all hail vic

Day 8 - The Great Zig-Zag of Vilnius

i'll start this post by once again asking for help.. anybody who knows anybody in Stockholm or Copenhagen who might be willing to put me up for a few nights, i'd appreciate it immensely! (August 24th through 26th and 27th through 28th or 29th, respectively)

as for today, i started late and later. i stayed in a hotel last night, which of course is not the cheapest way to sleep. i also slept through breakfast, which was until 10. you see, something i forgot to realize when i came here is that in between Poland and Lithuania, there's a time zone line. i ate dinner at 10:30 last night. or, at least, what is 10:30 in Lithuania. so i was caught in a struggle between the time zones. not to mention that the privacy and quiet of a hotel room, especially one with a nice, thick curtain to block out almost all light, will make sleeping late inevitable. i was tired when i went to sleep and waking up at 10:20 i was astounded. suffice it to say, i missed the breakfast that was included in my bill.

i finished reading Dan Brown's Angels and Demons, took a leisurely shower (in a bathroom with heated tile floors!) and headed out the door at noon. i already knew that i had booked myself two more nights in Vilnius and knowing that it is a small city, i figured that i could afford to be leisurely and take my time between the two days. today was the walking/photo day. i walked everywhere, back and forth, sometimes circling back to where i had already been, and took many photos along the way.

the things i noticed along the way:

i wrote yesterday that the city is changing and under massive reconstruction. this reconstruction is simulatnaeously distracting (and annoying) and also invigorating. the city is pulsing with change and life, and that's a great feeling. i was smiling just from the energy all yesterday and frequently today i felt so energized that i smiled yet some more. it's interesting to be in a city with so much history of outsider control (almost 200 years of Russian - be it tsarist or soviet union - control) that the city seems to be consistently increasing the dynamic between the new (since independence), the old (the years of occupation) and the older (pre-occupation) eras. they're digging up ruins of pre-occupation time often. and they're refurbishing (or even rebuilding) buildings damaged by years of soviet control. of note, they are rebuilding a palace that has not existed in any form for at least 60-odd years. and they're rebuilding in the form of the original, which means somewhere between gothic and renaissance architecture. of course, i imagine it will be slightly modernized, just as the palace in Warsaw was.

i should clarify that there is a big difference between Warsaw and Vilnius in the way that the reconstruction feels. the reconstruction in Warsaw was from scratch and the refurbishment since Poland's liberation from Soviet control has resulted in a lot of brightly painted buildings. here, the refurbishment is lower key. there are some buildings that seem like modern interpretations of older buildings and these buildings do have the same feel as Warsaw. but there has been limited rebuilding here, mostly just refurbishment. and it looks and feels good.

where i went today: i started from my hotel, checked into my hostel nearby and headed into Vilnius' Old Town with my primary goal being to get to the top of the High Castle's Tower. i did that, but had to stop for food on the way.

and then i walked on. i walked and walked and walked. it would be fruitless to describe what and where i walked without one knowing the town, so you'll just have to wait until i have the photos up.

however, i would like to talk about two things:

the first is that the river (Vilnia) that runs through Vilnius is uncommonly high. it's not anywhere near the horrible flooding stages of Prague in 2002, but it is high. the sidewalks that normally crawl along the riveredge are under about a half-foot of water at the moment.

the other thing worth mentioning is Uzupis. Uzupis, if i understand it correctly, is a "breakaway" republic in the middle of Vilnius. it is absurd. they posted a constitution in three languages (French, English and Lithuania) which includes such rights as "Every dog has the right to be a dog" and "Every cat has the right to not love its owner, except in times of need". Very weird indeed. i need to do more research on it, but it is an absolutely crazy area and includes a bicycle lane painted up the side of a building. very weird indeed.

tomorrow, i plan on visiting the KGB museum, which honors the victims of the genocides (both Nazi and Russian), amongst other things.

Posted by iain at August 15, 2005 09:32 PM