Fairytale setting ... tranquillity at Trakai Island Castle,west of Vilnius.Credit:Jane Sweeney/Lonely Planet
It's easy to feel optimistic about a trip that begins with a round of applause as the plane touches down. As we arrive in Kaunas,Lithuania's second-largest city,our fellow passengers cheer and clap with enough enthusiasm to suggest smooth landings are a rare occurrence. But really,they're just glad to be home - back in the geographic centre of Europe. And despite our Australian passports,we feel the same in a way. We're here to research the heritage of my husband,Clive,whose grandparents were Lithuanian.
The feeling of belonging,though,lasts only a short time. The locals,many with a penchant for large,fluoro pink suitcases,are gone in a flash and we're left with just a few stragglers waiting for an airport bus,without much idea where it will take us. No more than an hour later we find the town's hub and a room in the Hotel Metropolis,built in 1899.
We explore Kaunas by foot,past dilapidated buildings,a beautiful promenade lined with trees and marigolds,statues and more statues,one man's collection of more than 2000 devils and a cafe with free Wi-Fi and biscuits from,of all places,the Byron Bay Cookie Company.
On a day trip we visit the nearby towns of Pusalotas and Moletai,the respective birthplaces of Clive's grandmother and grandfather. Our guide,Chaim Bargman,who once wrote software for Russian tanks in machine code,is one of relatively few Litvak,or Lithuanian Jews,left in the country. The Holocaust annihilated its large Jewish population,though many,including Clive's ancestors,migrated before the devastation.
Our tour with Bargman is sombre. We visit Jewish cemeteries,finding few headstones that are legible,and learn that many more were removed for use in construction during the impoverished Soviet era. We visit more than one mass grave and see an old synagogue,now a memorial for the Jews who once lived in the area.
Yellow houses dot the green countryside. Why yellow? Bargman shrugs:"In Soviet time,we have two colour:yellow and brown."He leaves it at that.
He tells us,too,about the nation's more inspiring moments:the 1989 Baltic Chain,in which 2 million joined a human chain crossing the three Baltic states of Estonia,Latvia and Lithuania to protest against Soviet rule. Within six months,Lithuania was declared an independent republic. Twenty years later,Lithuania has one of the fastest-growing economies in the European Union,though the prosperity appears to be spread unevenly,most noticeable in tourist towns such as Vilnius and Druskininkai.
From Kaunas we head south by bus to Druskininkai. Regarded as a"wellness springs resort",Druskininkai is more like a fairytale town,with lakes surrounded by cycling paths and tall pines. The town's natural mineral springs and abundance of spas are the drawcards.