A couple of days ago, a friend and I went on a treasure hunt. The local tourist department has developed a map of a number statues located in my neighborhood. We decided to find these wonderful bits of a art, some whimsical and some historical. We started off to the harbor to see the first statue. In order to get there we need to cross a bridge that spans a small canal. The bridge is a swing bridge with a man-powered mechanism to return it to the spanning position.
The first statue we came across was rather daunting, a ghost commemorating a sighting by a castle guard across the canal in 1595. I heard a story that the young son of the architect who created t he sculpture is afraid to go near it.
At the edge of the harbor we found the next pice of art, a young boy with his dog waving to those on the water. according to the information on the map his mission is to meet and greet all ships entering the port and to make sure that those leaving have a friendly farewell.
We went back to the town to find the next sculpture. The map indicated that it was on a particular corner, but we could not see it. We then happened to look down the street and see it on the side of a building. The dragon represents a legend of the founding of Klaipeda. Two brothers were searching for a place to build a city. One of them disappeared. When the other went to look for him, he found only bloody foot prints belonging to a dragon. The sculpture includes the foot prints and serves a practical purpose. When it rains, the dragon becomes a downspout, with water rushing from its mouth.
The next sculpture was not hard to find. It is a large piece of art and it is right across the street from my apartment. This tower was erected in 1990. The bas relief on the four sides reflect the multiple generations living in the city. notice also the dragon on the upper corner.
Then the hunt was on again. The next sighting was a small brass mouse on the corner of a small garden. The story is that if you whisper a wish into the ear of the mouse, it will come true. I was too busy taking photos to even read this information at the time, so I am not sure if it is true.
And where there is a mouse, there must be a cat. This one was created by a Russian and has a rather stern face. As with the mouse, the cat will give you good luck. To take advantage of this you only need to rub its tail. It was shiny enough to think that many people had tried to have their wishes come true.
From there we headed across a main thoroughfare to the banks of the river. On the corner of one of the buildings was a basket of coins falling onto the ground. This commemorates the first cash register in the city in 1915.
To find the next sculpture, we needed to lift our eyes. The chimney sweep is quite a sight against the sky.
The last sculpture on our list is a series of mooring bollards. We asked a couple of police men where we might find them. They were not helpful, though I think the language barrier was a problem. In the end, they were right in front of us, though difficult to see because the were rather nondescript. Three mooring bollards commemorate the sea going history of Klaipeda, including crossing the Baltic Sea in a row boat, sailing the Atlantic, and sailing the world.
The hunt was complete and we went to a local Swiss restaurant where the proprietor encouraged me to try Swiss beer rather than my regular hard cider. I wish I had taken the cider. But it was a very pleasant afternoon.
