Today brought a bus trip to Kaunos, Lithuania's second largest city and former capital. It was much more of a crumbling, post-Soviet sprawl than Vilnius. The bus brought us to two different historical places, one very tragic (a monument and statue where at least 80,000 Lithuanian Jews were shot, buried), and one with a bit more hope (the Sugihara House--a museum dedicated to a Japanese ambassador to Lithuania who helped 6,000 Jews get out of Lithuania during the war).

The countryside in Lithuania is flat (although Vilnius is hilly), and it looks a lot like the big sky and forests of Minnesota lake country (although Lithuania might be a little bit more interesting...sorry, Minnesota).

It seems like we should do some investigating and find the specific place where our relatives may have come from, but to do so, we would have to take a bus to Poland and get a day visa to Belarus (!!!!) Our new Lithuanian friend Carolina said that we would be disappointed; the town is probably gone, and all that's left is a dense forest populated by bears and mushrooms. She told us to check Google maps before getting the day visa, and we would see the bears and mushrooms and not want to go.

Tonight we ate at Nerringa, a posh restaurant that was a big deal during the Soviet era. We ate outside with other members of our group, which was mostly fun. The restaurants and cafes here are swarming with lazy yellow jackets. It's impossible to eat without bees (wasps, rather) lurking around--but at least they're sort of peaceful.  No stings. And, they go away when you wave at them. At night, when it gets chilly, everyone wraps up in blankets at the cafes. Even these guys: