The backpack is packed - Poland!

To Poland we go! It's off to Stansted at the crack of 'hella early o'thirty' because it's ryanair. but i cannot complain, you get what you pay for, and the flight was cheap. Because it's ryanair, we had to go on the cheap and stuff everything into the (limited) carry-on allotment. If you're wondering at home, it looks like this:

So for a four day trip we're looking at:
-1 pair jeans (worn from day 1 to 4)
-3 t-shirts (1 worn day 1)
-3 sweaters, of varying weights, useful for layering. it's supposed to rain two entire days
rain/wind jacket
-1 sweatshirt with hood
-4 days socks/underwear (usually i'd take half and then launder)
-the poland dictionary/phrasebook and the lonely plant guide, for all the polish words i've forgotten
-the 1 quart ziploc bag of toiletries 100 ml or under
-wallet
-passport
-file of important papers - guesthouse reservation, maps, ryanair checked in flight, etc. including the heather created 'currency cheatsheet' of GBP to PLN to EUR cross-currency triangulation, sorted by GBP and then PLN.

i have some pre-posting going on the next few days while i'm away...

memo to self

Bratislava in the winter is too cold. -6 is not a happy place for heather.

Coldness aside, I've had a nice time in Bratislava, although most of it was spent in the office or with work colleagues in the evenings. I did manage to take a few photos, all of them containing snow, as it snowed each day this week and it didn't melt. I had a great time with work colleagues; most were from the Eastern Europe countries surrounding here and all were a pleasure to meet.

Am back to the airport tomorrow morning, then back at Stansted around lunchtime.

So German was useful after all

I called the Taxi's number in Bratislava, company J's recommended company, who supposedly speak English.

Taxi Guy: (bla bla Taxi!)
H: Hi, do you speak English?
TG: Uuuh. (pause) Germanish?
H: Ah supi....(proceeds to ask for the Taxi pick-up in German).
TG: (answers me enthusiastically in German, understanding and confirming).

So one of the most useful applications of my German skills is to be able to order a taxi in Bratislava. Well there is a justification for the last 5,5 years of my life.

Things to do in Vilnius

Only since vailian asked--although the areas outside of Vilnius deserve separate posts in their own right, someday when I have spare time.

So when visiting Vilnius, in addition to picking up a guidebook and seeing the usual sites like Gediminas Tower, St. Anne's Church, and the Jewish Vilnius sites, I would recommend the following:

1. Definitely go to old town and take an afternoon to walk around. It's a little touristed, but interesting to see with its cobbled streets and old churches. It's around a 15 min walk from the central train station.

2. Try the local beer: Svyturys. My particular favorite is the Ekstra unpasteurized. While having a beer, it's good to have a beer snack. I suggest kepta duona which is fried dark bread with garlic. Even better, get it with suris (cheese).

3. Look for a local food place or cafeteria selling cepelinai or zeppelins. It's an starchy oval shaped potato meal filled in the center with either meat or cheese, and with a meat or cheese sauce. Sometimes they are a little difficult to find as they are labor intensive to make. They are heavy, have them for lunch on a day when you went without breakfast, or take only one instead of two. A popular Lithuanian chain where they are always available is Forto Dvaras and their menu is in English.

4. Take a walk through the Užupis district of Vilnius. It is an 'independent district' in Vilnius at the bottom of old town. It was a former artist colony and still interesting to some of the recent creations.

5. If you have time for a day trip from Vilnius, go to Trakai castle.

Lithuanian hospitality - drinks

If I've learned only one thing on my yearly trips back to Lith, it's that Lithuanian family hospitality is unsurpassed. I had to explain to Aunt B. before we went to 'rules' I've figured out so far:

1. Don't turn down an offering of drinks, unless you've already had at least 10 total cups filled. Otherwise it's rude and your hosts are confused that what they are offering is not good enough.
2. Don't finish your drink too quickly, as it will always be re-filled, and depending on the alcohol content, a refill is not always a good thing.
3. At a family dinner, as an average adult, you are expected to partake in at least six different options.

On our arrival night, dinner was at 7 PM and lasted an hour. Then we sat there and picked at the food and drinks for another two hours. Here was what was on or near the table:

a. coke
b. sprite
c. orange fanta
d. fizzy water
e. green tea
f. black tea
g. red (strawberry) tea
h. vodka
i. beer
j. whiskey
k. Irish coffee
l. coffee
m. orange juice (Ukrainian)
n. orange juice (Russian)
o. pineapple juice
p. champagne (that I brought last year from Germany)

So dear readers, here is the challenge if you're still reading. At my most recent trip back, which of the above six options did I take during that first dinner? Your prize for the closest correct guess? A little something from the motherland, mailed to you from Germany.

The rules (we are in Germany, we must have rules!)

1. Only one guess per person, just put the above letters for your drink guesses into the comments, and remember there should be six in total. Whether or not I know you're a reader of my blog, feel free to guess.
2. The winner must be willing to provide a mailing address for the tiny prize. Inside or outside of Germany, it's all the same. It's a lightweight item, so I'll mail to anywhere in the world.

I'll leave this up for a few days, then I'll give you the correct answers and reasons behind them.
I sveikata! (the Lithuanian phrase for 'cheers')

From Lithuania 2 - the South

I am again on a sad little slow computer with a Russian keyboard, blogger in Lithuanian, in a sunny hotel lobby. We are in Druskininkai which is a spa/relaxation/rejuvination town way in the South of Lithuania, spitting distance to the Belarus border (which we cannot go into as you need a visa in advance).

I've dropped Aunt B off at the nicest spa in town, she's getting a full two hour treatment for the equivalent of 55 USD. I love Lith prices. Personally I was not in the mood to be wrapped in honey, peeled, irrigated, and whatever else she is doing under foreign hands, so I settled on a 20 minute head and neck massage where I can remain as fully clothed as possible, for which I pop over for at the end of her thingy.

It's not the American nakedness phonia that's the problem but rather that I am not touchy/feely and the more clothed I am the less they will touch. The only massage I ever had made me cringe and I ended up more stressed than when I started. I've never had a manicure or a pedicure, it's just not my thing. I'd much rather sit on the sunny balcony here with a glass of wine or here in front of the slow computer next to a sunny window with their very stong Lith coffee. My female roommates in Atlanta used to go each Sunday an enourmous mall where they went for their beauty and shopping session. I was dropped off on the way to the mall to our male work colleagues for a Sunday session of football, beer and pizza. So be it.

However, Aunt B has been quite a trooper on our trip and she's more into that sort of thing so I hope she has a nice time. I dropped her off at the desk and there is someone who speaks basic English to bring out a robe and start her off. Aunt B is 18 years older than me, but basically up for whatever direction I'm taking her. Interestingly she didn't kill me after the third 3.5 hour cross-country bus ride on a 1960's volvo bus that had seen better days. Or when I made her get up three days in a row before 8 AM because of said buses. Or when she caught my cold/flu that was in full swing when she arrived. Our relatives fixed her right up when they heard her coughing and sniffling. Shot glasses of vodka starting at 10 AM. They tell us it cures all problems.

The relatives in this part whom we visited yesterday and will see tomorrow are very nice. Although the older female ones, perhaps 60+ years old come at you upon arriving and leaving with a full on kiss on the mouth. Good thing the vodka is freely running to lessen this experience. After the 7th kiss and yet another old lady forcibly wiping the lipstick off my face that she just planted there I was beginning to re-think the whole visit.


We arrived yesterday lunch time and we remain until tomorrow afternoon when our relatives pick us up to meet other relatives I have yet to meet (French/Lithuanian/Russian speaking), and then we go to Vilnius in the evening where we remain until we fly out on Sunday morning. And yes, we're on SAS who sorta lost a wheel upon landing in Vilnius the other day, but fortunately we're not on a Dash on either of our routes (Vilnius to Copenhagen and then Copenhagen to DUS), so we should be ok.

******after the massage

I arrive and a 30 something woman in a clinical jacket points me toward a room. She's going on in Lithuanian, but I have very little to go on in that department, except to answer no when she asks in Lithuanian if I speak Lithuaninan. I ask her for English? No. She then asks if I speak Russian. No. I ask if she speaks German? No. She asks if I speak Polish, and my crappy little Polish is about the best we're going to get here.

I am instructed to remove all top part clothing. She starts in on the back. Apparently neck and head massage means a different thing here in Lith. I thought perhaps that I pointed to the next one down which was the back one, but later when I paid, that was actually the neck and head one. She did work her way up to the neck and then head, so maybe there is a whole body connectedness thing. I didn't find it offensive, but I can't say that I really enjoyed it either.

Depending on how Aunt B enjoys her two hours, we'll either stay in town and she'll do something similar again tomorrow while I chill out, or we'll take a local bus to Grutas Park to see Stalin World. Grutas Park is the largest in Lithuania and they have put many of the old Soviet statues from around Lithuania there along with information about life in Lithuania under the Soviet ideology. It is near Druskininkai, about 8 km away, so the closest I'll probably ever be to it.

Our other option as the relatives won't arrive to pick us up until 16 would be to day trip into Poland by going North in Lith to Lazdijai and then West to Poland via the Lazdijai - Ogrodniki border crossing. The only purpose would really be to get Aunt B's passport stamped so that she could say that she's been to Poland. As we have been with bus aross the entire East-West and then North-South of Lithuania, I suspect we'll be able to skip the Poland option in favor of one of the other two.

Greetings from Southern Lithuania.

from Lithuania

I'm on a very old free computer in a tiny hotel lobby, so we'll see if this works...Every time I leave Germany I am reminded of why I can live there, but I won't long term.

On Wednesday when Aunt B arrived, I left her to her own devices for four hours to nap, etc. and then we spent the rest of the afternoon doing errands around the tiny town of B and getting ready for our trip. We went to the Turkish pizza place and split a Turkish pizza for lunch, then we went to the post office, the cash machine, Schlecker, and then the Kaufpark to pick up food provisions to take on the train/boat, and then to the Turkish market for some fresh fruit, and then over to the Apoteke for some Aspirin.

Aunt B is a dog person and she was enamored with the fact that dogs are taken into stores everywhere. Overall, the people in the tiny town of B are an anomoly to me as they are very un-German in their friendliness. We were waiting at the Apoteke, there was an Indian woman (many of the Indian contractors at company J live in town so they can easily get to work) speaking English to the pharmacist. There was a woman there before us, and she had her dog there, but his leash was sitting on the floor, as was he, as the woman was standing directly behind the Indian woman breathing down her neck.

Aunt B smiled at the dog, and he recogized that she is a dog fan. He got up and started to take a step over to her when his owner heard and turned around and sharply told him to sit. Then she glared at Aunt B and me. Then she loudly told him to lay down. Then she glared at me and Aunt B again. Aunt B was rather put off by such behavior, until I explained to her that Germany is the land of the dour faced cranks and this is their normal behavior.

Fast forward, we're on the train to Kiel. It was perhaps 75% full, including a lively group of perhaps 10 young men in their late 20's in matching pink shirts on their way to celebrate something. They were a boisterous group, and fortuantely not in our car, although they passed through periodically on their merry-making, being a little loud for just before noon, but whatever. At one point I was looking at Aunt B's camara with her and I vaguely heard a German 'haaaa-low' but I figured it was one of the pink men. Shortly after someone came up behind me and was then beside me perhaps two inches from my faces and started to shout at me in German, 'thank you for your help, that was very nice, blah, blah'.

I was a tad shocked, Aunt B sitting next to me at the window didn't know what was going on, the older lady across the aisle and at the window seat was just staring, as was the older woman in the seat two seats in front of me who stood up when all this started. Apparently, because I was in the last seat in the car, on the aisle, when he yelled hallo, what that really meant was, 'excuse me woman in the last seat, but I bought two beers and I am now unable to open the door, can you open it for me.' So basically he was yelling at me because I did not know that.

I just looked at him. The two women were looking at him like he was crazy. I had about a half dozen quips in both German and English going through my head, but having enough experience around drunks, I thought better of it and just looked at him and he then wandered away. The women both shrugged their shoulders and frowned like the guy was off his rocker, so whatever. In general, I find this country full of such angry people.

Now fast forward. We managed to get on the boat, enjoy our overnight trip, had some Lithuania beer on board, all is well. The boat was perhaps 85% Lithanian, 14% German, and 1% us. We come out of the boat and can't figure out where the bus is supposed to come, so we just go on foot to passport control. The passport guy takes our passports and says, where do you want to go? Um, to town? Wait here. He grabs a man who has come out of what looks like a tour bus. He talks briefly with him and the man comes over and says in perfect English, you come with us. Um, ok.

He says, we're a full bus, so just set your backpacks down in the aisle and sit on them. Um, this is getting more odd, but OK. He then gets on the microphone and yaps away in Lithuanian, and I caught the word for 'American'. And all the Lithuanians clapped. He then says in English, I welcome you Americans, to our bus. Uuuuuh?

They acutally cleared bags from seats and invited us to sit. It was a political delegation who was returning from Strassbourg via the overnight ferry. The beer was flowing and it was a jovial crowd. When they found out we were coming all the was to Lithuania to visit family, we were truly welcomed in. Aunt B and I were separated to where there were seats, so we were speaking with different people. The guy next to me was giving me a play-by-play of what the different speakers were saying at the front of the bus with the microphone. I'm not sure if he was giving me the truth or not. "That guy, he's saying that he would like a wife, and he is listing what he wants from a wife and what he can offer." "Now this woman, she says that she should be his wife, and she is giving the reasons why."

We were accepted right in, even with the communal wiskey bottle that was winding its way back through the seats. I have no idea how we couldn't find the public bus and how they put us on this one, but they were so helpful. They were asking where we were staying and telling us how to get there. Then, the bus arrived to where it was going and we got a nice set of goodbyes with people individually giving us tips, like to go into the shopping center here to change money, etc.

One day in Lithuania already begins to take away the taste of Germany.

Lithuanian food photos

I have returned from Lithuania and Estonia. I still need to write up all of the notes of the family visit, but in the meantime, some photos. A while back Natalie requested food photos. Here you will see some typical Lithuania food--fried garlic bread (the photo with the brown squares that look a little like American brownies). They always use dark bread and the little white bits that you see on it are pieces of minced garlic. Once they make a batch of it, any that is not eaten will be served at room temperature the next day.

The other place is a Lithuanian vegetarian plate for me. At 6 o'clock on the plate is 'salad' which is a mixture of fresh minced cabbage, red bell pepper, some onions and perhaps some other veg which is marinated in a oil/vinegar like liquid. At 12 o'clock on the plate is roasted potatoes with cripsy fried onion bits. In the exact center of the plate is the highlight, mushrooms cooked with onions. These are special mushrooms, in Germany they are called 'pfefferlingen'. They are only available for perhaps 6 weeks in Germany before the season is over. They are a little more available in Lithuania, and in fact, I often see them here for about 6 weeks more, exported from Lithuania to Germany.

They are nothing like your 'regular' American button mushrooms. Instead they have almost a 'meaty' texture that requires some chewing. They range in color from yellow to deep orange or beige depending on the the exact variety and local differences. Here is a great photo from the German side of Wikipedia of this mushroom in full glory:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bild:Cantharellus_cibarius_01.jpg

Katowice, Poland

May 1 is a holiday in Germany, so thus a three day weekend this year. We took a cheap flight on Central Wings (an affiliate of German Wings based out of Poland) and off we went from Cologne to Katowice. It is the closest major airport to Oswiecim, otherwise known by its WW2 German name of Auschwitz. We went to both Auschwitz I and Auschwitz II-Birkenau. That whole part of the trip remains surreal.

While there, we stayed in the town of Tychy. It is a small-ish industrial town in an industrial region of Poland. Located smack dab in the center is the Tyskie brewery. It is one of the most popular beers in Poland. They also produce Pilsner Urquell there, with a special brewmaster arriving once per week from the Czech Republic to oversee production.

I ate a lot of Polish food while there. Contrary to popular understanding, there is quite a lot of Polish vegetarian food, it's just a matter of knowing what to look for. My absolute favorite is mushroom pierogis, followed closely by Polish pickles.

Poland still remains an inexpensive country to visit although prices seem to have risen from when I first visited. Katowice has a grand mall, large by US standards, and open on Sundays until 21.00, something that Germany does not have. It has higher end brands like Hugo Boss and a gigantic Tesco selling everything imaginable with 20+ checkout lines.

Overall Katowice is a winner for a long weekend.