Vilnius – the wolf in the baroque labyrinth (Cornelius Hell)

Departure form Vienna: Stress. We have to do a self-check in. Too many people travel for the Easter holidays.
The flight with the prop airliner “Carinthia” by Tyrolean is calm and we have a great view of the Baltic landscape, partially frozen winding rivers and brown grass.
Then we feel that Baltic ground under our feet.
Vilnius, along with Linz, is the Cultural Capital of Europe 2009. It is a city of young people with a 41 yearlong tradition of a festival of physicists. We see students play music spontaneously and feel a lot of young life energy on the large squares, between the baroque buildings, restored houses and statues. On the outskirts of the city is a new skyline. There is amber wherever we look. People try to make a living by selling homemade products of all kinds.
Member of the EU since 2004. Official currency: Litas. Economic crisis. Communist statues as remnants from the past.

We have our first meeting with Erika’s friends from the Soroptimist Club Vilnius 1 over breakfast at the hotel. It is an interesting encounter with depictions of the present situation and the recent past of Lithuania.
Palm Sunday in Vilnius: People bring different Verbos, Lithuanian palm fronds, to church. It seems like everybody goes to church here. We hardly find a place to sit. During the sermon we get a good impression of the melody in the language.

We sit in a sunny Café and watch the people go by. We feel timeless.

Spontaneously we decide to visit the Europe Park and Aurelia finds us a cheap taxi. We reach the park at around 5 pm when the light is most beautiful. It is the biggest sculpture park in Europe and marks the geographic center of the continent: 54° 54` N and 25° 19` E. We see around 90 sculptures beautifully blended in with nature on an area of 5 hectare. Inge performs the first part of her project “Erden” here.
The Lithuanian sculptor Gintaras Karosas initiated this magnificent park. The sculptures, installations and land art projects are in perfect symbiosis with nature.

We are exalted and it is difficult to leave this place. It is worth traveling to Lithuania just to see this place.

Photos of Vilnius