hip hip, hooray!

Summer has officially arrived in Vilnius!  Today was sweaty and sunny and it looks like all next week will be the same.  Yay!

More to come - I have seen the Baltic Coast and will tell you all about it shortly...

small talk

On weather:

 

I’ve described the fierce and marvelous sky, and the wonder of endless sunlight that bathes this euro-postcard city…but only for two months out of the year, if you’re lucky.  ‘Jonines’, or the summer solstice, is a pagan festival that celebrates the earth’s nearest proximity to the sun.  It is a gradual process by which the days get unnaturally (for me, being from northeast coast of USA) long, sunlight shining past 10pm, as the climate becomes warmer and drier every day sending the natives into a frenzy of tank tops and outdoor dining. 

 

For the rest of the 10 or so months of the year this country is freezing, grey, wet and dark…dark for almost entire days, building to a gradual vacuum of light revolving around the winter solstice.  I do not long to experience this part of the year.  I get plenty shivers just hearing about it. 

 

I cannot tell you just how cold it gets, but I hear its pretty damn cold.  I can tell you that it does get downright gorgeous here around the summer solstice.  Last time I was here, in late May, we had a wave of unseasonably warm weather – low 80’s and not a drop of condensation.  While this is supposed to be characteristic of late June through July we have only had a few precious days like this so far.  When the sun is loosed upon us, it is delicious.  When the rain clouds return, it is maddening.  At times the rain will go on for days without a break, and that can really get in the way of getting your summer on.  The rain here is always cold and always damp.  After a few days of it one may develop mold on her scalp.

 

On tourism:

 

The last time I was here in May of 2007 I felt like an adventurous American exploring a city less traveled.  I commented on the local fashion trends with condescending humor, because let’s be honest – they weren’t ‘Betsy Johnson’ colorful, they were ‘Telemundo’ colorful.  Now I find that the natives have added some very important elements to their wardrobe, like the low-rise skinny jean, the designer hoodie and the hipster haircut.  Vilnius is looking more like Brooklyn than Eastern Europe! 

 

This time I am not here alone representing the States.  Amongst the wide range of languages I hear people speaking on the streets, shopping bags on their arms filled with the booty of a long, beer-filled day of dropping exchanged cash, I hear something that rustles the cilia of my inner ear like a lusty breath – Americanus!  Everywhere I turn, American English dots my aural landscape like dandelions. Can it be that an influx of American tourism is helping to usher this young democracy, a teenager nation, into cultural hyperdrive?

 

I wonder this, then walk past a folk dancing group that meets in the same church courtyard every Thursday.  I see young kids in metal band t-shirts dancing with well-dressed ladies, young families and older residents, all exchanging arms and swinging around in ancient dance rituals to the folky harmonium music being played.  And I realize that no amount of tourist residue can make these people forget what they have struggled for centuries to keep alive.  We don’t really have anything like this back home.  I like what I see here.

 

And check this out:

 

 

Every evening between the hours of 9pm and 11pm the sky becomes a masterpiece of bouncing light and colors.  It is breathtaking, and no photo can capture every detail of the hypnotizing swirls of pink clouds blanketing the sky.  No camera lens can reflect the delicate balance of grey and pink illumination of the space around you.  This can only exist in the moment you experience it.  Between the hours of 9pm and 11pm Vilnius is saturated in beautiful twilight, and I absolutely love being in it.

snacks to the beer

Traditional Lithuanian food is pretty frightening to me.  That said, Vilnius is a modern city where you can find salads with avocado, pizza, sundaes, even the occasional cheeseburger (although I have not seen many).  Most late night snacking consists of items affectionately termed “beer snacks” on menus, and these are predominantly fried oddities like pigs’ ears and rye bread doused with mayonnaise and cheese. 

 

Beer (alus) is a serious part of every meal.  There are 3 major local beers that every place sells: Svyturys, Kalnapilis and Utenos.  This is like the Bud, Miller and Coors tri-fecta, but much, MUCH tastier.  You can usually find one of these brands, if not several or all of them, on tap at any restaurant.  In addition to the local beers, you can get other European beers (mostly German) at some places.  Wine is also popular here, but if you’re not a beer drinker you are sorely missing out on one of the finer things Lithuanian.

 

As for the traditional foods, if you are of weak stomach or slow metabolism I recommend you vacation somewhere else.  3 major elements to this food:  mayonnaise or cream, heavy starch and boiled meat.  One traditional dish I do love is their variation on borscht, ‘saltibarciai’.  It is a cold beet soup served with sour cream, hard boiled egg and potatoes seasoned and boiled on the side.  It is delicious and filling and very hard to fail at any restaurant.  When in doubt, order this. 

 

Zepellinis are basically boiled pork torpedoes in a huge, starchy gnocchi-like shell that weigh about half a pound each (you usually get 2 on a plate) covered in a sour cream and cheese sauce with fried pork bits.  It’s the kind of food you want to eat before getting deported to Siberia, because it will keep you full for a good week and a half.  Potato pancakes (blynai) are a beloved national dish and it is traditionally served with sour cream.  Salotas means salad, and I think the original definition of salotas is a dish also found in Russian culture of peas, boiled egg, boiled potato, carrots and mayonnaise.  You will find several variations of what we know as ‘cole slaw’ as a side.  What we call salad, they will refer to as ‘vegetables’ in English.  When you see ‘with vegetables’ on the menu, they mean lettuce, tomatoes and maybe a stray olive. 

zepelinai with cracklings

blynai 

A staple of the Lithuanian diet is a delicious interpretation of rye bread called ‘black bread’.  It is dense and sour and so yummy with just about anything (although I wouldn’t use it to make pbj, obviously).  Maxima, and other grocery stores, will sell this bread in a big chunk, the old-fashioned way.  I recommend buying this bread.  It is very fresh and soft in the middle and like all foods wholesome natural – it goes bad in a few days. 

 

You may be tempted to buy a pre-made sandwich at Maxima and throw it in your bag for that pang of hunger you get while touring a city on foot.  Don’t do it.  This isn’t Paris.  Just exchange your American cash and sit at a café (kavine) for lunch.  Don’t worry, you get something like 2.5 litas to every dollar so you’re not going to blow your spending money on food.  The sandwiches are pretty gross unless you like mayo (of course), wilted vegetables (or what we call salad) and mystery meat.  I don’t think it’s a sandwich culture.

 

There are other traditional dishes that have more of an international skew, like the roast chicken, sausage dishes or the pork chop.  These are not bad, just the standard roasted or fried meat cut with local style sides.  Chicken, pork and beef are great but I tend to shy away from fish dishes when I am not right by a huge body of water.  (I’m sure its fine but you can refer to my description of the fish department at Maxima, entry # 3)