I wanted to tell you about Palanga just as an example of all that there is to do! We spent one whole day in Palanga on a Saturday. First you hop a puddle jumper van for the 30 minute drive, maybe shorter. You hoot and holler as you bump along because it's so much fun. The bus drops you off and you suddenly realize you are in a vacation paradise by the huge Baltic Sea. The sea seems as large as an ocean, and the public beaches extend as far as the eye can see for miles! The sand is pristine white unlike the sand in Japan! The three blocks that occur just before you view the sea and the wharf will be lined with entertainers, performers of all kinds. There will be small bands of people singing and playing the music of Lithuania, or of any foreign country that happens to have a spot. There were four Indian people from Montana playing those mystic wind flutes, all sizes of them, just delightful. The Indians were dressed in heavy hides, sweating like you cannot believe, but they were in war paint, and oh the music was sweet! You may pass a little Lithuanian girl dressed in her native costume, playing a violin quite well, I might add. You may see farther on a military band in the band shell, maybe 70 pieces just blowing their brains out! Or it may be an orchestra playing either classical or national music. There may be a rock band, definitely a country western band, and they have juggling acts, the circus things you know! They have those huge carnival cables that haul you up in the air and drop you. There are all kinds of food everywhere, lots of little restaurants where you eat outside! We have NEVER had the pleasure of being there in the summer! Warning: the girls don't wear much on the beach, and they often are just gorgeous, amazingly beautiful.
The number of Catholic Cathedrals is amazing, and my favorite near here is in Kreginga about 15 minutes drive away. Some of the time we might be able to have the school van(s) for only the gas money we have to pay! At that Cathedral you will notice it's standing room only. The aisles are full of little children or parents holding them! Up front (not seen from the back) are 30 or so children of grade school age who sing like angels with one lady who is the choir director. The sing through much of the service! The cathedral is laden with all kinds of Bible art, wooden, steel, and paintings. Oh, it's great! Outside are the huge graveyards, and the people have placed large pictures of the person, some still living in a large format larger than life, a younger face of course from an earlier time. There is a trail that leads through a water way, lots of ducks, geese and other birds making some chatter. There is a tomb of Christ you can walk into, bridges, and lots of neat litle buildings. One houses the bodies of priests that have served and passed on over the years. If it is open you can even see the little wooden caskets covered by spider webs and dust! Then maybe it's off to Palanga, or one of the two best restaurants that have all the outdoor park zip lines, things to challenge you to play on them! They are in the forest! Oh, yes, the shores are lined by trees! It's the forest where the resistance forest people hid while the Soviets were deporting everyone to Siberia or the Ural Mountains. I mean the train station has 17 tracks, many of which were used to load up and transfer the Lithuanians and Jews to miserable camps to die. Oh, it was awful. But now I love to watch the trains and think about the past history.
There are all kinds of museums, historical building, and great places to enjoy. The Spit is my favorite. You can rent a bike, take the ferry across to the Spit, and you can ride for hours on bike paths along the road ways! Oh, it great. When you get to one of the two little cities you might find festivals outdoors, dancing, and lots of Lithuanian music.
Well, I got to go! Vernon
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