Schemeit-land

July 7


Here is a brief history about Schemeit-land. It is found in Western Lithuania. In Lithuanian it is known as Zemaitija, in English as Samogitia and in German as Schemaiten. The people of Zemaitija make up one of the two main tribes of Lithuania. It seems to me that they are a bit like the Catalans of Spain. At some point in history, a group of them moved down toward the area of East Prussia and become known as those from Schemaiten…hence later more Germanisized as the Schemeits. And so here I am., sitting in a Schemaiten Tavern (Zemaiciu Smukle) in Vilnius. I had zeppelins for dinner; glupschige potato dumplings filled with meat and doused in crème fraiche and dill sauce; naturally good for my ever expanding figure. And I’m on my second beer. They’re playing cover versions of “Brown Girl in the Rain” and “Stand by Me” in Lithuanian. They’re pretty funny. Though I don’t imagine the music is traditionally Schemaiten but that’s ok. There’s a nice rustic atmosphere quand-même.


I’m not actually in Zemaitija yet. I landed in Vilnius late last night. And today I spent the day wandering around beautiful Vilnius. The old town in particular has been very beautifully renovated. All of the baroque buildings and churches shine. It seems to be a quiet city. Not a whole lot of traffic, today many shops and banks and post offices were closed. I wondered if maybe it is a holiday today. (It’s Monday.) Maybe I can still find out. It’s different being in a place where I don’t understand the language and communication is a little more difficult. But so far I haven’t had any problems. I’m staying in a cool, dumpy little place, not far from this tavern. It used to be a Franciscan Abbey, there’s a café and 4 rooms. I think I’m the only person staying there. It hasn’t had its renovation turn yet and it has that lovely eastern communist era feel to it in the room.
I went in to one of the beautiful churches, partly because it was beautiful and partly because it started to rain. There was a service going on so I sat in on the tail end of it. There were about 40 women there and one man, a mixture of young and old, but the church was small so it looked well attended. And their singing was sooo beautiful. They sang a song at the end and the women’s voices were so clear and lovely and they sang in harmony. A harmony like you would hear in Russian orthodox music. I heard the man’s voice occasionally very quiet and low but I think he must have mostly been staying out of it since the women’s voices were so beautiful. It was a nice spiritual moment in the day.

I’m enjoying it here, my first day in Lithuania. From what I can tell it seems cultured yet simple. Though people seem to be clearly better off than they probably would have been in the Soviet era there still seems to be a simplicity about life. For now anyway. And the old people are wonderfully sweet looking babuschkas with their hair done up in buns and kerchiefs and their wrinkles showing a life of hardship but maybe goodness too. They all somehow remind me of my grandmother.

Maybe this is the place where I will want to stay. But then I haven’t made it to Zemaitija yet.