Weekend in Lithuania

Most of what has happened in the last few weeks came at the end of this past week. Last Monday, we finally had our Macroeconomics midterm. Every other student I talked to had a similar situation to mine, in that we didn't have time to finish almost half of the test. I answered all of the questions, but not to the level we are supposed to for a good score. Fortunately, the professor admitted after the exam that he had purposely made the test too long, and so that would be taken into account when grading. I was just happy that the exam was over, so that I could finally relax for the rest of the week. Wednesday I went to a Catholic mass for Ash Wednesday. It was long and I didn't really understand the mass, but it was an interesting experience. The churches here seem to be a lot more traditional, and because the church was a few centuries old, comfort was pretty much ignored during the ceremonies. Still, I'm glad I got to experience more of a typical life in the Baltics.

That's what my weekend was primarily about. On Thursday we had another pub tour for more shadows who were visiting SSE, and Friday we had another school party that was even more fun than the last one. But my weekend was highlighted by my trip to Lithuania. For most of the week, I had plans to travel to Tallinn and just explore the city on my own. Luckily, Gerard told me at the party that he was heading home Saturday morning and invited me along. So early the morning after the party I found myself on a four hour bus ride to Vilnius. For most of the day Saturday, we spent our time exploring the city. Vilnius has a smaller population than Riga, but it seemed like a larger city. This was most likely because in Riga, all of the activity is packed into the Old Town. Vilnius was more spread out, with two distinct parts of towns (one was the Old Town and one was the business center). What I liked about Vilnius was that it wasn't as flat as Riga, which is devoid of hills or really any natural elevation. There was also a lot of history on how the city was formed. For example, in the picture of the tower below, there used to stand a castle. It is said that one person in the palace had a dream of a howling metal wolf, and when he woke up he went to the tower and took it as a sign that a city should be built around the fortress.








On Saturday night, we took a bus to the city Gerard grew up in. Pabrade is a small town of about 6300 close to the border of Lithuania and Belarus. In the town, there is a large Polish and Russian influence, and it was apparent in the people. Most of Gerard's friends spoke in Russian, but fortunately Gerard was along to translate when we hung out with them during the night. Gerard's family was very nice and extremely hospitable, and I had some great meals while staying the night there. Some of the traditional Lithuanian foods that were made included hot borscht before dinner, which was a sort of beet soup with peppers, mushrooms, and meat, Lašiniai as an appetizer, and Kėdainių blynai, which are boiled potato pancakes and the national Lithuanian dish.

Saturday night we spent time with Gerard's friends and then went to a small bar where most of the town was. On Sunday we saw the rest of the town, including a lake nearby and a river where they go fishing or swimming in the summer. It was very eye-opening seeing the normal life for someone living in the Baltics outside of a big city. I had always grown up feeling claustrophobic in Danville because I believed it was so small. However, most of the people in Pabrade have lived in the same house their whole life and have went to school at the same building. For most of the people in the town, they will move back to Pabrade after they graduate from their university, and while some may work in Vilnius, they will likely live their whole life in that same small town. Being there helped me understand and be thankful for the opportunities afforded to me and everyone in the United States, where moving (even if it is just a county away) is much more of an option. I was also able to see how the recession had really affected people living in small towns in this part of the world. Even if the family was still well-off (such as Gerard's), the small town didn't have enough money for much of the services such as street lights and snow plows that I take for granted. In order to save money, in most of the neighborhoods the lights were turned off and the roads were still covered with ice. Seeing these differences in culture and how we live is why I decided to travel to Riga in the first place, and although it was different, I still really enjoyed my weekend. I hope to visit again before I leave, and take away even more from the trip than I did this time.