Vilnius, Lithuania

The Baltics!  Or as everyone in my family kept calling them... the Balkans!  No, no, no... Lithuania is not in the Balkans.  It's in the Baltics!  Near the Baltic Sea!  No, not near Montenegro or Serbia, but way up on the other side of Poland.  Believe it or not, just north of the capital city of Vilnius is the geographic center of Europe.  In Lithuania!  You really do forget how large Scandinavia is!

Beware, this might be a long post because Lithuania is JUST. SO. DELIGHTFUL.

After an uneventful flight to Vilnius (which has a very modern airport), we had to wait in the airport a bit because our Airbnb wasn't going to be ready for another hour or so, and rather than wait outside with suitcases in an uncertain area near our apartment (would there be a restaurant?  What would we do with our bags?), we decided to wait in the airport.

I am not sure I've ever had a better cappuccino in my life.  The kids devoured the pastry.  This little place was just outside of baggage claim.  It's sad that the rest of the world doesn't make cappuccinos like this, with the exception of Italy of course.

Finally we waited long enough to get into our Airbnb, so we took a cab into the old town area.  The kids claimed to be really tired.  They didn't want to do sightseeing.  They were so tired.  They just wanted to rest and nap.  Which is all code word for "I want to play Roblox on my tablet."  So we said, "You can stay here and NOT play on your tablet since you're SO tired.  We will go downstairs and have a frosty."  And yes.  He insists.

Ok this is better.  The building behind me is our apartment.

Finally we went back and got the kids from their 30 minute rest.  Grant is contemplating whether this pigeon is friend or foe.

Vilnius manhole covers. Yay!

It was a nice day so our first stop was the Republic of Uzupis.  This translates to "the other side of the river."  This little self declared republic was an artists haven within Vilnius that claimed independence in 1997. Believe it or not, you can actually get your passport stamped here!

Uzupis is quirky and fun.  And look at that low water level.  Ok.  We will go down and try to get a spot on that swing.

Cross the bridge and Grant is the first Bailey to enter the Republic of Uzupis!

There are usually several people down in the Vilnia River, most vying for the swing.  Be careful with your feet though, because there's lots of broken glass bottles in the low lying water.

I wonder if someday, they will know how special it was to have their feet in the Vilnia River in the Republic of Uzupis.  They will likely never do this again.

And then suddenly... the water started to rise on the Vilnia River.

One of the symbols of Uzupis is the Uzupis Mermaid.  In 2004, she was knocked free and floated down river during a flood, but they were able to find her and put her back on her perch.  I think I'm pretending to be a mermaid here.  Or maybe my hubby just caught me enjoying the warm sun on my face and cold water on my feet.

Meanwhile, the water just kept rising!  All we could figure, since it was a sunny day and hadn't really rained in the last couple of days was that they released water from a dam upstream.

Of course, the quickly rising river meant we were forced out as it got somewhat deep and we wanted to keep our pants dry!  They will display art pretty much anywhere in Uzupis, including IN the river!  That's a giant, cut in half head. I'm not sure about their floodway regulations in this little country... do you think they did a No-Rise certification for this?  (Sorry... I nerded out there for a moment!)

 The pretty little mermaid (although not THAT little mermaid!)

Walking through Uzupis to try to find the Constitution, we came across the Angel of Uzupis, whose creator also created the Uzupis Mermaid.

Alas, we came across the Constitution of Uzupis!

This Constitution is brill.  They range from the serious ("No one has the right to violence") to the fun, ("A dog has the right to be a dog.") to the mix ("Everyone has the right to die, but this is not an obligation.")

I don't know who the little girl on the left is.  But honestly.  VOLUMES.  Little girls all over the world are really quite similar.  Look at their body language.  Reading intensely.  Arm across the waist.  Hand up near their mouth.  "Everyone has the right to understand."  "Everyone has the right to understand nothing."

Probably my best shot at seeing the whole Constitution, without glare, distractions, shadows or blocking reflections. 

The Constitution of Uzupis is laid out along this wall in 23 different languages.

You could probably spend a week in this tiny little self-declared country and not see everything!  We decided to go find where our passports could get stamped (and excitingly, we were able to find an Uzupis magnet!)

Camera hanging from a stick at the tourist information office.  Maybe they caught it with a fishing pole!

If you've got a piano out for anyone to play, Todd won't hesitate to play the one song he knows on the piano!  People loved it though, and were taking pictures of him!

One (wo)man stage.  Complete with a teal bowling ball and a pink rug.  Crooked photo courtesy of my cute little daughter.  Sass courtesy of my mother.

Painted walls in Uzupis.

The river was still somewhat "high" (or higher than it was before we got our feet wet), so we went to check out the river again in another spot in Uzupis.

In Uzupis, it's ok to just sit down by the river and enjoy the day.

I like places that make my visual sense go into overdrive.

The Republic of Uzupis is a big supporter of a Free Tibet, a country like itself that is longing to be free.  This monument to that sits in the park near one of the bridges that will lead you back to Vilnius.

Alas, it was time to leave the Republic of Uzupis.  Until next time, Uzupis!

The Literature Wall in Vilnius is an homage to the poets and writers of Lithuanian literature.  The pieces rotate over time. We passed by this on our way back to Cathedral Square.

Tattoos. Maybe you don't love them, like my mom and my husband.  But I love them.  I love the idea of a persons story on their body, all of their journeys, love and scars written like a scarlet letter that they wear proudly.  (Can you see the pictures of the people and their tattoos in the windows?)  

Hooray for pretty manhole covers and toenails!

Vilnius, do you love me, are you riding....

Vilnius by day.

Ok, it's not Bamberg and it's weirdest creepy baby doll head ever.  But let's call this one a contender with it's creepy witch doll heads.

As we walked down Pilies Street toward Cathedral Square, we found these (university students?) kids (I can say this...) playing in their Street Life Big Band.  Good times with their American hits and multiple instruments!

In Cathedral Square, you can see the Monument to the Grand Duke Gediminas.  He was the Grand Duke of Lithuania back in the early 1300s. At the time, this area was much larger, encompassing land that stretched over to Minsk and down to Kiev and Bratislava.  Interestingly, he was a Pagan but currently about 77% of Lithuania is Catholic.

The Bell Tower of the Vilnius Cathedral was shut down and used for storage during the Soviet years.  I am 100% sure that this tower is leaning, but I can't find anything to back this up other than a few blogs where people claim that it is leaning.  It's definitely leaning.

Randomly, in front of the Vilnius Cathedral was a little mock Iron Throne.  Of course, he had to scheme with Littlefinger in order to retain his throne as the King of Westeros and the Seven Kingdoms.

I know I already showed you the Bell Tower of the Cathedral, but this shot was just too good not to share.  (One of Todd's of course!)

Naturally, it's summer in Europe so everything is under scaffolding, including the Cathedral.  But the Pope is coming, the Pope is coming!

Gedimino Street feels like Paris to me.  It juts out from Cathedral Square to the west.

Also in Cathedral Square is the AMAZING Stebuklas plaque.  This means, "miracle" in Lithuanian.  It was the "start" (or maybe the end?) of the Baltic Way, where 2 million people formed a human chain from Tallin, Estonia to here in Vilnius, Lithuania on August 23, 1989 to show solidarity for the independence of the Baltic nations.

Legend has it, if you stand on the "miracle," make a wish and turn around three times, your wish will come true!  Of course, we all had to do it!

For dinner, which we went to early because we had gotten up so early and were really tired, we went to this fun "cave" restaurant called Etno Dvaras on Pilies Street, not far from where we were staying.  I was able to get the zeppelin dumplings from my scratch off food map.  Grant discovered that he LOVED zeppelin dumplings, and then proceeded to order them everywhere he went for the rest of the time we spent in Vilnius!

We made it an early night on our first night there, on account of our getting up in the 2 am hour the day before.  In the morning of our second day, we woke up to a sunny day!

After a little breakfast in our apartment, we headed for the Gediminas Castle Tower.  The main entrance was partially closed, so you had to walk around the construction.  In our walk, we found this SUPER cute little statue dedicated to the Lithuanian hound!

Look at this sweet face!

Time to hike to the Gediminas Tower!  This looks like a man made hill to me, but alas, it's not.  (Minus the fill they've had to put in to prevent rock/mud slides).  Normally there's a funicular, but it wasn't working when we were there.  No problem, we like to hike!

For a small fee, you can go into the tower and learn about the history of not just the tower, but also of Vilnius and Lithuania.  The tower was built in the 14th century, although the present one is partially from the 15th century as part of the Upper Castle.  There were several other towers, but most were destroyed in the war with Moscow in 1655.  This one kind of withstood the war, so it was rebuilt.

I loved this visual of the Baltic Way.  So I know at least one or two of my readers were born long after I was, so you're probably wondering how they could even set up something of this magnitude way back in 1989, since no one had internet or cell phones.  They used little portable radios to know exactly when the human hand chain was going to happen.

Such a powerful image and peaceful protest.

The goal of climbing the tower is to get to the top, where the views stretch for forever.

On top of Gediminas Tower, you can see the Three Crosses.  Legend has it that seven Franciscan Friars were beheaded on this spot in the 1300s.  The first crosses were put here in the mid 1600s, but have been replaced many times.  In 1916, concrete crosses were placed here (as opposed to the obvious wooden crosses) but were torn down in the 1950s by the Soviets.  Religion was not allowed under Soviet Communism as atheism ruled.  However, in 1989 during the revolution, the crosses were replaced. 

Across the river from the old town is the very modern new part of Vilnius. 

Looking to the west though, you see views of the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania with Cathedral Square behind it.  You can also see the Cathedral Bell Tower on the right.

Airplanes shoot over the Lithuanian flag on the top of Gediminias Castle.

The castle grounds are under construction, but the walk down wasn't too bad. It's a little slippery, so hold onto the railing!  I saw a few people slide on their way down!

After we went to Gediminias Castle, we walked through Cathedral Square on our way to find some lunch!

Out in front of the Lithuanian Drama Theater, which we passed by after we finished a great lunch at Boom! Burger, you see the Feast of Muses, Drama, Comedy and Tragedy.

Our next destination was the Money Museum of the Bank of Lithuania.  This statue outside was made from (now unused) Lita coins.  When the economy went crazy with the fall of the Soviet Union, the Lita, which was the currency of Lithuania at the time, tanked and became worthless.  Eventually they switched over to the Euro, so this statue was made from 75,000 fifty Litas cent coins and it weighs more than 450 kg, which is almost 1,000 pounds!

This is a great museum with a great history of money dating back to when shells were exchanged as a currency for goods.  My favorite bill in the above photo is the "Funfzig Millionen Mark." Or the "Fifty Million Mark" from Germany.  It's amazing to me that inflation can escalate so quickly that this type of currency is required!

SUPERLATIVE ALERT!  The Guinness Book of World Records has certified that the Million Cent Pyramid is Officially Amazing.  It's the largest coin pyramid in the world!

At one point, nearly three and a half million Litas were equal to only ONE EURO.  For reference, today, one Euro equals about $1.16.

The money museum has a little quiz at the end. If you get a certain percentage right, they print a bill with your face on it.

I'm literally worthless.  And I don't really know how to make any other kind of face, apparently.  On my translate app, "Vienas Mustinis" translated to "One Bang."  More bang for your buck?

After we left the money museum on our way back to Cathedral Square, we found this cool skateboard bench!

The Cathedral and it's bell tower.  I find it funny the Cathedral has a real Greek feel to it with all of the columns.

We wandered around the square for a bit before heading back to the actual Cathedral.  We hadn't been inside yet, so we decided to peek in (it's free!)

Simple and pretty.

A wider view of the Vilnius Cathedral.

Outside, a bride was having her wedding photos taken (you can't see her groom, but he's on the other side of the column she stands next to.)

Since we were in the neighborhood, we decided to climb the terrifying stairs to the top of the bell tower.  It's only 4.50 Euro for adults and 2.50 Euro for kids.  I wear a 7.5 shoe and I needed to walk sideways on these stairs.  They were narrow and steep!

You walk up some stairs to a floor that has some historical information and interactive games to play with.  You can look straight up and check out the wooden beams on the multiple floors where the bells live.

Grant and I were having a blast watching these girls do trite Instagram photos in front of the bell tower.  I'm sure they didn't know we were watching them on camera!

No need for unoriginal Instagram photos when your husband takes photos of you banging a gong unknowingly.

Grant got a little crazy and broke the wooden hammer for the bells. Ooops.

He looks so handsome in the sunlight, seemingly deep in thought and listening to the pre-recorded tower history audio.

We then decided to climb to the top of the tower to check out the bells.  They sit 50 meters up from the ground and it was about 4:45 when we were there, so we decided to wait on the famous 5 pm bells.  There was an older couple from New York up there who waited with us!

Meanwhile, the view from the tower down Gedimino Street was beautiful!

 We waited up top for the bells to start because the kids were afraid it was going to be too loud.  It was pretty loud, but not so bad if you put your fingers in your ears.

See?  Loud but fun.

It was such a beautiful day for pictures in Vilnius!  Honestly though, isn't that tower leaning?

Lithuania is in celebrating the birthday of the Republic of Lithuania which was declared at the end of World War I.

And the Bailey's are celebrating with them!

Hello from the streets of Vilnius!

We were on our way to the Rimi for some snacks and drinks for the following day's bus ride to Riga when we passed the city hall in Simonas Daukantas Square.

After we got our snacks and drinks, it was back to the apartment.  It was kind of early, so we hung out with the windows open and enjoyed watching the people walk by below us.  I noticed this sign, which clearly means "this is a place where you can high five your friends with little jumping dogs around you."

The sunset on this particular evening was so beautiful!

The sun beams seem to be exploding behind the bell tower of St. John's Church (not the same bell tower as in Cathedral Square - this one was right behind our apartment.)

The very next morning, we took the Lux bus to Riga.  Super easy, super cheap, actually a really decent bus complete with TV screens in the back of each seat.  Some movies they offer are in Russian, but some are also in English.  We spent two lovely days in Riga before heading back to Vilnius on the third day for one more night in Lithuania.  When we returned, we got stopped for a passport check at the Latvia-Lithuania border.  Interesting, because both countries are EU and both are members of the Schengen.

Rural Lithuania, with its quirky little towns full of tin roofed brick houses, is where I find a little old lady sitting in her raincoat, potted flowers for sale in front of her; the town's cemetery as a backdrop with the multitude of graves pressed together in a small plot of land.  The fields, a mix of tan and green and mostly flat, dotted with white storks and an occasional cow under a tree, all sit under gray skies and along damp roads.

This trip to Vilnius, we stayed very close to the train station, which was great because it meant we didn't have to lug our bags across the city or catch an expensive cab.  But it did mean we had to walk a bit to get into the old town.  On our walk in, we came across the Catholic Church of All Saints.  

Yes and please to THIS!  This church was built between 1620-1630 (you know, when America was getting settled after the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock!)

Sir, you have a sword in your skull.

We're gonna give this church mad props for it's sculptures.

PLUS, who knew that marble came in BLUE!?!  Ok the red, gray, pink and tan I have seen before.  But this blue!  I'm sure it's not authentic, but it certainly was pretty!

Once again... as we left the Church of All Saints, Todd had to bend in half in order to leave.

I knew there were Stolpersteins in Vilnius, so I was on the hunt for them. I finally found one as we left the Church of All Saints.  This boy was born in 1927 and like Anne Frank, chronicled his time in the Jewish ghetto before he was shot with his family in 1943.

The final sight we wanted to see was the kid friendly portion of our trip... naturally, to the Museum of Illusions!  This museum was great!  It's not huge, but it has enough to see to keep you entertained for a couple of hours.  

Bet you're wondering how they shrunk me!

Hahahahaha!  I really don't have any words for this silliness!

I always wondered what it would be like if I grew a beard!

Will the real Natalie Bailey please stand up?

3D art is so much fun!

Light shadow love.

The flash captures your shadow and then it remains on the wall for a short period of time.  Enough time for you to high five your own shadow!

 I'm starting to think she only has one face!  (Gee, I wonder where she gets this?)  She was pulling the boat out of the painting with her OWN HAND!

Don't let him fool ya!

He's taking hand stand push ups to a whole new level.

"Would you be prepared if gravity reversed itself?"  (Bonus points if you know that movie!)

We all had a little too much fun in the bathroom!  (If I had a dime for everytime I said that...)

 

Oh, what a feeling!  When you're dancing on the ceiling!

This one is only for tall people!

Wait, how did I get right side up in this photo!  (Hint:  CrossFit!)

Doing flips on the bed!

Oh my goodness this room was hilarious.  Watching Lithuanian cartoons like it's 1981.  Todd and I were both like, "Our living room looked nothing like this!"

 See, THIS is where Natalie has learned to do that face.  Well, she gets it honest!  I don't even know what he was doing here in the 1980s living room, but it made me laugh!

Honey I shrunk the parents!  This is when they declared that they were now the parents and we were going to get pizza for dinner.

Time to go find some dinner.  The Church of St. Casimir has one of the most beautiful domes.  The church was built in 1618, but the pretty crown on top wasn't added until the mid 1700s.  Interestingly, during the time after World War II, it was converted to a Museum of Atheism.  In 1991, after Lithuania regained it's independence, it once again became a Roman Catholic church.

Gang symbol door knobs in Vilnius.

For dinner, we went to Meat Lovers Pub, which was excellent (not just because they had Bulleit bourbon!)

We got a big kick out of their menu (no paper menus, only on the wall,) particularly the "Bloody Snack."  We just couldn't bring ourselves to even ask what that might be!

Meanwhile, Todd was busy dreaming of Christmas.  We always bring paper and colored pencils for the kids to entertain themselves before we eat.  Sometimes Daddy does some coloring, too!

I believe this is celosia plumose, or cock's comb.  It was very colorful and I don't think I have ever seen this flower before!

On our way back to the apartment for our last night in Vilnius, we were treated to a hot air balloon show!  Hot air ballooning is a big deal in Lithuania, and has been hugely popular since it had been banned during the Soviet years.

The balloons actually travel over the old town area, which is apparently quite rare since most places have a ban on balloon travel directly over the city.

It really was just a beautiful sight.  If I ever get over my fear of heights, I might try this one day.  I searched for average prices and it was out of my price range (370 Euro for four people!) but I'm sure it was worth it!

Alas, we had to leave our great Baltic adventure.  I would definitely say that Vilnius is one of my favorite places that I've visited thus far.  Definitely a top five city for me.  I'd love to get out and explore more of the countryside.

Until next time, Lithuania!