Siauliai, Lithuania (Hill of Crosses)

I added Siaulia (pronounced Shoo-lay) to my trip since Vilnius was supposed to be boring.  It was sort of half way from Vilnius to Klaipeda where I had intended as my next stop. So, sure, why not.  It turns out it was more like 5/7 of the way, but I"m not sorry I stopped here.

My bag is ridiculous now but my pattern so far has been to walk to my new apartments as long as Google maps says it is under 30 minutes.  Uber or Bolt if it is over.  Or if it is raining which, fingers crossed, it hasn't been since my last soggy disaster walk.  Oh, that reminds me.  I found a pocket in my bag that has a rain cover in it.  A little late but good to try to remember for next time.

Anyway, Siauliai was a walk distance.

There is a place nearby called the Hill of Crosses and the pictures looked cool.  I love a graveyard.  This isn't a graveyard, more of a memorial yard? Wikipedia tells me it is a place of pilgrimage. And a symbol of Lithuanian independence. 

Once you're through the gate (and the gauntlet of tourist shops), you have to walk through some pretty beautiful rolling fields of grain.

It starts somewhat tamely.  The edges have crept
well past the 'hill'

It is easier on the edges to see details

You can still see the ground for instance
and the tiniest little crosses like this one for Peter
which was maybe an inch long

A glance in the other direction...

Once I got to the hill proper, it is all a bit overwhelming.  Taking photos was hard because there was so much detail everywhere.  Big pictures just don't work.  It is a mess, a jumble, a cacophony of images.  Piles upon piles of crosses and rosaries and statutes.  So, here is a mess, a jumble, a cacophony of photos.

Pope John Paul II came here at some point.  He commented, they say, that it would be nice if the pilgrims had somewhere close by to worship.  So, they built a church just past the hill.  I think it is run by monks.  

It isn't a splashy church with tourists in mind. It barely has a door.  But if you wander around and read little print on little signs on obscure doors that other tourists are walking by, you will find a little note saying come in if you want to worship with the monks.  Well, I'm up for a good monk worshiping session, so in I went.

There were three monks chanting.  I snuck a photo.
 And a video that I don't think I can manage to post.

The church (monastery?) just past the hill 

The only window in the chapel looks at the hill

I took so many pictures there but that is enough of a glimpse.  There were more tourists than I expected.  I don't know why.  The Hill of Crosses has bus tours to it so...  It made it hard to take photos that weren't just tourists taking photos.  I hate those guys (irony well noted).

Other than tour buses there is no public transportation to the hill. So, I ubered there and then back to Siauliai.  I booked my return to the CAT MUSEUM!!

I found this in my 10 year old tour book.  And it is still there!

The entrance and the stairwell are off to a good start.

I paid my five euro and met the first cat. 
'You may scritch my head before I go back to the warm keyboard'

The cat museum. What can I say. It was so cheesy and ridiculous and stupid and awesome! I loved it.  It was like being in a Value Village knickknack section after a crazy cat lady dies and her family is like 'what are we going to do with all of this cat crap?  And then they dropped off every bit of chotsky and art and also four indifferent cats at VV.

Gaa, the art was so terrible!

Cat # 2. 
'Stop bugging me, I'm trying to sleep here'.

Shane and Ilya (as cats)

Cat # 3
'I'm not following you.  I just happen to always be in the 
same room as you.  Look, I'm not looking at you,
clearly I am not interested in what you are doing'

Cat # 4 lives with the terrarium animals. 

When the Uber guy was driving me to the cat museum, which I could tell he was totally judgy about by the way he confirmed 'The Cat Museum?' with a total question mark as he said it, he pointed out his window and said that when I was done with the cats, I should find the silver fox.  Well, I assumed he didn't mean George Clooney but as a single gal, I cannot turn down to opportunity to find a silver fox.  

Plus, and of course, this is the real reason, as he was waving his arm out the window toward the general direction of the silver fox, all I could see was a cool old graveyard.  Yes, please.

So, cat museum checked off.  I headed toward the head of a path system that Uber guy pointed out to me.  It was lovely.  It curved around a little lake and was populated with teenagers and families and old ladies some of whom were looking for a silver fox.

Before I got to the path

Latvia is at the centre of the Baltics and therefore at the centre of the defense of the Baltics.  There are even Canadian troops here. There is a huge military airfield close by.  I didn't see it but I sure saw and heard evidence of it.  These jets would zoom over our heads in pairs every 15-20 minutes. It was a lovely peaceful walk along a lake, the quiet constantly interrupted by a huge blast of sound as the jets flew by.  I was chatting with an older lady talking about the geese (watch out for them). She was almost certainly from the era of the Soviet Union, growing up speaking Russian.  She was happy for the jets since they were from NATO and were keeping Lithuania safe from the Russian drones.  

I've heard a couple of people, in Lituania and Latvia say they are not worried about Russia.  They feel pretty protected by their membership in the EU.  They have a low opinion of Putin's ability to do anything but continue to amass massive Russian casualties in Ukraine.  

a jet, protecting me from Russia

Watch out for this guy. 
He and his mate had seven goslings to protect

Grebe that I didn't look up.  I'm quite lazy with the birding these days

Well, it ain't Sam Elliot but it is a silver fox.

Don't eat those kids!!

The cemetery was right beside Mr. Fox.  It was cool and old and very tumble down.  My favourite kind of cemetery. It seemed very old but almost all of the graves were from the 50s.  Not that old despite the lack of upkeep.  It made me wonder what happened in the 50s. The Soviet occupation of course.  But most gravestones don't actually have dates.  Just names. So, maybe the older ones just didn't have any dates or didn't survive?  Causation vs Correlation.  Having now been on a walking tour about the Soviet era, I am going with causation.  

That depressing note aside, there were flowers on even the oldest graves.  Lots of perennials and wild flowers.  Begonias are everywhere, as are flowing hostas and roses, and giant daisies.  It was a stunning time to visit, with everything in bloom all at once.

After that I walked back to my apartment and probably read my book.  It was a lot of walking.  Everyday is a lot of walking. But it is the pleasantest of weather now, rain gone, heat has not quite arrived, at least the overwhelming heat from last month.  Just a nice time to be here kind of weather.