Let's Meet in Vilnius

23/10/2021

Let's meet in Vilnius for Christmas

Wherever Vilnius is, Christmas here is magical. So, pack your bags and experience Christmas like never before. So save the date: 27th November is when all th...

18/05/2021

Lockdown stories on TV.
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I was invited to a TV show to tell how guides survive the lockdown. I don't know whether it was interesting, but it was interesting to participate at the show with highly professional and friendly LNK TV team.

26/04/2021

My friend and classmate Evaldas is waiting for the end of the lockdown.
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Meanwhile Evaldas is painting the facade of the house his famous bar DEVINKĖ is located.
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If you wish to drink and chat while travelling in Vilnius, DEVINKĖ is one of the coziest and most friendly places in the city.

19/04/2021

Anybody needs?

08/04/2021

Back to my work!
💛 Old Town view is also included in ;
💚 Easy to access and much to see;
🧡 Užupis will make your Vilnius full of unexpected discoveries.






🇱🇹 🇱🇹 #🇱🇹🇱🇻🇪🇪

08/04/2021

Back to my work!
💛 Užupis Constitution, the one we visit on
💚 A dog has the right to be a dog and everyone has the right to celebrate or not celebrate their birthday, declares the Constitution. 41 smart articles give you an idea of survival here.
🧡 Republic of Artists in the center of Vilnius.






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06/04/2021

Birds behind my house

26/03/2021

5 minutes-to-be your Vilnius virtual tourguide is on the main highway of the Old Town.

26/03/2021

What is it?
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Have you ever participated in this celebration?

15/03/2021

Do you know, where your President lives?
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I know exactly where mine does.
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In the glass box, covering old cottage in the teritory of state reserve, a kind of regional park, protected by the government.
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It's a shame he managed to legalise this construction. Sure, long before he was elected, but still.
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Being a President he refused to move to a special governmental district and continues to live on here.
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Those black cars in a few minutes will bring him to his office. And I will continue hiking in the Pavilniai state reserve for one more hour.
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It's beautiful here.

15/03/2021

💛 Wishes from Vilnius 💚
🧡 Happy Monday 💛




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07/03/2021

💛 Courtyards
💚 Secrets
🧡 Let's go!

07/03/2021

Magic number 5️⃣
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💛 We can have tours with the small groups of five. So I do!
💚 Perfect start!
🧡 Let's go on!
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Today is a new day.
New tour is waiting.

03/03/2021

Vilnius is perfect for cycling.
Have you started your season?

27/02/2021

Beautiful night in an amazing city

27/02/2021

Beautiful night in an amazing city

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27/02/2021

Question!
Can you guess what religion this house of worship represents?

27/02/2021

The Brain

Have you ever seen the monument, dedicated to the brain?
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Of not, you have never been to the Republic Behind the River.
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When you come to Vilnius, please be prepared to the challenge of artsy tour in Užupis.



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25/02/2021

Valentine mood

24/02/2021

💛💚 Vilnius Baroque 💚💛



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23/02/2021

💛Save the text. Long, but good🙄

What are the main differences between the Roman Catholics and Russian Orthodox Church.
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First, what the similarities between them are:
✅ both are Christians, moreover, they consider themselves to be both Catholics and Orthodox. Why? In the comment.
✅ both believe in the text of Bible and agree on the Seven Sacraments,
✅ both recognize the three forms of God, and the ability of Jesus Christ to be divine and human at the same time,
✅ both consider saints as important part of the Church. Mary has the special status as the mother of God,
✅ both use icons in worship.
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And now... the differences:
⭕ The Pope
The Catholics recognize the Pope of Rome as the head of the Church, while Orthodox Christians reject his supremacy over the Church as a whole. Roman Catholics are intensely centralised while Orthodox Church is made of self-governing communities.
⭕ Trinity
The Orthodox Church believe the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father. The Catholics add "and from the Son". It's a big thing.
⭕ Easter
The Catholics consider Jesus as the human saviour paying the price for sin through his death by crucifiction.
According the Orthodox Christians, salvation is achieved by the triumph over death in the Resurrection.
⭕ Depiction of Saints
While Roman Catholics use statues to represent the saints, the Orthodox Church prefers icons and pictures.
⭕ Priests
Catholic priests do not marry, Orthodox do.
⭕ Altar
Altar is the main object of adoration in the Catholic Church, while Orthodox Christians hide the altar behind the iconostasis.
⭕ Pipe organ
Pipe organ is never used by Orthodox nor any other musical instrument either. The only "instrument" used during the mass is human voice.
⭕ Mass and prayer
Roman Catholics tend to kneel in prayer, but the mass is much shorter, than in the Orthodox Church. People stand during the mass in the latter.
⭕ Fasting
The Roman Catholics usualy fast on Fridays (no meat) and 4 weeks before Christmas and Easter (combining no meat and strict fasting).
The Orthodox Christians have much stricter fasting traditions, for example, I counted 186 fasting days during 2021.

What would you add?

22/02/2021

Searching for the Monday stories.
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By the way, do you know the differences betwen the Catholics and the Russian Orthodoxes?
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20/02/2021

"In 1895, a Danish ethnologist, traveler and discoverer Åge Meyer Benedictsen was the first foreign explorer, who wrote with admiration about Lithuania, its people, language, nature, culture and folklore but also about its political situation? It is presented in his book “Lithuania – The Awakening of a Nation. Pictures of Lithuanian Culture”, published in Danish language in 1895.

He wrote “anyone who is not blind must see (…) that the Lithuanian people have a heavy and steep road to traverse before they gain a definite security for their free political life, but no one who has watched this people’s fight during the last few decades, who has known how they stood a generation ago and how they stand today, can be in doubt as to their being a people who will obtain a voice in that grand many-toned assembly, which after years of darkness will build up the new era”. This was in the Summer of 1918 (when publishing the English version of the book).

Benedictsen was right."

Happy national day, Lithuania! 🇩🇰🇱🇹😷 Did you know...?

In 1895, a Danish ethnologist, traveler and discoverer Åge Meyer Benedictsen was the first foreign explorer, who wrote with admiration about Lithuania, its people, language, nature, culture and folklore but also about its political situation? It is presented in his book “Lithuania – The Awakening of a Nation. Pictures of Lithuanian Culture”, published in Danish language in 1895.

After travelling the country in 1893 and writing his book in the town of Ploksciai (district of Sakiai), he described the hardship of the Lithuanian people to flourish under the Russian, German, Polish powers and Jewish influence but nevertheless he has optimistic.

He wrote “anyone who is not blind must see (…) that the Lithuanian people have a heavy and steep road to traverse before they gain a definite security for their free political life, but no one who has watched this people’s fight during the last few decades, who has known how they stood a generation ago and how they stand today, can be in doubt as to their being a people who will obtain a voice in that grand many-toned assembly, which after years of darkness will build up the new era”. This was in the Summer of 1918 (when publishing the English version of the book).

Benedictsen was right.

Benedictsen’s book gave the Danes an exceptional insight into the Lithuanian national awakening and thereby contributed to the long lasting relations between our two countries. 100 years of diplomatic relation this year.

Benedictsen later became good friends with the first Lithuanian Ambassador in Copenhagen Jurgis Savickis who was a well-known Author.

Benedictsen died in 1927. At his funeral, the then Danish Foreign Minister L. Moltesen spoke and thanked him for his contribution and knowledge about suppressed nations and suffering peoples of the world that he has described in his many books.

Only in 1997 the book was translated into Lithuanian.

Ieva Steponaviciute thanks the books!

20/02/2021

Postcard
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18/02/2021

🔆 7:45 AM in Vilnius🔆

#שחר

18/02/2021

Before the sunrise.
-17°C (about 1°F) in Vilnius


#💛💚🧡 #🍋🍏🍊

🇱🇹

15/02/2021

Morning!

Winter fitness. More to go!

12/02/2021

Winter beauty in the Old Town.

01/02/2021

Jewish water carrier is slowly walking from house to house bringing joy to the neighborhood residents. Water is everything. No water no life.
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Water carrier is as poor as people around, even worse, his job is very little paid. Very little. Usually he walks slowly slowly, he is tired and bored. He watches at his feet thinking about his daughter and blind wife. Sometimes he finds coins. Well not sometimes, he actually earns another salary collecting coins from the ground.
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But that was not the story of this water carrier. This water carrier is looking up and counting stars!

"...As, on the old synagogue, a frozen water carrier,
Small beard tilted, stands counting the stars"

From the poem VILNIUS (1926) by Moyshe Kulbak [1]
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This beautuful sculpture by Romualdas Kvintas has been recently launched in the old town of Vilnius. We will visit it and hear more water carrier stories on our Jewish Vilna tour and Litvak tour with Litvak Shtetls and Ekskursijos po žydiškąjį Vilnių
Can't wait until we can travel again!

Next photos:
🍋 Old Jewish water carrier at the Jewish quarter in Vilnius in 1917 [2]
🍏 Moyshe Kulbak - famous Yiddish poet who lived and worked in Vilnius for some time.
🍊Hasidic Eastern European Jewish Shtetl Water Carrier by Simon Karczmar (1903-1982) Natan Karczmar [3]