Travelsmartplanet

An international idea celebrated in 50 countries, Restaurant Day is a food carnival created by food-loving people setting up one-day restaurants. The idea of the day is to have fun, share new food experiences and meet others in our community. People offer their family cuisine, favorite recipes, desserts or whatever in their backyard or a park.  Prices are very inexpensive.

Check the maps to see if there is one in your city.

Date: Sunday, August 17
http://www.restaurantday.org/

Tags: carnival, city, countries, cuisine, dessert, family, food, map, people, recipe, Restaurant

Even way back when, when cannons were the preferred weapon of destruction, there came a time when they were no longer useful to fire. So in Riga, Latvia, the Baltic States, Finland, you will find cannons that were stood up on their edge to protect corners of buildings. When horse drawn carriages made their way down narrow streets, they often bumped into the corners of buildings and damaged them. This way the cannons took the hit and the buildings were saved.

80% of Lithuania is Catholic and there are 30 active churches in Vilnius alone. The Church of St. Peter and St. Paul in Vilnius was built by Jesuits in the 17th century in a white Baroque style. There are 2040 faces carved into the walls. It gets whitewashed every 5 years. Their chandelier was built in Holland and on its way when the boat sank. The chandelier you see there today is in the shape of a ship to remember that incident.

It has never been destroyed or closed – even thru the Communist times.

Walking into the Old Town through the Gates of Dawn, I was behind a teen boy who turned and crossed himself as he went through. We learned that he was looking at the Black Madonna