Vilnius: Doppelgangers and Murdered Monks

This time I came to Lithuania was just like the last time but more so. After the jet lag wore off I felt like I had found my second home. It’s a strange sensation to feel like you fit in so well with people who live 1/3 of the way around the world and whose language you don't speak. But I do. I look around at people and they could all be my more attractive relatives. In order for you to judge for yourself I’ve compiled a collage of random Lithuanians, below, some of which I photographed at an uncomfortably close distance, all in the name of...science? 

This feeling of familiarity in a place so far away from home must be a phenomenon lots of immigrants encounter but I am three generations removed from my Lithuanian roots. Radios were still only prototypes the last time an ancestor of mine lived in Lithuania. Locals seem to think I could pass as Lithuanian too because when I inevitably exhaust the little Lithuanian I know and revert back to my American English they break form only momentarily to give a puzzled expression and then go right back to their stoic facades. The interaction usually goes something like this-

Lithuanian barista: Laba diena (hello)

Me: Laba diena

Lithuanian barista: sdfokjdsf aslkdfjsdlkfnskn sdfjk eionlkmd

Me: Um…can I have a tea with soy milk please

Lithuanian barista: ...sure 

In other news I was able to do something this trip that I had not been able to get around to last trip - the hill of three crosses (pictured below). These crosses commemorate a group of Franciscan monks who came to Lithuania to spread Catholicism. The Lithuanians promptly killed the monks, tied them to crosses, and sent them west down the river to deter other potential missionaries. This might seem harsh but at this point the crusades had been going on for centuries. So in reality it was probably a good pre-emptive maneuver. 

The crazy thing about this incident though is that it happened in the 14th century. Lithuania was THE last country in Europe to convert to Christianity. For comparison, most of Western Europe was practicing Christianity by the seventh century. Meanwhile Lithuania didn't even start moving away from paganism until the end of the 14th century and Christianity was not fully adopted until the 17th century. This means that while the pilgrims who survived the voyage to the new world were scraping by eating berries and fighting Native Americans, Lithuanians were still dancing around fires and doing drum circles. Clearly those Brits should have sailed east, not west. 

But I actually think the Lithuanians' ardent rejection of the Franciscans was more than just a preventative measure. I think it represented a very Lithuanian characteristic of refusal to give more than zero shits about what other people wanted them to do. And this characteristic served them well over the years. Despite being completely wiped from the map a number of times they are now a member of the European Union and NATO with consistently positive economic growth and strong alliances with some of the most powerful nations on the planet. More on that in the next post but first check out this view of Vilnius from the hill of three crosses.