Lithuania

Lithuania map (+ marks Klaipeda)

We arrived in Klaipeda, Lithuania, sometime between 3 and 4am. I'm sure that everyone was as exhausted -- due to the late hour and the stress of "the accident" -- as I was, but since it had been a while since Flavio, Aushra (Flavio's wife), and their two boys had seen Brian, Clarice, and Dalia, everyone was more interested in talking, catching up, etc. than sleeping. Aushra prepared a nice meal for us -- beef and potatoes with (optional) locally made horseradish for dipping. I enjoyed the meal and participated in a toast with Lithuanian beer but needed to sleep, so at around 5am, I excused myself and went to my assigned bed (in the room with their now-sleeping boys), while the other adults stay up and talked for another hour or so.
On the next day, most of us slept late, and then there wasn't much left of the day. I tagged along with Flavio when he went to the local fish market, so I could get my first daylight glimpses of Klaipeda.

Klaipeda near Flavio's apartment

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Glimpse of the Baltic Sea from Klaipeda's port

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On Christmas Eve, I went with Clarice and Aushra to the "Akropolis", which is a gigantic American-style mall (including a movie theater, bowling alley, and indoor ice skating rink). It's huge, even by American standards. I was a "mall rat" for a few hours, wandering alone, while Clarice and Aushra did their last-minute Christmas shopping.

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In the evening, we all got gussied up in our best duds (dressed up) to go to Aushra's parents' house for the huge family gathering. This was one of the highlights of my stay in Lithuania -- it was really interesting and enjoyable to participate in the local traditions from within a family. The meal began with a ceremony led by Aushra's father. He passed out communion wafers (the flat disk-shaped, cracker-like things that Christian churches sometimes use for the communion ritual) to each head-of-household (ie. adult male). Then he stood, broke a piece off of his wafer and fed it to his wife, saying approximately: "I hope that you will have a wonderful year, full of happiness, by my side in 2008." Then he went to each of his children and their spouses and wished them individual, wishes of joy and success in the coming year. He also included me in this level of well-wishing, saying (roughly) in English, "I hope you will have a wonderful time in my house tonight and will feel as though this is your home. We all hope that your time in Lithuania will be filled with enjoyment and that you will take with you nice memories of your visit to our home." Each adult then milled around the room giving their children, spouses, and siblings (and me) warm wishes for the coming year (while breaking off and feeding a piece of their wafer to the other person).

Christmas Eve family gathering at Aushra's parents' apartment

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Traditional Lithuanian food (at least in this coastal town) is most composed of fish-related dishes -- pickled herring, caviar, fried fish, salty shrimp jello, fish relishes and casseroles. The other memorable additions to the meal were a thick, red, berry-tasting gelatin-like drink and baked potatoes with -- you won't believe this: cannabis topping. Apparently rope-making (with cannabis) has a long-standing tradition for shipbuilding in Klaipeda... and one day (perhaps hundreds of years ago), someone said: "I wonder what it would taste like if we dry some of this extra cannabis (left over shreds from rope manufacturing) and sprinkle it on our baked potatoes..." And so it became a tradition. Cannabis doesn't have a tremendous amount of taste, but it had a slightly salty, toasted taste that nicely complemented the taters. (And no, I didn't get high as a kite -- or even buzzed -- from eating this delicacy.)

Sample of the spread

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Cannabis is the brown powder in the bowl to the left of the potatoes
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After dinner, we sat around and watched a Lithuanian Christmas mass on the television, while drinking Lithuanian beer. A small group of us -- Flavio, Clarice, Brian, and I discussed various topics related to politics -- comparing and contrasting Lithuanian, Brazilian, German, and American viewpoints on the politicians, the Iraq war, crime, corruption, etc. Then the children of the family gathered the whole family to a back room for a family talent show. Each of the five kids gave four or five performances of some sort -- singing dancing, rhymes, stories (all, of course, in Lithuanian). Occasionally Clarice translated what was being said for me. Lastly, we went back into the dining room and opened presents. I was pleasantly surprised to receive several gifts of locally produced wine and liqueurs.

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On Christmas morning (back at Flavio's and Aushra's apartment), we opened presents again. The children were, of course, wild with excitement of their latest gadget, toy, spiderman-related contraption. And I was again surprised to receive two additional gifts: a calendar/diary book and a Klaipeda T-shirt.

Opening presents on X-mas morn

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At around 10am we rushed off to Christmas mass (Lithuanians are mostly Catholics). The service had a somewhat old-world traditional feel to it (from my American perspective) and reminded me of Orthodox Christrian services I've attended in the past, because the priest sang and chanted much of his text. This old-world feel was mixed, however, with the very modern "praise band" type choir, complete with electric guitars and drums. It was also interesting to see the inclusion of a lit and decorated Christmas tree in the front of the sanctuary -- just next to a nativity scene. And even more surprising: Immediately after the service, the priest left the building briefly and then quickly returned dressed as Santa, beckoning the children to join him for presents at the alter.

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Santa's gathering after the service (Santa is bending down to get presents, so he's not visible)

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After the service, we joined an even larger gathering of Aushra's family at her brother's apartment. There was another huge feast prepared, followed by another talent show from the kids (but this time, the adults were convinced to join in), and a final appearance of Santa with candy and small toys for the kiddies.

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Brian & I singing a rousing rendition of PDQ Bach's "Please, Kind Sir"

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On the 26th, Flavio, Brian, and I drove to Kaunas. The main purpose of the trip was to deliver me to the bus station, where I would catch the night bus for Krakow, Poland. Along the way, however, we stopped to see a holocaust-related mass grave memorial, had traditional Lithuanian food in the Kaunas mall, and walked around a fort/castle at dusk. I boarded my bus at around 11pm.

The Accident...

I spent almost two weeks in eastern Europe during the December holidays. Since I've got pics and tales from each place I visited, I'll segment the trip into four posts -- The Accident, Lithuania, Poland, and the Czech Republic.

On Dec. 21, I met my friends Brian (former Northwestern Univ. classmate), Clarice (Brian's wife), and Dalia (their 3-year-old daughter) in Braunschweig, a town 130 miles SE of Oldenburg. They live in Heidelberg and had decided to drive to Klaipeda, Lithuania, for Christmas this year. (Clarice and her brother, Flavio, grew up in Brazil, but their heritage -- three generations back -- is Lithuanian. Once the Soviet Union fell and Lithuania became an independent country, Flavio decided to connect with his roots and moved to Lithuania, where he married and has three children).
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Our route from Braunschweig, Germany, to Klaipeda, Lithuania

From my hopping-on point in Braunschweig, the road trip took around 18 hours of driving (not including breaks). We stopped for the night on the German side of the border with Poland on the first night. The hotel was beautifully renovated, grand old building, and each room only cost 45 euros. And the hotel put out an incredible breakfast buffet spread in the morning -- just for us four! Breads, cheeses, eggs, meats, jellies, relishes, fresh fruit, cereals, yogurt.

Much of the long drive time was consumed sitting in traffic jams in Poland. It seemed that everywhere we tried to drive, we encountered stand-stills and VERY slow traffic. Here is a photo I took from Brian's & Clarice's van as we drove along the highway through western Poland on this frosty morning.
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Frosty Polish morning
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At around 11pm, we entered Lithuania. Not long after this, the excitement began...

I was exhausted from weeks of far too little sleep, final exams, and my lingering cold, so I was dozing in the front passenger seat, while Brian drove the van. Clarice and Dalia sat in the back seat and tried to sleep too. At around 12:30, I awoke to a loud "THUMP" on the windshield in front of me and an exclamation from Brian: "Oh, my God! I just hit a man!" Clarice had opened her eyes at precisely the right moment to also catch a glimpse of the ghostly figure that apparently came out of nowhere and somehow collided with our vehicle... so she also became frantic. Brian slowed and pulled the van over into the right shoulder. It was pitch-black outside, as there were no street lamps or signs of civilization nearby -- just a dark highway in the middle of nowhere, Lithuania. Brian slowly backed up the van in the shoulder, but since he couldn't see anything in the rear-view mirror (gifts for Clarice's family were piled floor-to-ceiling in the back), he stopped after 10-15 yards. "What should I do?" Brian asked aloud. "We have to go back," Clarice advised. "Yeah, but you don't wanna run over the guy twice," I chimed in. Eventually, Brian decided to drive to the next exit and take the "cloverleaf" to get back on the highway going the opposite way. Once he was sure we had passed the point where the incident occurred, he exited the highway again and re-entered traveling in the original direction.

By this time, Clarice had called her brother, Flavio, on a cell phone and described the situation to him. Flavio then called the local police to report the incident. "What-if"s were racing in all of our minds. "What was that guy doing walking in the middle of the autobahn?" Brian asked aloud, exasperation starting to show in his voice. "What if Brian killed a man tonight?" I wondered silently. "How will this change Brian's life forever?"... "And what about Clarice's and Dalia's lives?"

Although I'd heard something smack against the windshield, as I awoke from my reverie, something didn't quite seem right about Brian's statement: If we ran over someone, there should've been much more noise (and probably multiple noises, as the person was forced under or over the van). But I only heard one relatively small bang on the right side of the windshield. "What if Brian and Clarice just imagined it? Is there anything else that might have just looked like a person?"

Brian drove slowly and carefully, as we returned toward the dreaded location. We drove for what seemed like an eternity, finding nothing. Then finally... in the distance, we saw a man. He was staggering around in the right shoulder of the highway. Brian pulled over and shined his headlights on the man. As two other cars passed, the man walked out into the road and held out his hand in an apparent attempt to hit the cars (or to stop them). Thanks to Brian's headlights, the cars saw the man and were able to veer to the left to avoid him. "He's trying to get hit," Brian said aloud. "He's either crazy or he's very drunk," Clarice added.

Then the man returned to the shoulder and finally seemed to notice our vehicle. As he approached, we could see that his right hand was covered in blood. He also had what looked like a few minor cuts on his face. "Lock the doors," I warned Brian. Perhaps I've seen a few too many Twilight Zone episodes and/or horror flicks, but it just seemed like a bad idea to give this guy access to the van -- even if we injured his hand. The man yelled through my closed window that we should open the door and take him somewhere (per Clarice's Lithuanian translation). He tried unsuccessfully to open my door and smeared blood across the side window. Clarice scolded him to stay out of the road. He seemed to understand her message and began walking forward, away from us. As another group of cars passed, the man repeated his attempts to stop them. Once again, Brian's headlights were sufficient to warn the other cars.

After around ten minutes, the man got angry with our bright light and began yelling at us. His body language was sufficient to understand what he was saying: "Either take me into town or move on down the road! Your presence is cramping my style and getting in the way of my objectives." When we didn't leave, the man walked across the four-lane highway and vanished into complete darkness on the opposite side. We waited for 45 minutes before the police arrived on the scene (from Flavio's call). Clarice explained to the policeman what had happened, so he and his partner crossed the median and began searching (with a flashlight) on the opposite shoulder. Finding nothing, they said there was nothing more they could do.

A few minutes before the police arrived, we noticed that the passenger side mirror of the van was now missing -- apparently the man's hand had taken it off (the "bang") -- it had apparently already been cracked and unsturdy -- so Clarice asked if the policeman could write a report stating the situation, in order to get the mirror replaced through the insurance company. Since they couldn't confirm that the reported man actually existed (or that he caused the damage), they couldn't help us. So we drove onward toward Klaipeda.

"There he is again!" Brian exclaimed. Sure enough, the same man was 100 feet ahead of us standing in the road with his right hand outstretched. Brian whipped the car around, crossed the median and raced back in the other direction to inform the policemen. He flashed his headlights at them as they exited the highway. Once they stopped, Clarice explained that we had found the man again, a little further ahead. We followed them, as they slowly drove along the highway -- another eternity -- and then finally pulled over into the shoulder. They had found him -- hooray! They discussed the accident with the man, who apparently claimed that Brian drove into the shoulder while he had been peacefully walking along the road, minding his own business. The policeman gave us two choices: (1) Go with them to the nearest hospital, where they would take blood-alcohol measurements for both the man and Brian (as our driver). If the man was determined to be drunk (and Brian not), then we could get a police report; or (2) we were free to go (but without the police report). Since it was now a little past 1:30 in the morning, and we still had 90 minutes to drive, we opted for the second alternative.

Global Warming Advice

A friend sent me a link to this Youtubevideo, and I think it's particularly well done. Clever and funny but provides rational, clear-headed advice for our civilization regarding the "global warming" issue. Is it real, or is it fiction? What if it's just a farce... What it's not? Just check out this video.

www.neutralexistence.com/blog/is-man-made-global-warming-real-or-fiction
(Please note: This link was previously incorrect, but I've corrected it - Apr. 7, '08)