Blogs from Siauliai, Lithuania, Europe - page 4

(Day 17 on the road)After Vilnius, I went to see one of the most inspiring sites in Lithuania: The Hill of Crosses. Situated near the city of Šiauliai (pronounced shoo-lay, sounds a bit Asian to me) in the north of the country, the hill houses more than 50.000 (!) crosses. The tradition of placing crosses here dates way back (around the 14th century) and today is the finest example of Lithuanian defiance of foreign invaders. After the second World War, Lithuania was of course part of the Soviet Union. During the Soviet era, the pilgrimage to the Hill of Crosses served as a vital expression of Lithuanian nationalism and Christianity, which the Soviets were of course not keen on either. The Soviets thus repeatedly removed the crosses by levelling the hill and burning the crosses. However, ... read more

One day we made a trip to the city Šiauliai in northern Lithuania. Outside this city is one of Lithuania's most remarkable places, the Hill of Crosses. This is a place we have wished to visit for several years and finally we now had the time to do it. In the countryside a few kilometers outside Šiauliai is a a place called the Domantai Hill, though it is known better as the Hill of Crosses. There are actually two hills there and they are practically covered with crosses. Nobody really knows when people started to place crosses on this hill. It is well established that the locals have used the place for worship and as a memorial for their loved ones for over 150 years. Wikipedia states that it is believed that this unusual way of ... read more

Lithuania has burst forth from under the yoke of several decades of Soviet oppression, to become a hot travel destination on the Eastern European backpacker trail. Formerly one of the three Baltic states in the Soviet Union, Lithuania joined the European Union in 2004 leading to a new dawn for this small country. The people are friendly, the food is good though somewhat artery clogging, and the capital Vilnius is a very attractive and clean city, having undergone a major transformation since independence was gained in 1991. The last journal left off in Krakow, dear reader, from where I took a four hour train ride north to the Polish capital Warsaw. I'd arranged an overnight bus trip from Warsaw to Vilnius on a service that does not run every day, but is by far the fastest ... read more