LATEST23 December 2006 Somewhere, United States The scores are in and I am writing this one last email, one week after returning home. Still struggling to adjust back to life in America...or struggling to find the desire to want to adjust back, you choose.
My last stop in the Baltics...Vilnius. Yet another capital city. Overall, I would say that the Baltic countries are all pretty similar to each other... and yet they have 3 separate languages and currencies.
August 7 It has been raining a lot since i got here and so it is cold and wet. I have wandered around and popped into shops, sights and churches, but not seen anything to write about besides maybe the KGB museum that was grim but very interesting. I saw all of the secret ways that the officers were told to spy on people and pose as civilians, etc. Samples of confiscated items were on display such as a "highly suspicious" book that had a picture of President Reagan in it. Such a threat. There was also the prisons and torture chambers downstairs, etc. Glad I did not come here in the 1980s when they would have tapped my hotel phone because I was a foreigner.
I have been spending a lot of time with other backpackers here. I regularly meet and hang out with people and never mention it in this blog unless I am with then for many days at a time. We hang out, see sights, eat together, swap stories and talk about politics, travel, religion, culture, whatever. Many of them party or go to clubs a lot but others are laid back and then there are always a few dread-locked hippies. The people are not very judgemental and so you make quick friends, mainly about 18-28 years old who just want to travel and explore. While some are on yearlong "gap year" trips, some just are on a 4 week holiday. It seems much easier to me for Europeans to travel since many jobs give then 5 weeks of vacation a year!
August 8 On to Uzupio! There is a section of Vilnius that has separated itself from the city and gotten everything in order such as a mayor and written constitution. Not more than a few blocks in size, it is home to mainly a unique artist community. The posted constitution was fun- rules such as:
Everyone has the right to love and care for the cat.
Everyone has the right for the river to flow by their house.
Everyone has the right to celebrate or not celebrate their birthday.
