One of the last things Mal and I did before her departure was visit the old castle behind Cathedral Square in Vilnius. It wasn't until I had that vantage that I realized how many red roofs there are in Vilnius. The contrast against the many churches is beautiful. See?

In the small museum in the castle, Mallary and I read about The Baltic Way. In 1989, two million people joined hands in a 600 km chain between the three Baltic capitals. I know this act came out of necessity because of Soviet oppression, but I still slightly envy the people who remember being one of the two million. Americans rarely join hands in such acts of solidarity because we rarely have to. This is good too--just in a different way. The castle we were in is the distant brick structure in the next picture, behind Duke Gediminos on his horse.

On the evening before Mallary left, my good friend Giedra, with whom I work, invted the two of us over for dinner. She prepared herring with Lithuanian mushrooms and a Lithuanian national dish of ground meat cooked in cabage leaves. We ate our fill, and the meal was made complete with an amber, smooth cognac. I'm glad I've met enough people to have homemade meals while I'm here.

Mallary's departure was awful. Every time is worse than the last. I guess that means we are getting better. But it's hard to be optimist because I just hate being apart from her. I should see her about in about three weeks, though--that is, short of more volcanoes erupting.

I've been in paper-writing mode since Mallary left--went from Heaven to Hell. I'm trying to wrap up some online courses I'm in before I start traveling in two weeks. The other night I was working and feeling pretty sorry for myself, and I was about to give up and go to bed. Then I realized it was 4/16, and I was thinking about my peers who were robbed of the right to go to school and write papers. This really is a privilege. There are people in the ground who would much rather be writing a paper. So, I didn't go to bed. I wrote about the Cold War until about 4 am, when the sky was beginning to lighten. Go Hokies!

This volcano issue is pretty interesting, especially because of my work at the Embassy. We had short-term visitors who were stranded in Vilnius over the weekend. One of them was driven to Warsaw today by our motorpool service, but the other is hoping airspace will open for her flight tomorrow. It doesn't seem likely at this point. In fact, if this doesn't stop soon, my travel plans could be ruined. And a problem with using RyanAir and other cheap airlines is I will not be reimbursed if my flight is cancelled. Let's hope that doesn't happen.

The Dubliner, an Irish ex-pat bar, closed its doors on Saturday night. I think I'll be glad to say one day that I was there on its last night. It was a cool place, but they were having disputes with their landlords--a Catcholic Church. The Church turned off power in the place some months ago, and they've been running on generators since then. It made the whole restaurant too expensive to be profitable, though. What a shame. Now Vilnius doesn't have a British pub.

On Sunday, Giedra took me to a Family Day concert at the Philharmonic. The feature was "Young Talents." There were clowns between each piece that was played, and in the dark, they would search with flashlights for the new talent and then bring them on stage. It was very silly, and all of the children around me were howling. Some of the musicians were quite impressive. Often it is easy to be over impressed when you see a child musician because their skill is beyond their years--but there playing can be robotic or forced. A couple of the acts, including a ten year viola player and a five year old violinist was quite good, though.

I'll close with a picture of the apple dumpling I bought the other day. The core of the apple was replaced by a a core of sugar. It was amazing. And despite it being the size of my little sister's head, it still only cost about $1.20. I'll miss you Vilnius.

--Alex

Comments

[Tuan Vo-Ha]

I am so glad that good food and good companies are being a frequent part of your journey, my friend!