Our Last Stop in the Baltics: Vilnius, Lithuania

We have tried to do as much as possible to get into the Christmas spirit. Since we are not home decorating a tree, baking Christmas cookies, or drinking eggnog lattes to get us in the spirit we thought that visiting all these Christmas markets would be just the thing. For the most part, it has worked perfectly, there is just something so quintessentially Christmas about all the Christmas Markets in the old towns we have seen, everything decorated and lit up, Christmas songs playing overhead as the smell of mulled wine, roasting chestnuts and grilled meat wafts through the air. I just have one teeny, tiny complaint. The weather. I expected it to be cold and dreary, I was a little surprised by the amount of time it stays dark, but thats not a deal breaker. The thing that I am talking about is the rain. We thought for sure that we would have a white Christmas, or at least see a decent amount of snow. After all, if it is going to be cold and wintery, there should at least be snow. But, instead we get rain. We have seen a few flurries- it snowed a bit in Oslo as we were leaving, it snowed a tiny bit in both Tallinn and Riga but didn’t stick at all either time. It rained in Helsinki, it rained in Vilnius, and it sleeted in Riga and Tallinn. Now, we are headed to Dusseldorf with more rain in the forecast. Oh well.

It rained the first night we were in Vilnius, Lithuania. Interestingly enough, Lithuania means land of rain- I would say that it was pretty accurately named. We took a bus from Riga down to Vilnius to complete the triumvirate of Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius. Fortunately, it was still dry when we arrived in Vilnius and stayed dry while we walked to our hotel (more exciting hotel news- we once again had heated bathroom floors!). It even held out as we dumped our bags in the hotel and set out to explore the old town. It actually wasn’t until about 6pm that it started raining, but it rained all night and well into the morning the next day. We did catch a break, it dried up just in time for the walking tour.

The old town in Vilnius is the biggest of the three old town’s we have seen. It is also the least identifiable, with no wall and no discernible border that we found. On the night we arrived our explorations took us over the Green Bridge which features statues in the style of Socialist Realism- a term that we have learned is a misnomer if there ever was one. The statues depict people happily working and enjoying their socialist lifestyle. We saw a large mural with a similar theme in Berlin, in fact we have seen artwork in the same style throughout the formerly communist countries. Everywhere we have seen socialist realism, we have heard that it was a fantasy at best and propaganda at the least. Anyway, the bridge took us over into the old town. Like Riga, there was not one central square, but many smaller ones all featuring Christmas trees with a variety of different decorations from snowflakes to music notes. There were a few stalls, but not an organized Christmas market exactly.

There were many beautiful churches (apparently, the trend used to be that all the rich families would build their own church, so when I say “there were many” what I mean is “there was one on just about every block”). One of the churches was also supposed to be turned into an atheist museum, but, again, since there is nothing to put into an atheist museum, it never became a museum, it was only used for storage.  We explored  bit of the old town, but didn’t venture too far, there were just too many winding, cobblestone streets to explore.

The next day we woke up to rain beating against the window in our hotel. We were planning to do a walking tour that day, but neither of us were particularly excited at the prospect of going out into the driving rain and walking around for 2 hours. We hemmed and hawed, trying to decide if we should go or not when the rain stopped! The sun even peeked out for about 10 minutes! We grabbed our sunglasses (in hopeful anticipation of more sun) and our raincoats (just in case it rained again) and set out. We ended up not needing ether one. Our tour was fairly large, about 25 people, most of them Polish. This tour focused on the alternative side of Vilnius. Our guide told us she would not be taking us to the most touristy places because, as she said, we could easily find those on our own. She was taking us to see local things and things we might not otherwise see. I think I would have preferred a mix, some of the big, touristy stuff and then a bit of the local, alternative stuff. We only had one full day in Vilnius, which meant we only had time for one tour and we wanted to see it all.

The absolute highlight of the tour was visiting the Independent Republic of Užupis- a small, independent republic inside Vilnius. It is not recognized by the government of Lithuania but has its own constitution, president and even a duke! Up until recently it even had its own army (of 12 people) but they have recently disbanded the army as they are a peaceful republic. They have their own ambassadors including ambassador of the river and ambassador of the sky. If you have ever wanted to be an ambassador, all you have to do is ask the president of Užupis and he will think up your ambassador duties. It’s actually quite an awesome place! Užupis was a small bohemian neighborhood that has since become a very artsy district and somehow or another became its own republic. Before we entered, we passed a sign with pictures telling us the rules: Smile (our guide said this was more for Lithuanians than foreigners, as Lithuanians don’t tend to smile), go slow-20kph, respect the arts and don’t fall in the river. We all agreed that we could follow those rules and so we entered Užupis.

Our first stop was at the pub that serves as parliament- it was even where the constitution was written with the president and one of his friends! We saw lots of art including a mermaid who, if you stared at her for a long time, would entice you to stay forever, a statue of the duke of Užupis (he used to be a college professor but then decided that was too normal, so he took to wearing glasses to look smart, smoking a pipe because it made him beautiful, and singing loudly about the USA which he considers to be a great place. He went to the president of Užupis and said that an independent republic needed a duke and he would do the job. The president agreed. The duke then said that as a duke he needed a statue in his honor. The president agreed and so there is a statue of the duke!), we also saw a statue of the original backpacker, Jesus, complete with backpack and all.

It was a very cool place, full of art and silly stories. Independence day in Užupis is April 1st, and one year they had a fountain that flowed with free beer instead of water.

We visited the constitution which is translated into many languages including old Irish, because, why not, but is missing languages like Spanish. It was a great constitution including such great rules as:

1. Everyone has the right to live by the River Vilnelė, and the River Vilnelė has the right to flow by everyone.
2. Everyone has the right to hot water, heating in winter and a tiled roof.
3. Everyone has the right to die, but this is not an obligation.
4. Everyone has the right to make mistakes.
5. Everyone has the right to be unique.
6. Everyone has the right to love.
7. Everyone has the right not to be loved, but not necessarily.
8. Everyone has the right to be undistinguished and unknown.
9. Everyone has the right to idle.
10. Everyone has the right to love and take care of the cat.
11. Everyone has the right to look after the dog until one of them dies.
12. A dog has the right to be a dog.
13. A cat is not obliged to love its owner, but must help in time of nee.
14. Sometimes everyone has the right to be unaware of their duties.
15. Everyone has the right to be in doubt, but this is not an obligation.
16. Everyone has the right to be happy.
17. Everyone has the right to be unhappy.
18. Everyone has the right to be silent.
19. Everyone has the right to have faith.
20. No one has the right to violence.
21. Everyone has the right to appreciate their unimportance.
22. No one has the right to have a design on eternity.
23. Everyone has the right to understand.
24. Everyone has the right to understand nothing.
25. Everyone has the right to be of any nationality.
26. Everyone has the right to celebrate or not celebrate their birthday.
27. Everyone shall remember their name.
28. Everyone may share what they possess.
29. No one can share what they do not possess.
30. Everyone has the right to have brothers, sisters and parents.
31. Everyone may be independent.
32. Everyone is responsible for their freedom.
33. Everyone has the right to cry.
34. Everyone has the right to be misunderstood.
35. No one has the right to make another person guilty.
36. Everyone has the right to be individual.
37. Everyone has the right to have no rights.
38. Everyone has the right to not to be afraid.
Do not defeat.
Do not fight back.
Do not surrender.

Our guide took us through other parts of the city  and past several churches (she told us the two main religions in Lithuania are Catholicism and basketball) she even showed us where some famous Lithuanian films were filmed. During communist times, the different cities had to act as different parts of the world since filmmakers could not go elsewhere. In Riga we saw the street that served as Baker’s Street in Sherlock Holmes films and in Vilnius we saw what passed for South America. No country in particular, just South America.

It was a fun tour and a fun city. The next morning we took a bus out to the airport to catch a flight to Dusseldorf so we could enjoy more rain and more Christmas markets.