Here are some popular things in Lithuania:

1. Jazz

I learned from Erika, one of our excellent guides/translators/generally awesome coordinator of activities, that Lithuanian people really love jazz music. When Lithuania was part of the Soviet Union, playing and listening to jazz was a quiet way to rebel. She mentioned that jazz is really important to Lithuanians. After our bus trip to Trakai, Erika mentioned a new jazz club opening in Vilnius. Ho-hum, I thought, conjuring up the sounds of Kenny G or sleepy elevator music. But then I went to the new jazz club, Soulbox, and found a completely different scene than what I thought I might be expecting. Young people (maybe Russian movie stars again!) packed the small bar. The music was a happy, danceable improvised blend of indie rock/jam band/jazz. At any time during the songs, people from the crowd would come up and sing along on choruses. At the end of each song, people merged from the crowd to take over various instruments.

borrowed from soulbox's page

2. Basketball

Okay. So neither one of us knew that Lithuanians love basketball. We had no clue, until we noticed all the basketball trinkets and t-shirts for sale. Apparently, the Lithuanian basketball team is one of the best in Europe, and has been quite successful during Olympic games as well. We were eating beetroot soup in our local cafe when the Lithuania/Moscow game was on. The crowd was rowdy but also polite, so I guess Lithuania was winning.

3. 999

So, I heard about 999 from some of the people on our bus rides. They were discussing the bars they went to and how much they had been drinking each night. I heard them mention something called "Three Nines," and how delicious it was. So, at the next outdoor cafe, I scanned the menu for nines. We asked the waitress, and she said that there are two kinds of three nines: red and green. Which is better, we asked. Green. Definitely. So we ordered the green. What arrived was not actually green at all, but a kind of murky maroon. It was delicious--like Nyquil and honey and plums. Okay, so that's an exaggeration. I couldn't taste plums. Just Nyquil. Regardless, it was delicious. For our last week in Vilnius, we probably had a couple shots of 999 a day. I think we'd had quite a lot of it on our last full day in town, too. I finally realized that a bottle of 999 would be a perfect souvenerai, so at 8 am, an hour away from our taxi ride to the airport, I dashed over to the Rimi, our local supermarket. I grabbed three pint bottles (green label, not green liquid), and rushed to the register.
"Labas," the cashier said, which means 'hi."
"Labas!" I chirped back, happy for a practical use of Lithuanian during my last few hours there. I handed her some crumpled litas. Back at the apartment, I tucked them carefully into my rolled clothes in my suitcase and hoped they wouldn't break in transit.
Now that we're back home, no one is getting the 999 for a souvenerai. We've decided to keep it for ourselves.

disclaimer: this is actually not our own 999. i had to borrow it online. we'll put up some pictures of our own personal collection of 999 soon.