Lithuania to me: "Oh, you thought it was Spring?!"
Yeah, about that.
Not quite.
I've been swimming in a sea of grays and greens, grays and greens, grays and greens.
But the important color here is green.
Now that you know where I'm at mentally, welcome back to my blog, Into the Forests I Go!
I had an interesting experience a couple of weeks ago I'd love to share with y'all. The Scientist and I went to Harmony Park Countryside Villas out past Birštonas just for shits and giggles. Because, why not?
Well, I didn't know it at the time of booking, but I think it's possible we misstepped our way into a cult space. I'm not sure - let me run this one by you.
We get to the grounds and it's beautiful - well-manicured, almost too nice.
After a surprisingly pleasant conversation with the front desk staff (and confirmation of a spa!), we bumbled around for our cottage. All wood, cozy - Audrey got to work making a spot right away. But we stumbled upon a large book on a ledge that was metaphysical in nature - and all in Lithuanian. We started to use Google Translate to get the gist of all its discussions of harmony and spirit - maybe our first mistake - and we both looked at each other confused. Where were we?
Nothing on Booking.com pointed to signs of a metaphysical resort, cottage, and retreat space - huh. Curious.
Near our cottage, we noticed a church-like hall with the number 888 where an image of Jesus might be - curious.
In the spa area, we swam in a long, refreshing pool which also, interestingly, had the numbers 888 at one end of the run - curious.
But people walked around the spa area like I was in Spirited Away, minding their own business in hot tubs, saunas, steam rooms. I almost felt like a ghost trying to decode ancient numerology.
Someone clued my husband in to the fact that the book we read - Globali jausmo proto dvasia - was written by one of the founders of Senukai, a prominent business here that's similar to Home Depot. His name? Augustinas Rakauskas, and he's good people as far as The Scientist is concerned for Senukai's assortment of drill bits alone. And - he founded this place we stayed.
Is this just the harmless passion project of a quirky person interested in elevating societal consciousness? Is this someone's personal spirituality? Nothing about it was overt - well, except all the signs pointing to metaphysics. I had a good time, but left with more questions than answers.
If you're in Lithuania, have you heard of this place? Have you been here? Where did I actually go? What's with everything being hidden in plain sight? Is it connected at all to the MerkinÄ— Pyramid?
Curious minds want to know.
That's it for today - I'll see you all soon with more stories and musings. Until next time, my friends, and be kind to one another. Viso!