Late last night Anete from Latvia joined the International Team. It is always great to welcome new Team members.

In the morning we returned to the Cathedral-Basilica and Bell Tower. There Petar from Bulgaria at last joined the Team.

He had so many problems obtaining a visa in Warsaw for Belarus but finally he caught up with us today in Vilnius. We were so overjoyed to eventually see him.

In the square of the Cathedral-Basilica and Bell Tower a priest blessed the torch and us with holy water, saying that the future of harmony and peace in the world rested with people with good hearts.

On this final note we ran out of the city in the golden sunlight and clear blue skies.

We ran through some beautiful, green and lush countryside as we made our way to Moletai, 62 km from Vilnius. We stopped to have a Team photograph at the ‘Geographical centre of Europe’ (54 54, 25 19).

On our travels - especially in places in Ukraine, Poland, Bulgaria and Belarus - we have been told that where we were was the centre of Europe. It seems everyone wishes to have this title.

People were relaxing, swimming and fishing by the numerous lakes dotted around this region.

At the boundary of Moletai a few local runners joined us. Moletai is situated on the hills between Siesartys, Luokesa, Duriai lakes, on both banks of the river Siesartis.

The town had that rural quiet, atmosphere I this was something we experienced throughout the day, even in the capital. People seem to have a well-balanced life here in Lithuania, and we also felt quite happy running in this nice sunny day.

In the centre of Moletai we were welcomed by a local three-man band playing traditional music and some children.

The district leaders greeted us with open arms and when asked to take a few steps with the torch they said they would get changed and run after we had lunch. In a restaurant we had tasty borsch soup with boiled potatoes, followed by a gigantic pizza each. We were well stuffed afterwards. The district leaders joined us and helped Romas finish his pizza. With just as much enthusiasm as they ate the pizza, they ran with us the 1 km to the edge of the town.

We ran the remaining kilometres of the day to Utena ahead of schedule, much to the annoyance of the district police - we had arrived too early at the district border for them to give us the escort they wanted for us. They simply wanted to ensure we were safe. However, it gave us a good opportunity to stop along the road and unwind. We photographed some animals and insects that came close to see what was happening.

At Utena town square we met the town representative and a high school brass band and majorettes professionally performed for us.

They were excellent musicians and dancers and we so enjoyed their enthusiasm - they really enjoyed performing for us.

And so ended an enjoyable summer’s day in Lithuania - our only full day of the World Harmony Run, as we cross the border into Latvia tomorrow.

Distance: 93km

Team Members:
Anete Klavina (Latvia), Arturas Rasimavicius (Lithuania), Jadranka Grbic (Serbia & Montenegro), Jarek Werner (Poland), Mark Collinson (England), Ondrej Vesely (Czech Republic), Pawel Szymanski (Poland), Petar Mihaylov (Bulgaria), Valentine Bebik (Ukraine)

Harmonemail:
You can send a message to the runners or read the messages.