Changes of plans....
This morning we planned to go and hire a 7 seater vehicle with Mindaugas - he arrived a but late- and then got on his phone. With mum interpreting he told us it would be a bad idea to hire a car in Lithuania. You have to leave credit card details with the car hire place- and invariably they claim damage to the car after your hire. You may argue, but they already have your credit card information. He made more calls and decided he was going to drive, and also his girlfriend was going to drive a second car to take us on the Lithuanian road trip on Thursday. We don't want to put anyone out - but Mindaugas was quite adamant that we do it that way. He then organized a taxi that could fit us all in and came with us to Druskininkai. We drove through dense pine and birch forests. When I read the Narnian trilogy, the forests I imagined were now in my eyes.
Our first stop was at the Gruto Parkas. Some rich bloke has bought and collected a huge amount of soviet artifacts, weapons, busts and all those statues that were toppled at the time of the fall of the Soviet Union. It is a shrine to the Tens of thousands of Lithuanians who were deported or killed during the purge of the 1940s.
Our taxi driver came in with us and had lunch with us - he is now a member of the family. We sat down for lunch and you could choose from traditional Lithuanian or Soviet era. I had traditional Lithuanian, (which means potato) . Our taxi man had soviet which was a beer, herrings, onion and a large glass of straight vodka. He said he would not drink vodka as he was driving, so the Linas's passed it around and had a taste each. Ouch!!!
We then walked around this strange theme park that had the soviet era children's rides, soviet statues, buildings full of soviet art and prints. There was one that summed up the era. It was a wood print that had the beautiful old buildings of Vilnius. At the bottom of the print and rising up are brick boxes - heading up to cover up the old architecture.
And then we walked around the park - to see all these dictators and "heroes" of the soviet union. Now I get the idea that this was meant to commemorate those who suffered under the soviet purges- but it was so sad - and disturbing to see these despots back up on their pedestals. In 1991 the people of this country took each statue and threw it to the ground. I would be happier if the statues were scattered on the ground around this park.
Ok... So we got through this event - and then went down further to Druskininkai. We stopped at the houses that I believe would be my father's dream home. All wood, carved pine and gnarly bannisters, totems of strange people holding mushrooms, and huts made of twisting logs.
Finally we landed in the heart of Druskininkai, all health spas and soft light. We walked down to the beautiful Nemunas River- then found this very up market cafe - overlooking the river. 4 very nice coffees, a glass of red, a glass of white and a half litre of beer - cost us - cha ching! $11.43.
And then - the 2 hour drive back to Vilnius. What a great day!