It's 3:30 in the afternoon and already dusk. And more snow predicted, with several inches on the ground already, mostly unshoveled - just tromped down. We're glad our new boots have good tread on them, for the footing is already treacherous, and it's only early December!
Liz was invited to the regular meeting of the women's Bible study last Thursday. It was at Edita's home, where we had had lunch last Tuesday. She's on the right, along with Rebecca, American, and Jolanta and Audrone, both Lithuanian. About a twenty-minute walk each way, and Liz' foot handled it pretty well.
Liz' homestyle gourmet dining room. Featuring spaghetti sauce with ground turkey this particular night, but other entrees have included beef stroganoff, fried chicken, and pork schnitzel, plus homemade potato soup and tomato soup. Since we don't have an oven, Liz has found that the slow cooker, on the left, is a pretty good substitute - you just have to remember to give it a good pre-heat.
Gathering for worship this past Sunday, Second Sunday of Advent. We're in the old, old Lutheran Church - 1555 - rehabilitated in 1990 after Soviet occupation. It had been a warehouse and basketball court.
We were tickled Sunday to have worship boosted by twenty-five Dutch students visiting Vilnius from their university in Groningen. They had just arrived the evening before and had seen the entrance to the church. They were fun - and it meant we had 40 for worship instead of 15!
After worship, a new Norwegian friend, Per-Erik, drove us all around Vilnius for about four hours, showing us many things we might never have found on our own. Here he's pointing to the beginning point of a "stations of the cross" journey, a via dolorosa, that many people know nothing about. The route extends for about four miles with about 35 stations. Most if not all of the stations were destroyed or vandalized during the occupation, but all the chapels have now been restored. A couple examples below:
The last chapel is in a cemetery which is largely Polish - no surprise, since Lithuanian and Polish history is so tightly intertwined. We stopped in at the large church nearby and listened to a portion of the mass. There was just barely room to squeeze in at the back - the church was packed.
We stopped for a moment at the base of the concrete TV tower at the edge of the city. It was here on January 13, 1991, that Soviet special forces tried to re-capture the Lithuanian media in an attempt to slow down the disintegration of the Soviet Union. The assault, with tanks, killed fourteen civilians. You can see the memorials to those who died.
An impressive classical facade on a building that is totally empty and probably will remain so for a long time. During Soviet days it was home to the all-union congress, or something like that. Everyone belonged to a union, and this was the headquarters. Because of that legacy, no one wants to be in a union now, and no one can agree about what is to be done with this big white elephant - except spray it with graffiti.
But the building sits on top of a great sledding hill, and everyone was out enjoying the first snowy Sunday of the year!
When we stopped at this building Per-Erik challenged us to name it, which, of course, we could not do.
It's the embassy of Azerbaijan, built for them by the USA! As I remember what Per-Erik told us: the Azerbaijanis had a nice embassy on the other side of the river, and the US decided it was a good, secure spot for our embassy, so we offered to move the Azerbaijanis over here. They agreed!
At about four o'clock we stopped for lunch at one of Per-Erik's favorite spots, an old mill that serves real Lithuanian dishes.
We started with what he called the national dish, cepelinai su mesa, a dumpling made of shredded potato that is molded around a sausage, surrounded with cheese sauce. It was very good! We then had some "beer food," bread strips covered, sort of like nachos, with a garlic-cheese-mayo sauce. And then Liz had a pork chop and fried potatoes and very good vegetables, and I had some roast chicken with mashed potatoes. And beer. We skipped dessert.
Too much information! If you think I've gone on and on - this is just a small bit of all the things he showed us and told us. I haven't begun to do justice to the tour - it was really a gift to us.
Yesterday we gave ourselves a treat and went out for "coffee" after lunch. Liz had found a little spot on a side street very close by, so we gave it a try. That's her cheesecake and my chocolate-orange torte, just before we bit in.
It's the Mama Mia Delicatessen - we'll go there when you visit!
Well, I'm sure this is "too much information" for you - sorry! But if I don't tell you things I'll get too far behind and never catch up!
We're having fun, Liz' ankle is starting week 11 and doing pretty well, and I think my cold only has a couple more days to run.
Take care of yourselves and enjoy winter! We are!
Mike and Liz
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