After the attempted murder in Latvia I was glad to be on my way to Vilnius (Lithuania) after a big and much anticipated breakfast (as I had missed out on it the day before). Lithuania was another country in had no real preconceived ideas about- I mean it’s just not a country that you generally hear all that much about. Anyhow, another early start we were off, a slight but recommended detour on the road to Vilnius took us to a place known as “the hill of crosses”. To put it mildly it was bloody brilliant.
The story goes:
Many many years ago a farmer guy had a very sick daughter who was very much close to death. He prayed and prayed for her to be saved and one night he had a vision of a saint or Mary or someone biblical telling him to go to a certain hill and put up a cross. He obeyed, and on his return home he was met by his daughter- fully recovered! It’s a miracle! Etc. etc….. He told everyone about this and the site became a bit of a pilgrimage site for the faithful. They erected crosses in the memory of loved ones, they erected crosses to show their faith, and they erected them in hope of a miracle too. Apparently during the time that Lithuania was occupied by the Russians and the Germans during the war and suchlike it became an important site. Faithful Lithuanians risked their lives to put more and more crosses there to show their faith and their unity in the face of the occupation. Nice story huh? At the time I was there I would have to say that there were approximately about a gazillion crosses there. Approximately lots and lots: big ones, small ones, wooden ones, metal ones, simple ones, giant ornately carved ones, crosses from all over the world. It was eerie, because there was so many hanging off each other and piled on top of each other you could get lots in them in the tangled maze of pathways. The wind blew them and they rattled strangely and it was a kind of spooky sound that filled the silence. It was definitely worth the visit.
We arrived in Vilnius in the afternoon. It is a sunny, bright and cheerful town. We did a short walking tour and were then left to our own devices. I decided to go exploring by myself and had a brilliant time getting lost. For such a small city centre I managed to do this surprisingly easily. I did see some lovely sights though. In the centre of town they have a fort like thing on a hill. You can catch a cable train car thing to the top and then climb to the top of the fort. I of course am a sucker for stairs so I went up and got a lovely view of the city. It was worth the steps!
After a little more exploring I met some of the others and we went out for dinner. I think I can say quite confidently based on my dinner that Lithuanians make excellent Japanese food which is both delicious and very reasonably priced. After this we walked back to the hotel and a small group of us had a “lets use up a lot of the cheap vodka we bought in Russia” party outside at the bus. Good times, excellent vodka!
Tomorrow I’m on the home stretch of the trip. Poland.
