Where in the world is Greg Kelley?

Because this trip was a pilgrimage, I didn’t take a lot of pictures of Greg but did find a way to spread the word about colon cancer in Druskininsai.  I put several educational cards and colon cancer pins on one of many statues in a park.

The Hill of Crosses, Kryzių Kalnas, located 12 kilometers north of the small industrial city of Siauliai (pronounced shoo-lay) is the Lithuanian national pilgrimage center. Gregs ashes were spread here and a cross placed with his name and other family members that have passed. A colon cancer pin was placed on the cross. “Standing upon a small hill are many hundreds of thousands of crosses that represent Christian devotion and a memorial to Lithuanian national identity. The city of Siauliai was founded in 1236 and occupied by Teutonic Knights during the 14th century. The tradition of placing crosses dates from this period and probably first arose as a symbol of Lithuanian defiance of foreign invaders. Since the medieval period, the Hill of Crosses has represented the peaceful resistance of Lithuanian Catholicism to oppression. In 1795 Siauliai was incorporated into Russia but was returned to Lithuania in 1918. Many crosses were erected upon the hill after the peasant uprising of 1831-63. By 1895, there were at least 150 large crosses, in 1914 200, and by 1940 there were 400 large crosses surrounded by thousands of smaller ones.”

Lithuania was such a poor country filled with very sorrowful history. The strength of the people and ability to forgive the Russians and Germans was very moving. Vilnius was the most charming of cities. The cobblestone curved streets were perfect for picture taking. Greg sat on a couple stones and sat in the city square people watching.

There are six lakes located in northeastern part of Vilnius, Lithuania. They are a part of the Verkiai Regional Parks and called the Green Lakes due to glacier activity. Greg is sitting at the Žalieji lakes . There was a huge ant mound there that is protected by a fence. The Lithuanians love their ants.

When we weren’t on the road, we enjoyed some homemade Lithuanian vodka. Much to Greg’s surprise, we ate in a vodka distillery and it depicted what happened when you had too much of the stuff!

We visited the Geographical Center of Europe, located in Lithuania. The very heart of Europe.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 2nd, 2008 at 5:10 pm and is filed under Lithuania. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.