Lithuania Travelogue

Tuesday June 11th, 2024

Lithuania June 7th-8th, 2024

We arrived in Lithuania in the evening and started our adventure there towards the camping area where we had reserved a place for the car. On our way, it started raining, and to accompany it there were roadworks ahead of us, which Google provided a good way around. As we knew that the reception of the accommodation closed at 22:00, we happily headed for the detour so that we would at least arrive in time. The detour started narrow but paved, but after five kilometers it turned into a dirt road, that heavy caterpillars had driven on. Or so it seemed to us, as the campervan started bouncing, rattling, and clattering as soon as the speedometer went above 30 km per hour. We informed our accommodation of the long delay but received no reply as to whether they would wait for us or not.

We drove almost 60 km, exhausted, towards our destination, which didn’t seem to be getting any closer. Finally, after many winding and muddy stretches, we reached the asphalt, realizing that had we taken the fifty kilometers of roadwork we would have arrived more than half an hour earlier. Despite being an hour late, we decided to drive to the campsite to see if we would be lucky and have someone waiting for us. In the Baltic countries, it is forbidden to stay overnight in a campervan outside campsites. In the dark, rainy weather, we arrived at this island across a beautiful little bridge, where a cheerful young man was waiting for us, saying that it was all right, welcome, even though we were so late. We got a peaceful spot and slept like never before despite the thunder and rain. We thanked from the bottom of our hearts that we got safely to our destination.

As the morning dawned, we took it easy for once, and it was not until ten o’clock that we headed for Vilnius, which the Helpers had given us as our next destination. Everything went super smoothly including finding the parking lot, our road to the gates of the old town of Vilnius was smoothed out as if to make up for yesterday’s hard and partly dangerous journey. Vilnius is a beautiful city, at least in the old part of the city that we visited. A very medieval atmosphere flowed towards us as we entered the large pilgrims’ gate. The gate is called Ausros Vartai, meaning the Gate of Dawn. Above the arch of the gate is a magnificent old chapel and the shrine of the Virgin Mary, where we also headed for as guided. Before the great icon of the miracle-working Virgin Mary, many knelt in deep and devout prayer, trusting in the Holy Mother’s ability to create miracles. We sat next to the wall and prayed as instructed for this journey and Patrick opened a powerful portal of light above the gate to bring the power of the Sacred Heart to all people who enter through it. Next to me in the sanctuary sat a woman weeping heartfeltly and I was guided to be her energetic support. As we left, I gave her a picture of the Holy Mother with a great Light radiating from her heart. The woman thanked with her eyes and after looking at the picture for a moment, burst into tears again. I felt how we women are connected in some way if only we let our hearts open to being women and to the sorrows that we women, mothers, wives, and grandmothers carry in every village even in Europe. We are carriers of the same energy, wherever we live or reside.

Next to the Gate of Dawn was the Vilnius Orthodox Church of the Holy Spirit, which we also visited. The church truly had a wonderful and holy energy. The icons and blessings of many Saints were very strongly felt in my being and I lit a candle in front of the icon of John of Syria for our community, as I feel his blessing is also important for our development. We left a small stack of our English flyers in the hallway when we left. I also left flyers at a nearby esoteric shop, where the salesperson stood smiling at the door. She began to read the flyer and nodded at me, still smiling, as if thanking me for the text.

After the Old Town, the Neris River flowing through Vilnius both east to Belarus and west where it follows the Kaliningrad border all the way to the sea, was blessed. May this river be a river strongly flowing with the energy of peace.

The journey towards Poland took us through fertile and hilly countryside, with so many old sacred trees gracing every roadside. We noted that Lithuania felt like home and the people felt very peaceful. We also noted on the way that in Poland we have to stay in hotels, as there are hardly any camping sites and those few did not answer our inquiries. Exciting to see what Poland will bring.