From Rundale Palace, the bus crossed the border into Lithuania…View image… where we stopped somewhere to use an ATM and convert Lats (LVL) into Lits (LTL) – Lithuanian currency if anyone chose to convert their Lats (we’d spend more time in Latvia after touring Lithuania – are you confused yet?). Again, we were out of the group loop and just found out that Mort had his wallet stolen in Tallinn as he was walking up the stairs to a church. Money, credit cards, and ATM. Where was his wallet? In an easily reached pocket, obviously not in a money-belt.

Lithuania is the largest of the three Baltic States, is 90% Catholic and converted to Christianity 200 years later than its northern neighbors. Signe told us that there are still Lithuanians and Latvians that practice paganism, primarily in a society called Romuva. Google “Romuva”, you’ll find out she is correct. Romuva was a pagan worship place and the grass snake (or Sacred Serpent) is revered. Later on in this trip, Signe passed around a book called Egle, Queen of The Grass Snake for everyone to read commenting that it would be difficult to understand the Baltics without reading this Lithuanian fairy tale.

Egle, Queen of The Grass Snake – a Lithuanian fairy tale
From stories about paganism to the Hill of Crosses near Siauliani where rosaries and crosses cover a small hill placed by devout Lithuanians. From the medieval period to today, the Hill of Crosses has always represented how Lithuanian Catholics expressed their resistance to oppression. From the peasant uprisings until 1985, crosses have been removed, hill leveled three times by both the Germans and Soviets and covered with waste and sewage. This was fruitless because locals and pilgrims replaced the crosses immediately each time the site was desecrated.

You could see the very small hill in the distance as the bus approached and parked for a brief 20-30 minutes at the site. There is a path through the center to walk through the sea of crosses for closer examination.

approaching the Hill of Crosses, Lithuania 

intricate old wooden cross, Hill of Crosses, Lithuania
The crosses have been placed by people asking for mercy or giving thanks and latest estimate is that more than 50,000 crosses and rosaries stand on this hill. 1993, Pope John Paul II even paid a visit to this hill and I’m not sure if he or the latest Pope had a cross placed on it. (One of them did.) There were little crosses, big crosses, metal, hand carved, small plaques in remembrance including a Star of David…View image, names of the deceased and others commemorating uprisings along with rosaries all jumbled together.

a hand-carved Jesus on the Hill of Crosses, Lithuania 

path through the middle on the Hill of Crosses, Lithuania
Two sights down, one to go, it was getting late and the group needed nourishment. A 30-minute roadside stop at a little bar/restaurant/motel…actually, a very nice bar/restaurant/motel for coffee and drinks…View image. A glass of crisp white wine for $2.25 and I also noticed a bottle of red Bulgarian wine behind the bar. Lithuania does not grow grapes or make wine. Vodka, brandy, yes. Wine, no. Refreshed, it was on to Palanga…

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