LITHUANIA
September 1, 2017
Yesterday was a travel day so not much to report. We had a layover in Stockholm before heading to Vilnius. Stockholm had thick fog so we were delayed. Our plane was full of loud, kilt-wearing Scottish futbol fans heading to a soccer game. It was a rowdy, happy bunch and certainly not a quiet flight.
Then, when we got to Vilnius, the kiosk where we were supposed to call for a "legit" taxi was closed. We went out to the taxi stand and went to one taxi after another asking if they would take a credit card. "Broken" or "cash only" was all they could say to us. After a half hour, all while the taxi drivers were screaming at each other in Lithuanian about why they weren't going to be the one to take us, a man that had told us his card reader was broken agreed to take us. We paid double what it should have been, but I didn't care because I didn't want to be stranded at a closed, pitch-black airport at 11 pm.
Yesterday was a travel day so not much to report. We had a layover in Stockholm before heading to Vilnius. Stockholm had thick fog so we were delayed. Our plane was full of loud, kilt-wearing Scottish futbol fans heading to a soccer game. It was a rowdy, happy bunch and certainly not a quiet flight.
Then, when we got to Vilnius, the kiosk where we were supposed to call for a "legit" taxi was closed. We went out to the taxi stand and went to one taxi after another asking if they would take a credit card. "Broken" or "cash only" was all they could say to us. After a half hour, all while the taxi drivers were screaming at each other in Lithuanian about why they weren't going to be the one to take us, a man that had told us his card reader was broken agreed to take us. We paid double what it should have been, but I didn't care because I didn't want to be stranded at a closed, pitch-black airport at 11 pm.
Had an okay breakfast the next morning (I swear Europe has the fattiest inedible bacon) before heading to our 10 am walking tour. Our guide, Martyna, was so good that I already did a TripAdvisor review on her. Here are some of the highlights:
The statue of the woman riding the bear is a pagan statue, and Lithuania was the last pagan European country. When the Christians came along and were trying to baptize virtually everyone, they would give you a free linen shirt. Because people were poor and the Christians weren't keeping baptism records, people would travel from village to village getting baptized over and over to get the free shirt!
Polish influence brought Catholicism and the building of many beautiful churches. During the restricted Soviet era, they were no longer used for religion but for everything from warehouses to basketball courts. The very beautiful church across from our hotel was actually once the Museum of Atheism!
Uzupis was a rundown area before the squatter artists moved in and it became trendy. It is now compared to Christiania, without the drugs. Backpacker Jesus greets you as you walk in.
September 1 is the first day of school. No alcohol is sold in stores (only restaurants) on this day only because the teenagers were getting drunk before school. Mothers and fathers bring smaller children to school and all are wearing nice dresses and suits with ties. It's also customary to bring flowers for the teachers on the first day.
Most famous water spigot in Vilnius has beer coming out on April 1.
The gothic church is the oldest church in Vilnius. It is quite popular to get married there, with most weddings happening only in the summertime. Consequently, there is an assembly line of marriages, with couples getting married every 30 minutes.
The artwork walls have a connection to Lithuania in some way. The connection is not always positive. For example, the author of Silence of the Lambs is on the wall because he said Hannibal Lechter was from Lithuania. The teeth artwork behind our guide is symbolizing art critics and their destructive criticism.
The Soviet Union banned any music from Frank Zappa. They thought he was antiestablishment and a free thinker. So he became very popular with the Lithuanians and they memorialized him with a statue.
Donald Trump kissing Vladimir Putin has been a recent popular tourist attraction.
Someone had defaced it, so it was redone with them sharing a joint together instead. We could hardly go anywhere without people wanting to talk to us about Trump!
OTHER TIDBITS FROM THE WALKING TOUR:
Lithuania has a female president in her second 5-year term. Like Margaret Thatcher, they call her the Iron Lady. She is doing a speech today because of it being September 1 and a national holiday.
Lithuania was also the first country in Europe to declare independence from the Soviet Union in 1990. Other countries didn't recognize their independence until 1991. Iceland was first country to acknowledge them as an independent nation, so they have a special fondness for Icelanders.
The 19th Century Russian occupation outlawed just about everything in Lithuania and the Russians brought in their own language and culture. Books were outlawed and so they were secretly printed in Kalingrad (was Germany, now Russia) and smuggled into Lithuania. This helped save both the language and the culture.
Regarding WWII: Originally the Lithuanians thought the Nazis were liberators from the Russians. They quickly found out they weren't liberators at all. The Lithuanian Jews were confined to ghettos and when the ghettos were liquidated they were sent to the nearby forest and shot. About 100k were killed, which was about 90% of the Jewish population. The Jews actually had the highest ethnic population in Vilnius prior to the war at 40%.
Biggest religion in Lithuania now is.... basketball. Even though Lithuania is less than 3 million people, they are ranked number five in the world.
A few years back, the mayor of Vilnius made a video of himself driving a tank over cars parked illegally in the bike lane. The video went viral, and he became the "crazy mayor of Vilnius". There are still stickers around town that say, "Don't make me get the tank!"
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We weren't able to go into the KGB Museum because we didn't have cash. We walked a long ways to get there but don't have the $16 in euros to get in. We are going to end up doing this whole trip on $83 cash. I really made a huge mistake not bringing an ATM card, cash, or knowing my credit card PIN number. I've tried both my cards in ATM machines by just guessing at numbers. Kenny even offered to wire me some money today. If we can just get through Latvia on our last $13 euros, than we are free and clear the rest of the way.
Lithuania has a female president in her second 5-year term. Like Margaret Thatcher, they call her the Iron Lady. She is doing a speech today because of it being September 1 and a national holiday.
Lithuania was also the first country in Europe to declare independence from the Soviet Union in 1990. Other countries didn't recognize their independence until 1991. Iceland was first country to acknowledge them as an independent nation, so they have a special fondness for Icelanders.
The 19th Century Russian occupation outlawed just about everything in Lithuania and the Russians brought in their own language and culture. Books were outlawed and so they were secretly printed in Kalingrad (was Germany, now Russia) and smuggled into Lithuania. This helped save both the language and the culture.
Regarding WWII: Originally the Lithuanians thought the Nazis were liberators from the Russians. They quickly found out they weren't liberators at all. The Lithuanian Jews were confined to ghettos and when the ghettos were liquidated they were sent to the nearby forest and shot. About 100k were killed, which was about 90% of the Jewish population. The Jews actually had the highest ethnic population in Vilnius prior to the war at 40%.
Biggest religion in Lithuania now is.... basketball. Even though Lithuania is less than 3 million people, they are ranked number five in the world.
A few years back, the mayor of Vilnius made a video of himself driving a tank over cars parked illegally in the bike lane. The video went viral, and he became the "crazy mayor of Vilnius". There are still stickers around town that say, "Don't make me get the tank!"
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We weren't able to go into the KGB Museum because we didn't have cash. We walked a long ways to get there but don't have the $16 in euros to get in. We are going to end up doing this whole trip on $83 cash. I really made a huge mistake not bringing an ATM card, cash, or knowing my credit card PIN number. I've tried both my cards in ATM machines by just guessing at numbers. Kenny even offered to wire me some money today. If we can just get through Latvia on our last $13 euros, than we are free and clear the rest of the way.
Since September 1st is a huge day in Vilnius, there were people everywhere. Not only because the kids were headed back to school, but also because they consider today basically the end of the summer. So there were huge festivals, many free concerts (Katie Tunstall was one of them) as well as the 3,000 kilted Scottish soccer fans in town for the big game. This place was crazy! Across the street from us the drunken Scots sang the same song over and over for HOURS accompanied by bagpipes. (Why do the English, Irish and Scottish love to get drunk and sing so much? At one point, they were actually singing do-re-me from Sound of Music!)
We really have had some great food while here. We ate lunch at Vegafe because it was near the farmers market.
Our required trip picture of Robin at a Farmer's Market!
Interesting items at the market.
For dinner, we ate at a little cafe on a main street, while this horrible duo (I named them Captain & Tennille) played the most annoying music. Reason number 12 to have money... paying the street musicians NOT to play.
Even the poster behind them thought they were horrible. But people have to make a living!
Light show from the Katie Tunstall concert
I have thoroughly enjoyed Vilnius. It's a lively, working-class town and could certainly be a sister city to Portland. It has about the same population and also gets a lot of rain. Now on to Latvia!
LITHUANIA/LATVIA
September 2, 2017
Because I could not find a way for us to get from Vilnius to Riga, I hired a tour company driver that did the 4-hour drive. In the process, we also were able to stop at the Hill of the Crosses, Rundale Palace and Bauska Castle.
(Another interesting side note: between Kraków, Vilnius and Riga all we heard was 80's music. Whitney Houston, Phil Collins, and Michael Bolton. Is it possible that everywhere we go - restaurants, taxis and stores - that the person in charge of the music just happens to like this kind of music or are they listening to it now since they couldn't during their communist years?)
The Hill of the Crosses was one place I specifically wanted to visit after reading about it in a travel magazine. Apparently, the cross is a very important symbol in Lithuania. Since they were the last European country to go from pagan to Christianity, it was important for them to have some sort of symbol. Everyone had a corner in their house they called a "saint corner" where they placed their crosses. Farmers built crosses in their fields over their livestock and crops. Crosses also line many roads so the people can stop and pay their respect, mostly in the days they were on foot or on horses. On the expressway heading to Latvia our guide would point out a large cross every few miles. The crosses aren't just straightforward crosses either; they often have other decorations and symbols as to incorporate all religions. They are made of wood, stone, or metal. As far as the history of the Hill itself... There are three theories about how it started: 1). The oldest and unlikeliest story is that people put the crosses up to ward off wild animals a few centuries ago. (2). A man whose daughter was dying supposedly had a dream to put a cross on this specific hill and by the time he walked the long way back home, his daughter was healed. So some people use it to this day as a place for healing. (3). The most likely theory is that it began when the Lithuanians, seeking solace at the hands of the Russian occupation in the early 1800’s, started putting the crosses on the hill. It’s also connected to two unsuccessful uprisings in the mid 1800’s. After WWII and communism, the Soviets tried to tear down all the crosses back in the early 1950's. The Catholic Church was public enemy #1 to the Soviet state, but people would sneak back and replace the crosses. When the Soviet Union became a ‘softer’ regime in the 1980's, this emboldened people to bring more crosses and the Hill grew to what it is today. For many Catholics, it is used as a pilgrimage to the northernmost holy location in the world. Unfortunately today was cold and rainy, and so it wasn't the best day to be there (although we practically had the place to ourselves). With everything wet and muddy, it almost looked like a giant junkyard. But certainly an interesting place and something different to see!
Because I could not find a way for us to get from Vilnius to Riga, I hired a tour company driver that did the 4-hour drive. In the process, we also were able to stop at the Hill of the Crosses, Rundale Palace and Bauska Castle.
(Another interesting side note: between Kraków, Vilnius and Riga all we heard was 80's music. Whitney Houston, Phil Collins, and Michael Bolton. Is it possible that everywhere we go - restaurants, taxis and stores - that the person in charge of the music just happens to like this kind of music or are they listening to it now since they couldn't during their communist years?)
The Hill of the Crosses was one place I specifically wanted to visit after reading about it in a travel magazine. Apparently, the cross is a very important symbol in Lithuania. Since they were the last European country to go from pagan to Christianity, it was important for them to have some sort of symbol. Everyone had a corner in their house they called a "saint corner" where they placed their crosses. Farmers built crosses in their fields over their livestock and crops. Crosses also line many roads so the people can stop and pay their respect, mostly in the days they were on foot or on horses. On the expressway heading to Latvia our guide would point out a large cross every few miles. The crosses aren't just straightforward crosses either; they often have other decorations and symbols as to incorporate all religions. They are made of wood, stone, or metal. As far as the history of the Hill itself... There are three theories about how it started: 1). The oldest and unlikeliest story is that people put the crosses up to ward off wild animals a few centuries ago. (2). A man whose daughter was dying supposedly had a dream to put a cross on this specific hill and by the time he walked the long way back home, his daughter was healed. So some people use it to this day as a place for healing. (3). The most likely theory is that it began when the Lithuanians, seeking solace at the hands of the Russian occupation in the early 1800’s, started putting the crosses on the hill. It’s also connected to two unsuccessful uprisings in the mid 1800’s. After WWII and communism, the Soviets tried to tear down all the crosses back in the early 1950's. The Catholic Church was public enemy #1 to the Soviet state, but people would sneak back and replace the crosses. When the Soviet Union became a ‘softer’ regime in the 1980's, this emboldened people to bring more crosses and the Hill grew to what it is today. For many Catholics, it is used as a pilgrimage to the northernmost holy location in the world. Unfortunately today was cold and rainy, and so it wasn't the best day to be there (although we practically had the place to ourselves). With everything wet and muddy, it almost looked like a giant junkyard. But certainly an interesting place and something different to see!
Over 2 million crosses are here
We stopped for a crappy lunch at a place that had numerous taxidermy stuffed animals, including a badger at the door. Our driver almost hit an animal on our drive but couldn't remember the English name for it, but was able to point out to us what it was when he saw the badger.
I think we may have crossed over into Latvia after the lunch stop, but I'm not sure exactly where...?
What is much less interesting to both Robin and I is visiting palaces. The Duke of Poland built the Rundales Palace in the late 1700's as a summerhouse. Built by Italian architects, it also had huge St. Petersburg influence and reminded me of the Hermitage Museum the moment I walked in the door. The Palace has a colorful history... It sat empty for years after the Duke's death, was a hospital for Napoleon, the Nazis used it as command center and hospital, it was greatly damaged during the war, and then was eventually used for Latvian veterans. It was completely restored to its original design in 2015.
The huge blue and white tiled contraption in the corner was used for heating. There was one of these in almost every room.
Why is it that the women from that era all look like bad drag queens in garish dresses? Maybe it's just that style of painting...?
An early Bullwinkle...!
Our favorite part, however, was the huge, colorful, perfectly manicured garden. Thankfully it had stopped raining by now, we just had to jump the mini-rivers that had formed in the dirt.
The next stop was a castle. Bauska Castle was built in the 15-16th century. However, it was in complete disrepair and they built a very fake replica (above). You can see what the ruins looks like below. We flew through it as fast as we could, anxious to get to Riga.
Our guide called these "Lady GaGa shoes"
Although the drive for the whole day cost $260 euros (about $309), it still felt worth it to us. It was less than two plane tickets (adding taxis and then the Hill of the Crosses tour), there were no trains between the countries, renting a car in one country and returning in another is expensive (not to mention the hassle of driving on unknown roads) and the public bus doesn't stop at any of the places we visited. My only wish was that we could have shared the price with two others.
Now we are in Riga... A very beautiful city!
We went to a buffet dinner at a place called Lido on the recommendation of the front desk person here at the Radisson, I was very apprehensive about a buffet, but it was EXCELLENT.
September 3, 2017
Had a wonderful breakfast of avocado Eggs Benedict and curd pancakes (thick, with cheese-like center) with plum jam at Riits Restorans. Unfortunately their credit card reader stopped working so they took my cc number and I have to go back later to try to pay. Reason number thirteen to have cash!
Had a wonderful breakfast of avocado Eggs Benedict and curd pancakes (thick, with cheese-like center) with plum jam at Riits Restorans. Unfortunately their credit card reader stopped working so they took my cc number and I have to go back later to try to pay. Reason number thirteen to have cash!
From there we went to the Central Market. Although I get tired of having to go to the markets in EVERY city and EVERY country we travel to, it makes Robin SO happy that I have to do it. This was an unusual market... In addition to fruits/vegetables and other food, they had many clothing stalls. One was a whole stall of underwear, with bras flapping in the wind hanging from the edge of the roof!
Reason number fourteen to have cash... We've frequently had to pay to use the bathroom. In Poland I even climbed under the gate one time when the attendant wasn't looking. Another time I talked our way in (I think it was at Auschwitz). This time (in the central market) I had .30 euros to get in. But you have to remember to grab your toilet paper on the way in! (I didn't)
While waiting for our walking tour to start, I decided to climb on the high horse. It was much harder than it looked! I also had a hard time getting off... Not sure getting on the high horse is worth the picture. I sometimes forget that I'm 56 years old.
Not many US tourists here, but strangely there are quite a few from South America. Most are Germans though. I know this from the walking tours where everyone announces their home country. Highlights from the tour:
Only 50% of the population are actually Latvians. Mostly Russians and some Germans.
The tour guide told us that the older population looks back at the Nazi occupation as being better than the Russian occupation. Although 30k Jews perished, 80k Latvians disappeared both before/after the war when they were sent to Siberia. They were mostly lawyers, academics, intellectuals, etc. and were "convicted" on little or no charges. Apparently you’ll hear many differing opinions if you have a beer with Latvians; and, as with all politics - it's complicated. They have many political parties and currently it is a right wing party. Not surprising... Right wing and oligarchy seem to go hand in hand.
The right wing government of Latvia only accepted 240 refugees in the recent refugee crisis. For anyone to come into the country to live, you must show that you are employable. However, to even work at a coffee shop, you have to be able to speak three languages. I'm assuming the three languages are Latvian, Russian and English.
We were able to talk politics with our tour guide privately while walking from one location to another. She said she had yet to meet a single person from the US who voted for Trump, or a single person from the UK who voted for brexit. She also said what we already knew... that, in general, people who travel to lesser-known foreign locations are more progressive. (That's why it was so unusual having that woman in the hotel in Copenhagen, although Denmark certainly wouldn't be a lesser-known country). The tour guide was also talking about the recent drastic changes in the weather in Latvia and then said with a wink and some sarcasm to Robin "that's right, people from the US don't believe in climate change".
Only 50% of the population are actually Latvians. Mostly Russians and some Germans.
The tour guide told us that the older population looks back at the Nazi occupation as being better than the Russian occupation. Although 30k Jews perished, 80k Latvians disappeared both before/after the war when they were sent to Siberia. They were mostly lawyers, academics, intellectuals, etc. and were "convicted" on little or no charges. Apparently you’ll hear many differing opinions if you have a beer with Latvians; and, as with all politics - it's complicated. They have many political parties and currently it is a right wing party. Not surprising... Right wing and oligarchy seem to go hand in hand.
The right wing government of Latvia only accepted 240 refugees in the recent refugee crisis. For anyone to come into the country to live, you must show that you are employable. However, to even work at a coffee shop, you have to be able to speak three languages. I'm assuming the three languages are Latvian, Russian and English.
We were able to talk politics with our tour guide privately while walking from one location to another. She said she had yet to meet a single person from the US who voted for Trump, or a single person from the UK who voted for brexit. She also said what we already knew... that, in general, people who travel to lesser-known foreign locations are more progressive. (That's why it was so unusual having that woman in the hotel in Copenhagen, although Denmark certainly wouldn't be a lesser-known country). The tour guide was also talking about the recent drastic changes in the weather in Latvia and then said with a wink and some sarcasm to Robin "that's right, people from the US don't believe in climate change".
The Bremen Town Musicians statue is from the Brothers Grimm. If you touch each animal’s nose, it means you will be happy for the rest of your life!
Central Market is the largest market in Europe. The market is housed in zeppelin hangars that the Nazis left behind after the war. (Yes, we are back at the market for a SECOND time today and Robin is one happy camper).
Food: They pickle everything. Their main foods are potatoes and pork. Herring and salmon are also mainstays. There is a heavy Russian food influence... borscht, dumplings, etc. Young people go "mushrooming" like we go hiking. They have to learn all the varietals in grade school. They also ferment many things, including milk. They love rye bread, and it's the number one thing people ask their relatives to bring them when living overseas. Walking through the central market smells like fresh dill. Almost everything we ate last night also had dill in it in some form. It seems to be a northern herb and certainly reminds me of growing up in Michigan (I have definitely seen the Polish and German influences that St. Clair has since traveling through these countries).
It's very quiet at the busy market because Latvians don't talk much. According to our guide, they subscribe to Look, Buy, Go. She also said (and I quote) "We don't care how your grandmother is doing". Oh no! What is Robin going to do with all her Texas friendliness? As for me, I'd be happy to live in Latvia!
The national library is in the shape of a glass mountain. Represents "wisdom" at the top of the mountain. The NYT named it one of the top 10 libraries in the world. Latvians are not happy about it because it's too costly and they have used the most expensive materials to build it. Plus, it's been rampant with corruption having to do with the president using the building of it to enrich his own businesses. (Sounds familiar...) Latvia was the hardest hit European country in the 2008 financial crisis.
The largest building in Latvia is a better example of Soviet architecture (rather than the ugly, grey boxlike structures of the Brezhnev years). The building is supposed to represent the future of Soviet success and was built during the Stalin years (they wanted to make it taller than the Empire State Building - not even close). It still has the plaques at the top with the hammer and sickle, even though it is illegal in Latvia to have anything with the hammer/sickle or the Nazi flag. In the 1960's, it was the Latvian Academy of Science, competing with the US in the Cold War space race. Today, it is still used for some academics but mostly sits empty.
They also have quite a few wooden houses. Originally this was so you can burn them down if you were attacked to create open space. They are from the early 1800's and are protected Unesco World Heritage sites. The Russians had only 40 facades to choose from, and so if you travel though Scandinavia you'll see this exact same building
The yellow church is the oldest wooden church in Europe. It is a Russian orthodox church and you are required to stand for the 2-hour service because they believe that churches are for suffering, not comfort. Only 30% of Latvians consider themselves religious and they keep politics and religion very separate. They have no Christian holidays besides Christmas and Easter.
The grates around trees are due to a huge beaver problem. Beavers generally have 12 babies a year and those babies have their own 12 babies. Then they chop down the trees and make dams. So, every Friday, the zoo feeds them food that makes them sterile. Now they are just fat, sterile beavers.
One of the big symbols of Riga is a black cat. You'll find it on t-shirts and other souvenirs, as well as in the names of stores or restaurants. The supposed tale is that a wealthy merchant wasn’t accepted into the local guild so he built this building and erected cat statues at the top having their butts facing the guild. Anyway, I now own a cat t-shirt.
In the 19th century, there was a very rich German woman who wanted a park. So she had one made. When she died, she gifted it to the city with three stipulations: 1). It could never be divided. 2). It could never be commercialized, and 3). It could never be closed to the public at any time day or night. The park was extremely clean and well maintained.
After the walking tour, we headed over to the KGB museum. I goofed again as something was lost in translation. I thought I bought tickets online for the English speaking tour, but it turns out that I did not. I followed the directions for the English tour times, but at some point it switched to Latvian. Anyway, there were no English tours at all on Sundays. So we (somewhat) went on the tour anyway, with the guide explaining to us some things in English while the others wandered the prison cells. What a creepy, scary place with a very violent history!
Not only is it the place where they imprisoned, interrogated and sometimes executed "prisoners", but it is also the place family would come to find out where there loved ones had vanished to in the middle of the night. (I say "prisoners" because their crimes were so minor or were no crime at all. If you knew someone that was doing something against the Soviet state and did not say something, you could be executed. Or if you lived with someone, and did NOT know that they were doing something against the Soviet state, you still could also be executed).
It has been left completely unchanged since the Soviet era.
The tour guide then told us we could explore on our own since we did not understand Latvian. Eventually we started to notice that in some places the lights had been turned out, but kept exploring anyways. Long story, short.... they had closed and were already locked up! An office person found us. Can you imagine having been locked up in this hideous place? Our cell phones did not work inside and who knows how we would have contacted someone. It had such horrible energy (on top of a musty, mildew smell) that I actually wanted to leave the moment we set foot in there.
After the near miss of spending the night in the awful prison, we went back to pay for our breakfast. We ended up at the Lido buffet again since it was such a cheap fabulous meal. Later we stopped for dessert and t-shirts. However, when I got back to the hotel...I'm too fat to wear this t-shirt. Time to quit all the desserts! We also came back to our hotel by 7:30 cause our feet hurt. Robin's phone and my phone say very different things about how far we've walked. Hers is always 1-2 miles further than mine (which actually feels more accurate). If hers is the truth, we've walked 56.3 miles since we left Portland.
While sitting in our hotel room at dusk, something that sounded like a parade kept getting closer and closer. Suddenly it was louder and stopped right outside our hotel, so we looked out the window (we are on 5th floor). There were about 100 red-shirted people (mostly men) cheering and singing around a tour bus out front. Turns out that the Swiss soccer team is staying at our hotel, and they were leaving for their first round playoff match against Latvia. These people are crazy about their futbol! We hadn't really noticed the Swiss all day long, I think they were more subdued than the partying, kilted Scots were in Lithuania.
While sitting in our hotel room at dusk, something that sounded like a parade kept getting closer and closer. Suddenly it was louder and stopped right outside our hotel, so we looked out the window (we are on 5th floor). There were about 100 red-shirted people (mostly men) cheering and singing around a tour bus out front. Turns out that the Swiss soccer team is staying at our hotel, and they were leaving for their first round playoff match against Latvia. These people are crazy about their futbol! We hadn't really noticed the Swiss all day long, I think they were more subdued than the partying, kilted Scots were in Lithuania.
