The Lithuanian Hill of Crosses is a thing

In Lithuania there is a place called the Hill of Crosses.It is where you go and plant a cross in any style you like. I chose none.

This started in the 1800s, and continued partly (mainly?) as a peaceful protest against ongoing unwelcome regimes.

You have to plant your cross carefully so that it doesn't fall down. I assume some people use cement but I only saw a few people and a couple of monks, who are also people, but no cement.

You get to pick your cross style, such as fancy metal, airplane, orthodox cross with the circle to represent the sunshine.Tree Jesus, crosses made with old parts, boring small crosses. There are an estimated 500,000 crosses, and I saw all of them!

Some of the crosses have some great carving action.

But it can get quite messy.

I prefer the totem pole style cross, personally, and I think cross planters should embrace more colours.

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Cabbage and Old Believers

The prettiest church I saw in Riga belonged to the Old Believers. These are the oldest of old school Russians, who are not keen to move on beyond the 1600s.

The inside of the church was fun and colourful.

Russian biblical family portraits get crowded and bumpy because of all the halos.

They like their icon pictures. They like wearing robes and long beards. Speaking of robes, I went to see the old city walls and found this guy, who would be terrifying at night.

The food in Latvia was delicious but not the most photogenic.

Lots of smoked fish and delicious cabbage dishes. You don't wanna see pictures of cabbage.

Smoked fish remoulade. Ugly yums.

Paired with unusual liquor such as this totally cherry bar, which is actually Ukrainian.

For dessert there is lots of halwa in fun flavours

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Riga and the Mushroom of the Year

In March, I went to Riga, Latvia. It looks like this. It's fairy tale grunge chic.

Above are the three brothers: three buildings which flaunt their Gothic, Baroque and Dutch Mannerism architectures. The architecture below is just called tiny.

Even the fences are cool.

This is the best picture I got of the Stalin's birthday cake building, which is now called the Academy of Science. It's 108 meters tall and towers over the otherwise less impressive area.

The other main Soviet artifact is the Latvian Riflemen Monument, which is a tribute to the Riflemen from WW1, especially Lenin's favourites.

The beauteous marvel in Riga is the House of Blackheads, on the right. Notably, the location of the first Christmas tree (awkwardly outside and to the left).

Explained below, this was a merchants' club, and they chose an African head as their, uh, decorative motif.

They advise to take this into historical context and not find it troubling, but I failed.

Excellent and also troubling is the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia.

It's the best museum on horror and death I've ever visited, and these are surprisingly numerous! I learnt about mass deportations, and I later learnt that this lead to multilingual/split families upon repatriation. 

I'm making Riga sound gloomy, which it wasn't at all. To regain your optimism and cheer, please note that the Latvian Mycological Society named the cute little parrot toadstool as the Mushroom of the Year! They love their mushrooms. Singapore (3x bigger) doesn't even have a mycological society.

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Dragons

We saw the Komodo dragons! They have terrible skin: needs exfoliation, which you can see on this lovely lady below.

Here is a better perspective of how close we were.

Luckily, they mostly chill during the day, rather than maim you with these claws. 

And baby kimodos are adorable little creatures that you want to cuddle! But cuteness does NOT stop them from being eaten by their older relatives. They have to use agility and tree climbing for that.

The Komodo lands and sea are also very beautiful.

We climbed to the peak of Padar island to get a picture where we tried to not look sweaty.

After climbing to the peak, we earned a rehydrating pina colada.

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Nostril Snakes

In Sri Lanka, I got really interested in nostril snakes. They are common in Sri Lankan masks, which are used for fun, skits, and to ward off demons and bring good fortune. Apparently the snakes are for protection and power, so don't be snake judgy.

I think this one is Naga rakshna, which is for power, fertility and protection, which I wouldn't always group together.  (In real life, there can be nostril worms, but not snakes)

I love the snakeliness very much. I wanted to buy one to ward off the evil spirits who keep breaking our air conditioner, but Barry made ridiculous protestations like they were "ugly" and "creepy", including the smaller ones.

Anyway, the glorious masterpiece below is the Sanni rakshna which embodies all of the 18 diseases. The fun friends include being possessed by demons, fire fever, snakebite and leprosy. They allow you to confront the disease and scare it away, from how I understood it. Seems worth a try alongside the recommendations of a medical professional.

You can see that going down here, I guess, although the masks are kinda missing. I should have asked more questions.

The less fancy masks are used for storytelling and performances.

Which still seem like they could be scary as fark for children.

Sweet dreams!

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