lithuanian drinks

i'm taking "anna moffo" on the road -- first time

i've been in vilnius, for more than a month -- will be here, another two months

i've enjoyed my time here, and i've shared a few things with people back home -- especially about food -- one person (you know who you are -- j-a-s-o-n) encouraged me to put my observations in a blog -- so, here goes

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i've met a few drinks in lithuania

the first new drink to me was honey beer, which the man behind the bar at snekutis pub recommended to me -- this was when i was here for a week in march -- the name of the place is pronounced shne'koo'tis -- i don't like beer, so i'm always on the lookout for something sweet or fruity -- i didn't like it

more important than the beer were the beans -- when i saw the picture on the menu, i thought, tashreeb baa'gilleh, the iraqi dish of fava beans -- i had to order it -- the dish here is called pupas, which i think just means beans -- in tashreeb baa'gilleh, the beans are islands...in a sea of bread, soaked in the juice of the cooked beans -- i guess the beans and the bread are both islands -- well, the color and taste of the beans was the same -- even the taste of the herb/spice that it's topped with -- these beans, though, weren't peelable -- just ate the whole bean

when i went back to my hotel, i told rapoles (raphael) about it, and he said that they also eat it with bread soaked in the cooked juice -- unbelievable -- i'll have to find that -- at least confirm it

the next time i went back to snekutis (for the pupas), I got a cherry soda -- excellent -- refreshing -- not too sweet -- looking on-line for the drink, three months later, it looks like it might be a gira, the national low-alcohol drink made from rye bread (i think) -- more on giras,...anon

snekutis is across the street from the 13 and the sign for zemaitijos (pronounced zhé'my'tee'yos)-- its street, though, changes name, to st. nicholas, for the church that's across the street from snekutis -- pictured, on the left -- the church has a significant place in lithuanian history -- it's one of the oldest in the country (the last country in europe to become christian, by the way -- some parts of the country stayed pagan until the 19th century), and from 1901 to 1939, when russians and poles suppressed the lithuanian language, the services here were an exception -- and after antanas kmieliauskas made a sculpture in 1959 for the church's, of st. christopher carrying the baby jesus, it buoyed people's spirits -- the association of artists expelled him for it -- lithuanians seem to have a funny way of resisting,...and bouncing back -- last night, i was reading about the hill of crosses, outside siauliai, in north-central lithuania -- the communists kept tearing down the crosses -- thousands of them -- in '61, '73 and '75 -- and people kept putting crosses back up (dk eyewitness travel guide: estonia, latvia & lithuania) -- the rising of the baltic states against soviet rule from 1987 to 1990 is called 'the singing revolution' -- in my picture of the beans and cherry-drink, you can see the main entrance to st. nicholas

zemaitijos is a street of one of the two jewish ghettos -- pronounced jha'my'ti'yos

towards the left on siauliu (i think that's pronounced show(as in shower)-loo), is my hotel -- hey,...that's a shower and a loo -- here's the outer door to my room

and a look across the street from my room

more drinking,...to come