Ok, ok.... What has happening in Vilnius over last few of days. So now I tell you. It is no prob lem for you to be listen.
Ok ... On Saturday the 8th - we got up in our luxury apartment in Vilnius. You know it is the hippy hippy shake. Yah. Romas and I got up at 6 ( I messed up my time zones and thought it was 7) and went for our first walk through Vilnius. We walked through avenues of ancient and crumbling buildings - some restored, others .... We think businessmen have bought buildings to restore , but have run out of money. We waked up to the Gates of Dawn and through them. Its sort of an archway in the wall surrounding Vilnius - a wall to protect Vilnius. About 400 years ago a gilt madonna image was put above the arch behind windows and now it is the number 1 pilgrimage for Litho Catholics. - Not much activity going on as we walked up to and under the arch. We walked back and a priest had opened the windows. Now there were all these people, turning to the Madonna and falling down, crossing themselves and waiting. So we headed back to our apaeent.
Rita, my mother"s cousin"s daughter (Mindaugas" sister) came over with supplies - porridge, milk, cheeses, breads, self made honey - and she took us out to walk through the Old Town Vilnius. She has been incredibly kind and helpful - spending a lot of time looking after us. We walked through many old shops - looking at lots of Litho stuff. We went to the Lithuanian University, all draped in cobble stones and history. I have discovered that Lauren has the same affliction as me. If there is a hill, or a mountain, or a dome or a tower, well... You should ( must) climb it. We all went into the bell tower and climbed up .... But there was that extra bit to climb- the bit that Australian work health and safety officials would have a coronary just looking at - and Lauren and I looked at each other in a mutual "there's another bit to climb". When we bought our tickets at the bottom if the tower the young lady said to us " when you get to top, your breathing will run away." she was right.
After that we went for lunch at a cafe that serves authentic Lithuanian cuisine. So obviously I had a variation of some potato dish served with cabbage and sour cream. Every meal I have had here has been totally different- with a different name for potato, cabbage and sour cream. After the feast we made our way to the Vilnius Cathedral. A massive cathedral in the centre of the city. Under Soviet occupation it was turned into a museum and much of it was destroyed. There were plans to turn it into an auto repair centre but that didn't happen. After secession the people of Vilnius rebuilt the cathedral.
After that we climbed the mountain behind the cathedral up to Gediminas Castle. This was the ancient fortification to protect Vilnius from the hordes of Australians that were preparing to invade. Their plans did not work as my family stormed the gates ( well some of them came up the inclinator) and we planted our flag upon the turrets. Take that you rude lady who gave my mother a hard time at the ticket counter!

So them Rita took mum and Audrey by taxi back to her place and Rita rang her brother Mindaugas to pick up Romas, Lauren and myself. He screeched into the parking area outside the cathedral and we jumped in. After a couple of "OK, OKs" and "no prob lem"s we were tearing through Vilnius like a zipper doesn't.

We arrived at Rita"a in the dark. She lives on the outskirts of Vilnius in one of the old soviet apartment blocks. She shares the flat with Olga, a fellow Steiner school teacher who is originally from Khazihkstan. The flat us very small by our standards. We washed our hands in he bath as Rita had the sink removed to allow more room. The physical space may have been small, but their hospitality was huge. We sat down to a meal of dumplings, chicken and self made apple pie. It was fantastic. They then organized a taxi for us.
The taxi took us careering back to our apartment.