Leaping to Vienna

Monday, February 29, 2016

We made our...

...from Vilnius today.  It was SO sad!  We waited until the last minute to pack our clothes for Vienna.  I had done several loads of laundry and everything was still damp.  While we were waiting, the boys made sure we didn't leave our hall angel empty handed.  

Goodbye home!

We finally packed the clothes still damp to be hung later in our hotel room.  Our driver, Vitas, picked us up at 11:00 and ran us over to Baltic Films production office so we could turn in our keys and sim cards and say goodbye.  It felt like saying goodbye to old friends.  The hardest part is knowing we will probably never see any of them again.  We all watched after Vilnius as we flew away into the clouds.  We just couldn't believe it was really time to leave.  How did 5 weeks pass so quickly?

Goodbye Vilnius!

We were met at the airport by Ethan Vincent, a fellow film maker who worked on this shoot who lives in Vienna.  It was a comfort to see a familiar face as we came out of the airport in a new city.  We didn't have to figure out how to get to our hotel and drag our suitcases around town.  He loaded us up and dropped us off at the hotel door.  It saved us time and a ton of stress.  Thank you, Ethan!

The hotel receptionist got us a map and outlined the underground stops around us and we were soon off.  We only had a couple of hours, so we just wandered and enjoyed finding beautiful buildings.

Vienna University, main building

 One of Beethoven's residences - Pasqualatihaus; across from the University

Votive Church - near Fraud's flat, which we chose not to visit

We ended our outing with another delicious European meal.  We are now back in our room watching Amadeus to get us an Austrian mood.  It's been a long leap day.  Adam is already sound asleep.  I think the post-shoot exhaustion hit him today.  I'm sure the rest of us will be out soon, too.

That's a Wrap

Sunday, February 28, 2016

That's it.  We're done.  I got to sneak in with Adam onto the set and be one of the few to witness the final shot of the show.  What an adventure it's been!  The film crew at Baltic Films here in Vilnius has been just amazing.  They are talented and professional and hard working.  Everyday there was a good feeling on the set.  BYUtv is very pleased with this project.  We all honestly hope to be able to come back and make another movie some day.

But let me back track to Friday before I get too ahead of myself.  We woke up that morning to sunshine and after some morning jobs, we knew we wanted to be out and about.  We've seen almost everything we have wanted to, expect for one church that is mentioned in every book, pamphlet and website about "things to do" in Vilnius: the church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, built in the early 1700s.  It was a bit of a walk - over a mile to get there - but with blue skies peaking out of white clouds, we were up for it.  We are getting low on groceries as we are wanting to leave an empty fridge when we go, so we started our afternoon with lunch at The Forest.  I'm sure the inspiration for it's name came from the tree that is growing in the middle of the restaurant.  Jacob had a burger with a fried egg on it and I had a salad and a pasta dish.  Yum.

Our walk took us up by the main river through Vilnius, the Neris, which we got to walk along for a part of our journey.  We also walked by the International school, an option where we could have enrolled the boys in school.  But it was more fun to have them around to go exploring with me each day.

 Church of St Peter and St Paul

 There were white carvings and sculptures everywhere.  It really was quite spectacular.

Looking back at the pipe organ.

With Jacob as my map expert, we realized that in walking to this church, we were only about 1/2 mile or so from the sound stage.  As Jacob had yet to go out to the set, we decided to head that way - also knowing that one of the drivers would likely be available to give us ride home when we were ready.  At one point we needed to cross the street.  The light was close to turning and with how busy the road was, we wanted to make the crossing so we wouldn't have a long wait for another chance to cross.  We started running and Jacob zigged when I zagged and he accidentally tripped me and I went flying.  Thankfully, I had on my big coat and fleece leggings or I would have been really scraped up.  I did, however, bang up my left knee pretty good, also putting a hole in my pants.  There were only about 20 cars and a dozen or so other pedestrians watching my gracefulness.  But everyone was nice not to stare and they moved on their merry way.  My knee has a good rug-type burn on it and has been swollen.  I've cleaned it and iced it and used Tylenol.  It is pretty sore, but am thankful it's not worse.  I didn't even get a hole in my coat or my leggings, nor did I get run over by a car, so we'll just count the blessings.

 Jacob got to be right on set to watch some filming.

He even got to take a peek inside of the camera.  His dad sure was happy to see him!

Saturday was pure girl heaven for me, something I don't get real often in a house of boys.  There were some things the men-folk wanted to get for cast and crew members.  It was the last day of filming and they wanted to give some thank you's to people, but neither of them have much free time.  So Christianne and I left the kids together and shopped and shopped.  We found the things we needed as gifts, but also decided to stop in any shop that looked interesting and just browse around.  It was probably a good thing we didn't do this more often.  We found some very fun things. Tee hee hee.  We did finally go back for the kids and took them out souvenir shopping.  We had told them to be on the lookout for what they might want over the past several weeks, then said today we would go back and get what they had decided on, in hopes that there would be no regrets on what they ended up getting.

We finished our shopping just before a driver came to pick us up for the wrap party.  We arrived on set just in time for me to sneak in to watch that final shot and hear the call - "That's a wrap!"  Since most of the Utah people and our principle cast were all leaving the next day, we had to have our wrap party immediately following the final shot.  And that just shows how efficient and good-spirited this shoot has been.  They actually finished each day on schedule and ended a little earlier than expected today.  That just doesn't happen.

As they've been shooting, they've had 2 editors working right there on set.  As things are shot, they are given the footage and are able to immediately start putting the scenes together.  It's great because they have the director right there and everything is fresh in his mind - what takes he likes and how he envisioned everything going together.  So there is already a rough cut to the show.  Last night, the editor had clipped some of the scenes together to show us a sneak peak of what the movie will look like.  It was quite beautiful!  Travis, the cameraman, and his lighting crew did an incredible job.  It looked so great - like a real movie!  Can't wait to see the finished product!  There have also been a couple of guys here filming some behind the scenes footage.  They will make a "Making Of" to go on the DVD with the movie, but they also put some clips together to show last night.  It was creative and showcased the hard work everyone put in to this project.  All in all, it was a great evening and a big success for the project.

We wanted to celebrate after - the 2 families who got to have this amazing adventure together.  We decided to take those who hadn't been to Forest there because we had liked it so much.  They still had amazing food, but because it was a Saturday night, they were really busy.  It took us over 2 hours there to eat.  We made the best of it by sharing stories and memories.  We really can't believe how quickly 5 weeks have passed.


It's now Sunday morning and I am home from church.  My knee is very angry with me today and doesn't want anything touching it.  So I am here nursing it.  I've cleaned and iced it more and it is starting to look a little better.  It was sad to miss the last Sunday in church here.   And I feel little guilty not being there to play the piano in RS.

The packing process has begun.  We leave tomorrow.  Sniff. Sniff.  Our flight is at 1:30 pm.  We are fortunate because one of the guys who has been here for the filming lives in Vienna.  He will pick us up at the airport tomorrow afternoon, help us get maps and metro tickets, and drop us off at our hotel.  Another blessing!


Some fun parting tidbits:

This street is about a 3 minute walk from our flat and this is where we have to come to throw away our garbage.  Often, there is a man here who immediately goes through your garbage bags when you throw them in the dumpster.

 Jacob named him Hobo George.

Sometimes we need things to dry faster.  We have devised our own speed dryer:

Heated Towel Rack + 2nd Fan

Hopefully, we can get a few things dried before they have to go in our suitcases tomorrow.

I once took pictures of the rooftops we enjoy from our flat.  Here are the views looking down.

 This is the courtyard across the street.  I'd love to see it in the spring.

This is looking south.  The church is St Nicolas, the oldest church in Lithuania.  The apartment building across the street from the church (yellow on the right) is the Kendall's building.

This is looking north.  This is where our little street leads to Vokiecui (vok-ee-choo) Street.  Turn right there and you will soon be at Town Hall.  Cross to the other side of the street and go left, and there is our Iki express grocery store.

My sad knee:

Drivers and Synagogues

Thursday, February 25, 2016

It's getting harder to find times to post. Now that they are shooting on the sound stage, Tyson has internet access.  Since his job is mostly to watch the door and keep people quiet, he has lots of extra time on his hands.  So he now takes my computer with him to do homework - and lots of other things he's not supposed to, like watch videos - during the day.  He has been able to keep up with his classes, though his teachers haven't done very well to keep up with grading what he's turned in.  It should all work out in the end, though.

Tuesday was our cleaning day, so we were diligent in getting out of our flat by 10.  I have been wanting to visit the Jewish Museum, so Jacob consented.  It wasn't much of a museum, but it allowed me to teach Jacob about the Holocaust and it's effects on this country.  

We took the popular Gedimino Road back towards home.  It's the hip part of town - a real mixture of old and new.  The road ends at the Vilnius Cathedral.

Across the street from the Cathedral is probably the only Mexican restaurant in town.  A local recommended it to us and as I'm a huge fan of Mexican food, we decided to give it a try.  Mexican food in Europe is probably never a good idea.  It was a waste of an eating out experience.  Duh!

 Eko Tako was at least organic

And it had this great window of cactus plants - also probably the only in Vilnius.

Wednesday, Baltic Films gave us the use of a car and driver.  We left they boys home (to the relief of everyone - boys just plain hate to shop), but Maya came with us (cause us girls just love to shop!)  Our driver, Vitas, took us out to the mall where they have a supermarket called a Hypermarket.  We get a kick out of calling it that.

The little street sign says "Rimi Hypermarket" - but then I noticed the name of the store in the background and laughed.  Jacob couldn't remember the name of the cameraman (Travis Cline), so he started referring to him as Marco Polo.  Several times I have almost called him Marco to his face!

We found a few souvenirs at the mall to bring home.  We even stopped at a few little lesser known shops in Old Town that we found while searching online.  All in all, it was a successful morning that ended at the sound stage where we met the guys in time for lunch.  We spent the rest of the afternoon watching the filming.

I've been asked what the sets look like.  It's hard to get a picture of them.  It is basically an old warehouse that they built sets on.  But the sets are small, representing the interior of homes.  Some of the walls come away so they can be removed for moving the camera into different positions and angles.

This is a replica of one of the courtyards we shot in.  It's here so that when they open the door to the cobbler shop, it will look like it's really opening onto the courtyard.  The building/church on the left is really just a picture printed on a large screen, but on film it looks real.  

Today after some laundry and homework (have to keep it real - it's not all play), we walked over to the only synagogue left in Vilnius.  We were met by a nice Jewish woman who spoke English and she gave us a tour.  Before the war, there were over 100 synagogues to service the Jews living in Vilnius, who made up 40% of the population.  Today there are only about 1200 in all of Lithuania.  Most were killed, a few emigrated.  Any who did come back, came from work camps they were sent to in Siberia during the war.  The only reason this synagogue survived is because the Germans found it handy for storing weapons.

Once again, I forgot to take a picture, so this one's from the internet.  It's good to know the sky can be blue here.

However, this interior picture I did take.

We learned on our tour today that doorways with steps (on the left) were homes and businesses to the Jews and without steps (on the right) were Polish - who made up 45% of Vilnius' population before the war.  Most Lithuanians lived in the country and were farmers.  The Jews were actually the most intellectual and skilled of the population, which they realized after they put them all in ghettos.  They had to separate out the learned and skilled into their own ghetto and have them keep working so that the town could survive.  Hypocrites!

I've decided that having a driver, especially on these small and sometimes oneway streets, is a luxury I'm starting to enjoy.  They will even jump out to open the door for you.  I might have to stuff one of them in my suitcase to bring home.  I wouldn't mind a driver - especially after school to cart the boys around to all of their activities.  So another driver, Victor, came to pick me up today.  Our bank wants some papers signed to get us moving forward on finishing with our remodeling construction loan.  But they couldn't make it easy and wanted us to have the papers notarized.  It took one of the girls at the office hours to find out how to do that (we couldn't do it because we don't speak Lithuanian).  She called many banks before learning that we had to do it at the American Embassy.  How convenient of our bank to make us have to do this when Adam is working 12+ hour days.  Our driver took us there during Adam's lunch break... and then we didn't have the right documents printed and they wouldn't let us take our computer in and they wouldn't reprint them for us.  So I guess the bank will just have to wait.  But I got a shot of the embassy exterior (is that legal?).

And I got a shot out the window of our car of the cool Russian Orthodox church near the embassy.

At least I got a free ride to set to watch more filming, which I did for the afternoon.

Thankfully, Jacob wasn't bored and alone all day.  He went with the Kendalls to the Money Museum - who knew such a thing existed!

To end, I thought I better give a little clearer picture of what Vilnius is like.  For example, here is the cute little street we live on.  Picturesque.

But if I take the picture from the start of the street, this is what you see.

In the first picture, Jacob is standing by the yellow wall you see further down in this picture.  I like to take pictures without the graffiti because I think they are prettier, but in reality, there is a lot of graffiti around.  You can also see in this picture how damaged the street and sidewalks are.  With the harsh weather here, I'm surprised it's not worse.

Sound Stage Week

Monday, February 22, 2016

We are all heartsick thinking we have to leave here a week from today.  We are living in a bubble, a perfect little world, and knowing that bubble will soon burst is just sad.  It makes me thankful we won't go directly home, but will have one last adventure in Austria.  Maybe the chaos of planes, trains and hotels for 5 days will help us feel more ready to return home.

As it is Monday with no touristy sites open, I decided to make the trek to the set (probably a mile or so from our flat - but I need the exercise as I'm enjoying Lithuanian treats way too much!).  Jacob chose to stay home, but I knew Kendalls were home since Maya has a fever today, so if he needed anything, he could run over.  He ended up hanging out with Braedon anyway, so he was much happier at home than being dragged around town.  

All of this week they will shoot indoors on a sound stage where sets have been built to serve as the interiors to all of the exteriors that were shot last week.  It was nice to be somewhere warm(ish) and dry and where there were places to sit.  There was some beautiful talent happening in front of the camera today, so it was just heaven to watch.  Being the director's wife has its advantages.  There was limited space in where the shots were happening and I got one of those spots.  Most people watch what's happening through the monitors that are set up outside of the sets where they can see how the camera is capturing the moment, but I want to watch the actors live.  I can see what they look like on camera for the rest of my life when I watch the video, but seeing the moment as its happening live, seeing their expressions up close, was just priceless for me today.

Outside the Baltic Film soundstage

He's even cool on a stage set

When I'm on set, I also eat lunch with Adam.  It's awesome to have a hot, yummy meal that I don't have to fix.  Then at night I can make a smaller meal.  On the outdoor shoot days, we would sometimes eat in Adam's trailer where he could warm up and rest, but today we ate with the crew.

By 5 pm, I knew it was time to head home and check on Jacob.  It's crazy - in the month that we've been here the sunset is noticeably later in the day.  I walked outside expecting it to be dark, but it wasn't.  The sunset is almost an hour later in the day than it was when we arrived.  By June I'm told it won't be dark until almost midnight.

Another advantage of being the director's wife was that Adam's assigned driver was able to drive me back home.  Tyson came with me so he could get some homework done, but first he went with me to get groceries.  I won't miss having to buy groceries every day or two.  We have to carry everything we buy several blocks, so we can't buy too much when we shop.  But even buying only a day or 2 worth of groceries, we still manage to have 3 or 4 times more items on the conveyor belt than everyone else when we check out.  I have no idea what everyone eats.  They either eat out or shop for each meal.  

It still feels odd to not have a pantry.  We wanted to try making cookies tonight.  I had to buy flour, soda and vanilla.  They didn't have vanilla, the liquid.  They only had vanilla flavored sugar.  I just used that mixed with the regular sugar, then added a little water.  The cookies had a slightly different texture.  It must be that we used all granulated sugar.  They don't have brown sugar that is the same fine texture as ours.  But the cookies still made a good family night treat.

Peaceful Sunday

Sunday, February 21, 2016

I thought I'd start today by giving a bit of an idea why we really came to Vilnius to film.  This picture should be pretty clarifying.

I'm not sure you could build a set with this much character.  Here is Adam talking through  some night shots that they will be shooting.  (The snow is fake...)

We are all falling in love with Vilnius.  We sit together and talk about what other movies Kaleidoscope can make so we can come back - preferably in the spring or summer.  Although, at church today, one of the American's living here described Lithuania as having 2 seasons: white winter and green winter.  I don't think it's ever super warm here, but I would love to see it green and maybe in the 50s and 60s.

Filming has been going so well.  The crew with Baltic Films is fantastic and they are cruising right along on schedule.  Most of the actors have also been local, and they have given some great performances.  If it were warmer, this would truly be the greatest adventure ever.

Adam had Saturday off.  I pulled down the blackout blinds in our room, and we were quiet and just let him sleep in.  We made it out of the house by lunchtime and took a taxi to the TV Tower.  It's about the only attraction you can find online to go see in Vilnius that is outside of Old Town.  It reminded us of the Space Needle as we rode the elevator to the 19th floor where we had lunch in the rotating restaurant.  It was overcast, also like Seattle, so we didn't have the greatest visibility, but we were able to get an idea of how Vilnius is laid out.  Most of the city is rectangular Soviet-built apartments that are totally lacking in imagination and beauty.  There are few single dwelling homes.  However, there are still large stretches of forest throughout the city.  It will be interesting to see how the city grows under an independent country.

TV Tower

We let Adam choose our afternoon activity, so we ended up back at the National Museum.  

This building is across the street from the Cathedral and National Museum.  It reminds me of the building in The Sound of Music with German flags hanging on it.  These flags are for an upcoming musical event.

The Kendalls apartment building.

The park we often walk by.  We call the church in the background the "good-bye" church as we have said good-bye to the Kendalls several times at that corner and parted ways on our outings.

Church felt more familiar on our second visit.  Before church the boys opened to each Hymn, making me try to sight read it and guess which song it was.  I guessed them all correctly.  We all slaughter the language, as we have no idea how they pronounce their letters.  We do our best and fill in with English on the choruses.  There was a good group of English speaking in our Sunday School class again today.  We had lots of discussion and you could feel how much everyone there enjoyed good conversation in their language.  Our RS lesson was actually in English, but the teacher had to have a translator.  She would say a sentence, then pause for the translator.  It was a challenge for her to carry a thought with constant pauses.  However, everyone shared willingly, so there was a nice spirit.  I played the piano again.  They seem really happy to have accompaniment when possible.  There was no one really translating to English, so I had to play the first few notes of the song so I would know what it was before playing an introduction.

We have the Kendall kids here at the moment.  They are playing games.  It has been a blessing for all of the kids to have friends.  All ages play together and they all get along great.

Filming Around Vilnius

Thursday, February 18, 2016

Filming has been going all week and yesterday Jacob and I finally got to see the action.  Unfortunately, Tyson couldn't join us.  He woke up about 30 minutes after going to bed Wednesday night and threw up.  Apparently, seven other guys on the crew did the same thing.  But he's better today and back at it.  He is in heaven working on set.  I think he really may have a future in this crazy business.  Jacob, on the other hand, would rather be anywhere then standing around on set.  Most of the time he just wants to be at home.  He left earlier on Wednesday with the Kendalls to come back home to our flat because he just couldn't stand to be there, but I stayed and watched through the end of the day.  

Wednesday's location was about an hour out of Vilnius... and that's about all I can say about the shoot specifically.  BYU broadcasting won't let me say anything more - where and who and what.  So I'll just say, I love getting the chance to watch Adam work.  Since he travels to do most of his directing jobs, it is not very often when I get to see him in action.  It's pure joy to watch him in his element doing what he truly loves and is so good at.

What I can say is that it is a relief he is feeling good.  A few months ago I never would have guessed he'd be well enough for these grueling shoot days.  His medical treatments seem to be helping his body heal from the traumas of the past 6 months and he has had the physical stamina to keep up.  Russ Kendall, our Kaleidoscope producer and friend, has been watching out for him, too - he got Adam his own trailer to rest in on these outside locations and assigned him a personal assistant who makes sure he eats and drinks regularly.  When he gets home at night I have a snack ready for him so he can eat and then go right to bed.  He is exhausted but happy at the end of each day.

My man on set getting ready for the next shot.  It's almost the end of a 12 hour day, so he's tired.

A selfie of me freezing to death on location.

__________________________________________________________

They are closer to home today, so Jacob and I were able to walk to their outside location - a charming courtyard beside a 1600s church - to watch (Jacob watched, too - that is a movie on Adam's computer in Adam's trailer).  We stayed through lunchtime, then walked back home to warm up.  Yesterday was sunny, so it was bearable.  Today it is cloudy, so it's just plain cold - especially when there is nothing to do but stand and watch.  However, I will head back over in a bit and watch for as long as I can stand to.

The glamorous interior of Adam's trailer.

Restoration of Independence Day

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Filming began yesterday.  Tyson has decided to work on the shoot, even though it means his play time here will end.  Their call time was 6:20 am.  They had to really bundle up as they were going to be outdoors all day.

Director Adam Anderegg getting ready to leave on is first day of shooting.

It was very quiet around the flat (we learned we were being incorrect by saying apartment - it was so un-European of us!).  Jacob didn't like that I had even more attention to give to his schooling.  We did lots of math and a writing assignment.  Crack that whip!  We decided to at least leave at lunchtime, but I had to strike a deal to get him to do more than just eat and come back.  I promised to take him back to Charlie's Pizza if we could walk around the area of the 2nd Jewish Ghetto and run to the market.  It was agreed.

My cute lunch date.

This is a sauce they love to put on their pizza.  It tastes similar to Thousand Island dressing, but perhaps a little more vinegar and pickle in it.  The locals will squeeze it all over their pizza. 

The main street, Vokieciu (translated: German St), that our alley, Mikalojaus (translated: Nicholas - because St. Nicholas church is on this street), leads to, is the street that separated the two Jewish ghettos that came into existence with German occupation in 1941.  The first ghetto housed skilled workers - those who were educated and useful.  The second and smaller ghetto was for the old, sick and more useless population.  This was the ghetto that was liquidated more often.  And the first ghetto fought to keep people healthy so they would not end up in ghetto 2.

The second ghetto's boundary was a square covering only a few blocks.  There were a few signs and a statue in the area, but not much else to show what had once been there.  I don't know how much Lithuanians want memorialized from these events, as the people of the 1940s assisted in ridding their city of its Jewish population.  

Right above Jacob's head is a sign with a Star of David on it.  If I could remember more of my Hebrew, I might be able to tell you what it said.  This street would have been in the heart of the second Jewish Ghetto.

________________________________________________________

As today is Tuesday, we had to be out of the flat by 10 am for the cleaning lady.  We headed south today to go back to the market.  Adam is wanting a lighter-weight coat to wear over his layers, and the market had the best prices.  Most of the shops right around us are more boutique-style and carry "labels", so they are much more pricey.  It was bizarrely quiet as we walked down there.

 Exterior of the market.

 Inside the market.  Here you can see fruit sellers with glass enclosed booths behind.

This building is across the street from the market and there are always birds on the wires on top of the building.  One day as we walked past, a lady threw down a whole bag of seeds.  The birds went crazy!

Birds enjoying a dumped bag of seeds.

We chose to take the long way home, which took us along one of the only pieces left of the wall that once surrounded and protected the city of Vilnius, and then through one of the only existing gates through the wall, The Gate of Dawn.  (The Russians sure destroyed a lot while they were here.  Why did they think that was their right?)  They will be filming along this wall later this week.  We got to the Gate of Dawn to reenter Old Town, when we heard drums and noticed a group of people marching.  We decided to stop and see what was going on.

 Old wall and Gate of Dawn into Old Town

Parade of drums and marchers coming through the Gate of Dawn.

Front side of Gate of Dawn.  In the upper window is a picture of the Virgin Mary, with a church that was built to her standing next to it (not shown in picture).  People trek here from around the region just to pay homage to this site.  Jacob wrote a report about it, so I'll post it at the end for any interested readers.

Later, back at our flat, I googled and learned that it is the Restoration of Lithuanian Independence Day.  We had asked our production crew friends what holidays were happening while we were here.  I'm not sure why they didn't mention this one.  On February 16, 1918, Lithuania declared independence as in individual and free country separate from the Germans and their occupation during WWI, and separation from any other countries in the region.  Unfortunately, I didn't last long, but it's the country and principles they came back to in 1991.

I don't know if everyone's Google homepage looks like this today or if it's just in Lithuania, but this is the tower of the Vilnius Castle and this symbol represents their Restoration of Independence Day.

But this holiday explains why we once again found many shops and restaurants closed again.  We walked from the gate back towards the center of Old Town, but needed to spend more time out for the cleaning lady (I have to have some reason to keep Jacob out.  He is such a home body!)  We have become more comfortable with getting around and less worried about getting lost, so we decided to find interesting new streets and walk down them.  This cute little street was too fun to just walk by.

We meandered down roads for about 10 minutes, then stumbled across this gem that we then walked around.

This is another gate and wall fortification that was also around Old Town Vilnius.  It was closed today because of the holiday, but we now have somewhere to come back to.  And from here was this beautiful view north towards the Vilnius Castle and Hill of 3 Crosses.

          Castle Tower (right above, next to red dome)                       White towards top of hillside - 3 Crosses

                                                                                                                             (right above)

We continued our meandering.  I love coming around a corner and finding an unexpected treasure.  There is constantly something new to see here and it makes me feel so thankful we've had such a beautiful and interesting city to discover.

This church seems to epitomize what happened to so much of this city during the Soviet occupation.  All of the churches were forced to cease as places of worship and became storage or places for exhibits.  The buildings were not treated well and most still show much wear.  They have had to work to restore their churches one by one.  The smaller ones get attention last, but I love that they are working to restore places of beauty.

Our plan had been to stop somewhere for lunch, but all of the places we wanted to try were closed.  We ran to Iki's market instead.  I discovered they had Buffalo mozzarella, so we had a yummy lunch anyways in our clean flat!

 This splurge made me SO happy!  I love that our flat has an ice cube tray.  Heaven!

You can't really see the Buffalo mozzarella, but it's on there and it was delicious!

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Jacob's Report:

The Gate of Dawn

By Jacob Anderegg

The Gate of Dawn is a building in old town Vilnius where I am. It was built between 1503-1522. There was a wall built around the city of Vilnius to protect it from harm and the Gate of Dawn was one of the gates in the wall. The Gate is the only left gate in the Vilnius wall because the government said to knock most of the gates down. The gate has some religious items in its chapel that the people of Vilnius thought could guard them (wrong) and bless travelers.

There is a picture in the gate of Virgin Mary.  People say the painting has miraculous powers and people all over the world come and pray and light candles.  The gate is a really important at a celebration. The date for the celebration is November. The celebration is the Blessed Virgin Mary Mother of Mercy Festival.