(not so ) Idle Hands

So what does Marie do all day in Lithuania while Tom is at work for hours on end and we are not travelling to other countries? As the blog shows, I walk to and shop at the Turgus, the grocery stores or about town, I blog, I go to the esthetician, make dinner. Until a couple of weeks ago, Cheryl and I would also get together for lunch or sometimes drive out of town. Cheryl has returned to Texas though, so now I am here on my own, as my lack of language still isolates me.
One of the things that I started was knitting. Now understand that this is not a new hobby for me. I was fairly obsessed with it when I was a stay at home mom for 8 years when the kids were born over 20 years ago. I knit for everyone then and became fairly proficient. However, that was like making my own bread, preserves, Christmas presents, acting as president of the LAC, neighbourhood watch, etc --- something to do to preserve my sanity and to save money as we were living on one income. I also started swimming then, which of course led to Megan's eventual swim career, but that is a whole other story....

Well we are back to one income (sort of...but not really), and I again need to preserve my brain cells, though with the inexpensive wine here I seem to be pickling them! So out come the needles. Since I have taken this up again, I have completed 3 projects:



1) Black shawl / wrap with button closure made with alpaca wool/silk/ combined with kid mohair














2) green cotton/linen tank top with darts


















3) Black Sonnet cardigan with scotch tweed wool/ silk/ viscose
(too bad the colour/ texture doesn't show up in just one photo )









I
































I am now starting a sweater for Tom after much hinting on his part. It is going to be a black ribbed pullover knit with 100% fine merino wool....very soft. This one will take a while due to the fine gauge of the wool. For an idea of the finished product look here
http://www.knitty.com/issuefall04/PATTleo.html


Megan is also looking for a pattern that she can put an order in for...not sure if Matt is into the homemade sweater thing at his age but I know he likes socks. .......


The other thing that I do is laundry. Several times a week I load the tiny washing machine and then unload to hang the articles up to dry. No driers in Mazeikiai except for the very rich, as the electricity to too expensive. So laundry is mostly air dried. We have 2 laundry racks..one in the balcony/sun room area, and the other in the office. Now that the weather is not often sunny and is fairly cool, it is best to dry things indoors. In order not to have all your clothing as stiff as a board, it is crucial to add lots of fabric softener. So on most days the place has that damp, fabric softener smell. So that is what I have been doing . Now ....back to the needles. IKI!

Baby its cold outside...and inside...and other comments

Well it is now Oct 15th and the temperature showing on the thermometer outside our kitchen window during the day has consistently been between 3 and 10 C for the past couple of weeks. At night of course colder and with wind chill and / or humidity or rain it can be rather nippy at any given time. The reason I mention this is that there is no heat turned on in the apartment block yet. Apparently it will not be turned on until November 1st. The whole building is heated by water radiators and I am sure that once it is turned on I could be complaining about the fact that I have no control over the darn things and it will sometimes feel too hot! But right now, I am finding myself layering clothes, even to the point that I had my down vest on while sitting knitting. The story is that the many of the occupants, especially the older ones on a fixed income can not afford the utility costs that will start with the heating so they prefer to delay it as long as possible. So the upshot is that even a hardy Canadian like myself is shivering a bit waiting for November 1st.

Cheryl and Jim and gone to London for a week on business and then will be leaving to go back to Houston for good. As a result, they gave us their electric heater (purchased in the summer as it was too cold for those southerners then!). So we do have a very tiny source of heat if necessary. .. though I can sit in the the toilet room or the bathroom as they both have some heat.

.....On another note... I was walking around town last week and noticed a poster advertising what looked to be a concert at the Mazeikiai Cultural Centre for Friday night. From what I could gather it would be a quartet of musicians and a soprano performing various pieces that included Ravel, and Bizet, and others. So I called Tom and asked him to get Rada, the community liaison gal at MEI to inquire about tickets.

Rada ordered the tickets and I picked them up on Thursday. The next evening I got dressed up and Tom picked me up after work in time to hurry over to the venue. It was a cold and blustery evening so we wasted no time getting inside. Our last concert here, in the summer had been very good performance wise, featuring a top conductor and a small but precise group from the Moscow symphony. That evening was almost unbearable though due to the lack of air conditioning and incredible stifling heat.

Well true to form, this time we nearly froze. No heat in the building or else, like my apartment, it will not be turned on until November 1st. I don't know how the musicians managed though under the bright lights it probably was rather pleasant.

IN any event, I had worn a pant suit with a cashmere shawl thrown on for extra warmth (just in case!!! I am learning!). Tom meanwhile, had a jacket and hat which he put in the coat check upon arrival.

Upstairs, enroute to the ha, crowds were looking at a large exhibition lining the walls of the foyer. As we drew near, we could see that this was some sort of wax museum display of historical characters. They did not look particularly good, but then I am no expert and have absolutely no interest in this sort of thing. What this was about or why it was here...who knows, but it was a rather bizarre and unexpected precursor.

Taking our seats, we still weren't exactly sure what to expect from the concert itself and so were a bit bemused to see the audience contained a very large percentage of school age kids, some accompanied by adults, but many on their own. We quickly surmised that free tickets had been given out to a school.

The performers were introduced and we found that they were 4 classical guitarists. Playing standards from Carmen, Dvorak, etc, they were entertaining though not brilliant. Half way through, the "Soprano" was introduced. I had been previously told that she was Lithuanian who was now living and performing in USA. What a diva! She simpered and swayed, and waited for her supposed adoring public to respond to her every move and gesture. She actually was quite good when singing arias but when she did a couple of Lithuanian folk songs we did not find it as enjoyable, but this more due to the overly dramatic style of the songs.

Nevertheless, the performance on the whole for the grand sum of 10 LT ( $4) each was more than reasonable and we would have enjoyed it. However, it was marred by several things. First the audience was terrible. The school kids obviously did not really want to be there...we were not sure if this was a school assignment and compulsory, or if it was just something different and free to do on a Friday night in Mazeikiai. The giggling, talking, text messaging, etc was constant and did not stop even when Tom and I both told groups to cut it out. They just laughed and went on with their conversations. The blue lights of cell phones could be seen throughout the auditorium and their texting purpose was very apparent when at one point between songs, at least 20 of them stood up en masse and climbed over us in their haste to get out of the row and the hall.

As distracting as this poor behaviour was, what was more disconcerting was the lack of any intervention from the other adults...either parents, teachers, or fellow spectators.

I philosophically could accept that teenagers and younger children may behave badly in this type of setting, especially if not disciplined in some manner. So I just chalked this up to another Lithuanian oddity and my own advancing grumpy years. However the best was yet to come.

As we left the hall at the end of the concert, we made our way down to the coat check area and were one of the first to arrive as our seats had been near the end of the aisle by the door. I stood slightly back from Tom as he was standing at the counter. Suddenly a hundred stampeding Lithuanians pushed and shoved me out of the way. People were literally running up to the counter and elbowing and fighting their way to the front. I moved to the back in comparative safety and watched as Tom had to fend of the hoards. It was unbelievable. Men in business suits, women with purple hair, older gentlemen, etc....I have never seen adults behave in such a display of extreme rudeness especially at an event where you might expect to find a more "genteel" crowd.

As we finally escaped from the mob scene, we both reflected on this strange behaviour and and concluded that hopefully this is not a general Lithuanian trait, but rather something more peculiar to this small city, Mazeikiai. So really we just chalked it up as just another adventure.

Anyway...enough for now.. I have to go sit by the heater and warm my fingers.
Iki.

RIGA , LATVIA

One weekend, Tom had to return to Houston for some business and as a result would be flying out of Riga International. We decided to drive ourselves there and spend the night before his early morning departure and then I could explore a bit myself the next day before returning to Mazeikiai.

We drove into the old town area which was clogged with traffic and made a couple of miscues trying to find the best parking area. Apparently Sir Elton John was performing that night in addition to the GALA opening of the Latvian Opera season, so it was especially busy. As well the confusing labyrinth of one way and/or limited access streets make it an adventure for the newbie. To top it off, RIGA is now boasting tours of singles tour groups. This is a big phenomena in Europe. HEN parties for the 'chicks', often on a stagette trip. More frequently in Riga though you find the groups on guys on a "sex tour". Basically this is a drunken weekend trolling various strip clubs.....there may be other activities included but I didn't need to know.

So here we were wandering the streets of oldtown Riga on a Friday night, mingling with a large motley crowd of young males from Britain, Italy, Germany, etc., in addition to the regular tourists, such as ourselves.



However, as we roamed the dimly lit, narrow cobble stone streets, looking for a place to have dinner it seemed to us that there were bars and restaurants everywhere.

We found a place for dinner that we initially thought would be good. I was in the mood for pasta and this place boasted international cuisine. As is frequently found in Europe, this was a building that had many previous incarnations before restaurant. Numerous small rooms, narrow stairs, stuccoed or muralled walls, detailed ceilings and cornices give you the picture.

Dinner was a bit of a disappointment, as for some reason they were out of the entire advertised Italian section of the menu. Oh well, schnitzel it is.
Service was available in English and we were able to learn a couple of essential Latvian phrases from the friendly but not overly attentive waitress. We didn't allow this to damper the mood though and we were still able to enjoy a relatively inexpensive meal and bottle of red.

We headed back out to the streets and wandered a bit more, but I was really not in the mood to hit any of the loud bars and was content to people watch.

The next day, Tom left and I was free to explore the streets again in the daylight. Quite a transformation.Riga is a tourist town. Like all of the Baltic area, the economy is improving and construction and reconstruction is evident everywhere as they rush to cash in on the boom. So as you walk through old town, many of the old buildings are undergoing major overhauls. The architecture here is touted as some of the best in the Baltics, as the old burghers apparently had a bit of a status competition.

The photos at the top are 2 different views of old town that I took from the tower of a renovated basilica, St Michaels...shown here.


While still hosting a largely Catholic population, it is not as predominant as in Lithuania. Here you also find numerous Jewish , Russian orthodox and Lutheran churches, many of which are used to house art galleries. So the entire first floor of this building was used for this.

While having a coffee on one of the main squares a small parade came by in full Latvian dress, en route to one of the cultural centres that I never was able to locate.






















I will just add a couple of more pictures to give a bit of a feel for Riga, as I am now about 4 weeks behind on my travel blog and need to enter the next trips. I will say though that I have the feeling that Tom and I will likely be back in Riga a few more times to take in an opera or symphony. The opera is actually generously praised in many reviews I have seen so this would be a treat for us.

So....IKI!

WARNING! SOME IMAGES MAY MAKE YOU SQUIRM

Pikeliai is a small rural village,near the Mazeikiu Nafta refinery. One of the locals working at MN, Aurelija, was a teacher at the village school before being hired in her current capacity in admin. Her income now has far exceeded her previous income as a teacher.

Aure continues to volunteer at the school on the weekends. This a grade 1- 10 school, so the age range is wide, with a total population of about 70 students, though I am told maybe 50 attend on any given day.

Through her ongoing involvement, Aure learned about one of her former students who required a bicycle as transportation for the 5 kms to school and so Aure purchased a bike for one of him. In hearing about this other MN crew chipped in and they were able to present 6 new bikes to other needy kids from the area as well. This was viewed as huge event in this little village, with the local parish priest presiding and the press in attendance for the presentation. I had heard about this after the fact through the American admin folks at MN when I first met Aure and so struck up a conversation with her about it when we had a MN celebration for the successful raising of the one of the refinery towers. (Aure is the one leaning over my shoulder)
Cheryl and I had talked about volunteering to speak English to the students in the Mazeikiai school for the gifted.
So I wondered aloud if there was something we could at this school instead or in addition. Aure took my interest very seriously and the next Wednesday, we were on our way out to the school to meet with the students, teachers and director! We had no idea what to expect...in fact we had originally thought this would just be a quiet fact finding tour with some discussion about where we could best help out. Instead, we were the eagerly awaited main attraction of the week!



All of the students and their teachers came in to one classroom to shake our hands and introduce themselves. The grade 1 kids sang a little song for us, as did the grade 10s.


We then sat with the older kids and let them ask questions, which they did very shyly and answered some of our own. We got into a bit of a discussion with them about what they saw the needs of the school to be and as a result they gave us a tour.




Here you can see the change room, the gym and the equipment room, jut to get an idea of how "bare bones" this facility was. ...the lone basket ball, the hula hoops and table tennis set, was all they had in terms of sporting equipment.




I doubt that it occurred to them that something was lacking though. They had a computer lab, with about 6 old desktops, but only 2 were working and apparently only 1 was set up with internet access. They seemed to take this as a matter of course.
The teens were more interested in a place that they could go in between classes, a room that would allow them to relax and socialize some place other than in the corridors or outside (especially when it was cold out.) I doubt that we can realistically do anything about this, but coming up with computers, or sporting equipment might be a tangible and attainable goal. Despte the lack of glitsy equipment, the students seemed happy and attentive, albeit a bit unknowledgeable about the outside world.

The kids asked that we come back again as they felt it was good to have this opportunity to hear and practice english. We agreed that we would return each Thursday afternoon if possible.
In the meantime, one of the boys who had been sitting apart from the group the entire time remained behind when the rest of the students left for home. Aure explained that this was the boy to whom she had given the bike. She wanted us to see how he and his siblings lived. He had apparently taken the bus to school that day and had missed it by staying to meet with us while we toured. We agreed to give him a ride but were a little surprised about her insistence on actually going to his home. Enroute I asked him why he had not ridden his new bike to school. He sheepishly replied through Aure, that he had been too tired to ride that morning. I asked what time he had gone to bed and he said after midnight....Aure interjected that there were often no parents around to intercede and ensure decent bedtimes.

Both parents were alcholics. The family lived very remote from the village and the only mode of transportation (other than the bicycles now) was a horse that the father sometimes used for itinerant farm labouring jobs . The parents would often go on drinking binges with friends and not return home for several days. There was no running water in the home, all water was drawn from a well. Three children - boys 14 and 11, and a little girl, 6, lived with the parents in the 3 rooms...a tiny cooking area, a bedroom and a living room/storage area.

As we drove down winding dirt roads further and further out in to the countryside, Aure told us that the children had been taken away once from the parents but had eventually been returned with the condition that there would be regular "check ups" from the authorities. Those check ups had apparently now ceased. The oldest boy was of an age to start to realize that this was not how he wanted to live and had come to the notice of a kind neighbor woman who was willing to help clean the children and their clothing, and provide some lunches to take to school, if possible.

As we drove up the path we saw a little urchin riding along on a bike in what appeared to be pajama bottoms. This was the youngest sibling. When asked why she had not been at school, her brother said she had not attended for the previous 3 days due to black eyes!.

Upon driving into the yard and seeing the mother sitting on the stoop, I was a bit leery....... strangers showing up at this home demanding to be let inside to look around. Aure was insistent though and spoke to the woman and reassured her that we were not from the authorities. This is what we saw...




The main room room had rotting ceilings and walls, flies buzzed around the heaps of dirty clothing and canned goods clogging the area. the clothing apparently had been
donated to the family by many concerned community members and teachers, but with no running water and very little sober interest from the parents, they were never washed. The kids had lice and stunk most of the time, thereby causing the other children at school to isolate or avoid them.









The boys slept out on the couch in the main room.
The cooking area was cramped and filthy, but provided the heat for the entire home via the woodburning stove.
Note the matching black eyes sported by mother and daughter.
The bedroom had an extra cot at the foot of the parents bed, on which the little girl slept at night.




In retrospect, I know that this family is representative of similar situations that can be found everywhere...only need to go outside Calgary to one of the natives reserves, for instance....or any major inner city slum. It has just been many years since my early social work career when I was more frequently exposed to this type of poverty and neglect at a close level.


I don't know what we are going to do and really am not sure that there is much we can really do that would have a lasting effect. We will not be here forever and this is a situation that will require long term solutions. Anything we could "donate" directly would run the risk of being spent or sold for drinking money. A washing machine won't assist when there is no indoor plumbing. Having the children taken away could lead to their institutionalisation and they do not want to leave their family. The best hope in my mind is to provide as many safe options for them as possible...until they are of an age to make some choices and decisions on their own. Education and exposure to "another type of life" is probably the key to their escape from the cycle, but the only way to ensure they attend school is likely with the assistance of the kind interested neighbor lady and Aure.

Another interesting Lithuanian oddity

I was getting my manicure with Natalie... she does amazing work by the way - the most thorough and painstaking manicure I have ever had! She speaks some English, so I always look forward to our time as I try to get her to explain various things that I don't understand.

I asked her about when school was starting and she said September 1st. I was a bit surprised as this was a Saturday. She explained that school always started on September 1st regardless. The kids would really only attend for a couple of hours, getting their class materials and meeting teachers etc. But because this was a Saturday this year, this meant that there would be NO ALCOHOL of any kind sold anywhere in Lithuania that day!! I was naturally confused, thinking I was misunderstanding her. Remember this is a country where alcohol can be purchased everywhere and drinking is a national past time. When asked to elaborate she reiterated, no alcohol would be sold anywhere....not in the supermarkets, kiosks, restaurants or bars. If someone had a private function, such as a wedding booked, they had to have all the alcohol purchased in advance as there would be none available for purchase on September 1!!!!!

Why were they doing this, I ask. Apparently, some of the students make this day into a celebration and take it too far! Therefore they wanted to ensure that none of them get that drunk this year.

Not sure how to take all this as it seems like a taking a fly swatter to an elephant, but what the heck...
I told Tom and he didn't believe it either until he found a front page article about it in the Baltic Times. It will be funny to watch the reactions of the some of the expats on Saturday when they can't order a beer with dinner!!!!!
In the meantime, I am off to the local Maxima store to stock up....................IKI.

When a walk in the park becomes a visit to a Soviet missile silo!

SO lets have a picnic say I......Tom is finally going to have an afternoon off so I pack up some chicken sandwiches and some of the excellent cheeses and sausages we have on hand. The plan is to head out to Pilatelai area. Pictures of the some of the general region are shown on my entry about the trip to the yacht club with Cheryl. Tom had driven through the area before I had arrived but had never had the time to really explore.
So off we go.

We arrived in Pilatelai, which is really just the town in the middle of this big regional park area.


As I had only explored it the one other time, all I knew to do was to head down to the yacht club. Tom was less than thrilled with this as it quickly became very apparent that the place was clogged with all the Lithuanians who had escaped their lakeless towns and cities. The one curiosity at the yacht club though was the scuba rental shop. We watched some of the diving and it didn't look all that safe with divers surfacing right in the line of row boats coming in.

We chose to try an alternate way into the area and found a parking lot on the hill that was at the nature walk trail head. Taking the path, we saw the usual sights...lots of pretty wild flowers, berries and mushrooms, a variety of deciduous and coniferous trees, and the lake shore where Tom hoped to find a spot from which he could fly fish.












Unfortunately we could not really find a suitable place for the latter that would not have entailed wading out quite a ways from the shoreline and he had not brought any suitable footwear for this.
We did find this interesting carved fellow along the route....looks a bit like a troll atop an elephant!


Tom was intrigued with the anthills that they had surrounded with fencing throughout the park in order to 'preserve'. We are not sure why they were being protected in this manner.

Finishing the loop on which we did not meet many people ( they were all down at the beach) we sat in the ruins of some old fortification overlooking the lakes and had our picnic lunch.















Where to next? Well lets go explore further up the road. We had read about a couple of old interesting churches in villages near by. Unfortunately , they were closed even though it was a Sunday. I guess you have to be on time for mass, and we certainly weren't.











Tom had heard about a military exhibition that was supposedly near by. We found the cut off and followed it down a dirt road until we came to signs that pointed to the exhibit. This was a former USSR MISSILE SILO BASE.....unused now of course, except to serve as a reminder to the Lithuanians about their not so distant past.
I found this link that explains the exhibition and former site better than anything I could write,
http://www.liw.lt/archive_vid.php?shid=1141920046&id=1141919774

I can say though that it was very eerie experience, one that not many people can say they have had. The pictures don't really tell the whole story so please look at the link above as well.

The tour itself was in Lithuanian, but even without understanding what was being explained, we still could feel the impact this had on the group and got some of the general gist.

We started the tour on the outside and noted the 4 rusting domes sticking up from the ground which had housed the missiles. We then proceeded to go inside the bunker which led to soldiers quarters, training rooms and the actual silos.








Note the diagram identifying various military aircraft : bottom left is Canada.









This tour would not happen in North America in this format. If you followed the link I provided about the site, he mentions that the similar American facility has recently been purchased with the intention of making it a tourist attraction as well. What will be different I am sure, is the WAY in which it is presented. On this tour we went roaming around very poorly lit tunnels and climbed up into the silo on our hands and knees. Getting out was of the silo was very difficult for some of the women and even for the older men. No one thought twice about it though and seemed to accept that this was all part of the tour and you took it at your own risk. In the USA, liability issues would ensure that the no one could be injured. By default, this would mean altering the site and this would strip away some of the intensity and realism.


















Once finished with the exhibit, we went on another hike which basically was the perimeter of the base. We came across what appeared to be a former bunker.








So this day had turned out to be a great walk out in the Lithuanian countryside. Just to cap it off, so to speak, here is a nice photo Tom took of a 'natural' hair ornament. IKI!!

A Hash...but not really...in Vilnius

SO as the good Harrierette that I am, I checked out the HASH website for Vilnius. Small website and not too much info, so I contacted the website master who promised to put me on the mailing list should any events be upcoming. Usually their runs were every other Sunday, but were even sparser in the summer months as people took off for other places. For the Vilnius Hash House Harriers check out this : http://www.vilniushhh.blogspot.com/
Although it occurs to me that you may not know what the Hash is so...check out a superior website ( aka the Calgary one) here: http://onon.org/asm/

Wednesday, Aug 15 was the feast of the Assumption of the the Blessed Virgin... a big day in the the Catholic calendar and as such one of the big holidays in Lithuania and much of Europe. The VHHH was therefore planning a special midweek run for that date and I thought this would be a good opportunity to go and at the same time check out the capital city of LT. As Tom and the the rest of the American crew had every intention of working on this holiday, I convinced Cheryl that Hashing would be a friendly and fun way to meet some people in Vilnius.

As Vilnius is about 320 Km away from Vilnius, this would mean an over nighter if we wanted to sight- see, SHOP and make the HASH. We therefore planned to make the most of the trip and scheduled 2 nights stay, arriving Tuesday and coming home some time on Thursday.


Vilnius is the largest city in LT and has a population around 700,000. It has endured many occupiers.....we were told that one of the main streets ( Gedeminas as shown below) has been renamed at least 10 times, depending on the current invader ( Poland, Russia, Germany) and who was in favour in the ruling party( Lenin, Stalin, etc)..

We managed to find our way easily enough to Vilnius despite some adventures - a car fuel gauge that read empty but was full and a worrisome check engine light, the lack of of clear road and street signage and general navigational incompetence on my part. Actually the largest challenge to driving in Lithuania is dealing with the truly insane driving mentality of the Lithuanians. I can't tell you the number of times we had to pull over to the shoulder to avoid a head on with an idiot passing in the other lane. Apparently this country has the highest traffic accident rate of Europe and I can well believe it.

So arriving in Vilnius about 5:30 we found our way to the hotel I had booked, the Mabre Residence Inn. As we drove into the courtyard of this 4 star hotel tucked into a corner of old town, we were delighted with its appearance. However, once inside we were greeted with the usual stern reserve of the desk manager and and then a bit of disappointment when we saw our room. I had asked for 2 double beds but were told there were only singles. Well this was a tiny room with 2 tiny twin beds...nothing very special in terms of history or style, and Cheryl was extremely disappointed in the lack of air conditioning. The one thing that made it interesting though was the picture over the bed.


Hotel Art

Check this guy out! who has ever seen art like this in a hotel room? Usually you get the calming scenery type or at least abstract colours, but this guy was out of a nightmare. All in all, I didn't feel it was that bad as a place to sleep and as breakfast was included and it was very close to all the action, I thought it would do fine.

We went out in search of dinner and to get our bearings for the next day. It didn't take us long to find Pilies g. which is one of the 2 main avenues in Old town...the other being Gedemenas as mentioned above. Pilies is thought to be the oldest, dating back to 1320 or so and has most of the linen, amber and outdoor cafes. Situated right next to the university it is also alive with young folks as well as a constant barrage of tourists from around Europe. I get the sense that rest of the continent has discovered that the Baltic is very accessible, beautiful and relatively inexpensive!



Pilies Street

The next day we shopped for linen and amber...I bought a knit linen dress, and 2 capes all for about 300 LT which is about $12o....This was really a great deal so I was basking in the glow of retail therapy all day!
we wandered around looking at old churches and famous poets residences etc. and then sat down for a late lunch in a cafe right on the street. This is was a "movie" moment ....just what you always expect Europe to be like according to Hollywood.





Top- view of Pilies street from town hall square, which is below. Right- Presidential Palace


Back to the hotel for Cheryl to have a nap and get ready for the HASH. Being a hashing virgin, she did not know what to expect and I tried to reassure her, but in truth I wasn't sure what sort of hash this would be as little info was available on their blog/website.

We had been told to show up at the Curiolonus street entrance toe Vingus park at 7:30 and that this would be a slightly different than normal hash which would eventually end up at Nightingale pub ( inside the park).

We decided to take a Taksi rather than drive so arrived shortly after 7. Looking anxiously around I accosted anyone who looked at all like a runner and asked if they were part of the VHHH. Most looked at me oddly ...probably thinking I was looking for some hashish!

Finally at 7:30 a girl pulled up on a bike and yes, she was Needles, the hare for tonight's hash. She was not hopeful about who else would show up though as she felt most people were out of town for this holiday. We waited for another 15 minutes and only 1 other Hasher arrived, TheLastVirgin ( Liliana) .This was perfect as she was a walker and could accompany Cheryl while Needles and I ran. As promised this was not a usual trail...the plan was to toss a coin at each path junction - left for heads and right for tails. keep doing this for about 20 minutes and then head towards the pub for drinks.

Strange but it worked ok...it was a hot and humid evening so the running was a bit tough...but since the alternative was to stand still and get eaten by mosquitoes, I ran ( for those who have seen me run, this is more of a fast walk!) At the end of our 20 minutes we headed for the outdoor pub and met up with the other 2 and ordered some much needed beer. Cheryl was delighted to hear the performer playing country western music ( badly).

Needles is late 20ish and from the Midlands, UK. She has been living and working in Vilnius for the past 2 years in an art gallery/ museum and has the job of interacting with new artists around Europe. She told me that she has not managed to learn much of the LT language except for some things related to work, but can speak good 'cafe' so can eat well!. However she also speaks a smattering of at least 5 other languages so I think she is being modest.

Interestingly, she has been to Canada and her big ambition is to move to Vancouver as she thinks it would best suit her lifestyle.
Needles said that the VHHH usually runs on alternate Sundays and has up to 50 possible members, who are more likely to attend in the fall and winter months. The make up is quite transient with an embassy crowd and people on short work permits augmenting the locals. Apparently there are a couple of very good runners ( marines from the US embassy) and the past Hash Master was the British Consul.

The other hasher who came to this, Liliana, is 50 ish and works for the Ministry of Transportation and Communication ( not very high up she says). Her husband is a retired construction engineer who is very well known in Vilnius for having built many of the bigger buildings and sport facilities during the 70s and 80s... all which have that distinctive Russian block style.

Liliana was just a lovely woman and kindly offered to help sort out the problem with our car with her son...she also urged us to meet her the next day for a quick tour of the city. She shared a ride back to our hotel in a Taksi and spoke to the driver about our car troubles to get his advice. Back at the hotel she and the driver also spoke to the doorman about is and they all had a little committee meeting and decided that it really wasn't our problem as it was a rental car. Somehow the fact that this was rented in Mazeikiai through a local, not a big car rental agency, did not translate so this got us no where and we privately decided that we would just take our chances driving home the next day and call the guys in Mazeikiai if the car stopped totally.

We did agree to call Liliana the next day though before we left. SO after a leisurely breakfast and packing up, we met Liliana at the cathedral square as arranged. She was taking an hour off from work to do this tour as she already had a standing lunch appointment, so we were very appreciative of the attention.

Unfortunately though we opted to drive and this meant negotiating Vilnius traffic, traffic circles and tourist bus clogged parking lots. As a result much of the hour was spent driving in circles looking for a parking lot and then trying to get into it.
St Peter and St Paul Cathedral



We finally did arrive at the first destination...the Cathedral of St Peter and St Paul ( there is one in every major centre it seems!). The pictures speak for themselves as to the incredible art work in this place...

Liliana filled in some historical info and local folklore...the most interesting piece being this statue below that they appears to have a wig on...they say that the hair is growing!!!












After this she took us to multi story mall which offered a view of the skyline where we were able to take some more photos...again lots of church steeples.


Liliana went back to work and Cheryl and I stopped to check out the Vilnius Opera and Ballet Centre. Strangely, this was the one place in the city where no one spoke english and so we took a brochure to check out on line later.
National Drama Theatre on Gedeminas Street

National Opera and Ballet Centre


We then headed back to Mazeikiai and fortunately did not have any car problems enroute. We stopped once for propane ( dujos) and tried to get a bite to eat in the restaurant. However, there does not seem to be an option of a simple sandwich in most of these places......just full meals or more of the fried bread type of snacks. We decided to grab an ice cream instead and keep driving.

And so back to our respective apartments. I have to confess a certain amount of depression in leaving Vilnius...it is so nice there and so much more to do and see.... Both Cheryl and I felt this quite strongly the next day. However, there will be more little trips such as this. Tom and I are hoping to go to Riga for the opera and I know Cheryl wants us to go to Prague in the fall. SO more adventures to follow.
ON ON and IKI!