So Your Character is From Lithuania …

I’ve been so fascinated with these posts lately about the Baltic region and I’m so happy to have Indre on the blog to share about her beautiful country!

So Your Character is … series is where I interview lovely volunteers from around the world to give you a firsthand account of being a citizen of their respective country or having a disability. I’m hoping to encourage international diversity, break stereotypes, and give writers a crash course on how to write a character from these different places on our planet. If you haven’t checked out last time’s So Your Character is from Slovenia … be sure to hop on over there and give it a read!

Disclaimer: The content below may be culturally or politically shocking to some. Each of these posts is as uncensored as possible to preserve the authenticity of the cultures of each of the interviewees.

(None of the Images are Mine)

My name is Indrė Lionikaitė, I grew up in the city of Kaunas, in Lithuania. Though now I live in the capital – Vilnius with my fiancé, my dog, my cat, my turtle, and my chinchilla (Yes, I love animals to the brink of insanity!). It won’t be a surprise that I work as a veterinarian in a pet shop but my true passion is writing fantasy novels. My biggest dream is to publish them someday and share the adventures I created with others. There’s just something special about conveying emotions through the written word.

What do you feel is unique to your country? Landmarks? Celebrations?

One of the unique things about our country has to be our language. It is the most archaic Indo-European language spoken today. It is known to be difficult for foreigners, though I can’t lie, I had a hard time learning the correct grammar in school too.

An interesting landmark would have to be the Hill of Crosses, near the city of Šiauliai. It does look haunting but it has something magical about its aura. Other attention-worthy sights would be the castles. The most remarkable one is in Trakai. It’s located on a small island between mesmerizing lakes. We also have the monument of the Center of Europe since Lithuania has the geographical center of the continent.

Like all the other countries we celebrate our Independence Day though we honor it twice a year due to our tumultuous history – February 16th and March 11th. Another more unique celebration would be Užgavėnės celebrated in February. It’s similar to Halloween, children dress up in scary outfits, and ask for treats that can be candies or a more traditional choice would be pancakes. This day marks the ending of winter, and the costumes serve the purpose of scaring winter away.

Tell me about your country’s environment. What are some of your favorite places?

The weather in Lithuania can be hectic, especially during spring. You can wake up to a beautiful sunny morning, then in the afternoon, you might find snow in your backyard while in the evening it’s drenching in rain. The winters do get cold here, sometimes even lower than -20oC. The record was -42.9 oC (1956). During summers it’s pretty warm, between 20 oC and 30 oC, then people usually go to our resort city Palanga which is near the Baltic sea.

It is one of my favorite places in Lithuania – the beaches are beautiful and the sand dunes of Nida are astonishing. Also, Lithuania has a heap of gorgeous lakes; camping in the forests by them is one of my family’s yearly traditions. Though my most beloved place is near my hometown – The Valley of Jiesa river. It opens up an amazing view from slopes, and the beauty of nature can take your breath away. I always felt as if I crossed into a different realm out there, and it gave a lot of inspiration for one of my novels.

Tell me about your country’s food. What are some of your favorite dishes?

The main dish in Lithuanian culture is called “cepelinai”. They are made from grated potatoes and stuffed meat usually served with sour cream. The dish is very filling and delicious, well at least for us.
The next one is my personal favorite, it’s called “šaltibarščiai”. It’s a cold soup, made from beets and kefir, which grants it this amazing pink color – the perfect meal on a hot summer day!

One of the more unique drinks in Lithuania is the mead. It’s an alcoholic beverage created by fermenting honey and water, sometimes with fruits and spices. It has this dry, sweet taste that can take all of your problems away.

Tell me about any different speech patterns in your country. Slang? Idioms? Words for things such as “biscuits” instead of “cookies”?

The Lithuanian language has different dialects, some of them may sound funny to us but the non-Lithuanian speakers might not understand why.

I think, when I talk about my language with my foreign friends, the most confusing part for them is that we pronounce some letters differently. We also have letters that for example are not in the English alphabet like “č”, “ė”, “š”, “ū”, “ž” which also adds to the confusion, especially when they try to pronounce names. So far, the most difficult to pronounce proved to be the name of one of my oldest friends – “Žydrūnė”.

We do have a lot of funny idioms, that most of my English-speaking readers find baffling once they spot them in my stories. Some of the funny ones are – “stop hanging pasta on my ears” which means stop lying. Then there’s “Stop showing your goats” – stop being angry. My favorite would be – “she’s not wrapping words into cotton” – she’s being straightforward.

Describe briefly a regular day in your country.

It seems like a very broad question since like everywhere each Lithuanian lives their personal life so I’ll just talk about my day. I work twelve hours a day, so on my workdays, I feel like I live at the mall where the pet shop is. There’s nothing glamorous or romantic about being a vet, I usually try to help as much as I can. I’m happy that I do only simple procedures, so the work isn’t as dirty as it would be in a real Vet Clinic. On my free days, I usually write as much as I can, though it’s always fun to take a break and go out for a walk either at Vingis park, either at the beautiful old town of Vilnius city.

How does your country compare to others, especially the States since my audience is primarily American? Environmentally? Politically? Culturally?

I really love that a couple of years ago our country initiated rules for the recycling of plastic, glass bottles, and metal cans. When you purchase a beverage in our country you have to pay extra 10 cents for it but you can get it back by delivering the leftover packaging to the recycling posts that were put up by every mall. It increased our recycling and lowered littering greatly! I never heard about this in other countries so let me know if this initiative is anywhere else.

Briefly describe three of your country’s historical events that you feel are important.

Every Lithuanian knows the date July 15th, 1410 – it was the battle of Grunwald. At the time Lithuania wasn’t the tiny country it is now, it went down to the Black sea, and this was one of the largest medieval battles in Europe. It is very important to the history of our country since it became the symbol of the struggle against foreign invaders.

The second one is called the January events, or to us, it’s just January 13th. In 1991 the Soviet military units entered our country. While they came in with tanks and soldiers, Lithuanian citizens surrounded the main strategic buildings with no weapons. Joining their hands they tried to protect our freedom and country. From then, January 13th is the day of Freedom Defenders to honor those who lost their lives to protect our independence.

From 1865 to 1904 the Lithuanian language was banned by the Russian empire so we had these amazing people called The Book Smugglers. The Russian empire attempted to Russify Lithuanians – to alienate the country from its historic roots by eliminating our language. The Book Smugglers secretly brought in Lithuanian printed text into the country. They faced dire consequences for these actions if they were caught but in the end, they helped to save the language that I speak to this day.

What are some stereotypes about your country that irk you? What media portrays your country badly be it a movie, a book, or a TV show?

One of the most frustrating things is that people assume that Lithuania is a part of Russia or that we speak Russian. It really irks me, mostly due to the facts of our history that I mentioned before. Lots of people fought bravely for us to be an independent country and to be our own people who have their language, so it would be nice for people to recognize us for who we are.

It’s also a common phrase I keep hearing that Lithuanians are rude and unfriendly. There’s even an ongoing joke – if you see someone smiling in Lithuania you know it’s a tourist. While there might be some rude people, as I think there are everywhere, trust me Lithuanians are pleasant, welcoming people. All of my friends are amazing, and understanding. So, if you meet someone on a bad day, don’t be quick to judge.

What media portrays your country well be it a movie, a book, or a TV show?

There aren’t many notable movies or TV shows that include my country, though fun fact, Lithuania was mentioned in the new Marvel show “The Falcon and The Winter Soldier”, yet the scene wasn’t even filmed here.

I would say most of the movies made about my country are grim and represent the old hard times. For example “Forest of The Gods” was based on a memoir of the writer Balys Sruoga, depicting his time in a concentration camp during World War II. It’s considered to be one of the greatest Lithuanian novels depicting our history.

Another great work is the book by Antanas Škėma “White Shroud”. It’s about the author’s life as an immigrant in New York in the 1950s. The author suffered from schizophrenia and he represented the struggles of the illness in his novel. As most teenagers are forced to read the classics at school, we were forced to read this one. Though I think I was too young to understand what the book had to say at that time. In my twenties, I went to see the play based on the novel and once I grasped its true meaning it was soul-shaking.

My favorite Lithuanian movie is “Letters to Sofija”. It’s about the most amazing artist of Lithuania – Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis. He was a painter, a composer, and a writer. His paintings are hauntingly beautiful and the music he created is wondrous. The movie is about his short life, and it shows a glimpse of Lithuanian life in the early twentieth century.

Who are your top three favorite fictional characters native to your country in books, movies, or shows?

That’s a tough question!

Of course, I would have to pick Antanas Garšva from the book “White Shroud” that I mentioned in the previous question.

I really want to talk about this fantasy book of a Lithuanian author that I think didn’t get enough recognition in our country. It’s a novel “Besielė“(Soulless) by Aistė Vilkaitė. The main character is Leila – a fearless assassin who only feels half of her emotions, as she has to retrieve the half of her soul that was taken for her. That book read itself!

Though this one is definitely not my favorite character my fiancé begged me to mention Hanibal Lecter since he’s the most famous Lithuanian fictional character.

Are you interested in participating in this project? Check out the tips archive to see which countries have been filled and if you’re from a different country, shoot me an email at howellvictoriagrace(a)gmail(dot)com. I’m especially looking for Cuba, Senegal, Belarus, Zimbabwe, and Laos.

Do you have any characters from Lithuania? Did this inspire you to write a Lithuanian character or set a book in Lithuania? Are you from this or been to this country and you have further input? Feel free to share! Do you have any questions for Indre? Be sure to thank her!