First stop: Vilnius

I've been back in Seoul for two weeks now, so I guess it's about time I post something about my summer travels! I'd blame the delay on being jet-lagged or busy (which I was and I am), but the real problem is that I just don't know where to start! It was a fantastic trip and I think I'll find it hard to be succinct and articulate as I try to get it all down in writing. Anyway, here goes:

I flew from Seoul (via Helsinki) to Vilnius, Lithuania. My cousin Al(ex) and his family live there, so the primary reason for that stop was to visit them. Of course I'm always up for seeing a new part of the world too, though - especially a part, like Vilnius, that has beautiful baroque architecture and an interesting history!

It had been a couple of years since I last saw Alex and even longer since I had last seen Rachel, Leandra, and Andrew - and I had never met Rebekah! The three kids are all really sweet, and it was fun to reconnect with the whole family over yummy homemade meals and games of Balderdash and Bananagrams. I also got to join in the celebration of Rebekah's 4th birthday, which was fun.

At that party and at their church I had the chance to talk with some of Alex and Rachel's Lithuanian friends. Meeting local people is one of the best parts of traveling, but with the exception of taxi drivers and tour guides that doesn't always happen. When I'm in a new place I always visit museums and historical spots, try out the local food and drink, and whenever possible get out into nature - all good, of course - but I find traveling a much more interesting and fulfilling experience when I also get to interact with the people who live in the place I'm visiting.

Since Lithuania is a former Soviet Republic, I seemed to be constantly putting things in the frame of reference of my experience in Armenia. Really, though, the two places are very differnt. After a couple of days I started to realize that it doesn't make much sense to think that after centuries of very distinct and distant histories, a few decades under Soviet rule would turn two very different nations into similar ones.

Nonetheless, the comparisons seemed to continue somewhere in the back of my head. In talking with the locals I did hear a couple of familiar strains, but those probably have more to do with Armenia and Lithuania being small and relatively unknown nations at present than with the fact that they were both part of the USSR. I was told, for example, that Lithuania was once a great empire stretching all the way to the Black Sea, and that Lithuanian just might be the oldest language in Europe - points that I heard over and over again about Armenia and Armenian during my two years there. There were also a few sights that took me back, like some gray, drab apartment blocks and the bus in this picture, which could easily have been taken in Yerevan. (Except that if it were Yerevan, there would probably be potholes in a stretch of road this long and the driver would likely be outside the bus trying to get the electrical connectors back on track. Obviously my visit was limited to the capital city, and mostly to the nicer parts of it at that - but it does certainly feel like things in Lithuania are generally in much better shape than they are in Armenia.)


European architecture is generally a treat, but I think I had a special appreciation for it this time since I was coming from Korea. The temples and palaces and hanok (traditional Korean homes) here are serene and beautiful, but most modern apartment buildings and stores and churches and schools are much more functional than they are pleasing to the eye. I soaked up (and took lots of pictures of!) cobblestone streets and colorful churches like this one:


The gardens and window boxes in Vilnius were lovely, too. Alex says Lithuanians joke that a man needs three wives: a Russian for his love life, a Jew to bear his children, and a Lithuanian to tend his gravesite when he's gone. Those well-tended flowers made even the drab Soviet apartment blocks or run-down houses like this one look somehow charming:


Ooph - I'm not done with Vilnius yet and I feel like I've barely scratched the surface on the trip as a whole - but right now I need to finish preparing for class tomorrow. Check back soon for the rest of this story and for the next stop, Warsaw!