Met a Finnish guy, named Timo in Vilnius and we traveled by a 4-hour bus to this medium-sized town, Siauliai. This town is located in the north-central part of the country and used to be a hub for the Soviets during their occupation of Lithuania. The town itself is pretty dodgy, lots of old buildings with many abandoned, roads beaten up, and pretty much lack of money invested in this town. Do you ask yourself why we are up here?
First, it can be exciting to check out these low-key towns that are more typical of the culture. Second, The Hill of Crosses is located about 10 kilometers north of the city. What is the Hill of Crosses?
"The Hill of Crosses is a site of pilgrimage and has been used as a place for Lithuanians to pray for peace, for their country, and for the loved ones they had lost. The first crosses were placed on the former hill fort in 14th century. Over the centuries, not only crosses, but giant crucifixes, carvings of Lithuanian patriots, statues of the Virgin Mary and thousands of tiny effigies and rosaries have been brought here by Catholic pilgrims. Most recently, the site took on a special significance during the years 1944-1990, when Lithuania was officially part of the USSR. Continuing to travel to the Hill and leave their tributes, Lithuanians used it to demonstrate their allegiance to their original identity, religion and heritage. Although the Soviets worked hard to remove new crosses, and bulldozed the site at least three times, the new crossess continued to appear and by 1985 the authorities had given up. On September 7, 1993, Pope John Paul II visited the Hill of Crosses, declaring it a place for hope, peace, love and sacrifice."
From the main road, we walked for about 15 minutes and than the Hill of Crosses come into view amongst the trees and open farm fields. Thousands upon thousands of mixed-sized crosses are dispersed on this hill and give you a sense of deep spirituality and a little eerie. When you walk through the hill, the winds sweep through making whistling sounds and causing the little crosses and rosary beads to sway and make clickity-clack sounds.....quite refreshing and relaxing while being on the hill amongst the crosses. A unique tradition that we witnessed while we were there revolved around newlyweds in the Siauliai area taking a cross together and placing it on the hill.
We were on a short time frame as Finnie and me were going to catch an evening train to Riga and bypass staying the night in Siauliai. Our bus at the Hill of Crosses came early (the first bus in Eastern European history to arrive early and depart)....no more buses the rest of the evening, so we tried our luck with hitching and within about 15 minutes we were picked up by this high school kid from Siauliai. Short talk and the car got quiet until he busting up the tunes with the great sound of Eastern European Techno (this trip has been all about techno and as I write this at an internet cafe in Milan, I get to listen to techno on the beats)....He turned it up and it was like the Bohemian Rhapsody scene in Wayne's World, except the only one bouncing to the beat was the driver. In the end, we made it to the bus station, but the Riga, Latvia bus either left or never came....it was time to find a place to stay for the night!
The Finnie knew of the Hotel Siauliai, a former Russian Hotel used to house government and KGB officials during their occupation. This place wa an eye sore from the ground, but the insides turned out to be okay...the weird thing about the hotel is that all we could think about was the many bad things that probably happened or were planned at this hotel over the last 60 years.
The next day we made it safely and on-time for our bus headed to Riga, Latvia. A new experience and still traveling without a guide book for Lithuania and Latvia!
|  | 
|
