We were just sitting around last night thinking through some of the places we still want to see, and decided right then to take the train ride up to see the Hill of the Crosses. We were up and out the door by 8:45 am to catch the 9:40 train north. Our destination: Siauliai (show-lay). It's the 4th largest city in Lithuania. The missionaries only have 4 areas they can serve in in Lithuania - Vilnius, Klaipeda (kli-pe-duh), Kaunus (cone-us) and Siauliai. The town felt more like Klaipeda than Vilnius.
Waiting for the train to arrive at the station in Vilnius.
All aboard! We were happy to get one of the few seats where we face each other with a table between us. We ate lunch and played card games on our 2 hour 6 minute ride.
It's never super fun to land in a new city and have no idea where you are. I had read about finding buses to get around, but it sounded complicated so we bit the bullet and paid for a taxi. We quickly learned that outside of Vilnius, there are less people who speak English. We tried to find a younger driver since they are more likely to know some English, but we had no luck. But we did find a driver eager to help us. I had the name and a picture of where we wanted to go on my phone, so he knew where to go. When we got there, we got to play charades with him. I figured out that he was air-writing the amount we owed him, but then knew he was saying more. I finally understood that he was saying the cost was for a round trip and that he was going to wait for us at the hill while we looked around. That came as such a relief because as we were driving out there I really was starting to wonder how we were going to get back when we were in the middle of a field. We paid extra, but it was worth the peace of mind.
Walking out towards the little hill.
Getting closer
and closer
and there it is.
The story of the hill begins in the 1800s when there were 2 uprisings in this area. Crosses were put here to remember the killed soldiers and as a place for people to pledge their devotion to their religion and their country. When the Russians invaded Lithuania, the hill was plowed down, but the people just kept bringing crosses here. So the hill was plowed down several times during the Soviet occupation, to the point that they almost built a dam on the river next to the hill to make it impossible for more crosses to be put here. But the people prevailed.
In 1993 Pope John Paul II visited the Hill of Crosses and on this pavilion, just to the side of the hill, declared it to be a place for hope, peace, love and sacrifice.
One reason we were motivated to just pick up and go was seeing the weather forecast. It wasn't super warm, but there was a beautiful sky and no rain - which is headed back our way.
It was just so amazing to see the piles and layers of crosses, figurines and rosary beads. I'm sure that many of the crosses decay pretty quickly being that they are wooden and the winter climate is so harsh, so it shows that new crosses must be regularly added. Our taxi driver actually waited about 45 minutes for us and drove us back to the train station. We got just enough view of the city to feel a little oriented to be able to walk around and explore a little in the 3 hours we had until our train ride home.
There was a great pedestrian street we walked on. We poked our heads in a few shops and found a place to stop for lunch.
I finally took a picture of a typical restaurant table set up - small, folded napkins already on the table in some type of holder; a cup brought with a bottle of whatever you ordered to drink, including water - they must go through a ton of bottles each day in Europe!; a basket with the utensils to match what you will need for the food ordered for your table; a plate with a napkin topped with lemon-scented hand wipe packets.
Tyson had noticed this church just down a little from our lunch stop, so we went to check it out. It was rather castle-like.
We had a little time before we needed to head back to the train station and noticed a bicycle museum. It was little, but there were some really great old bikes.
I wanted to show what the housing is like in these smaller towns. It's just rows and rows and rows of these 4-5 story communist apartments that have the feel of college dorms. I hate the thought that this is what people have to live in, with little other choice.
Waiting for our turn to board the train home.
The Siauliai train station and our ride home.
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