Caliban – Opinion and Righteous Anger

We got a late start this morning. After breakfast, we went CD shopping, which means, of course, that I went CD shopping; Sarah just got bored. I don’t understand why the missus doesn’t have more of an interest in music, but there you have it. Of course, she did take care of the children while I was listening to the local talent, which was much appreciated.

In fact, we didn’t do much of anything today. It was quite a lazy day.

I took the children to a park in the afternoon, while Sarah went shopping for amber.

We must have seen about fifty different newly wedded couples today, replete in full matrimonial regalia. After the wedding ceremony, it’s customary to walk around town with all of your gear on, while your photographer takes photos of you in contrived poses.

We saw couples on the swings at the park; couples walking down the middle of Gedimino gatvé, as if they owned it; couples bending over one another in dashing glamour poses; couples getting married in the cathedral, whilst guided tours milled around; couples here, couples there; couples everywhere.

Another grand tradition here is to affix an engraved padlock to the railings or trellis of a bridge. This signifies the locking of their love. I wonder if the couples also deposit the key with a notary, in the event that they want to toss the padlock into the river when they divorce.

Dinner was shite tonight: bad food and bad service. I had high hopes for the surroundings of Čili Kaimas on Vokiečių gatvé, but it wasn’t to be. The only redeeming factor was the starter: fried bread and cheese. That was great and is a popular snack with beer all over the country.

Tomorrow, we move out of the capital, first west to Trakai, then on to Druskininkai. The drive will put us in the far south of the country, just 8 km from the border with Belarus.

Another busy day of sightseeing today, as there’s a lot to see in this town.

We started to the south, with a number of churches and Aušros Vartai, the Gate of Dawn, which is the only one of the original nine city gates still standing.

That took all morning, so we had lunch at Pilies Kepyklėlė. Mmm, blynai.

After that, we walked down Gedimino gatvé, past the pretigious Gedimino 9 mall, all the way to the parliament building, where concrete barricades and barbed wire used to defend the building against Soviet special forces in January 1991 have been preserved as a chilling reminder of Lithuania’s recent past.

After cake and coffee at AJ Šokoladas, we hurried back along Gedimino gatvé to the Museum of Genocide Victims.

Much like its officially unrelated yet necessarily very related counterparts, the Latvijas Okupācijas Muzejs (Museum of the Occupation of Latvia) and the Okupatsioonide Muuseum (Museum of Occupations) in Estonia, the museum is a chilling document of the oppression of a people under a brutal foreign invader.

The building that houses the museum has served many purposes over the years, and under the Soviets it was the headquarters of the KGB. Consequently, the museum’s cellar features the actual cell block used for holding, interrogating and, inevitably, also torturing and murdering prisoners. It’s a bone-chilling place and I found myself biting my fingernails as I walked from exhibit to exhibit.

Sarah and the children toured the museum in a different order. Eloïse came to find me at one point and announced, “Papa, come and look. There’s a really nice room where some people killed some other people.” Her dispassionate stance was at once both amusing and shocking in its candour. Children are so matter-of-fact.

Emerging from the execution cell into the sunshine of a free and independent Lithuania was a thought-provoking and gratitude-inspiring one.

As I walked back along Gedimino gatvé, two Mormons approached me in an attempt to engage me in conversation, which, of course, I parried. Their presence was an immediate indication of how much things have changed in this country in the last couple of decades.

Dinner was at Forentino on Universiteto gatvé, a nice Italian restaurant with a very appealing courtyard.

Tomorrow is our last day in Vilnius.

Day two in lovely Vilnius and we continue to enjoy the pace of life in this tranquil city.

We climbed Gediminas Hill today for the delightful panoramic views from the top of Gediminas Tower. The ascent was well worth it, and we didn’t even cheat by taking the funicular railway instead.

Other high points today, literal or otherwise:

• Ice-cream at Soprano on Pilies gatvé. This was a weapon of mass destruction to my diet.

• Wandering the streets of the self-proclaimed Republic of Užupis. This place is vaguely reminiscent of Christiana in Copenhagen, but without the overtly anarchistic overtones. The Užupis neighbourhood seems to have its roots more in humour than in politics.

• The interiors of the city’s many churches, belonging to almost as many denominations. The Soviets certainly had a black sense of humour, turning one gorgeous church into the Museum of Atheism during their reign and another into a basketball court.

I’m too tired to give more detail and, with plenty on the sightseeing list for tomorrow, it’s going to be another full day requiring a good night’s sleep.

There’s been no hint of rain, by the way, for days now.

We’re finally back in Lithuania, where our Baltic trip began, what now seems a couple of months ago. In actual fact, it hasn’t quite been a whole month since we drove off the ferry in Klaipėda. It is, however, one month to the day that we set off in the car from Amsterdam.

This time, we’re in the south-east of the country, the capital, to be precise: Vilnius.

Today’s 181 km drive convincingly demonstrated Lithuania’s claim to be the European country with the greatest density of stork pairs. Supposedly, the country is home to 13,000 white stork pairs and 500 of the much more unusual black variety. We saw innumerable nests en route today, as well as fields with eight to ten individuals at a time.

After the last couple of one-night-stand towns, Gulbene and Daugavpils, it’s nice to be back in a place deserving of more time. On this stop, the earth will rotate about it’s axis four times before we seek pastures new. That should allow us to see the capital at a nice, slow pace and free us from the rigours of driving, such as they are on the easy, open roads of the Baltic countries.

Vilnius is, like Rīga and Tallinn, a charming city, more than worthy of its UNESCO World Heritage List status. Lithuania’s capital boasts one of the largest old town areas in Europe, and it shows. The city’s greatest pleasure is, perhaps, wandering its cobbled streets and alleys, chancing upon courtyards and snug, hidden treasures. It’s the ideal place for a romantic midnight stroll, or would be, if leaving one’s children alone in the hotel room were a safe thing to do.

There’s a profusion of churches here. I can’t think of another European city with quite so many of them in close proximity to one another.

Dinner tonight was at the excellent Bistro 18 on Stikliu gatvé, whose service was as top notch as the nosebag dished up. Full marks for a delicious meal.

Another gastronomic mention must go to the Coffee Inn, which, whilst being a chain, avoids the pitfalls that make chains something to steer clear of. For example, the food is made on the premises, fresh each day. The coffee, I’m happy to report, is very good. There’s also free WiFi, so you can check your e-mail as you sip your peppermint mocha.

Unusually for us, we’ve also opted for a chain for ours digs. We’re staying at the Ramada Hotel Vilnius, because of its location and the rave reviews we read during our research. Now we’re actually here, I’m also relieved to find that the hotel has a character and atmosphere all its own; seemingly no attempt has been made to assimilate the place into homogenised global corporate pulp.

Further exploration of the city is on the agenda for tomorrow.

Here we are in Daugavpils, not nearly as ghastly as the stories would have you believe. On the other hand, there’s very little here, so whilst it’s not the eyesore that it’s made out to be, it is really rather dull. You’d expect more from Latvia’s second city.

Sarah’s been getting a lot of stares from the locals for carrying Lukie in the sling. We haven’t had that reaction anywhere else. Here, people point and whisper to each other when we walk by.

Perhaps that has something to do with the ethnic composition here: Russian: 53.96%, Latvian: 17.9%, Polish: 14.9%, Belarussian: 8.22%, etc. Indeed, there’s a lot of Cyrillic in this town.

We arrived here from Gulbene via Ludza, where Sarah wanted to visit a handicraft shop, and are now 33 km from the border with Belarus and 25 km from the one with Lithuania.

We’re staying at the Park Hotel Latgola, which, I can reveal, serves a decent dinner. Check out the pork fillet with caramelised apple and coffee sauce the next time you’re in this neck of the woods, but for goodness’ sake, don’t order the cheesecake.

Our hotel’s WiFi hands out 60 second DHCP leases. Quirky. We’re also on our third room, after a fair bit of confusion over the reservation. Shit happens.

One thing that Daugavpils does have, however, is a fantastic playground in the local park. Eloïse called it the leukste speeltuin van de hele wereld (best playground in the whole world). It was a big surprise to find such a great facility here and Eloïse will probably remember this city as one of the highlights of her trip.

On a more interesting note, Eloïse has started singing along to our CDs in the car. She had previously only sung along to her own CDs, which, on this trip, has almost invariably been Het Beertje Pippeloentje.

One of her new favourite albums is Lily Allen’s It’s Not Me, It’s You. This contains the jolly pop song, Fuck You. Eloïse loves this track, but thinks it’s called Start Queue and sings along accordingly. We’ve chosen to let her labour under this misapprehension for now.

I’m really looking forward to tomorrow, as we head back to Lithuania, almost a full month having past since we were last there.

This time, we’re off to the capital, Vilnius.