Warm memories about winter Vilnius

Let me introduce you another page of my family’s memories about trips to the Baltic States.  Previously I’ve published the post about my father’s trip to Tallinn in the early 1980s (the Soviet era). Today’s story will be devoted to his earlier business trip – to winter Vilnius (Lithuania) in 1965.

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The purpose of that trip was to get an oscilloscope for recording single processes. The laboratory of the Space Research Institute (modern name – Central Research Institute of Machine Building, location – Korolyov, Moscow Oblast) needed this special measuring device, and at that time they were produced by the only Vilnius enterprise.

At that time hotels were reserved only for high-ranking officials, and for the rest there was only hope for luck. With great difficulty, my father managed to rent a bed in the hostel of the local sports community “Dinamo”. The room turned out to be quite clean and cozy – exactly what was required.

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As a result, my father couldn’t get the oscilloscope, but he managed to persuade the staff of the distribution department to issue several other valuable radio measuring devices, from which the laboratory employees were delighted.

What did my father remember most about Vilnius? The city seemed to him a calm and quiet place with a large number of squares and trees.

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Also the winter views of the Neris River seemed very picturesque. By the way, the name “Neris” is of Baltic origin and has some variants of translation: “to dive, swim downstream” or “to net, crochet”.

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Architectural impressions: many churches belonging to different faiths. And the Cathedral of St. Stanislaus and St. Vladislav + the Church of St. Anna stood out more brightly than the others. The first one looked a bit like the Bolshoi Theatre (Moscow, Russia), the second one – surprised with the “airiness” of its outlines.

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P.S. All my friends and relatives remember their trips to Vilnius with delight and dream of coming here again. And I also wish to visit this amazing city at any time of the year!