Knowing nothing about this seemingly forgotten country when we arrived Lithuania turned out to be a small but captivating nation and one
that grew on us both the longer we stayed. I was
keen to learn some facts about it and some of the more quirky discoveries included:
- Lithuania was the first nation to announce its
independence from the Soviet Union.
- ‘The Baltic Way’ was a peaceful protest against
communism when 2 million people from Vilnius to Tallinn held hands and stretched
600 km across the Baltic states!
- It has the oldest living European language and
is connected with Sanskrit
- Everyone was given a free woollen t-shirt to
convert from Paganism to Christianity, a lot of people converted regularly in
the winter months.
- It used to be the biggest nation in Europe in
the 1400’s before being carved up by surrounding European powers.
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| The centre of Vilnius |
We had planned on visiting a few
places in Lithuania, starting in the capital, Vilnius, before heading towards
the Baltic Sea. Vilnius was a very green
city and although small (unsurprisingly for a country of just 3 million people)
it had an attractive old town and it turned out to be one of the most eccentric
cities we have explored. The baroque style old town is a UNESCO heritage site and
with its cobbled roads, hill top views and its own breakaway state all within
the city limits it proved to be an engaging start to our visit to Lithuania. We ended up staying in a beautiful hostel
called the
Downtown Forest Hostel and with Dylan playing when we arrived and
free coffee it provided a perfect base to explore the surrounding areas. Winter days in Vilnius are short and the
afternoons quickly fall away into darkness into an all-consuming cold so most
of our exploring was done before 4 o’clock (although the city is beautifully
lit up at night). Unfortunately we
arrived on a bank holiday and as the museums were shut Monday and Tuesday we
decided to venture to a small village close to the city for a day trip. Exploring
the city with a local we learnt that Vilnius was not the straight laced city it
appeared and that the President was not to be messed with as she holds a black
belt in karate. One former mayor of the
city won an Ig Noble prize, a parody of the noble prize which aims to honour
achievements that at first make people laugh and then make them think. Annoyed at the continued abuse of the cities
bike lanes
HE DROVE A TANK over the top of a car parked in a bike path leading
to numerous cars in the capital displaying a bumper sticker reading ‘Don’t make
me get my tank’.
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| The original nomad |
My highlight of Vilnius was
exploring the self-proclaimed republic of Užupis, established on April Fool’s
day with a ‘parliament’ set in a bar (where you can get your passport stamped) complete
with a president, anthem, flag and an army of 12 people. It proudly displays its
constitution in 24
different languages on a wall when entering the district. Highlights of the constitution include: Everyone
has the right to die, but this is not an obligation: Everybody has the right to
look after a dog until one of them dies: Everyone has the right to understand nothing. Around the peculiar district are a number of
unique monuments with my favourite being a statue representing Jesus as the
first nomad, showing a smiling Christ with a backpack on. The centre piece of the district is a huge
column that the residents initially could not afford to place a symbol on so
they placed a brightly painted egg on the top in the hope an angel would rise
from it. It did, and the monument is now
the symbol of the district. As you would
expect from an eccentric Republic it has a number of amusing stories.
Celebrating its creation on April Fool’s Day a miracle occurred when rather
than the tap in front of the column pouring water beer suddenly flowed from it,
providing everyone with free booze for the celebrations. Without doubt this is the single greatest
miracle that has occurred since Jesus turned water into wine and Nottingham
Forest won the European Cup (twice).
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| The lake and castle at Trakai |
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| Trakai Lake |
Having seen the main city sites
that were open we headed out of the city to the picturesque village of Trakai, where quaint
wooden houses were set around an impressively restored red brick castle set on an Island on the lake. The town itself is built on a thin strip of
land and surrounded on both sides by water creating a very different and
beautiful setting. We had been warned
before travelling that we would inevitably get tired of museums and churches at
some point on our trip and the castle proved to be one such occasion. Although it was great to explore the castle
and look out across the surrounding lakes the information displayed around the
castle seemed to have been written by somebody with verbal diarrhea and so we
skipped past most of the over the top and repetitive signs. Part of the reason for going to the lake was
to visit the last of the Karaite people, who originate in Baghdad and study
scriptures both in Hebrew and Arabic.
They were brought to originally serve as bodyguards for the Grand Duke
but with only a few families remaining their traditions are growing out. As interesting as this is they also make a
Kibinai which is basically a minced pork and herb pasty. As a
connoisseur of all things pastry related we went to a beautifully restored
lakeside restaurant and had the best lunch of the trip, eating a mushroom soup
(made of freshly picked wild mushrooms by the owner) and a Kibinai. Having lived almost opposite the Greggs
factory in Newcastle, spent my youth in Cornwall and explored Pachuca in Mexico
(the second home of Cornish pasties) I feel qualified to claim that it was the
best pasty in the world. Armed with my
take away pasties we headed back to Vilnius having had a great day out in a
traditional village with another strange yet amazing element to Lithuania culture
discovered.
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| A pig in shit |
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