6 MAY - Tuesday

Tuesday, May 6, = = (Kaunas City - Maps)

Departure, more and more to the north, I expect tens of kilometers of road in solitude among the woods and the street fair but not exceptional.
A light mist me waiting just outside the city, I start to

= km 32 Jonava - km 42 Ukmerge - km 61 = arrival in Panevezys (tot 135 km)

Panevezys 116,000 inhabitants = =

The river crosses the Nevezis, there is also a narrow-gauge railroad, which is an historic monument and tourist attraction. Years ago was called the Chicago Lithuanian, because of the strong presence of mafia and crime, have had many problems, now largely resolved. In a small lake in the city is the statue of the Grand Duke of Lithuania, Alexander King of Poland.
There are throughout the city, typical old mills, meeting the church of St. Peter and Paul, to visit the Gallery of Photography and The Ethnogrphy Museum, which displays insects from around the world.
E 'a modern city, despite the widespread Soviet architecture, has ideas of modernity and also, curious streets and houses with high ceilings and tall triangular.
To do this a few km we have made 3 hours, because of fog and the roads...


are not sure of the best. I'm already 12, I try housing. A woman sitting at a banquet sells junk, characteristic of almost all Eastern countries, kindly shows me a side street, where there are families who rent their apartment.
I am the door indicatomi, a house with only the ground floor, apparently decadent. Knock at the door and a man very thin and very old and I opened with great kindness makes me into the house, without even asking me why I came. The apartment is decent, clean and in order, with beautiful rugs and multicolored flowers, is on the small table at the window, two chairs with white cloth embroidered with designs in bright colors and a showcase that would make the happiness of an antique.
Sometimes appearances can be deceiving, the exterior of the house did not assume anything like that.
To ask if they have a room for one night and how much will it cost me, I replied that there are problems and asks me a figure to be paid in advance, really ridiculous to spend the night and if I want with a little more spending, it can make me lunch , dinner and breakfast the next morning, I can not help but accept.
The whole house will be about 60 square meters, the hall, a kitchen area (I can not call it a room) a small bathroom with no shower and two small rooms, but everything in perfect order and clean. Take possession of the room, in the meantime I feel at home there are other people.
I called a female voice for lunch, go out and to my amazement I see the man first, a woman and two children who are standing beside the table.
Accommodate us, the woman now leads by a huge cooking pot smoking that posandolo on the table, spreads around a roast beef aroma: Kept Kiaulienos Sonkauliai (pork ribs), with potatoes and other side dishes and condiments that I can not describe.
Before we can dive into all that much of God, man joining hands imitated by his family and says a pregriera of thanksgiving to the Lord.
I am a little embarrassed but I obey out of respect for them and politely point that end.
Eat with any appetite, and while the woman goes into the kitchen and the boys go out merrily in the street, the man invites me to sit on sofas, pulling out of the old showcase a half bottle of vodka or pay me a glass and I will offer a cigarette like that, I thank you with a wide grin.
I ask him about the city and their habits, vaguely responding to my questions, but after a couple of vodka bichierini and why she had told of my trip, begins to take confidence.

"You must know that the city is almost entirely of Lithuanian origin, I am one of the few Russian left, we are not viewed well by the citizens, due to our origins. During and after the Second World War, our troops did massacre of populations in the three Baltic countries, perpretando massacres and deportations, also for me is even worse because my father was one of their jailers. The woman you saw is my daughter, divorced, or if her husband went a couple of years ago, we do not know where they are. The children are my grandchildren, neither I nor they have faults, fortunately with time things change and I hope that at least they have a future better than mine. I did not work, I only have a small disability pension, fortunately my daughter sells used clothing to the market and not as bad she caviamo. "

All this tells me with calmness and composure, without anger or sadness. I listened carefully and I know that was a fact more or less widespread in almost all countries, which were within range of Soviet power.
E 'already late afternoon, the man proposed to me as a guide for visiting the city, but I prefer him a proposal and all that is going into a pizzeria, an evening to go merrily along.
It mocks, but after consulting with her daughter agrees, go out for a stroll and dispose swallow the vodka, while the family prepares for the evening.
These are the 21, go out and put in my car we take toward the center of the city, where the old man tells me they do a very good pizza. Indeed, as the seasoning is a bit different from ours is good and generous in size, pizza, cake, ice cream and coffee giant, all at affordable price.
Next to the pizzeria is a games room, finished eating I put in my pocket some change left to the children and send them to have fun. I, father and daughter sit on a bench in the square in front of us enjoy the passage of women and men dressed elegantly and the street car cilindrtata large.
Let us return home, the boys sleep on the back seat of car nestles in the arms of his mother, his face has un'epressione wellness, I think that since her husband has left, this is one of the few times that it is peace with itself.
At my age you tire more easily and read to me as if to a magnet.

> (DIARY DAY FOLLOWING MAY 7 )