The capital city of Lithuania is not a place that immediately inspires a sense of awe. While the Old Town center is fairly nicely restored, one doesn’t have to get too far off the beaten track before things begin to look as though the Soviets just left. Many grey buildings in need of restoration, or just a good cleaning, can be seen almost everywhere.
Breakfast did not begin until 8 a.m., and the breakfast room was filled with a large number of young Russian men who seemed to be loudly still carrying on last night’s party. So we did not begin checking out the city until around 8:30. The town was dead, nothing was open, the streets were empty (except for a police car, trailed by an ambulance, slowly cruising around the side streets picking up drunks who were still sleeping it off on the sidewalks). This was not a great first impression.
Lacking a good guide book (Rick Steves, please come to the Baltics!) we made our way down the main street to Cathedral Square. The Cathedral is quite plain, though we stopped at a much smaller All Saints Church that was pretty and had a mass underway with some nice music. We returned to our hotel after about an hour very disappointed in Vilnius, and just had another cup of coffee.
We ventured out again a bit later in the morning to locate the bus station (we have a very early departure in the morning and can’t afford to get lost) and to shop for some snacks for the journey. In the short amount of since we made our first venture, Vilnius had awakened. We took a different route through the Old Town and found much more activity and some interesting sights.
We walked through a market in a large, open pavilion, much like the one in the former aircraft hangers in Riga, but on a considerably smaller scale. Yet, because it was Saturday, business was booming.
It appears to be the day for baptisms and first Communions. We have seen a number of families all dressed up with kids in white dresses, white robes, etc. In the Bernardine Garden — a large and beautifully maintained park near St. Anna’s Church, many such families were posing for photos. When we went into the church, we actually sort of stumbled into a baptism. Fortunately for the family, all was finished but the final photos when the 50 or so passengers of a big tour bus all came clamoring into the small sanctuary.
A light rain began, so we looked for a a place to get inside and grab some lunch. By accident, we found ourselves in a little Iranian place. There are not a lot of Iranian restaurants in the U.S., but the food was wonderful, especially the lentil soup. It was a lucky find.
The University of Vilnius courtyards were locked on our first attempt in early morning, but we were able to stroll through now. The University now enrolls 21,000 students, so the old 16th century courtyards are mostly symbolic — three other campuses outside the Old Town are where most classes are held. But the old chapel is a beautiful Baroque church, fully restored, with what is supposed to be the largest pipe organ in Lithuania.
After a bit of down time back at the hotel, we returned to the University chapel because we had seen a poster advertising a concert there this evening, featuring a University chamber orchestra. The cost was 5 Euros each, but as we were standing in line for our tickets, a young woman in formal dress and carrying a violin walked up to us, handed Mary a card, and said something in Lithuanian (I guess we are blending in well). But when we indicated that we didn’t understand, she told us in perfect English that is was a free pass to the concert.
The performance would have been worth the price of admission. They were quite a good orchestra, even on the few numbers with student conductors. The selections were generally familiar compositions: Handel, Vivaldi, Mozart, etc., and a program notes were read aloud (in Lithuanian, of course) by a young woman who went to the microphone before each piece.
We stopped for pizza on the way back. It turned out to be a vegetarian place — the whole vegetarian/vegan thing is very big throughout the Baltics — but very good pizza, even if we had to drink kombucha rather than beer.
Breakfast did not begin until 8 a.m., and the breakfast room was filled with a large number of young Russian men who seemed to be loudly still carrying on last night’s party. So we did not begin checking out the city until around 8:30. The town was dead, nothing was open, the streets were empty (except for a police car, trailed by an ambulance, slowly cruising around the side streets picking up drunks who were still sleeping it off on the sidewalks). This was not a great first impression.
 |
| An empty town square |
We ventured out again a bit later in the morning to locate the bus station (we have a very early departure in the morning and can’t afford to get lost) and to shop for some snacks for the journey. In the short amount of since we made our first venture, Vilnius had awakened. We took a different route through the Old Town and found much more activity and some interesting sights.
We walked through a market in a large, open pavilion, much like the one in the former aircraft hangers in Riga, but on a considerably smaller scale. Yet, because it was Saturday, business was booming.
It appears to be the day for baptisms and first Communions. We have seen a number of families all dressed up with kids in white dresses, white robes, etc. In the Bernardine Garden — a large and beautifully maintained park near St. Anna’s Church, many such families were posing for photos. When we went into the church, we actually sort of stumbled into a baptism. Fortunately for the family, all was finished but the final photos when the 50 or so passengers of a big tour bus all came clamoring into the small sanctuary.
A light rain began, so we looked for a a place to get inside and grab some lunch. By accident, we found ourselves in a little Iranian place. There are not a lot of Iranian restaurants in the U.S., but the food was wonderful, especially the lentil soup. It was a lucky find.
The University of Vilnius courtyards were locked on our first attempt in early morning, but we were able to stroll through now. The University now enrolls 21,000 students, so the old 16th century courtyards are mostly symbolic — three other campuses outside the Old Town are where most classes are held. But the old chapel is a beautiful Baroque church, fully restored, with what is supposed to be the largest pipe organ in Lithuania.
After a bit of down time back at the hotel, we returned to the University chapel because we had seen a poster advertising a concert there this evening, featuring a University chamber orchestra. The cost was 5 Euros each, but as we were standing in line for our tickets, a young woman in formal dress and carrying a violin walked up to us, handed Mary a card, and said something in Lithuanian (I guess we are blending in well). But when we indicated that we didn’t understand, she told us in perfect English that is was a free pass to the concert.
We stopped for pizza on the way back. It turned out to be a vegetarian place — the whole vegetarian/vegan thing is very big throughout the Baltics — but very good pizza, even if we had to drink kombucha rather than beer.
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