So I came to Lithania on Saturday, spent the afternoon in Riga, and then Saturday night we went back to my friend’s house outside of Siaulia, which is the fourth largest city in Lithania. So if you live in a town outside of the fourth largest city in Lithania, you can imagine that there aren’t a whole lot of skyscrapers around. There weren’t.

Saturday night we watched Lithuania’s national basketball team put up a noble effort against Spain, but, unfortunately, they lost by 12 or so points. It was good to se though, as it was a nice introduction to how basketball crazy the country is. When I walked around town the next couple days, there was ample evidence that this was *the* sport. In a sense it felt like home, if only because people didn’t care about soccer. Good style, Lietuva.

(We call it Lithuania, they call it Lietuva. It’s funny, because they don’t have a voiceless dental fricative, so they can’t actually pronounce thie country name the way we do. I’d sugest calling it their way, but I don’t know how they’d feel about being called Lietuvians.)

Sunday morning we drove into the city and saw the sites. Our first stop is the Hill of Crosses, which is exactly what it sounds like. The pictures I took don’t do it justice, but if you like right angles generally or the lower case letter ‘t’ specifically, this is the spot to see. Really, quite a lot of crosses. Also, I saw a frog. (Alas, no picture.)

After the crosstravaganze, we went into the town. Like most of the towns I’ve been to this summer, they’ve got a really impressive collection of statues and sculptures around the city. Pretty much every other block or so there’s something to look at. We lucked out and had some beautiful weather, more notable as it was the first nice weather any of the Baltic countries seem to have had in the last two weeks.

After we got back from town, we went to my friend’s family’s cabin a couple miles away to make some dinner. Other than the cheese and the olive oil, I think everything we ate was grown by the family. Intellectually, I understand that vegetables come from plants and the ground, etc., but it’s still weird to walk into a field and dig up some potatos, pluck some zucchini, pick some berries, and make a meal. Really weird, but really super awesome.

After dinner, we went back and hung out at the house and I finally bought my plane ticket to go to Berlin. I’ve got a thing about waiting until the last minute. Unfotunately for them, I was only able to get a plane ticket on Tuesday afternoon, which meant they had to deal with me for an entire extra day. As usual, my vegetarianism was a bit perplexing, but with access to the incredible vegetables they have, I think even the most blood-thirsty carnivore would be rarely be hungry.