Lithuania 2025

The Užupis Constitution terms:

1. Everyone has the right to live by the River Vilnele, and the River Vilnele has the right to flow by everyone.
2. Everyone has the right to hot water, heating in winter and a tiled roof.
3. Everyone has the right to die, but this is not an obligation.
4. Everyone has the right to make mistakes.
5. Everyone has the right to be unique.
6. Everyone has the right to love.
7. Everyone has the right not to be loved, but not necessarily.
8. Everyone has the right to be undistinguished and unknown.
9. Everyone has the right to idle.
10. Everyone has the right to love and take care of the cat.
11. Everyone has the right to look after the dog until one of them dies.
12. A dog has the right to be a dog.
13. A cat is not obliged to love its owner, but must help in time of nee.
14. Sometimes everyone has the right to be unaware of their duties.
15. Everyone has the right to be in doubt, but this is not an obligation.
16. Everyone has the right to be happy.
17. Everyone has the right to be unhappy.
18. Everyone has the right to be silent.
19. Everyone has the right to have faith.
20. No one has the right to violence.
21. Everyone has the right to appreciate their unimportance.
22. No one has the right to have a design on eternity.
23. Everyone has the right to understand.
24. Everyone has the right to understand nothing.
25. Everyone has the right to be of any nationality.
26. Everyone has the right to celebrate or not celebrate their birthday.
27. Everyone shall remember their name.
28. Everyone may share what they possess.
29. No one can share what they do not possess.
30. Everyone has the right to have brothers, sisters and parents.
31. Everyone may be independent.
32. Everyone is responsible for their freedom.
33. Everyone has the right to cry.
34. Everyone has the right to be misunderstood.
35. No one has the right to make another person guilty.
36. Everyone has the right to be individual.
37. Everyone has the right to have no rights.
38. Everyone has the right to not to be afraid.
(39. Do not defeat.
(40. Do not fight back.
(41. Do not surrender.

Some argue that the last three are mottos, not rights.

It was written in July 1998 by Thomas Chepaitis (Minister of Foreign Affairs of  Uzhupis) and Romas Lileikis (President of Uzhupis)

It was just a dream some of us had.

Uzupis is a neighborhood and self-proclaimed independent republic within Vilnius, Lithuania. When Lithuania gained independence from the Soviet Union, freedom of thought and expression were celebrated throughout the Baltics. In Vilnius, part of its manifestation was the emergence of, shall we say, a bohemian area of the city across the Vilian River from Old Town. In the 90s, artists and free thinkers congregated there. Many remain, though the area ha become gentrified now. The rents are too high for most artist-types. The studios have mostly become chic galleries, and the coffee shops have mostly become tourist hangouts. Still, some of the flavor remains, and it’s a nice walk along the river.

We spent the last week of our Baltic’s trip in Lithuania. We broke up the bus ride from Riga, Latvia to Vilnius with a stopover in Siauliai, where there is a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage site called the Hill of Crosses. The Hill of Crosses is important to Lithuanians as a place of hope, peace and national identity through hundreds of years of occupation off and on from medieval times until the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Thousands of crosses are erected there.

In Vilnius, we took it easy again, spending a lot of time in Old Town, seeing the old buildings, churches and museums, like we did in Riga and Tallinn. All that is great for rubbernecking. If you want to learn about all the history, google it. Suffice it to say, that as small as the area of the Baltics is, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are quite different. For its part, Lithuania is more like Poland than the other two countries, as it was part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from the 16th century till it was taken over by czarist Russia at the end of the 18th century. Before that, it was its own kingdom for a hundred years or so. The food is very like I remember from visiting Poland in 1989, though a lot better now that it’s in the European Union. Sausages, borscht, beet soup, sauerkraut, vinegary coleslaw, cabbage rolls, meat/potato/veggy pies, every kind of potato dishes. The latkes and potato dumplings are great.

Speaking of Latkes, there were 30,000 Jews in Vilnius before the Nazi occupation, during which 95% of them died or were killed.

I lifted that photo description from Google. I definitely do not have a Lithuanian keyboard. There is a museum in Vilnius, The indoor Museum of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania  encloses ruins like this of the 15th century palace of the rulers of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania before the time of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth. It’s pretty cool.

Here come the church photos. There are 28 churches just in Old Town.

As you probably know, many ethnic Russians stayed in the former republics after the Soviets withdrew.

There is a legend locals like to tell. They say Napoleon, on his way to Moscow, loved this church so much that he wanted to tear it down and rebuild it in Paris. In reality, Napoleon had no use for religion or churches, and used it as a stable. The communists used many of the churches as warehouses, auto shops and the like.

Okay, that’s it for the photos.

We’re home now. I don’t know where or when our next trip will be. We’re thinking of getting out of Korea next summer, too. I’m fed up with the heat here, and we’ve only been back three days! Or, we’ll just go when we get the itch. Could be any time. As we always say to each other, we’re not that busy.

Until then, be well, all of you.