Wednesday, May 7th, Klaipeda, Lithuania

Greetings!

We took a short ferry ride to a 80 mile long peninsula today known as the Curonian Spit, whose southern half belongs to Russia, and the northern half to Lithuania.  A massive sand dune and UNESCO World Heritage site, it straddles a protected lagoon on one side and the Baltic Sea on the other. 

In the 12th century, the spit was the home of a now nearly extinct Baltic ethnic group (the Curonian-Kusiai) reputedly credited with fierce warrior-like reputations.

Just south of the landing are of the ferry, he spit road leads up to a trail known to locals as the "Hill of Witches".  Forty years ago, dozens of wooden-carved totems were installed depicting figures from legends of mythological figures, including serpents, goblins, and devils. 

Finally, we drove to near where Lithuania and Russia meet for a view of both the Lagoon and the Baltic Sea.  We walked along the Baltic beach looking for washed up amber, before visiting an amber museum and learning how to clean and polish small pieces of the ancient tree resin.  

The Baltic Region contains the largesst deposit of natural amber in the world, dating back approximately 44 million years to when the melting ice caps created the world's largest estuary covering forests of pine in an area the size of Canada.  Currently, storms in the Baltic wash up sunken shards of amber, to be found afterward on the beach.

To see all of the photos taken today, click on Wednesday, May 7th, Klaipeda, Lithuania.
 

 

Tuesday, May 6th, Klaipeda, Lithuania

Greetings!

On our way to Klaipeda in western Lithuania, we stopped into an open-air ethnographic museum consisting of 18th & 19th century rural dwellings and farmsteads.  

We were able to gain insights into the history, lifestyles, and character of Lithuania's four main regions.  We were hosted by a local resident who shared her knowledge of folk traditions and ceremonies. 

We also met with a 97-year old survivor of the Siberian labor camps, whose family was transported from Lithuania to Yukutze when she was 13 years old, and who spent eight years in Siberia before escaping to travel another eight years before she could return to Lithuania.

To see all of the photos taken today, click on Tuesday, May 6th, Klaipeda, Lithuania.

Monday, May 5th, Vilnius, Lithuania

Greetings1

We started the day listening to a university professor providing us with a talk about recent Lithuanian history.  Ahead of the rest of the Soviet states, Lithuania gained independence in in 1992 after groups of citizens staged civil disobedience demonstrations.  After a particularly violent confrontation led to an economic shutdown of the country, and inadvertently isolated the Soviet state of Kaliningrad, Gorbachev agreed to end his blockade.

Boarding our Tour bus, we headed to the Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fights, located in the Central KGB Headquarters.  Long corridors of locked rooms housing dissidents until their deaths by firing squad, or transfer to Siberian labor camps.  Accounting for 724 deaths in this prison alone, over 280,000 were killed in Lithuania from 1941 to 1944.

Next, we drove to Trakai, home of 200 of the estimated 2,200 remaining Karai in the world.  Originating as Turkish Kipchaks, this ethnic group was brought from Crimeain the 14th century to act as bodyguards for a nearby castle.  

Invited to a cooking lesson to prepare our own lunch, we made kibinai (a savory meat pastrie) and were given an excellent lecture from the chef on the traditions of Karaite culture.  
 

To see all of the photos taken today, click on Monday, May 5th, Vilnius, Lithuania.

Sunday, May 4th, Vilnius, Lithuania

 

Greetings!

Finally, there was a reason we brought our raincoats and umbrellas.  The weather report said that we were in for a sprinkle, and it turned out to be much more.  Cold hands juggling umbrellas and cameras, and growing puddles to avoid getting wet feet.  

After a welcoming briefing after breakfast, Ella (our local guide) took us on a walking tour of the Lithuanian capital.  The people whose country stretched from the Baltics to the Black Sea now govern a small European remnant north of Belarus and Poland.  Founded in 1579, when Jesuits were invited to fight against Catholic reformers by establishing the first (and now largest) university in Europe, it's the Vilnius University.  There, we listened to Arturus, tellus about life as a young person in Vilnius.

After lunch in a local restaurant, the group headed off in different directions for some individual exploration before meeting back at the hotel in the late afternoon.  Our main tour guide, Paulius, then led us to the Republic of Uzupis, a kind of bohemian artist community founded one April Fools Day and maintaining a light-hearted approach to independence and anti-establishment status ever since.

To see all of the photos taken today, click on Sunday, May 4th, Vilnius, Lithuania. 
 

Saturday, May 3rd, Vilnius, Lithuania

Greetings!

 Today, we packed up our bags, and headed to the Airport for a flight to Lithuania.  Our tour guide for Poland (Monika Auksutyte) managed exceptionally well our logistics and happiness, and we all were very reluctant to say goodbye to her upon arrival at the Congress Hotel in Vilnius.

Having spent almost the entire day getting here and obtaining our rooms, our new local country guide took us on a walk from the Hotel to the City Center, and then to dinner at a local restaurant. 

On the way, we encountered a parade of almost 500 motorcycles ridden by celebrants of the opening day of their riding season.  The roaring of their engines became almost unbearable at times, and no one dared cross he street anywhere near their routes.

To see all of the evening walk photos, click on Saturday, May 3rd, Vilnius, Lithuania.

Friday, May 2nd, Warsaw, Poland

Friday, we set out by bus for a city tour of Poland's flourishing capital.  Unlike Krakow, much of Warsaw was destroyed in World War II, and since then, the city has used its vivacious spirit to rebuild.  We walked through Lazienski Park, the largest park in Poland, and full of historical buildings designed by centuries of renowned architects for the City's political elite.

Chopin is the most famous locally-born resident by far, and his heart is truly here.  Several in our tour attended a concert this evening in the Warsaw Concert Hall to excellent reviews.  In a local park, speakers in benches play excerpts of his music at the push of a button.

To see all of the photos taken today, click on Friday, May 2nd, Warsaw, Poland.

Thursday, May 1st, Warsaw, Poland

Greetings!

Our travels took us to Warsaw on Thursday, by train from Krakow.  In the morning, a local guide (Deedee) walked us through some areas of the oldest section of the Jewish Quarter in Podorze.  We visited Oskar Shindler's Enamel Factory.  Next to a museum which provides a unique perspective on life in Krakowfrom 1939 to 1945, displaying 45 meticulously assembled rooms designed to show what streets, hair salons, train stations, and more looked like in Krakow during this contentious period in history.  

We then walked to the Ghetto Heroes Square, dedicated to the memory of the victims of the Krakow Ghetto.  The former Concord Square was the place where 300,000 Jews had to congregate to be deported.  In 1943, when all but 15,000 young and employable residents had been deported, the belongings which the Jews had managed to carry on their last journey to Plaszow or Auschwitz accumulated on the square.   

According to Tadeusz Pankkiewicz, the proprietor of a chemist shop at number 18 on the square.  “An incalculable amount of furniture which had been carried backwards and forwards countless times was rotting”.  That witness, who was not a Jew, ran Apteka Pod Orlem, a chemist's shop at number 18 of the square which was the only one in the whole Ghetto which the Nazis allowed to continue with its activity due to the fear of spreading epidemics. Taking advantage of the concession, the pharmacy provided the Jews not only with medicine, but also with smuggled groceries, information from the outside and a space for the clandestine meetings of the resistance.

In the Old Jewish Quarter in Kazimierz, we visited the Remah Synagogue, and then peered into one of the oldest Jewish cemeteries.

To see all of the photos taken today, click on Thursday, May 1st, Warsaw, Poland.