A Day of Pilgrimage - May 23, 2018

Plan for the day: up at 4:00, hike to train station hypotenusing through dirt forest path in early dawn light, train for 2.5 hours, then taxi for 12k to the Hill of Crosses, and be completely undone by this place not so much for religious reasons but it is also a freedom shrine as it became a form of free expression during Soviet occupation - bull dozed twice and kept popping up. Well, it was wet and interesting but didn't knock me over. Happy to see it without busloads of tourists though.


So whole thing reversed with 3 hour wait for the return train then on the way back from the station I finally found what I'd been hunting for - crustless Lithuanian cheesecake - made from a kind of Farmer's cheese, they call it natural curd, more sour than ours and with apricots in it. Now this was a worthy pilgrimage, days in the hunting. I thought I'd have a little for foursies, maybe a bit more for fivesies then take the rest on the bus to Riga tomorrow, but yikes, it's not going to survive the night, oh my. It was the last one or I'd be running back right now. Whew, just found a cheese shop open until 10:00 tonight ... so off I go on another cross town hike.

And a couple of final Uzupis pics - finally found the mermaid, down by the river of course, and signage ...

And the 92 year old who still paints gorgeous detailed eggs. Yup, I bought one, good luck with that. Also trying to figure out how to get the pot of buckwheat honey home, maybe have to check a bag, sigh.