Tuši's blog: 15451

Saturday, September 04, 2021

15451

Lithuania / Poland / Czech Republic: Road Trip - Lithuania, Day 10: Marijampolė, mini ZOO and Branicki Palace

On the 23 August 1989, around 2 million citizens from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia joined hands in a human chain that stretched 600 kilometres across the 3 Baltic countries. Only a few months after these events, which formed part of the so-called Singing Revolution, Lithuania became the first country to declare independence from the Soviet Union.

It was our last day in Lithuania and in the morning Nada and me explored the Marijampolė. Soon we packed everything in our van "Dizlca" and we hit the road, destination Poland. Our first stop was a local mini ZOO and then we continued to Branicki Palace in Białystok. After a great lunch we were back on the road. The midnight was here and we were still driving.

Previous day of our road trip to Lithuania: Day 9, Day 8, Day 7, Day 6, Day 5, Day 4, Day 3, Day 2, Day 1.

Our previous road trips: Romania 2017, Ukraine 2018, Bulgaria 2019.

Church in the city - Marijampolės Šv. Vincento Pauliečio bažnyčia.

Vytautas the Great Park.

City's nickname is Miami of Lithuania.

Art of reflections on Šešupė river called Tekantis gyvenimas - The Floating World.

Finishing with the Marijampolė city walk and after a while we said goodbye to Lithuania. We had a great time here.

Tadej felt like at home.

The farm in Mikołajówka has been breeding animals for 15 years.

At the farm, there is also a Protected Animal Rehabilitation Center, where animals can find shelter or young mammals that have been hit by a car, injured by dogs or are clearly weakened or exposed to other danger.

Birds feel comfortable here and they don't fly away.

After a while we left the zoo and we parked our van in Białystok. Rok paid for the parking ticket for 2 days.

Branicki Palace - Pałac Branickich was developed on the site of an earlier building in the first half of the 18th century by Jan Klemens Branicki, a wealthy Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth hetman, into a residence suitable for a man whose ambition was to become king of Poland.

The palace complex with gardens, pavilions, sculptures, outbuildings and other structures and the city with churches, city hall and monastery, all built almost at the same time according to French models was the reason why the city was known in the 18th century as Versailles de la Pologne (Versailles of Poland) and subsequently Versailles de la Podlachie (Versailles of Podlasie).