by Abakan on Thu Jun 05, 2008 3:34 am
Well, good question, but unfortunately incomplete. I do not know what your interests are. Culture is a very broad area.
When I came here in 1995, what I did was to stay 3 weeks in Klaipeda and about 10 days each on a farm, in Kaunas, and in Vilnius. I stayed with friends in Klaipeda, which is why I spent so much time there. I walked pretty much everywhere so a number of places like the Ninth fort (worth an excursion) in Kaunas were eliminated from the itinerary since my Lithuanian was too weak to catch the bus. And I had a fantastic time and really got a feel for the country. I went back home, learned the language, and moved here because of that 7 week trip.
My wife and I are going to India later this year using the same plan. Since we will be there only 14 days, we will spend nearly all the time in Dehli with a friend.
I don't know that any museums are on the itinerary in Delhi, although I am sure they have some good ones. You see, I like to understand how people live and you can't do that from a tourist trap or exhibition, no matter how beautiful or well-planned. And I really don't understand how one can experience a foreign culture in sound bytes - a day in this town, a day in that.
I visited the museums in 1995 but not one was really fantastic. They have some nice interior diaramas in the National Museum in Vilnius, Rumsiskes outside of Kaunas has the original village buildings from all around Lithuania and folk culture events on weekends in the summer, but I don't remember being able to see into the houses. (My wife and I went during the off season so maybe we didn't for that reason.) I could have learned more from a good book on the subject. I imagine on Coronation Day weekend, they will have a folk craft fair there and if not, then certainly in Trakai. Klaipeda had (and probably has) that Kandinsky, which is definitely worth seeing in person if you have never seen this artist's work in person.
One problem with experiencing the culture here is going to be the language barrier - most people are not going to speak English. Any event will be conducted pretty much only in Lithuanian. Many places do have guided tours conducted in English. I attended the Juros Svente (Sea Festival) in Klaipeda in 1995 which has some good features like a bell symphony and medieval dancing but I don't know if you'll find the programme in English. Some museum exhibits are not even in English. The Bike Museum in Siauliai was one such example in 1998. Other than that I checked out all the shops (Not too many were Western in 1995, unlike today), a lot of the museums, and the architecture. I remembered Kaunas as having the best baked goods (still true today in comparison to Vilnius). There is a nice numismatic flea market in Vilnius Saturday mornings, a nice coin shop on Town Hall Square and coin flea market at Urmo Baze in Kaunas. The Hill of Crosses has some nice folk art if you like crosses. A number of towns like Druskininkai and Vilnius have water parks now.
There is a nice English guide book out now for about 70-75 litas. It has lots of pictures and brief descriptions of sites all over Lithuania. I imagine there are a lot of churches in there because they used to be one of the biggest patrons of the arts. Most of the valuables possessed by the nobility were destroyed or taken out of the country but the Catholic Church managed to hold on to a lot of its cultural heritage.
Where Lithuania has been finding a niche for itself in recent years is in rural tourism where you rent a cabin or cottage in the countryside, often on or near a lake, and enjoy nature without a lot of urban reminders. We have that sort of nature - boring if you want spectacular, but pleasant and relaxing. And that about sums up the country as well.
If you want spectacular nature, I would go with the Delfinarium in Neringa - which has a nice show - over the Kaunas Zoo, which is under-financed and has only caged animals.
A lot of places have outdoor sculpture parks like Raganu kalnas (Witches' Hill) in Neringa that are worth visiting if you like wood sculpture.
If you have any specific questions, I'll see what I can do.
