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Weirdness In Lithuania

Darkdreamer

Gone But Not Forgotten
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Feb 20, 2007
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Hi,

I'm new to the forum, but have been an FT reader for at least 10 years. I'm planning a trip to Lithuania in the summer, and I was wondering if anyone new any places or stories I could follow up while I'm there.

I have already ear-marked finding out about the Baltic mythology and the special days and festivals, as this seems quite different from other parts of europe, also I hear that UFO sitings are very common, and there was a fairly famous case of a haunted supermarket!

If anyone has any ideas whichever weird catagories they fall into, please let me know,

Visa Gero!

DD
 
Fun country.

Try the 'Devil museum' in Kaunas. It's a collection of folk devils and demonic images from many different cultures. It's opposite the M.K.Ciurlionis Museum - which has some rather splendid musical/artistic surrealist work in.

I recall, in the Lonely Planet guide, some reference to a hill/mound used in Witchcraft but i frankly can't recall the location - anyway, i couldn't make it there.

Also, there's the rather splendid Hill of Crosses, in Siauliai, Lithuania:

hill-crosses-01-500.jpg

The photos doesn't begin to do this thing justice. Each cross is festooned with hundreds of smaller and still smaller ones - there are 10s of millions of crosses here (no exaggeration)- and it takes a few minutes to walk over and around the mound as the forest of crosses has extended for quite some way behind it. Unique. To the best of my...
 
I didn't see too many fortean sights whilst on my hols in this amazing country, but the KGB museum in Vilnius is worth a look - it can get a bit depressing though.

Gediminas castle and the views you get from it are well worth a look.

The "castle in a lake", Trakai, is about 30 klicks outisde of Vilnius, in the summer it's great as an away day. Very popular with locals

For light relief, visit the bust of Legendary Rock-God - Frank Zappa. Here's an excerpt from a guide book:

"Hot Rats! Deceased rock and roll pervert, part-time classical composer and father of Moon Unit has had his head immortalised in brass and placed on a pole in a lacklustre courtyard just west of Old Town. Commissioned by a student and created by septuagenarian realist sculptor Konstantinas Bogdanas who once churned-out Lenins and other noteworthy comrades for the bureaucrats in Moscow, Zappa is notable as being the the first of only two statues of the man in the world. (Although, he does have two asteroids, a gene, a jellyfish, a microbe that causes urinary tract infections and a spider named after him.)"

This info is from a website:

http://www.inyourpocket.com/country/lithuania.html

It was only available hard-copy, almost chap book style, when i was there but happily technology has now caught up. I think it's a great guide book, but the lonely planet-type guides are probably in abundance too.

Palanga & Klaipeda were fun towns also. I took a sleeping train from Vilnius, and it was a good way to see the countryside. I think it cost about 10GBP, although this was 4-5 years ago, so prices may have gone up?

The "Vila Ramybe" is a cool place to stay in Palanga, with the handful of guest rooms above a funky little Jazz cafe.

Enjoy! and don't forget to buy some amber jewellery when you are out there.
 
thanks.....

Thank you for your suggestions...I am looking forward to it. I don't know if i'll get a chance to travel to the hill of crosses as it will be a bit far. I will be staying in Vilnus and will be visiting Kaunas, and maybe Neda. I think that there will be plenty to get my teeth into. It looks like there is a ghost tour in Vilnus at the moment which may be worth looking at.

If anyone comes up with new ideas. Please let me know!

DD
 
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