Lithuanian Gems

Reflection is a powerful tool. Many people often look back on things they have done or places they have been, and say, "Man, I don't know why I did that/why I went there." We have decided to take this opportunity to review some of our memories from Lithuania. Memories that will last a lifetime, crack smiles on our faces and maybe you'll even get a little chuckle from reading these. I'm sure you've heard of people referring to the good, the bad, and the ugly; we're going after the ugly in this post.

To recap our time in Lithuania we flew into the capital city of Vilnius on Monday, June 1st sat down in the bus and headed across the country to the sea-side city of Klaipeda. We arrived on another cobblestone street at an old Bed & Breakfast without internet... To make things more interesting, we headed out on a tour with a guide to rival Ben Stein. Klaipeda's history involves a lot of being bombed (as does Vilnius'); thus many places do not exist there anymore. To make up for these disappearances we got to see the following:

We were fortunate enough to see a mouse:

Here, someone decided to paint a map of the city on the wall:

It wouldn't be a city tour without seeing the local gutters (yes, that is a dragon):


Day 2 was able to live up to the drastically high standards set from this tour. We started out our day by taking an 8 minute ferry ride to the local Dolphinarium. This facility housed penguins, adult as well as new born seals, an array of fish, sea loins, and obviously dolphins in an old Latvian armament (logical). So, our group of business students went to the aquarium:


After getting to see the sea creatures a few of us decided to see what weapons they used to defend the country. First a look from the other side of the hill, see anything?:



Now a picture looking at the heavy artillery:

The afternoon called for a lecture from a professor that did not particularly care for the great country of the United States of America. To end a busy day a few of us headed to a restaurant that was apparently "American" according to the travel book. Check it:

Boo yah kasha. We cannot say that we even expected to see the Stars and the Stripes, especially joint with the Confederate flag providing a back drop to a bust of a Native American... Klaipeda did provide us with plenty of the wondrous Svytury's beer, but all good things must come to an end. Friday, we drove back across the country to Vilnius. Speaking of vehicles, the Lithuanians were able to think of the one thing the fabled German engineers at Audi could not:A gorgeous, phallus resembling trailor hitch... We'll keep you up-to-date on when this will be available in the United States.

Vilnius has been named The Cultural Capital of Europe this year. Our tour guide, Margharita, was much more affluent here, and we began at the beautiful Vilnuis Cathedral. She informed us that there is an entire system of underground tunnels in Vilnuis, and recently they had been excavating some behind the cathedral:


See anything out of place? Take a closer look:


Yeah, that's what we thought to; but we wont dwell on that. Although this post is meant to focus on the humorous aspects of the trip we will end it with a visit to one of Lithuania's newest monuments. A group of Lithuanians wanted to test out their new democratic system in an attempt to understand their new freedoms. They all had a common hero in their lives and decided to commemorate his life. He never actually had the opportunity to visit the country, but that's not the point. As we leave you with this picture we hope everyone enjoyed reading and we continue to follow our excursions for the duration of the trip. Ladies and gentlemen, in memory of an American musical legend, the one and only Frank Zappa Monument:


Thanks for reading,
John & Thomas