The Double Coffee & Russian Rubles

Today we were able to visit another orphanage. Loretta, who we rent the flat from, is a physical therapist at an orphanage for younger children ... ages zero to six years old. There were 100 children in this particular orphanage. Loretta says that there are 5,000 children in state care in Lithuania!!! Lithuania is not a large country.

Anyway, Loretta showed us each group of children and then we went back to her area. There the therapists work individually with the children ... working their muscles, sitting them on excercise balls to strengthen their balance, they even have a swimming pool. The children love seeing Loretta come into their rooms because that means that they get to have special attention and they can leave the confines of their living space. We gave Loretta a bag of mini Tootsie Pops for the kids and she thought that was great ... the kids usually get a treat after their therapy session.

Loretta also talked a lot with Lina. Lina is interested in helping younger children with special physical needs, so I was very glad that we could have this visit ... pretty perfect, huh? Loretta encouraged her in this and about starting her life fresh now that she has hope for a future. Loretta seems like a pretty practical lady ... we all like her very much.

We had lunch at our new favorite haunt ... "Double Coffee" ... the name pretty much says it all! ;) They have a large variety of good food, delicious mochas and free wireless internet. They also play good American music and not the scary disco-era stuff that a lot of other places play!

After lunch we walked down to Cathedral Square (where the original castle stood ... and where my horse statue is ... hee hee) and walked through the National Museum. I've always found everyday, historical articles so interesting ... much more than paintings and marble statues. This museum had displays of how the people use to live (what there living areas were like), swords, locks, coins, official land grants from the 1500's, an ornate Catholic church pew, wooden statues, etc, etc and an awesome sleigh (it was upholstered and had a little saddle-seat on the back for the driver... it was cool)! I think Lina got a little bored after a while, but I'm glad we went. (Pictured: statue of 1st Lithuanian king, museum & Upper Castle Tower in background.)

Then we walked around Old Town for awhile. All the streets in this section of Vilnius are cobbled which is nice ... except when your "taksi" driver is screaming through a curved intersection and it feels like you're going to slide into the closest building. We've had a couple taxi drivers give us the scenic tour on the way back to our flat ... the cobbled streets let us know we're finally in the right neighborhood! :)

There are a lot of people walking around all the time (feels very safe) and most of those people wear head-to-toe black. You do see the occasional bright color, but it's definitely not the norm. We wandered through the street vendor stands and bought a piece of amber with insects in it and some Soviet coins ... those are probably the most random souvenirs I've seen so far. Lina probably thinks we're crazy, but that's not new. ;)

Every once in a while it hits me that we are in a former Soviet Republic ... behind the old "Iron Curtain" ... weird. Never could have imagined that we'd come here. What an adventure!

Don't miss KC's post after this one ... we realized that we should probably answer some of your questions from the comments that you've sent! :)

Labas vakaras! (Good evening!)
Michele, KC & Lina