Day 66

25 June 2013

Vilnius

The free city tours are the best way to see any city. The guides are usually students; in the case of the three capital cities of the Baltic states they have been girls in the 20-25 years of age bracket. Some of them add some humor to it all as they do their very best the make it a good experience. Other than normal guides who are paid before hand and then rush you through a program ,the students do this in a relaxed way, easy pace and tell you beforehand that he tour can take anywhere from two to two and a half hours,at the end of the tour you are free to give them a tip and I think that their reward is higher than the organized tours you can book around the various places.

Vilnius must have been a very interesting place before the second world war as it had that many synagogues that it used to be called "Jerusalem of the North" The Germans have seen to it that nearly no Jews survived and now there are only a few synagogues left, however in nearly every street there is a church building so I guess that the Russian had a major problem trying to stamp our any form of religion and replace it by atheist communism.

One church had been turned into a museum of atheism showing what religion and religious thinking has caused in the world (think Spanish inquisition, conquest of Roman Church and Moslims for example) I suppose there is a lot of truth in this as many wars were started by religious fanatics.

Anyway, in the past the people of Vilnius have built more churches than you can point a stick at. (I got a stick and couldn't manage ,ha-ha)

Historically speaking the Lithuanians have mostly been under control of other nations but…. wait for this… George Bush made a declaration that if in the future anyone would regard Lithuania as an enemy, it would also make an enemy of the USA . Well..a big whoopee to that.!!

After their independence the wise Lithuanians quickly decided to join the EU and the NATO Pact and rely on Europe instead.

During the walk we left Lithuania, across a bridge and into the (tongue in cheek) republic of Uzupoi. I would like to draw your attention to the bridge first (see picture) as I noticed something I had noticed earlier on in Moscow and later in St Petersburg as well.

Many couples who marry buy a lock, engrave their names on the side of the lock and go to a bridge or a bridge where this is traditionally done and place the lock on the bridge. Then they throw the key over their shoulder into the river below. (This tradition said to come from Italy) The idea is that they throw away the key to ensure that they will stay together. According to the guide this system does not work too well is the divorce rate of Lithuania is just as high as in other countries

Now back to the “Republic of UZUPOI” .(which means “on the other side of the river”) It has about 7000 inhabitants of which around a thousand are artists. UZUPOI was by created by them in what was once a dangerous district of the town, not only dangerous at night but also during the day. In those days not many people wanted to go there so a group of artist got the idea the separate an area of land and make it into a republic. Their National Independence day is April 1 (for obvious reasons), their national flag has a picture with a hand with a hole in the centre to show that even if you hold your hand in front of your face in disbelief, you can still each other and what is going on. They even have a constitution and… wait for it…four warning/traffic signs.

East Europeans don’t smile much as they had 70 years of suffering and nothing to smile about and still rarely smile (I am serious) Now check out the traffic signs. So the first sign is to smile once you cross the bridge. Don’t drive faster than 20 km/h. (otherwise you miss it) Don’t drive into the river and give way to artists. They are one of the few places in the world with a Tibet Square and told the Chinese to stuff it when they protested against.

Anyway enough reading for today. It was an unexpected interesting time in Vilnius. The pictures tell the story.

Next stop Poland