A Weekend in Lithuania

Since we had a long weekend for the celebration of Latvian Independence Day, we thought, "what better way to celebrate Latvian Independence than to go spend a weekend in Lithuania!" As the nights are getting a little colder, we decided to splurge a little by renting a farmhouse, known as a sodyba, in Lithuania's eastern lake country. Our choice was a good one as it snowed during our first night there. It was wonderful to awake to a thin layer of snow on the ground but even better to have the large wood fireplace inside the farmhouse. When we did manage to escape the warmth and comfort of the farmhouse there was a lot to explore in the region -- manor houses forgotten by time, and dozens of rustic, but colorful, villages. Wood carving and beekeeping are centuries old traditions here and both could be seen in every village we passed through. As always, some of our best experiences were when we got "lost" in the forest, finding off-the-map and off-the-beaten track locations. One such spot was a tiny settlement of maybe a dozen people deep in the forest at the end of a long, long dirt road. Beekeeping is the only activity here and, apparently, drinking the only pastime. An older man wearing a full Russian military uniform spotted us immediately and struck up a long conversation (in Lithuanian, of course!) with us. He was certain to let us know that his felt hat and uniform were worn for nostalgic reasons and as a celebration of the Lithuanians' defeat of Russian forces and not a sign of his comraderie with the Russians. Luckily, the similarity between Lithuanian and Polish allowed me to understand much of what he was so eager to share with us, perhaps the only visitors to this settlement in quite some time...