The Baltic States

Brief Rant About Europe

Going to The Baltics was a "why not" afterthought to the main reason for my most recent trip to what is generally known as Eastern Europe. Everyone wants to be special and what I recently learned since the last time traveling around Europe extensively in 1998-1999 is that certain countries are clearly Central Europe, Eastern Europe, and The Baltic States.

Some of them consider themselves to be part of Western Europe since being part of the European Union and other European govering institutions grants them some sort of exclusive entrance into a good old boys club, but let's be clear, the big brother countries of France, Germany, and combinations of Northern Western European countries run the show. You can have your titles, but we all know who the real players are. You could argue that to a certain degree when a country has the Euro currency they have come of age.

If your country is unfortunate enough to get the Euro you enter a world where your salary remain constant while the cost of living triples. It does however allow you to have a stronger economic position in the event that you can save something, depending on your debt to savings ratio which is generally quite low the world over, except Asian, not that is changing as consumer credit card nations build. If Europe didn't have a discount or budget airline in practically ever primary and secondary city I wonder if Europeans could still afford to take those four to six week holidays all over the world.

In the lates 1990's when I visited southern European countries, they were relatively poor and while the roads are better, it is still heavily reliant on agriculture and tourism for much of its' economic revenue. What use to be a bargain is now a ripoff. The big post college trip or study abroad semester in Europe has become more difficult as the Euro spreads, the US dollar tanks, and the cost of living increases briskly.

Estonia

I return to Europe a decade later starting in Estonia, a country I know little about. In fact, I know little about anywhere I go anymore. My travels have gotten to a point where I go in with little expectation, cities are cities for the most part, easy to navigate. In Europe, Old Towns are the highlights plus a few other architectural points of interest, museums, and cafes. After a while they are affectively all the same just like the thousands of churches. I even feel the same way about genocide sites, monuments, and memorials. Same shit different place. Nature, however, still captures the imagination.

Arrived in Tallinn after a stop in Riga airport. It was pissing down rain and windy in Riga and I was on the tarmac unclear of the direction I was suppose to go. It was my first time being left alone on the tarmac. It would of been fun to purposely get lost if it wasn't for the icy cold wind blowing in my face. I was unprepared for a tarmac exit as we had pulled up to a gate and had a big enough plane for using the covered exits. The next plane to Tallinn was a twin engine propellor puddle jumper which in recent years has become less nerve racking.

Flying down a mountain slope in a ten seater straight out towards a mountain face before breaking hard left in The Himalayans of Nepal will give you steel balls when it comes to prop planes. The airport was good and small and looked like it got a fair amount of traffic considering its size, mostly from Air Baltic, what I can only assume is the state carrier for all the Baltic States as there isn't much to say about Estonian Air.

Laura and Eve, my couch surfing hosts met me at the airport and we got into Laura's SUV where another couch surfer from Norway was and a friend of theirs. We stopped at a gas station where I got a few beers and some supplies for the night we would be spending with twenty other people in a cabin in the forest of Lahemaa National Park.

In a convoy of about six cars we went to a fifteenth century church for a quick look. It was snowing and the wind was pushing it horizontally. I entered a snowy, rainy, windy, and darken place with about five hours of actual day time light and two hours of not quite a shiny morning and not quite a lit up dusk. I failed to take into account the latitude and sunlight totally escaped my mind.

By three in the afternoon, the day was ending or at least the light of day. The last two days I woke up at eight to discover darkness. I love traveling, but I know at the end of the day, I prefer spending my days in a warm place with plenty of sunlight, beaches, and girls in summer dresses and bikinis. I am also convinced that people who live in hot places are more hot blooded and engage in intercourse more often. Supposedly really cold places have the same mentality, but who wants to fuck under a blanket and have to be careful with air vents? Trust me, it kind of takes some of the passion and spontaneity out of it. I even asked my couch surfing host in Kaunas, Lithuania about this and it was confirmed that getting drunk and having endless sex in the dead of winter isn't the norm and she is beautiful and in a relationship so it can't be him or her, perhaps it is the clothes, weather, and lack of sun. I digress. Sorry about the language mom.

After a few more miles down the countryside roads we stopped at a meadow to look at bogs and then went to a forest. The forest was the highlight of Estonia for me. It looked like a winter wonderland with fresh coats of snow on pine trees, the air fresh and brisk. It then opened up onto a bog which had a trail of wooden planks running on top of it so you could walk through a bog in the wind, snow, and ice. Falling or slipping would of totally blown as your leg or legs go a foot or two straight into freezing water.

Estonia - The Cabin / The Sauna

As the sun was setting around four in the afternoon we arrived at a small track of land in Lahemaa National Park in which lies a log cabin with a big open space downstairs and an attic for sleeping on the floor. There are about twenty five of us in total all from couch surfing and representing a variety of countries, including Hong Kong, Columbia, Norway, and of course me, the lone American which has been a common theme throughout The Baltic States.

The majority of the couch surfers are Estonian and they introduced me to Estonia's favorite past time, going to a sauna. I can only describe it by how I still see it in my mind. Just for the record, this isn't my first time putting a towel around my waist and walking around with a bunch of other naked people and going swimming or sitting in a hot as balls place while you steam together. I think why it messed with my head so much is because it was a Saturday night and we were all drinking in a log cabin in a forest whereas six hours before I was sitting in Tbilisi, Georgia, a rather conservative country.

I can only described it as sitting knee deep in naked bodies in a sauna and steaming together, taking a quick shower, and going out into the freezing cold to cool off and repeating the process. The girls were covered, but the guys were just free balling it like it was no thing. I had to cover my junk, I am just not comfortable in my own body with a dozen other people, buck naked, free balling and hairy, an inch away from me. For the remainder of the night, people in the cabin are walking around in towels, playing cards, opening beer bottles, laughing, and chatting like it ain't no thing to be practically naked. It felt like at anytime this should turn into a giant orgy, but it seems to be pretty standard behavior in this part of the world. Want to go out for a beer and a steam, you can leave your towel there?!

I learned about competitive sauna competitions and how most recently the competitor from Finland died. Other ineresting side bites include how Finland and Estonia are more than just neighbors, sharing some cultural similarities, how Russians make up a big chunk of tourists, just how white haired blondes can be, how pretty cobblestone streets are to look at and terribly uncomfortable to walk on, and confirmation that the further north you live the more you live in a different world, Alaska was the same. That's a nice way of saying people are a bit strange up there.

Estonia - Conclusion

I am on my fourth day and on my way to Riga, the capital of Latvia. My host Laura was really gracious and I got to briefly meet her eighty six year old grandfather who looked like something out of a movie with the long beard, kind face, and rail thin body. Wish I spoke Russian, imagine the stories.

I cursed myself over and over again for being in such bad shape and going to a freezing place for my winter holidays. On the third day after spending a miserable morning in the rain and wind, my boots are killing me because I have become such a wuss wearing dress shoes for so many years and trading in my sandals for countries with four seasons. the boots also blow, but my feet are soft as well.

I am thankful that I get to sit on a bus for five hours today as my feet are bruised and killing me from just one day of walking around Tallinn's Old Town for four hours. I actually was so miserable from the weather and my feet were hurting so much that I watched two movies in the theaters just to kill the time. When I got out of the movies at 7pm it was still pissing down rain. This is what I refer to as "the first week" where you break from the normal sequence of daily life and embark on something completely different and your mind and body get tested especially the harder the journey. It isn't dangerous, but it is freggin cold.

I had two defining moments where I felt real shitty and had all those dark thoughts like, "How much does it cost to go... Should I just... Seriously Eastern Europe in December. What were you thinking?". Hopefully things will get better as the sky clears, my head clears, and my feet stop acted like whining brats.

To Riga, Latvia

The bus is clean, it even has a bathroom. There isn't annoying loud music playing on the speakers, the girls are pretty, the countryside is as expected, flat, the temperature just right, my clothes not too stinky yet, the rain has stopped, and while it will be getting dark in an hour, about three in the afternoon, I have time to explore Riga before meeting my next couch surfing host after eight tonight. Please God, don't rain!

My feet enjoyed the break! The sky opened up on the four and a half hour drive from Tallinn to Riga. Oddly enough when the sun blazed through the bus windows no one used their curtains to diminsh the rays. The sun didn't really rise as much as it coasted along the horizon.

Arriving in Riga was instantly likable. The central bus station is located across the street from Old Town and what is affectively the central business district as well. It was less windy today and not raining, a blessing. The tourist information center was perfect, bus tickets easy, and money exchange a breeze. Riga is built for tourism and rapid transit. It felt like a real European city with a buzz right away, not on a huge scale, just right, small in reality. Right away I noticed Old Town had practically no car traffic and lots of expensive shops.

After two hours of walking around my dogs started barking. I sat outside the opera house freezing my ass off just so I could get off my feet. They were killing me! I need to kill three hours before meeting my couch surfing host so I did what seems to be a common theme this trip, I looked for a warm place to sit down and that took me to the cinema. Sometimes I am so pathetic it even shocks me. I went to see some cheesy chic flick and while the whole thing was predictable, it was entertaining. The token black guy was a police chief kind of movie.

I met my couch surfing host after getting a bit lost and asking for help on a dark street from a Russian living in Riga. The house is on the fringe of Old Town and a stones throw from the central station in what is a hundred year old brick house that has been converted into multiple apartments. The interior is quite new and very cozy. It makes me think of, "Home is where the heart is." There are photos of previous couch surfers on the walls in addition to the usual family photos. Couch surfing in this part of the world has a lot of participants and they are very hospitable.

I will be sleeping tonight on a futon in the same room as the boys who are in their bunk beds in what is basically the living room. I have been here for less than an hour and learned about the ratio of men to women, how EU membership has it's benefits for work abroad in member states, ate Latvian pancakes, and listened to a mother read a Latvian story to put her children to sleep, seven and four.

Today I did something I have never done before, I drank an overpriced tea. Costa Coffee is some kind of rival to Starbucks where you pay too much for a warm beverage. To me it was worth the comfortable seats, warm air, and wi-fi for $3. I think I stayed there for two hours. I tried to find the Jewish ghetto along the river and didn't so I went to the open air and covered market and was blown away by the selection, the cleanliness, and the prices. The latter was surprisingly high considering this is suppose to be a lower income developed nation. The prices were like any developed country, five dollars here, ten there, three for this and four for that. It would easily add up if you shopped for a family of four for a day or two. Sure, Riga has the fancy dress shops for the rich, but food is a basic necessity, even the vendors selling fruits and vegetables were in the two dollars a kilo range, a steal by US prices, but not cheap. The produce, meat, dairy, sweets, and breads looked amazing though, high quality products.

It became clear to me after talking to Liga, my host, that people live paycheck to paycheck. If a person loses their job they have no savings to get through the unemployment period and end up struggling or losing what little livelihood they have. Rent and food come to about $200 and $100 respectively which leaves no money for extras considering the average paycheck is around $300. In the event that you live in a dual income household, the extra money would have to go towards clothes, toys, books, curtains, and other unnecessary necessities if that makes sense.

Gas hovers around six dollars a US gallon. The bus isn't cheap at a dollar and change. EU membership might have it's benefits, but I haven't seen it in the last nine years I've been observing it. The only thing I see are higher prices, inflation, economic disparity, higher unemployment after the boom years of housing growth, and overall disappointment in its' people's faces. I suppose some positive things include more goods, mega stores, more competitive currency in international markets, higher purchasing power allowing governments and private investors to build up the infrastructure, and open borders for international trade and tourism just to add to the first paragraph rant.

Lithuania - Kaunas

We just crossed over into Lithuania through the fog. This morning was overcast, foggy, and cold. After two lovely days in Riga the weather turned mean, luckily for me it is a warm December so far with no snow. Latvians are unhappy about not having a meter of snow on the ground. It would be very pretty and romantic, but I don't have a snuggle bunny on my arm, just extra padding and a constant look of, "Christ it's cold. How are those people not wearing gloves?"

We crossed the border by driving through an old border checkpoint which was boarded up and mildly overgrown with weeds. The sky cleared such that there is no fog and a three thousand or so foot ceiling between the bus and what appears to be snow clouds, we will see. I am on my way to Kaunas, Lithuania, the last of the three Baltic States where I will spend two days before heading to Vilnius, Lithuania for Christmas.

For some backwards reason we went to Vilnius first before Kaunas. What I thought would take five hours took about seven with holiday traffic and delays. No problem, the ride was good. There was a brief, ever so slight break in the flat landscape when a few, very few hills appeared for maybe four seconds. As for the rest, it was flat and just a bit poorer than Estonia and Latvia in the countryside, a few more rundown farmhouses and few more old things in the grass, but still nice by Caucasias standards. Arriving in Vilnius even if only to stop at the bus station it felt like urban sprawl gone wild. The city center didn't jump out at me at any point, but I know it is there along with the tourist traps and Old Town.

We arrived in Kaunas two hours later to rush hour holiday traffic. Right away I got the same urban sprawl feel and this is the second city. Reaching the main bus station was uneventful, no bums, no traffic, very low key. I couldn't exchange money right there and had to walk to a mall to do it in a bank in order to get one of the remaining seats on the Boxing Day bus to Warsaw in which there is only one a day and it is almost sold out four days early. I made it to the Ecolines sales desk at exactly 17:59:58, no joke. The ladies spoke English fairly well there.

At the main bus station the ladies did not speak English and right away I got flashbacks to those countries where they have old people who don't speak English working in toursit sales offices, drivers who look at you with great confusion when you ask them if this transport goes to their equivalent of Times Square, and while tourists come, the country and its' people could do without them. In short, I was expecting the big change to come in Poland and it still might, but Lithuania in just the two hours and change I have been here is the redheaded stepchild of The Baltic States. Will my opinion change in the next four days?

Hotties Change My Mood

People in their twenties and teens speak English, but not clean English. It is like they learned it, but didn't cement it into their brains like in Riga and Tallinn. They were thinking when I asked simple questions and while they could communicate effectively, there was a hesitation to the speech, an insecurity. A boy of probably sixteen years helped me arrange a meet with my couch surfing hosts and just like in China, the conversation went on for a solid two minutes before the kid said, "Can you wait here for an hour?" Classic 'Lost in Translation' moment for me, and another sign.

To be honest, I expected it in the Ukraine and definately in Moldova. I guess the three people at the bus station trying to figure how to get the foreigner from the central bus station to Old Town was enough to get a glimpse into the mind. Arrogant much! And just for the record, the most popular beer I am drinking now while waiting for the meet isn't really that good. All ready hating on Lithuania, gotta stop it.

What a difference an hour can make! The kid drops me off at the bar. I have a beer and type out some mean spirited thoughts. Then I go outside for a cigarette and when I come back, three hot girls are looking for a booth to sit in, I offer mine, we get to chatting. They are graduate students returning home from Copenhagen University, this and that, it is pleasant. I get to thinking Lithuania is great. The super hottie sitting next to me reminded me of my Netherlands days where all the women were smart, hot, and easy going. Thirty minutes pass and my couch surfing host arrives. She is hotter than all of them, real classy elegance. I am besides myself. Lithuania is my new favorite country.

She has a car which for some reason surprises me, a VW maybe two years old. I think she lives in a small flat with her boyfriend. No. She is renovating a hundred year old European style house with four stories, multiple staircases, a huge front facade, high ceilings, new interior, a lawn with a fountain in front, some terraced lawn, on a hill overlooking the city next to a centuries old set of stairs leading down to the park, surrounded by equally impressive houses. It is basically an early ninteenth century mansion.

She tells me this is where I will be staying while she goes to her temporary residence while the house is being renovated. I'm floored. She speaks perfect English, pours us a Courvosier, and made tea as soon as we arrived. Ridiculous! Her boyfriend is as nice as can be, hooking up the wi-fi and putting on the water heater in addition to giving me a phone so I have a way to communicate with them. I kind of put one and one together and get something like hard working girl from a well to do family meets idealist stand up guy and fall in love and build a life together. Really great hosts.

Balls Cold in Kaunas, Lithuania

It is basically a meet and greet since it is late when I arrive. They leave and I had the bright idea that I would smoke a cigarette before heading to bed, you know, to get the lungs all clean for sleeping. It was midnight and the temperature dropped to -5C which I didn't know. I stepped outside through the door to my room, into the hallway, then through the main entrance door, then through the corridor separating the hall to the entrance, stepped through that door, and finally the main front door. Bam! In your face cold.

If you aren't aware of this, +2C is cold but manageable, 0C is cold, annoying, and forces you to adjust your layers. When it is zero degrees you can take off your gloves and do things like smoke, adjust your clothes, go through your bag, whatever, but when it is negative five, shit starts to freeze. Your smoking hand gets that pins and needle feel that isn't pleasant and the humidity makes your bones frozen. I didn't finish my cigarette, but sure did curse a lot.

Kaunas has graffiti, some decrepit buildings, and less expensive cars than Estonia and Latvia. Kaunas appears to be a place where young people are raised and then leave to Vilnius or elsewhere. The butterscotch apple filled croissant was amazing so Kaunas is the greatest.

Spent the day walking around. The city is really small and it took me only a few hours walking slowly to go from one end to the other. The temperature started dropping early in the day and I was forced to go to the mall I ridiculed to buy Long John's. It hit 15F (-8F) by late afternoon and I busted out the scarf and hat. I counted thirteen articles of clothing at its height.

For dinner Milda picked me up and we met her boyfriend Ruslanus at a pizza place on the edge of town. Stories exchanged included mass production, urbanization, greed, corruption, the police, anarchy, family stuff, and sex. Ruslanus really enjoyed my stories about sex in Asia and the crying looks of pain in the throughs of it all. He is struggling with the way the world is, that determination to be part of a more fair solution, but how and is it worth it?

Christmas Eve dinner - Kaunas

Today I am helping prepare Christmas Eve dinner with Milda and have been invited into their home for dinner. There will be no meat besides fish and no dairy. There has to be twelve dishes in total. Main dishes consist of vegetables and herring. Side dishes included beet and white bean salad, wheat, peas, some kind of grey porridge, and a salad I overprepared not realizing there were only going to be five of us. I couldn't help myself, the Maxima grocery store was so huge and overstocked I got brocolli, spinach leaves, red, orange, and yellow bell peppers, red onion, walnuts, and raisins. Everything was so juicy, but lacked flavor. It was shocking, I bought with my eyes and my hosts acknowledged they already knew about this. Lithuanian policy makers gave up quality for convenience around the turn of the millenium. Consequence of progress, you could argue points for and against until the organic cows come home.

Before eating we all stood and took the body of Christ into our bodies. Why does Christ have to taste like a dry piece of thin cardboard? Dessert was a poppy seed milk with poppy seed nuggets of bread. You make a wish, grab a handful, and if the number is even, luck may come your way. I grabbed ten, Milda grabbed ten, Adam, her brother, grabbed odd, and the great aunt grabbed three, odd.

Considering we weren't suppose to eat meat, there was one more thing Milda and Adam, wanted me to try, lard. Adam reached into the refrigerator and pulled out a slab of what can only be described as super fatty bacon, like a ten to one ratio of fat to meat. It was cut into thin slices and served with a bit of onion, some brown Lithuanian bread, and a pickle. We took a shot of vodka and ate, then took a shot of this alcoholic herbal drink made of twenty seven herbs that tasted like ass and took another bite. The bread basically absorbed the alcohol and fatty texture of the lard, but the onion and pickle flavors were everlasting including that herb alcohol. It was a very informal affair and they were very gracious and hospitable hosts.

I was invited to join Milda, her brother Adam, their great aunt, and their mother who was stricken with multiple sclerosis fifteen years ago. She is a beautiful looking women in her mid-fifties who worked as a doctor until the disease made it too difficult to work. The kids affectively take care of their mother and I could see how Milda at age thirty was already under considerable pressure to work, tend to the house, her mother, and regular life including relationships, desires, and reality of circumstances. It reminded me of something my mother said to me when I asked her about growing up with a sister with cerebral palsy. She said, "I did the best I could as long as I could." Sometimes people get dealt a shitty hand. It's heartbreaking to see, I can't imagine what it is like to live through it for the caretakers and the individual who for all intents and purposes is just broken in body but not in mind an hopefully not in spirit.

The Great Aunt & Jews in the Old Days

So it is Chirstmas Eve dinner and I am sitting there in a Lithuanian household because of couch surfing and kindness. The great aunt got curious of my religious beliefs. I tell her I am Jewish. We get to talking. I ask her questions about her childhood and the Jewish people of Lithuanian. Twice her mother comes up in the form of sweet memories. The first story was about how in the summer in the countryside the fields would have thousands of pink flowers in the grass and they would lie in the field as if floating on a magic carpet.

The other was about how when she was young Jewish merchants would come to their village as traders selling a type of Lithuanian donut and collecting clothes. I asked if it would have been frowned upon to marry a Jew back then and she said no, but her facial expression and body language said yes. It also appeared to be the first time Milda and her family spent any considerable amount of time in the company of a Jewish person. In the end it doesn't mean a thing or does it? I clearly remember my friends of color more vividly than the friends who were just like me in color, class, and beliefs.

Ryan Rogers was in the Peace Corps with us for training only. He left when it became clear his exgirlfirend was keeping their baby and he did the righteous thing and returned to be a father and husband or at least give it a shot. Ryan was a big black guy who grew up in both the ghetto and pearly gates of the rich, had a BA, MBA, and JD, and didn't hold back when you asked him a question or two. I remember the one hour we talked over a beer more clearly then the countless hours among the rest of the volunteers who were basically kids of privelidge from white middle and upper class environs.

Lithuania - Conclusion

Having traveled a bit these last few years, I can say that having come back to Europe after so many years away just reminds me time and time again and only in the eight days I have been back so far that it may not be the most exciting place in the world, but it is the place that makes the most sense to me. Two things shoot right into my mind. Two dogs in the park in Riga, Latvia running around without a leash chasing a stick and running in and out of people. No one minds the dogs, there are no laws restricting it, and two guys, one on accordion and one on a trumpet are mashing up Christmas songs. The other is the women. It has something to do with the walk, an aire of confidence.

It's hard to explain but here is goes. In America guys love it when they find a girl who is cool, easy going, and as the saying goes, "just like one of the guys." In Europe, they are cool, easy going, and not "just like one of the guys," they are women who might happen to like watching sports or getting dirty from time to time. They may very well wear tight jeans and high heels to a game, but not the kind of outfit that says I am trying really hard to be noticed like in Asia or dress down to a slovenly look like Americans.

Men for all the bad things said about them are nicer in Europe and the Middle East. They have personality and are interested in things. You might have to drink more than you want or drink a lot of tea as is the case in the Middle East. Regardless, they make sense to me more here, seems to be less castration as well.

Vilnius, Lithuania

Arrived in Vilnius today. It is a nice city with a large Old Town, lots of cobblestone streets, and signs for tourists. I met Ginta my couch surfing host around 11am and she showed me my new home for the night, a one room, what they call Stalin Building, near the central station. It is maybe seven feet wide by fifteen feet in length with a three by three bathroom. It is something a college student would live in if they had no money and was studying in New York City. Ginta seems nice, married. Today is her husband's birthday, Tomas, around thirty years old, and willing to host me on this holiest of holies because, "it isn't my couch, if it was I wouldn't host you on Christmas," and really helpful about getting around.

The church was packed this Christmas morning and the streets are quite lively around midday. It is must be above freezing because the icy streets and sidewalks are getting easier to walk. I stopped in for lunch to try zeppelins, a Lithuanian traditional food. Basically take a bunch of potatoes grind them down and fry the shit out of them, put a piece of ground meat inside and serve with sour cream. Heart attack central, I ate there twice in two days.

Tonight was Tomas' birthday, Ginte's husband of twelve years which she kept reminding us all from time to time, they are high school sweethearts. There was a small gathering of thirty or so colleaugues mostly from his office and some friends. It was definately the most fun I have had so far in The Baltic States. Everyone was in a festival Christmas mood. One girl was standoffish when I introduced myself to three people in the area of where Ginte was when I arrived there, that would change.

The man sitting next to her introduced himself in poor English and made it clear the hottie in the seat next to him was his wife. Fast forward three hours and the women is pretty smashed. She explains to me that they are divorced and share the same bed still. He is not jealous of her behavior as he hovers around five meters away keeping an eye on her. Under different circumstances I suppose I might go home with her, but who wants to get caught in the middle of this dysfunctional functional relationship involving a twelve year old son, one who works in Egypt six months a year, and one who has a huge personality shift when they drink. Of course when all is said and done he takes her home and no doubt holds her hair back when she throws up. He loves her and she is torn about something. I'm telling you, short days make people a bit nuts.

The usual characters came in and out of the picture during the night. Some guy had an American wife, some guy was a human beat box, more than one girl threw glances in the safety of their mostly male companions, beer was the drink of choice, shisha was past around outside, and by midnight a big chunk of people were checking out.

I went to Ginte's house for an hour from around two to three in the morning and got into a conversation with a very drunk Tomas and Ginte about economics, free will, and the differences between conservative and liberal thinking. You have to cut people slack when they are talking about advanced concepts in a language that isn't their native tongue. That being said, sometimes you have to rip down people's illusions and play the holier than thou card. Sometimes you are just right and they are just wrong. It was his birthday and he was shit faced so I let it slide, but his wife didn't. It was kind of like being an observer of a domestic disagreement without the animosity. A few more drinks later they were both talking about two different things like an elder couple and I took that as my cue to depart.

In the end my host in Vilnius was really interesting especially when it came to the topic of music. As a classically trained violin player I learned the following things. Drummers in an orchestra are people who hangout with a bunch of musicians like in a rock and roll band. Viola players are pussies. Conductors get all the women no matter the age. Good conductors are practically geniuses. There isn't much difference between a professional in a smaller city orchestra and a big city orchestra, but there is a huge difference between the first chair and second chair of a small city orchestra and a big city orchestra. Beethoven's ninth symphony isn't all that but it can be. It's a job just like any other job except like in a restaurant there are moments when everything clicks and there is harmony, balance, and everythng is right with the world. Before the financial crash of 2008 people were hiring violin players for all kinds of events and throwing money around. Those days are over and it is a struggle to get by.

Common themes in The Baltic States

Girls hot. Men not. Consistently higher ratios of men to women.
Leaving The Baltics for a better places means EU, not USA.
Costs high. Salaries low. Savings rate miniscuile.
English language of youth. Russian language of elders.
Big box stores everywhere. Drive. Shop. Leave.
American style shopping malls all the rave.
Estonia is the rich country with a small population and strange traditions like Finland.
Riga is the big city, but a cold place by nature and expensive.
Kaunas is a town, but I liked it in terms of making a comfortable life. Small town USA.
Vilnius is a city with a slower pace than Riga and less pretentious.
All agreed they loved their countries, but recognize other places would be better to live.

Onward Bound

We just crossed the border into Poland. It has been dark since four and luckily the temperature is in the high thirties around five degrees Celsius but the wind is fierce, negating all that warmth. Suppose to reach Warsaw around eleven tonight. All my couch surfing hosts seem to have lost their Internet connections so I will find a way to Old Town and get a hostel somewhere along the line.

The Baltic States were well worth the visit if even for a short time in the worse time of year. I wouldn't be interested in a life in Estonia. I see the real appeal of living in a city like Riga with a pulse, amazing looking women and relatively low rents, but it is expensive for everything else. Lithuania is definitely poorer than the other two, but it has a more cozy feel and the people seem somehow more down to earth and warm.