Leaving Lithuania

Lithuania takes independence and freedom seriously, to say the least. In 1993 a group of artists decided to test the newly independent government by proposing a statue of Frank Zappa, who had just died (and had no connection to the country). They were pleasantly surprised when it was approved, and it was sculpted by a sculptor known for his statues of Lenin.

 Similar in the spirit of anarchic freedom is the self-proclaimed Republic of Uzupis, a section of Vilnius which has its own constitution.

Some of the articles include:
Everyone has the right to be unique.
Everyone has the right to be happy.
Everyone has the right to be unhappy.
Everyone has the right to love and take care of the cat.
Everyone has the right to look after the dog until one of them dies.
A dog has the right to be a dog.
A cat is not obliged to love its owner, but must help out in time of need.
Everyone has the right to have no rights.
And so on.

But the strangest sight of all is the "Hill of Crosses" outside the city on the way north to Latvia.

Barely rising out of the flat terrain of green winter rye  fields and birch and fir forests, this small mound is covered with innumerable crosses. There are several origin stories, one in which a farmer fell asleep and dreamt that an angel told him to place a cross there; when he returned home his crippled daughter had been miraculously healed. History actually suggests that crosses first appeared after a failed revolt in 1831, and ever since it has been a symbol of resistance as well as a site to wish for miracles. The Soviets bulldozed the site as part of their secularization policy, and even built a dam to create a lake over it, but resisters kept returning to rebuild the mound and replace the crosses. Pope John Paul II held a mass here in 1993, after independence was finally restored. Lithuanians continue to make the pilgrimage and add new crosses.