Had a 10 am appt. with a woman dentist in her
lovely deco office building just around the corner from my apartment.
Good news – no cavities (it was just plaque build-up. Cost = $52 - which
is less than my co-pay used to be).
At the other end
of “Freedom Alley” (and only two blocks from the dentist) is the “Man”
museum. It’s mostly called that because of its hard-to-pronounce
Lithuanian name and on account of the naked man statue right out front
(see my tasteful photo below). It rivals almost any fine arts museum
I’ve ever been to, and some of its collections remind me of the Legion
of Honor in SF.
The first floor had an amazing glass
exhibition to rival Chihuly on a smaller scale. (No photos – many of the
museums don’t allow them.) His name is Gianmaria Potenza and his glass
art was very beautiful – looks like the kinds of things you’d see in the
lobbies of office buildings. The other gallery on the first floor had
deco and art nouveau furniture to drool over and a huge ceramic
collection including some lovely swan cups. I ascended 60 steps to the 3rd
floor to see another temporary exhibition of art deco clothes and
jewelry. Again, I was overwhelmed by period amber and jet pieces and the
velvet clothes.
On the second floor, in the 19th
century Hall, the carpets were worn and patched, the walls were water
stained in places, but their fabulous art in gleaming gilded frames
outshone its shabby surroundings. On the way back, I spent more than
$200 on amber “donuts” for my friends at the amber souvenir shop in the
same building as my apartment. I also bought myself an amber chain for
my glasses! Sorry, gang, they only had one for sale. All this shopping
made me hungry; so after I dropped off my acquisitions at my apartment
and freshened up, I went to dinner at the “Green Wheel” restaurant. The
staff is supposed to be in traditional dress, but it was over 85 degrees
and too hot to wear those outfits.
Everyone was eating outside, and I decided a cold Lithuanian beer would
cool me off. It also seems to help my arthritis! The last time I’d been
to this restaurant was on my first trip to Lithuania in ’97 with Harry
McBride. I ordered potatoes stuffed with mushrooms. (It came with bacon,
cheese, and dill sauce; none of which is on my diet, but that didn’t
stop me from enjoying every last delicious bite.) Saw a lovely sunset on
the way back to my lodgings.
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