vilnius.freeflux.net

 Lithuanian Railways offer new comfort for passengers travelling Eastwards

 After a decade of preparation, the last State-owned Lithuanian company "Lietuvos geležinkeliai" unleashed a new type of carriages that would serve it's traditional routes Vilnius - Moscow - Vilnius and Vilnius - St. Petersburg - Vilnius.



For those, who can not grasp what "vagon povyshennoj komfortnosti" might mean in Russian - it promises a LCD TV, an extra-comfortable bed, a separate WC, a fridge and "tchainik" directly from Tver'.

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 "Lietuvos geležinkeliai" paskelbė pradedantys atnaujinti parką ir įsigijo naujus vagonus važinėti į Maskvą ir Sankt Peterburgą. Įdomu, ar tai atsitiktinumas, bet apie sugrįžimą kaip tik paskelbė ir Antis...

Tne New Synergy between the Land of Rising Sun and Land of Rains

Temperance, chastity, obiedence... these are some Lithuanian national character features which even Lithuanians themselves dislike. However, they can be also cherished and praised. Especially if your narrator is from Japan. Therefore, some really interesting Japanese-Lithuanian projects have been emerging recently.  Both in Japan, and in the misty regions of Lithuania.



One of important of these is the Japanese garden in Mažučiai, near Darbėnai, Kretinga district, in Western Samogitia, for no reason dubbed Madzhuchai. A project by Šarūnas Kasmauskas, a former senior marine doctor, is said to cost over 2 mln EUR and build with full service of experienced Japanese landscape architects. The owner quotes the relatively high local hills, the abundance of natural stones as well as proximity to Šventoji river and Latvian / Livonian lands as a premise for a sucess of the biggest Japanese-styled garden in Europe!

A short trip into the internet left us astonished, because apparently there are Japanese gardens planned for Vilnius Botanical Garden, Alytus (no later than 2010) and also an impressive Japanese garden with a huge Martial School on the banks of river Nemunas in Kaunas.



In the meantime, the Madzhuchai will create a competition, or maybe another synergy with Orvidai Garden (or Museum of Absurd), which is also located in Kretinga district, Western Samogitia.


At the same time, the Lithuanian  šakotis (or a sophisticated version of German Baumkuchen) is celebrating a big sucess in Japan as an object of culinary e-commerce. Big thumbs up to Mr. Mindaugas Zabaliunas in Nagasaki!

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Lietuviai pamilo japonų kultūrą, o japonai pamilo lietuvių skonį... Netikite? Šalia Darbėnų žemaičių pasamdyti japonų architektai stato Didžiausią japonišką sodą Europoje - taip apie jį rašyta prieš 2 metus, o taip rašoma jau dabar. Pasirodo, japoniški sodai jau suplanuoti ir Vilniuje, Alytuje, o Kaune - su karate akademija! O šaunus buvęs KTU studentas japonus įtikino vietoj baumkuchen rinktis spygliuotąjį lietuvišką Šakotį.com!

The Famous Kaunas Attraction Popular Again?

The influential blog (or as the call themselves 'A Directory of Good Things') Boing Boing has just published a nice piece on Kaunas' Velniu Muziejus or Devil's Museum by David Pescovitz. The museum is a ture attraction, a three storey bad lit building with all the little pieces evil. In my childhood, tones of tourists buses from all over the U.S.S.R. stood there for a chance to see the devil (and Čiurlionis gallery on the other side of street) , as the baroque churches and national heroes were not... so popular. The kiosk with little statues and badges was also flourishing, untill it ran out of business like 7 years ago. Maybe it's now a start of a new wave of visitors??

Read the full article here.



The founder of the museum Zmuidzinavičius is pleased by the review (with his Mac).

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Kaune, Putvinskio gatvėje įsikūręs Velnių muziejus buvo jau gerokai primirštas, bet šiandien apie jį rašo įtakingausi pasaulio blogai. Galbūt jis taps naujo Kauno pozicionavimo - "velnių priėdęs miestas" ar panašiai - svarbiu ramsčiu??

Love Is In The Air Vilnius Version

The major Lithuanian newspaper Lietuvos rytas (BTW, it's online version is free for registered overseas users since last week) whirls about the new excursion offer "The Most Famous Dames of Vilnius and Their Most Famous Love Stories" by Vilnius tourist information center.
The story revolves around the most famous Lithuanian lovers pair Žygimantas Augustas (Sygismunt II Augustus) and Barbora Radvilaitė (Radzwill) and their secret meetings in gardens and catacombs, the Itallian-styled royal arrival of Bona Sforza and the Italian-styled not-so-noble life of Marija Neri - Nagurska - Oginska. However, the most charming of them all was Zofia Tyzenhaus, which managed to sort of date both Tsar Alexander I of Russia and Napoleon Bonapart himself.

 

Apparently, Napoleon wrote in his memoirs: "There was just one ray of sun left in Lithuania - Zofia Tyzenhauz".
Which we all know is untrue.

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Vilniaus turizmo informacijos centras siūlo šiek tiek erotišką ekskursiją "Žymiausios Vilniaus moterys ir jų meilės istorijos", kur reikalas daugiausiai sukasi apie Žygimanto Augusto motiną ir žmoną, o taip pat apie XVIII a. pabaigą ir XIX a. pradžią. Apie Moniką Mironaitę pašnekesio dar nėra...

Lithuania in the eyes of famous Monthy Pytoner

BBC finally aired the episode on Lithuania from the series of Michael Palin's New Europe.
The episode, which is presented below, was pretty nicely written and integral.
Entering Lithuania from Latvia, Palin sleeps overnight in Palanga's Auska, where he sleeps in "Brezhnev's bed". The camera then switches to the Hill of Crosses, and some shots of Lithuanian countryside with even more crosses.

The majority of time, however, is spent in Vilnius where the man from Monthy Pyton with a certain obsession inspects various features of the KGB musem with a help of audio guide. The there is a meeting with Algis Ramanauskas, the LIthuanian entertainer ("with piercing eyes") and a big fan of MP, and a spontaneus choir to sing the most famous Lithuanian songs "Ant Kalno Murai" ("Some Brick Buildings on the Hill") and "Du Gaideliai" ("Two Cocks") is organized. Some waitresses were very professional and refuse to join the fun. Also there is some footage from Sajudis "Singing Revolution" times, which looks pretty weird now.

The third part of episode Michael is teleported to the Baltic coast again, this time sailing towards Nida gloriously in kurenas . The (un) happy ending is quite philosophical, with old man Palin wondering around dead dunes or pine forest. Before whisking off to the Kaliningrad district for some birdwatching in Rybachyi and other Russian-style fun.



Watch the episode here.

The conclusion is once again: we can provide a lot of interesting artefacts based on the Soviet times, and on wild nature explorations. Not only Medieval or Renaissance history. So Welcome to Lithuania!

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Beveik legendinio BBC komedianto iš "Monthy Python" Michaelio Palino laida "New Europe" parodė reportažą iš Lietuvos (feat. ALgis Greitai), kurį galite pamatyti aukščiau, o aprašymą paskaityti čia. Tas dar kartą patvirtina hipotezę - anglai mieliau apžiūrinės Sovietų laikų kontrastus ar neliestą gamtą, nei klausysis mūsų bubenimų apie Vytautą Didijį ar Rumšiškių turtus.