July 17
True to pattern, we had not gone to sleep until the wee hours, so we were up just in time to catch the tail end of breakfast. The blynai had obviously been in the warmer all morning and were inedible, so I had cheese, kiwi, cucumber and tomato with coffee. Alex had yogurt and chocolate cereal.
Out first stop was at Šiluva, the site of the first European apparition of Mary recognized by the Catholic Church in 1622. Šiluva never attained the level of fame of Fatima or Lourdes, as devotion to Our Lady of Šiluva was repressed during both the Tsarist and Soviet occupations. As a consequence, it has not become the pilgrimage zoo that the others have, which is refreshing. The koplyčia, or chapel, is small and serene, and is built around the rock on which Mary supposedly appeared to the children of area farmers. When we were there we witnessed women rounding the rock on their knees in prayer.
The days drive was to take us south, to the villages of my grandparents on my father’s side. This is an area with fertile, rolling farmland, reminiscent of the American Midwest, except with storks. The storks migrate from Africa every year to nest and raise their young in Lithuania. They are considered good luck, so many farmers build platforms atop tall poles for them. By the time I noticed the nests, I had sped past in the car and didn’t want to turn around to get the shot, thinking I’d have more chances later, but never did.
To get to our first stop Seredžius, we turned onto a road that paralled the Nemunas River. Called Panemunės, the area encompasses dozens of castle hills that can be climbed for expansive views of the water and surrounding farmland. We stopped when we saw a red brick tower above the tree line and climbed to find Panemune Castle under reconstruction. We walked past it into the village to get lunch at a cafe called Prie Pilis. We wanted a quick bite because we had four stops to make, but a simple bowl of vegetable soup, herring snack and fried koldunai somehow took an hour and a half.
At Seredžius, we climbed the hill there to survey the land and were rewarded with a picture-perfect view of a woman milking a cow with the village’s church steeples in the background. The town itself was equally pretty, neat cottages lining the twisting, hilly streets. I could imagine Grandmom having a good childhood here. I took a photo of the church in which I imagine she was baptized, then we went back down the hill to the cemetery to see if we could find any headstones with the Kryžanauskas name. No luck.
By now it was after 6 p.m. so we decided to ditch the two hour-drive further south to Tabarauskai and leave finding Grandpop’s village for another trip. We’d also leave Rudamina, where Grandmom grew up, for another time as well. We aimed straight for Kaunas instead so we’d have a better chance of getting to Vilnius at a reasonable hour. Ha!
The Akropolis in Kaunas is huge. This mega-mall with four stories of stores, restaurants, cinema, casino, bowling alley and ice rink appears in each of Lithuania’s large cities, shrines to burgeoning consumerism. In addition to its sheer massiveness, there are two great things about it. Stores that sell similar items are all grouped together–a great convenience for the consumer who wants to compare goods and prices. Also, each parking space has a sensor and when you drive around an LED display lets you know how many parking spaces are available in each aisle. Genius! The U.S. could take a lesson.
Alex was overwhelmed with the number of clothing choices and wished her local mall was anywhere near this large. She bought some children’s books to help her with her budding language skills. At Čili Kaimas, she finally had her cepelinai, which are huge potato dumplings stuffed with meat and drenched in a sour cream and bacon sauce. She ordered a half portion, one zeppelin, but couldn’t quite finish it because of its bulk. I don’t know how the stick-thin Lithuanian women I have seen wolf them down do it.
We got to the Adelita Hotel across from the Vilnius airport around 11 p.m. and began to prepare for departure the next day, Alex home and me to Kaunas. After a little back and forth with the front desk about wifi, Alex was online with one device for 4 litas. Little did I know that my inability to connect that night would foreshadow my wifi woes in days to come.
Next: transportation travails.
My Lithuanian Summer 