Vilnius, pre-conference

[lovingboth]

Friday 17th October - getting there

The only upside of using Ryanair was that the time of the flight was good. I could get a train to Luton Parkway leaving just after noon. Since I was last there, the 'pull a set of rubber-wheeled carriages along a concrete "track" with a cable' shuttle to the airport has opened. It's more expensive than the bus shuttle was. Luton Airport still makes you go through the sodding perfume section after security. What are people with asthma expected to do?

Flight was on time, arriving in Vilnius around 22:00 local time, even if Ryanair make it feel much longer. By being placed on the aisle in row C, I was one of the first people to get off the plane in Vilnius and hence one of the first non-EU citizens on it to do the fingerprinting for the new entry system. Apparently, those later off flights had very long queues.

It was about four stops on a bus to near where I was staying / the conference was. The walk for me went past the conference hotel and, just as interestingly, a large supermarket that was open until 23:00. After dropping my bag at the Airbnb flat, I did shopping for Ian breakfast stuff, plus a pizza to eat now. Lithuanian supermarkets don't do vegetable pizzas beyond margaritas, but I am OK eating one with chicken. I see that getting the chain's loyalty app is a good idea, but I can't download it there.

The flat is in a modern block. It's a studio flat I wouldn't want to live in, but it proved perfect for the week, particularly being just two or three minutes' walk from the hotel / supermarket.

Saturday 18th October - wandering in the wet

It was raining lightly through most of the day. I walked into the Old Town. The National Museum of Art isn't big and the paintings section concentrates on Lithuanian artists (shock). In the permanent collection seeing the different self-portraits was good, and the three temporary exhibitions - 'Romanticism' (in this context, mostly 19th C Lithuanians pining for independence from the Russians) and photos of the city from the middle of the 19th C (you needed permission from the Russians to use a camera, and part of the section is on people who didn't ask, and this was just before the Russians started to turn most of the Catholic churches into Orthodox ones) and modern Vilnians done with 19th C techniques - were all very good. One way and another, one particular place appeared in three or four paintings before the labels bothered to explain where it was and why it's significant.

The 'museum of museum running' next door was closed, even though it was supposed to be open. So after a very good burger, complete with someone being a DJ in the small hut so most of us had to be outside under some big umbrellas,* I was going to go to another art thing. Oh, it's also closed. And with the same sign as the other place - like the road sign for 'don't drive your car off the embankment', except it's 'kultura' that's about to get wet.

Some more wandering lead to the discovery that having a couple of chairs in the middle of a large display of pumpkins and other brightly coloured squashes so you can have your photo taken amongst them is a local thing. I was heading up to the 'three crosses' hill, where there's a concrete memorial to some Christians who were supposedly martyred centuries ago by local pagans. Various signs explain that the Russians removed the previous memorial and planted trees all over the hill to make it a place for local workers rather than have any religious significance. The views over the Old Town are wonderful.

Also on the same hill is a 'bowl' stage that was the site of some Halloween horror thing - apart from the static displays and some fairground rides, the only thing I saw through the fencing was someone striding around dressed as Dracula - and the site of one the city's three castles. The notices explain the history very well and, oh, add Lithuania to the list of countries England has meddled in. The future Henry IV diverted a crusade against the pirates of Tunis to fight against pagans here.

Oh, that's interesting - a war memorial has WW2 starting in 1939, not 1940 (invaded by the Soviets) or 1941 (invaded by the Nazis). Looking up the history, it turns out that Poland had grabbed the Vilnius area for itself in 1920, and after Poland was invaded by first the Nazis and then the Soviets in September 1939, the Lithuanians took the opportunity to grab it back... but at the cost of letting the Soviets install some units in the country. Those formed the basis of their June 1940 invasion.

Fascinatingly, despite those nineteen years, the various museums and monuments are far less annoyed at the Poles than they are at the Russians. It almost looks like it'd be impolite to mention them in a bad light, perhaps because several of those Lithuanian artists and writers went to live in (also Russian-occupied) Poland in the 19th C and at one point in the middle ages, the same set of kings ruled both areas.

Coming down the hill, I go into the main cathedral, now very definitely restored as a Catholic one.

On the way back to the flat, I pass what turns out to be the Presidential Palace. In front of it is a woman draped in a flag with that Kultura sign on, silently looking at it. A QR code nearby explains what's happened: the country had elections last year and although most parties said they wouldn't co-operate with the equivalent of Reform (pro-Russia bigots etc), they're in the resulting coalition and this year the President wanted to give them the Ministry of Culture. The sector is very, very unhappy at that (the party has the attitude that the only good art is stuff that supports their prejudices) and there have been assorted demonstrations and various things have had temporary closures.

Doing more food shopping, it turns out that the loyalty app that was downloaded and worked in the flat and worked on the way to the supermarket doesn't work in it! (It's possibly down to me having a non-Lithuanian phone number.) This time, someone lets me use their one (I get assorted discounts, they get some points-like thing) and after that, I just use a screenshot taken when it works at the flat.

Sunday 19th October - more wandering, hello people

There was supposed to be a flea market in the grounds of a former prison that's now a museum / film location. There was no sign of it (closed until spring?) so I walked to the Green House, which is a small museum on the Holocaust in Lithuania. That started almost before the Nazis arrived, a couple of days after they had invaded the Soviet Union, and it doesn't obscure that they got substantial cooperation from sections of the local population. As well as those actively involved in the violence and killings, the person who wrote "The fight against the Jews is continuing. The Jews have not stopped their attacks. All the houses are searched, and groups of criminals are being led to be shot. Hitler is not only the enemy of the Jews, but his thinking is also very right since there is plenty of information about the massacres perpetrated by the Bolsheviks and the Jews" a couple of days after the invasion was the local Catholic Archbishop...

Large numbers were shot in a nearby forest, and ghettos set up in Vilnius and other cities. That operated for around two years before virtually everyone in them were sent off to be murdered and the number of eventual survivors from what had been a major Jewish centre was very low.

I spent less time there than I'd have wanted because there was supposed to be a 'brunch' at a vegan restaurant nearby. I get there at the time mentioned and... well, there's a long table marked as reserved, but no one at it. I sit down and after a few minutes message one of the organisers that I'm there, but no-one else seems to be. A couple of minutes later, three or four other people arrive, look right - one's wearing pink trousers :) - and indeed turn out to be other attendees, so we start chatting. Oh, and it was a 'you could eat here' suggestion rather than a 'we'll all be there' thing, so we order food and over the next thirty minutes around a dozen people more turn up, including some of the organisers, and do the same. This is the opportunity for the longest chat I have with Hilde.

Afterwards, Hilde, another organiser and I walk back. They go to the hotel while I drop off a bag at the flat, do the quick registration for the conference at the hotel, and then walk further on towards the place the bus on Friday dropped me off. It's just over an hour before sundown, and there's an open air art gallery. It turns out to be around the buildings of what was a Soviet-era factory and is now a mix of offices, at least one nightclub and at least two climbing wall places, amongst other things. There are officially 49 pieces of street art / statues and I think I saw 48 of them, possibly including some more recent pieces. Definitely a highlight, especially in the 'golden hour' sunlight.

Back at the flat, I do a presentation for a session that'll happen tomorrow. A chat while registering meant that everyone realised it was in the wrong slot in the published timetable, so that's sorted out.

---

* The staff were also giving some sort of alcoholic shots out, but I didn't ask exactly what sort of spirit it was

Comments

[ludy]

Luton Airport still makes you go through the sodding perfume section after security. What are people with asthma expected to do?

In cynical mode maybe it’s a plan to make us stop breathing entirely so as not to disturb other passengers with our annoying wheezing and coughing? Or a test to make sure we did remember to put our inhalers in carry-on?

(And yes, obviously, flying in a pressured cabin makes everyone take in slightly less oxygen so it can be a asthma trigger and is something to be cautious about when you are “having an exacerbation” - it would be useful if exacerbations where predicable enough to plan your holidays/work travel around …. And least it’s better than in “the old days” when you’d be trapped in a metal tube with smokers )

[barakta]

Airports are subject to the reasonable adjustments duty. I wonder what would happen if someone detrimented by the fucking perfumes asked for a route that skipped them... This duty is anticipatory... Many people are scent-sensitive and should really be able to avoid this without a massive palarver.

That'd be a fun strategic claim to make. Airports are known bastards in my spreadsheet.

Loving your con writeup. I do love the travel and who you see and where you stay minutiae.

[lovingboth]

I really do not like the scent, but it "just" causes me runny eyes etc. What makes it particularly annoying this time is that I specifically asked a member of staff straight after getting through security if there was a route that avoided it and he said yes, up the stairs. Those take you right to it...

[ludy]

And even if "up the stairs" did work for avoiding allergens it would still be potentially hard to do on a really bad breathing day...

[lovingboth]

There are escalators and a lift, even if I didn't notice exactly where that is.

[ludy]

That’s good. But I’m finding that when I’m out with Ruis (who has more frequent can’t-do-stairs days than I do) that often even otherwise helpful/well-meaning venue staff are really quite bad at giving directions to people who are less mobile than they are