A quiet day - just with family wandering around the old town. Made porridge - then walked over to see Mum and Dads old friend , Pranas Nagys. We went up to his flat - then at 1pm I left the flat so I could have a Skype session with my family at home. Being Jill's birthday a fair amount of the extended family were there which was nice. I utilized the free wifi in the town centre to show off the old part of Vilnius to the family.
Next, we got into some heavy duty amber shopping at "the amber queen". If you ever get to Vilnius I can recommend this shop for all your amber needs. There wasn't an amber hedgehog or amber basketball in sight (which seem to feature in many good taste shops of this city). We had lunch (yes potatoes) and then had a leisurely stroll around. As we walked past an outdoor wine bar, we all thought "why not?"
So we did.
More strolling ensued. I found a CD store in an old cellar and the cool dude - my age with leather jacket, Ramones Tshirt and pony tail spent the next 20 minutes talking and playing me Lithuanian music. He asked me what I liked and found some great music to match my taste. Got some great stuff including Hiperbole - the first Lithuanian rock band.
We all walked up through the Gates of Dawn and ...... (warning! Toilet story following) we decided we needed to use facilities. We found a sign in a park that said WC with a sign pointing down to an underground bunker. I went down the stairs, opened the door and there she was. Scarf across hair, tunic with white apron, imposing arms and solid, broad face. She sat in an office down there, behind glass windows - tv on, and there was a plastic flap for me to pass the 1 litus. Next to the flap was a roll of toilet paper. I had to take what I needed, and then open the next door to go into the toilets. It was very dark, musty and somewhat rustic.
After that we walked through the Jewish quarter. So much history in this city. I quite like the fact that the old buildings are being restored whilst the Soviet style buildings that were built during the occupation are now crumbling and falling apart. The soviet era saw the beautiful ancient buildings terribly neglected, defaced and even destroyed. It pleases me to see the ancient buildings lasting and returning while those awful boxes are left to rot and decay.