Page 8 - Revelation

Svetlana de Rohan-Levashova. Revelation

sunny summer days, not yet blurred with sorrows and many other things, light and
cloudless like our far away childhood itself, are summoned to mind.

I was born in Lithuania, in a small and strikingly green town called Alitus, far
from the stormy life of famous people and "great powers". It had then only about 35
000 inhabitants who mostly lived in their own private houses surrounded by orchards
and flower-gardens. An ancient forest which stretched for kilometres embraced our
princely small town giving the impression of an enormous green bowl in which it
placidly and peacefully snuggled, living its tranquil life.
It was built in 1400 by a Lithuanian prince, Alitis, on the bank of the wide
beautiful river Nemunas. More precisely, a castle was built first, and the tiny town
around it appeared later. The river looped around the town, as if creating some kind
of natural protection, in the middle of which the blue mirrors of three small forest
lakes glittered.

Alitus Islands on the river Nemunas

One of the three lakes in the city Neman, where we went for a swim
Regrettably, today nothing is left of the ancient castle; only its ruins survived to
see the present day as it gradually turned into an enormous hill the top of which grants
an amazing view of the river. The ruins were the most favourite and enigmatic place of
our childhood games. It was a place of spirits and ghosts which, for us, still seemed to
live in these old tumbledown underground tunnels and looked for "victims" to drag into
their mysterious underground world. Only the bravest boys dared to go into them deep
and far enough to return afterwards and scare their less bold mates with frightful stories.

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