Today I went to a Lithuanian cinema and I enjoyed it. More later.
The morning was obviously cold and gray with a chance of rain. My Internet
weather for both Vilnius and Kaunas was 11C when I checked about 8am. The
highest expected was 17C,
After breakfast and after packing I slipped out to take some photos in the
nearby street, well more of an alley, where I had found art work attached to
the walls a couple of days ago. It was in a street called Liturali and realised
that the plaques and tiles and other items tended to relate to writers play
rights and poets.
So back to the Guest House for my 11am check out – actually I was ready at
10am. I chatted to the manager while waiting for the taxi and learned a bit
more about the country and culture.
At the bus station I had the choice of the normal bus at 11am or an express mini
bus at 11:05, I chose the later as I did not think 20 Litas was excessive for a
comfortable non stop ride down the highway in a 16 seat bus. There were only
seven on board so there was lots of room. Before embarking I tried to ask the
driver the cost and departure time. He could not speak English and I was very
pleased when another passenger asked if he could help. So I got my answers from
him.
Much of the way we drove through rain but it had cleared by the time we got to
Kaunas. I used the time to catch on three Prairie Home Companion segments of
the News From Lake Woebegone.
Much of the countryside was fairly unkempt grass land although at one stage
there was some rape in flower. Surprisingly I spotted two cows in the distance.
A feature of Lithuania is the way in which industry is spread around. Apparently
in Soviet times the country's leaders place industrial development all over the
country in an attempt to avoid a Russian build up. By spreading it it meant
jobs for local people.
On arrival it was quite simple to go to the front of the bus station, buy a
ticket from the kiosk's little open window and wait for any trolly bus on the
side of the road which I arrived at from the bus station. Then catch any trolly
bus; ride past the first two stops and get off at the third. This was the corner
of Gedimino gave and the hostel was just two numbers down after crossing the
road. It sounds more complicated than it actually was.
I have a nice twin bed en suite room which is fairly large, bright clean and
tidy. The same pine furniture as in the Vilnius hostel of the same company.
Quite quickly I checked out the Internet – slow but a connection on one side
of the room.
Then it was out into the cold somewhat windy conditions to look around.
Essentially, the main street of this older part of the city is one block up the
road where it starts there is a square with a large church in the middle. The
road is a pedestrian precinct. Down the middle runs two rows of tall trees with
walking space in between. On either side of these is space which would have had
a double lane roadway. Now it just carries walkers and cyclists. The amazing
thing is the length or the row of trees. My pick is that it runs for more than
a kilometre, it certainly took time to walk down it let alone back.
I called into the Tourist Office got a guide and asked where a cinema would be.
Turns out that just two blocks from my guest house, in the opposite direction
to what I had walked along to the square, there was a shopping mall and a
multiplex.
So because it was just too plain cold to stay our walking I headed down to what
turned out to be a large shopping centre with a lot of restaurants KFC, Pizza
Hut and so on.
I was a bit late for the start of the session but the feature had not started so
I went to the ticket counter to be told it was full. Well first of all that the
film I wanted to see was not on. We sorted that out pretty quickly though. Well
the end of the story is that the sell found a seat for me, row (eile) 8 seat
(vieta) 10, which was pretty good position right in the centre of the cinema.
Of course I had to get to it in the dark and did manage to step on a few toes
and trip over one foot but I grabbed a seat and didn't fall completely over. I
sat down just a s the maker's title hit the screen.
The movie was obviously very popular to have a full cinema at 6pm. The film was
Robinas Hudas and it was an action packed big spectacular feature. I did enjoy
the acting by Martinious Croweous and Katerous Blancardeous. OK I did make up
those actors' names. But the title is correct. We of courses would know it as
Robin Hood. But this is not the Robin Hood story we all know. No way, this is
set before the story of the legend. Which made it much more interesting than I
had expected. Much to my surprise I noticed in the credits that one actor was
Max von Stydel (I am sure I have spelt that wrong) who used to star in Bergman
films. I did not recognise him. I did feel embarrassed about that.
Admission cost was 6Lts which must be around NZ$4.
So a quick walk back to the guest house with some wine and sparkling water and
time to do the blog.
Photos are from the cell phone.
My room
The church in the square
the main street
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