Day 6 - 21st May - Hill of Crosses, Siauliai, Lithuania (Part 1)
We took a morning train from Klaipeda to our last stop in Lithuania - Siauliai.
HWMNBN thought the train conductor looked like Boris Karloff.
I think this was the first train I'd sat on where the carriage door was opaque - you couldn't look in. It was definitely the first train I'd been on where the conductor sold refreshments.
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Communist-looking block, with the signs of Capitalism on the ground floor
We went into one supermarket, where we found:
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5L kegs of beer
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HWMNBN miming a drink from a 5L keg of beer
Really disgusting picture you don't want to see (something that afflicted me for the rest of the trip)
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Siauliai Kolegija
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St Peter and Paul's Church
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Cat Museum, on map on wall of tourist information centre
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The smart way people, without using a single word, advertise opening times in the Baltics. Must be because they have 3 languages there, all of which are not spoken by many people.
We then took a taxi to the Hill of Crosses, a famous pilgrimage site. We saw a lot of rapeseed along the way.
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HWMNBN and I with our crosses:
"Certum est, quia impossibile est - Tertullian"
"Deo solus judiciaire mea - [nw.t] 21-May-2008
LODG 2015 nw.t KJK gssq NWY"
[Ed: "Deo solus judiciaire mea" has 0 results on Google]
We suspected the cross merchants just dug up old crosses and recycled them - no one would know, anyway, especially not the tourists whose crosses were reused.
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Approach to the Hill
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1993 memorial, presumably in honour of Papa
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Crosses that didn't make it onto the hill
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"No begging". We did see some women begging there, sign notwithstanding. They hid in a part of the hill invisible from ground level, though - probably to avoid the authorities
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A mirage in the horizon
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The biggest cross is Papa's. For some reason they didn't make it out of metal and mount it on top of the hill - that would have been really impressive (Franklin notwithstanding)
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"No candles"
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Mess of crosses
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Stair up the hill
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A Jewish deposition
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Our crosses. I appended my URL to mine, inspired by someone who'd done the same to his.
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The short path to the top of the hill
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Coins and icons
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The other side
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Doll
Panorama 1
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nw.t bowing to his cross
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Me with mine
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Dandelions; even in this place hope springs anew
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"In Hoc Signo Vinces"
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Icons
Panorama 2
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Papa's plaque and cross