing a pink terry bathrobe over her clothes came out and started screaming something to us in Lithuanian. Because we did not understand anything we started to take out the beer, the cake, and Georgia from the stroller aiming to walk right past her into the house. Jonas saved the day. He appeared out of the doorway and distracted the old lady while we walked up the strairs to the second floor into Jonas' and Diana's cozy apartment.

They got it fully furnished. The owner went to the extreme lengths to utilize every bit of the small room and built out attic. The kitchen had custom made cabinets to fit the irregular shape of the wall. There were beautiful arches with shelves build in, and even the bathroom located in the attic seemed roomy with all the extra storage space and beautiful design.

Diana was nervous cooking what must be one of her first dinners as a hostess. Everything turned out great. In about 50 minutes Vitalik and his family, and Alisa, and Jonas showed up. Jonas had been holding up the pink lady all this time. She has nothing to do and spies on people who come in and knows everything about people in the building and the surrounding ones. And once she latches on to someone, there is no way out.

We had a great time sipping beer (yes, they have something for me in almost every brand) and eating little sausages in front of the large flat screen TV and watching cartoons.

Day 26 - Lithuanian Energy Museum

As promised we started the day at the Lithuanian Energy Museum on Rinktines 2. It used to be a coal-burning plant before it got replaced with the nuclear and Ukrainan gas altervatives. There isn't that many signs and we were the only visitors wandering around the giant halls in the three story space where they still had boilers, turbines, pipes, and giant panels with the sensor outputs, and lots of buttons, dials, and switches. They forgot to turn on the light in all the rooms so occasionally we could not go to some places because we could not find the switch to turn the lights on. It looked pretty cool, but obviously an engineer would be able to actually make sense of any of it. The ideal audience would be an engineer accompanied by a bunch of 7-10 year olds - there is a wealth of the narrow metal staircases to climb, dials and knobs to turn.

Georgia was initially excited by all the colorful pipes but got bored pretty soon. They had a nice recorded glass making demostration and that caught her interest for some time. She also enjoyed opening up the numerious drawers of the chest where different letters for the nearby printing press were kept. They also have one of the best interractive children's rooms I have ever seen. Definitely worth a visit.

Next, we met up with Dan and went to the market. We ran out of the farmer cheese. By now, we figured out how to limit the time between going to the food stores to 2 days but it seems impossible to buy food for a week like we used to in US. Either milk runs out, or bread, or cream cheese, or farmer cheese. And you can't really consume them at the equal pace and neither can you buy larger stock because it goes bad very fast. But it is fun to go to the store and try out different things. Incidentally we still could not find a good local cream cheese. We tried many of the local varieties, and embarrasingly stopped at Philadelphia.

For lunch we had the orphan kibinai with chicken soup. The lady who works there recognizes us already. She asked if she should save some kibinai for us for tomorrow.

Alicia called on her cell to say that her phone stopped working. We went to her house in the afternoon and Dan fixed it. The phone jack fell out of the wall, probably one of the cats tripped over it and Alicia was afraid to mess with the wiring. The cats were not expecting us, unfortunately to us. The cat can be a wonderful loving companion, just not in those quantities.

On the way back, Georgia tried to convince me to do a role playing game with her. I always get to be the villain so I resisted.

- Mom, do you want to be a robber?

- No.

- Maybe the Maleficent?

- No.

- Then you will be the Cuticle.

She actually said it in all Russian and it was funnier:

- Мама, ты будешь разбойником?

- Нет.

- Может быть тогда Зловрединой.

- Нет.

- Тогда ты будешь Заусеница.

Day 25 - Various little discoveries

We set out in the morning determined to find Irmanto Sriubos soup place on A.Jakšto g. 7. Having finally found the street on Google Map it was a matter of getting past all the diversions on the way. We found a cute winere building on Ogminiu - they have a giant corkscrew stuck in the equally giant cork at the entrance.


Then we watched the tourists do crazy thing at Stebuklas on the Cathedral square. The link provides detailed instructions for stepping on the good luck tile in the square and getting your wish fulfilled. The tour guides take sadistic joy in having the tourists crawl on all fours around the tile, jump on one foot, or even kneel at the damn thing. None of those actions clearly result in any wish fullfillment and look really silly on the elderly.

Georgia found this commercial booth next to the Cathedral that had wads of 100 lita banknotes come up in the air and down. Basically if you drink their beer you can win wads of cash. Georgia said that when she will grow up she will drink lots of beer so that she would win.


The rain last night was as intense as it sounded. It knocked off many insects off the trees and killed them. Georgia kept finding the little corpses and pointing them out to me. City in general looked pretty beaten up. Other than small hordes of self-abusive tourists there was hardly a person on the streets at noon. Well to be precise, there were a few people wearing the oak wreaths on their heads coming from the direction of the river on account of today being St. John's. In retrospect we really should have checked out the venues on the rivers today.

Almost everything in the center was closed. Other than pizza restaurants and a couple of clothing stores. We walked over Jakšto and admired the beautiful buildings there. Never been on this street before. We found the soup place and it was closed.

We called Dan and headed over to the soup and kibinai place next door. Other than the miserly office worker we were the only customers - I assume for the day. Georgia really likes kibinai and prefers them over any other lunch food. At first she only ate the dough, and later started eating the meat. And today she wanted Saltibarsciai with that too. The transformation is complete.

At home I had completed the plans for our upcoming trips: next week we are going to Palanga, the following weekend to Riga, and on the Wednesday that follows we are going to Poland. After that, there are less than two left until we go back home. We also have some plans for the immediate future. We are going to Kazio Varnelio museum next week. They open the museum by appointment only, and the curator was very good to offer the tour for the three of us. Maybe technology museum tomorrow.

We've been trying to find the tour of the crypts and so far found only one company. I wrote to them. However when I was looking I found the unofficial digger organization of LT: http://ginklai.net/tunelis/churches/index.en.html. The site has some nice pictures and info about the crypts and other such places around the country.

Alicia came for dinner and we went to Graf Zeppelin. Happy to report that continued exploration of their menu brought very positive results. So far everything here has been great. And the average dinner dish is very reasonable 19LT. The same enticing 1930s music as the last time was playing during the dinner. I asked the waiter who that was and he brought out the disk of Max Raabe. We went home and found more of it on YouTube. On this one, the music and the song are combined with a video so violent that it is almost comical: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wNmBWHPQ00.

It was a good day.

Day 24 - Picnic on the second beach

In the morning we took off to buy a birthday present for Ilyusha at Zaislu Planeta on Gediminas. On the way we stopped near some low growing trees for Georgia to practice her tree climbing skills. She really liked it and repeated the experiment on her own a few more times on the way back.

At the toy store I got Georgia a Bratz doll, her first one while we were at it. I am way behind on the dolls. Apparently this model has removable shoes with feet. Basically the feet and a small portion of the leg below the knee is replaceable. It was somewhat creepy to play Cinderella. "Oh, wait, princess, you lost your shoe.. and your foot."

We decided to skip on the torture museum for now because we were not sure how Georgia would react. And how we would explain all the interesting exhibits also. So we had a quick lunch at home and walked around for a half an hour. The weather was perfect - really comfortable and warm.

Towards the end of the afternoon, Vitalik confirmed the location of the birthday party - the second beach. We got there in about 15 minutes and met up with his family and a few others. The kids and adults had a really good time. It is the night of St. Johns and there will be a day off in LT tomorrow so the beach was full with families cooking meat on skewers or just having some beers.

Later in the evening some singing started up the river but we could not see who was doing it. The best way to celebrate the holiday would be to spend the night at Kernave where they would be jumping over bondfires and doing interesting rituals in the night. Unfortunately we were too tired to go. Will try to find some footage after the fact on YouTube.

P.S. Finishing off at 11:45. Just heard weird sounds outside and went out on the balcony. It was pouring like there is no tomorrow - complete wall of rain. There were some screams coming from the city - probably some people were caught by surprise. Brilliant decision to end the evening at home. Still, it would be nice to check the footage of what happened tomorrow.

P.P.S. A note for the Russian speakers here. Georgia used a brand her expression today. Not sure where that came from: Как меня всё достало!

Day 23 - St. Peter & Paul & the neighborhood

In the morning we did the youth park. Nothing special there. Some girls tried to talk to Georgia in Lithuanian. She got really frustrated and said "I don't understand anything." I told her I have the same problem. It is sad that when she is in the mood for socializing with other kids, there are none around that speak the same language. Met a girl called Liepa. It means July and Linden tree. It takes some getting used to because the other meanings in Russian get in the way of the beauty of the name.

For lunch we went to the Dolce Vita on Traku. They had a really good cold borsht, though Dan did not like his because it had cilantro in it. I could hardly taste it so it was good. Then we had a "house made dumplings" - they really should have stuck with the store variety. In general, would not recommend it. The service is way too slow - we waited for 30 minutes for the dumpings. Even I could do them faster than that.

We were waiting for Alicia for dinner so I tried making saltibarsciai for the third time. It was the charm. Apparently all you have to do is use the kefir especially marked for "saltibarsciai." It is 6% as opposed to the regular variety which is usually around 2.5%. Extra fat gives it the sourness that lemon cannot replicate. All the other ingredients hardly even matter.

Alicia could not come so we headed out in the direction of St. Peter and Paul. I blogged about it last year on the Day 15 so I'll skip the details. It is still one of the most beautiful churches in the world. Then we walked around Dan's childhood park and the surrounding areas for 2.5 hours. It was great. Tomorrow we are off to the museum of torture for lunch. See if it can beat the Dolce Vita.

Day 22 - In Vilnius

We woke up pretty late today and after a quick breakfast headed out to Gediminas - to look at the Green Market. The streets were pretty empty at 11am. I guess the people in town needed to recover from yesterday. The janitors must have a day off - all the garbage cans have overflowed. No beer bottles though.

The Green Market had multiple booths featuring different handicrafts and food just like last year but twice bigger. There were several card readers too. One of them, a really mysterious lady with a black crow tried to charge 5LT for the picture. We could have made a fortune with Georgia at St. Anne's. Incidentally, even though the booths look really scenic and authentic, yesterday we got a glance that at least one of them is not that scenic after all, when they were parked at the city hall. They have big kvas bucket and yesterday one employee was ripping off the labels off the kvas bottles bought in the store, while another one was pouring the bottled into the bucket. So, it is not so homemade.

Deja vu moment:

This lady makes hay figurines. It is incredible how she picks up some hay and starts swisting it in her fingers and before you know it new shapes take shape:

We bought some food for lunch: a big smoked fish, farmer salami ring, fried cheese, cheese cream pastries, and bread kvas (a real one made by the brewery in Uzupis) and went to Alicia. After lunch we came back stuffed once more and very tired and Dan and Georgia went to sleep.

Dan and Georgia woke up at around 6pm and we walked around the town. There were two girls playing gusli and accordion on Pilies. The combination of sounds was really unusual and beautiful.

The Green Market was still on though many vendors had already packed up. Most of the people seemed to be hanging out there because the streets around our apartment were still pretty empty. We walked further along the Gediminas and did a thorough search for Irmanto Sriubos as a possible lunch venue. We looked around the streets reaching up to the Tauro gatve and did not find anything. Only when we returned home I discovered that the place is actually on the other side of Gediminas. Will have to go back and re-check. I find that searching for food places (as a goal) helps to get to know city a lot better and unravel many more interesting places than does the pointless rambling.

Day 21 - Kaunas, Pazaislis, and more Vilnius fun

In the morning we went to Kaunas. Like the last time, we started with the Zoo. The parking spots outside were filled - there were crowds of families going in. Most were buying their kid a balloon with some animal on it. We went for the ice-cream. Don't know if it was the overcast weather or what but this time the zoo hit home like In Your Pocket guide wants it to. Somehow we missed it last time, but with a few exceptions (goats) animals are kept in poor conditions.

The lion and lionness stay in pens 2 lengths of their body long and wide. There are no trees or toys. Bears stay in miserable enclosures made up of crumbling cement and containing foul looking water for them to swim in. Many of them are dirty. Most of the animals were walking back and forth repetitively, which is a sign of distress. And yes, the porcupines from last year are dead. However there are plenty of snack and gift shacks all over the place.

The only animal who seemed to be in good spirits was the sea lion. He was putting on a show of his own. Plunging in the water and gracelessly getting out, washing his face in the water, snorting, and going back in.

Somewhat depressed we drove to the next point - Pazaislis monastery on the outskirts of the town. Despite centuries of abuse, the main church had been restored and is a magnificent sight. Frescoes and beautiful Italian carvings are still there. There are indications that there is a big underground section as well. Unfortunately off limits to the tourists. It is now a functioning monastery and there are nuns scurrying around both the open section and closed sections. They also have extensive grounds with a fruit garden. Georgia got to see her first real haystack.

On the way back to Kaunas we stopped at the Kaunas beach. The water was 17 degrees Celsius. Not so bad. Georgia walked on the sandy beach barefoot. There were just two other families sun bathing but at the marina there was more action with the motor boats. We are looking forward to our July trip to Palanga.

Finally on the Vilnius gatve of Kaunas. It became even more desolate and provincial. Hardly a person on the street at 2pm. If Vilnius hardly had any new developments in the year past, they had even less so, the city is becoming more and more descrepit. The rain caught us on the way and we stopped for lunch at an outdoor restaurant. How come every single eatery in the country, even in Kaunas, figured out how to make the cold borsht and I cannot get it!!

Anyway we reached the town hall square and stayed around for a bit to watch the number one action in town - weddings. There is never fewer than three when we come. Georgia enjoyed looking at the beautiful brides and equally beautiful bridesmaids. And then we went back to Vilnius.

Now that was a place to be. The town was teeming with people. Saturday was the main night of the Cultural Events marathon and there was something taking place at the same time all over. After walking around and sampling various outdoor concerts, we settled in at St. Johns to listen to the violin concert. The church was completely full. We lasted through the first sad piece where the pictures of old Vilnius were shown on the big screen in the front. St. Bernard's church was livelier. They had a band performing there with a lead female singer who had a beautiful voice. It is a pity that the church is still in the same poor state it was years ago.

Next we noticed green carpet arrows in the direction of the college of Fine Arts of the Vilnius University that was right next to St. Anne's. We went in and for several hours wandered through the college rooms, studios, and courtyards which were filled with the pieces of art created by the students. There were some really amazing pieces and some that made me feel for the parents who are paying for it. In general this portion of the university is not very joyous to look at. Maybe it is so to inspire some artistic expression. One of the places we really liked was the beautiful library where the final papers of the students were exhibited.

This is a really neat exhibit: a portal made with identical radios. You can change any station on any of them. They broadcasting stations when we were there and it had a predictable, though interesting sound effect:

After that we continued walking around and sampling other performances well past 10:30pm. In addition to the official performances, anyone who could play anything was showing their skills on Pilies and elsewhere. Near the White Elephant 3 other hapless venues tried to compete. There was the folk concert in the courtyard of St. Katherine's, Shakespeare performance in the courtyard of Vilnius g. 41, and a rock band at Vilnius 39. However the White Elephant had the best speakerphones so everything else had to compete the rare moments of relative silence between the songs at the White Elephant. The old town was filled almost to the bursting point. We would have liked to walk around some some (this was supposed to last until 4am) but we were too tired having been up and about since 8am. Another testament to how well our apartment is positioned and how good the old building is - it is completely soundproof to the sounds outside and inside.

The guy who is selling the paintings of cats on Pilies had this one. Dan and I differred in opinions about what's below woman's butt. Open to your interpretation: