3rd and Probably Last Letter about Miscellanous (?) Stuff

Now I should write about two whole days which will be surely beyond my capacity so I apologise in advance for not going into any details.

Yesterday at 11 we got on a bus, and travelled to Trakai, the historic capital of Lithuania. It's a beautiful town quite close to Vilnius, with a castle on a lake (actually, more lakes, I think), some reminiscences of the historical minorities in Lithuania (the Karaites and the Tartars), and florishing green surroundings everywhere.
We had kibinai for lunch, a Karaite dish, similar to cornish pastry (filled with mutton and onion).

After that we came back to Vilnius, and had a long walk in the Old Town. We've seen lots of churches in various conditions, and heard interesting legends and stories from our nice guide. I think for me the most interesting was the (former) Jewish Quarter and the baroque Orthodox church with a strikingly grass-green iconostaz (turned into that from the former altar).

The dinner was in a popular traditional restaruant where there is a snake kept under the stairs (I am not sure wether this is a part of the local traditions). Marie, Tanja and me all ate cepelinai with different sauces, it's really nice and really filling. :-)

After dinner (at around 8.30, I guess) we met the Baltic Jesuit provincial, who is a very nice guy. He greeted us as maybe the pioneers towards a Lithuanian JVC, and later on even joined us for the (presumed) folk dancing evening. [Aura, he was happy to hear about you. Don't worry, I didn't tell him the truth... ;-)]

But unfortunately we went to another venue where there was no dancing but a great Norwegian group playing (mostly) the langeleik. It was absolutely perfect sleeping-music, so I soon found myself almost asleep... luckily, the others, too, so we hired a taxi, and headed home during the next (Polish?) band's play.

Today we had a nice (also singing) morning prayer (this time led by the French girls), then a game about living and working with people of different social and cultural backgrounds. Later in the morning we were given a little story from The Velveteen Rabbit, and some reflection questions on our JVC/JEV experiences. The sharing was in small groups from at least two different countries -- we were just four with Tanja and two French JVC girls (one of them from Germany), so we could have a pretty good conversation with enough time for everyone. I found it inspiring.

Now it is free time after lunch, and because we'll have half a day more for the city tomorrow, I stayed at the hotel. Silence is golden, all around...