Day 4: Vilnius Old Town

 After a great night's sleep in Lithuania, the Vedeckis family welcomed us in the morning with waffles.  Some things are universally delicious!

We then joined them on an amazing tour of Vilnius, beginning with their school.  Liepa and Egle both attend VIS, the Vilnius International School.  Vytis starts this fall, so our visit was a good jumpstart into English.  Located right in Vilnius's old town, the school is stunning, divided into several buildings that form a small campus.  We began our tour with the newly remodeled high school.

The school director was extremely kind and gave us a tour of the facilities.  It's easy to see how much she cares about her students and their education.

Needless to say, our kids were a bit jealous.  Eli is stuck in a portable this year and parts of West look more like the "before" pictures.

Particularly noteworthy was this motley crew's impromptu performance of Tangled, in which Eli played the part of Rapunzel and chucked pillows instead of frying pans.  Brilliant.

Personally, I loved the VIS school motto: Cultivating Learners to Become Culturally Proficient Human Beings.  But in case you need any further convincing that this school is the coolest, check out the view.

I do believe that my kids would have agreed to emigrate right then and there.

After the school tour, Kes asked us if we would like to join in an archaeological dig and we thought he was kidding.  But no, not in the slightest!  

Kes works in real estate development for IKEA.  They have grand plans for a project right in the middle of old town Vilnius.  The location couldn't be more ideal.  The only problem is that the site is directly over the remains of a palace.  

Before the site can be developed, they must first complete a detailed archaeological study that will take literally years.  I told Jason that this makes passing historical review here in the United States seem like a piece of cake!  Here we are examining some of the treasures that have been unearthed thus far: mostly old coins and pottery.

Best of all, we all got to climb in the trenches and do a bit of scraping ourselves.

We may not have unearthed more than a few pottery shards, but it was still a fantastic experience.  Who would have ever dreamed that we'd play archaeologists in Lithuania?

Hungry from all our hard work, we then strolled over to none other than the Holy Donut.

Kes recommended this place not for its donuts (which looked delicious), but rather for its bagel sandwiches.  I made Liepe and Egle pose just so I could send this picture to our mutual friend, Karen Suisse.  There's a story about how Karen's son once licked a pie so that it would be all his.  Never one to miss a beat, Karen proceeded to spit on it and said, "Go Ahead!"

Vytis, looking just like a college student with his casual pose.

The bagel sandwiches were amazing.  In truth, the best I've ever eaten.  Watch out New York, Lithuania scores again!

While Vilnius's old town had plenty of outdoor eating, we chose to eat on the rooftop at Kes's office instead.  Pretty fabulous view here as well!  It was probably better anyway.  While we were at the Holy Donut, some poor truck accidentally took out their canopy umbrellas as he tried to navigate the narrow street.  Oops!  At least he didn't injure any people.

After lunch, we were all shocked to see a squadron of missionaries marching down the street.  Kes dared Jason to go talk to them, which of course he did, asking lots of questions before finally confessing to being a bishop in Utah.  I don't know what's funniest in this picture: the missionaries, Kes chuckling, or Jason going to greet them in nothing less than a white dress shirt.

Our next stop was the Vilnius Cathedral, which was amazingly preserved as an art museum during the Russian occupation.

This side chapel is exquisitely ornate.  Stare at the ceiling long enough, however, and you are sure to be baffled.  It's hard to tell what is painted and what is three dimensional.

After the cathedral we walked over to the neighboring Gediminas Castle Tower.  Like many castle towers, it was built high on a hill to better defend the people (generally from invading Crusaders.)

So the real question is, will we make it to the top?  

It definitely required a lot of stairs, but the vistas were marvelous.

No better backdrop for some group shots.  Here's the whole crew minus Kes.

Plus Kes, but minus Jason.

Vilnius-y Wheelers, both serious and silly.

Switch.  Now it's the Vedeckis' turn.

A birds eye view of the cathedral.

Inside the castle tower was a small museum displaying everything from feudal armor to artwork from school children.

For me, I was particularly interested in learning about The Baltic Way.  On August 23, 1989 peaceful protesters formed a 595 kilometer human chain stretching all the way through Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.  As an eleven year-old girl, Lina was one of two million who joined hands for independence.

Lina remembers that traffic was so backed up that they ended up forming a new branch of the chain so everyone could participate. 

How remarkable to have been part of this piece of history.

Next step was some ice cream for an afternoon pick-me-up.  Annika is quite color coordinated.

We nearly stopped for macarons as well.

All in all, we walked nearly ten miles that day.  Vytis fell sound asleep and got to ride in his Dad's arms.

After a rejuvenating meal and some leisurely hoops at home, we headed back into Vilnius after dark for their light festival.  We were lucky to time our visit just right for this community celebration.

Jacob's Wall was my personal favorite.  There was something so intriguing about all the ladders going off in near synchrony--mechanized and free form all at once.

As you can see from this picture, it was pretty crowded so we didn't stay too long.  You know, Covid.  Darn.  But before leaving we made sure to enjoy the park.

And there you have it!  Our delightful day in Vilnius, all thanks to the Vedeckis family.