January 2009. Chile

Photos to come.

Great experience with helpful assistance of:
Charles Hallifax email -
request@experiencechile.org
www.experiencechile.org

The Last Entry for Summer 2008: Vilnius

Our first time was great! Looking forward to the new adventures!

Going Back Home

This is the final entry of the blog. We decided to leave 2 weeks early. The city was starting to become a routine and it was time to get back to the real life. We enjoyed our time in LT and had many amazing experiences there. It was great to share so many of them with friends and relatives in LT and outside who made time for us this summer. We are very grateful for it.

We are looking forward to our other travels.

Day 62 – Lake Siersartis

In accordance to our custom we arrived to Alicia’s apartment at 9:30 and watched everyone scour around getting ready. Then we got on our way.

There was a small camp set up at the old place. We had the next space over. The next acre was apparently sold to someone and the owners put up a fresh fence in time since our last visit. They also set up a wooden table and log benches, built a staircase to the lake and the slide for the boats. We made extensive use of the second one. The land beyond is owned by someone too assuming “Private” sign does not mean the bathroom. They are selling in 2 hectare packages. It is possible that the next time this lake will be fully fenced up.

Dan and Andrei put the bricks to use and soon had potatoes and shashlyk ready, and then some more of shashlyk. Dan and Isolde also went to Maxima and got some desert, bread, and dry saugages. Geogia, Natasha, and I picked blueberries and linden berries (without the sugar syrup they are nothing to write about). Alicia either sat by the fire on a little folding chair or walked around our camp with a wooden stick like a weathered sherpa. Dusty, the dog, had a good time too with everyone taking the turns throwing the stick to him. The difference between him and a retriever is that he gets the stick, just never gives it up to you. In between the meals we went swimming. That is Natasha went swimming with Dustin, while Dan, Isolde, and I paid our tribute by doing a quick dip. Georgia picked rocks near the water.

We had awesome time! Apparently it was the first time for N, A, I, & D while in LT. We left at about 4:30 – Natasha will wanted to stay but we had to return our gas buzzler to the car rental company – someone else wanted it at 6.

Natasha and Isolde came and hanged out with us in the evening. We walked around with them after 10 – the city was unusually alive, especially around St. Katherine’s. It stayed unusually alive till 6am. Even the burger place across the street was open. Maybe it has something to do with DDT and 10 other groups coming over to perform at Vingis the next day 12-24. We wanted to go too but we did not know at what time DDT would be performing.

Day 61 – Making some travel changes

We planned a pretty busy weekend. On Friday we will go to Moletai and do barbeque there. On Saturday we may go fishing with Vitalik or do the catacomb tour with Diana or go up to the Gediminas castle. On Sunday we will go to Poland to Bialistok and will come back on Monday afternoon. Alicia and her guest would join us on Friday and in Poland.

Vitalik and Diana came for lunch today. We went to Bistro 18. They liked it there.

The rest of the day was not very eventful. In the afternoon I did a bit of shopping. We got a car rental from Aunela for 90LT per day. Bestcar did not have the car for all 4 days. They dropped it off in our backyard – it is beat up Mitsubishi Colt with 150K km on it. You need two people open the trunk. The worst thing was that it did not have built in hooks for the car seat and you have to attach the car seat with seatbelts.

We drove to Alicia’s to discuss the plans for tomorrow – we were planning to go to the same place on lake Siesartis. Alicia was worried that her crowd will not be ready till the late afternoon and urged us to convince them to leave at least at noon. We planned to leave at 10am. There are very few resources available in English about the region. While some name good lakes to visit there is no information about availability of BBQ pits or whether the dogs are allowed.

At the dark of the night Dan stole away with the baby stroller. He came back with a rich loot – 4 bricks from the never-ending construction on Pilies. We plan to return them by the beginning of the business day on Monday. There are way to many BBQers in town.

Day 58-59 – Back to Our Thing

Dan’s mom left on Monday morning. We have 22 days left here.

Georgia is back in daycare. She was very reasonable about it – did not cry or anything. The only thing in daycare center there are no familiar faces. Everyone is away of vacation and substitutes are running the place. Even the cook is different. In Georgia’s group there are only 5 other kids which is a good thing. There is a tired looking Russian-speaking lady and a young girl who only speaks Lithuanian as a nanny. I was a bit uncomfortable about this but when I picked Georgia up at noon she seemed happy and her hair was re-braided (and they did a far better job).

On Tuesday we decided to get back to our restaurant statistics and went to Sauni Vietele for lunch and Pilies Kepyklele for dinner. Both were pleasant surprises. We found the first place last week. It takes a bit long but the food is really good. Did not know you can stuff so much butter in the chicken Kiev. I ordered chicken with peaches and cheese and it arrived in the same format as Chicken Kiev – deep fried coating with conserved peaches stuffed inside covered in garlic-cheese sauce.

In the afternoon we walked around lower Uzipis. Dan does not see any charm in the area. It does look a bit drawn out. There are some pretty areas and some nasty that try to pass off their ugliness as a somehow artistic. We saw another Pottery artist guild shop. This one was probably displaying the work to the first semester pottery students.

On Saviciaus we went inside Aukso Avis gallery. It is one of the prettiest textile and glass galleries in the city. As one of store centerpieces they have a quilt with pictures from Kama Sutra on it. That’s the right way to make a quilt. However 3900LT tag scared us off the erotic scenes. They also have a pillow with breasts (done in 3-D). Could be an eye catcher at some bachelor’s pad.

Later we walked over to Pilies Passages (at the beginning of Pilies). We pass it every time we walk on this street and never went inside. Inside there is a neat little courtyard with Mexican restaurant that seems to open on demand, Spanish wine store called Rioja, a fashion store, and a Japanese garden in front of the Japanese gallery. When we crossed the tiny bridge and walked through the door to the gallery we saw a group of women inside drawing and writing on papyrus. There were flowers and bamboo inside. It looked really peaceful. We did not want to disturb them and left.

We had dinner at Pilies Kepyklele next door. It is a beautiful place. Our waitress was like a meteor – the best service yet. And we were happy with the food as well. We all sat together on a bench and enjoyed ourselves.

Day 60 – Walking with Isolde

Finally figured out why most of the intersections are dug up – the city is installing the new traffic lights. Usually they have both sets up before taking off the old lights but today they took off the old lights before putting in the new ones on a busy intersection near the kindergarten. Without a traffic cop it made crossing a really special experience. I felt pretty comfortable though because not that many would want to hit a stroller with a kid in it.

Isolde came over for lunch today and we went to Sue’s Indian Raja restaurant. It was such a great experience last time, we were looking forward to today. It was also Isolde’s first trip to the Indian restaurant.

Unfortunately the chef must be away on vacation or something. The food looked Indian but no longer tasted as such. The rice and nan were dry, all the meats were characterless and not even spicy. It was disappointing. But at least Isolde liked it - and most especially mango lassi.

After we put Georgia to sleep, Isolde and I walked around the nearby galleries, visited a few boutiques. 350LT for a t-shirt with a sign "Slow Women Crossing", darn, anyone? We also went inside abandoned house. It was really great. Most of the first floor is broken up down to the brick. But there is one apartment – with apparently nice looking door (very similar to ours). To get there you have to step over some shaky boards that were placed to block the hole to the basement. There is a beautiful flower store in the same building. It has metal mesh floor allowing to see the old basement underneath.

Isolde commented that there is not such thing as unified dress style in Vilnius. People are a lot more relaxed about how they appear and you see all sorts of styles and colors. It is not like that in Kaunas and Yekaterinburg. There one tries to fulfill the “standard fashionable” wardrobe requirements and then if funds allow move on to the higher level brands. A large population of local and visiting Goths adds to the color of Vilnius. Many have interesting piercings (like one straight in the middle of the cheek), tattoos, wildly colored hair and clothing designs. There is one element of clothing that seems prevalent on most women – scarves. I’ve been getting hungry for one looking at all the varieties of colors and textures.

For dinner we went to Alicia. She and Natasha made an awesome meal and we had a really good time.

Natasha and Andrei told us about their trip to Svintoe. Due to the bad weather there was much less people than usual. Just a week ago, in nice weather you used to have to use the stroller as a crowd-breaker to get through. They were not able to stay at their usual guest house because the owner was staying there and she hates dogs. So the guest house manager got them a room at the hotel that caters to dog owners. They liked it and decided to stay even after the owner left. There is a new law whereby dogs cannot swim in the sea. It is OK to frolic in the protected dunes among the broken glass and plastic bottles. Just no swimming. They were pretty upset about it having almost been fined twice. It is pretty inhuman and I hope it will change – as soon as someone with authority decides to take their pet swimming.

Georgia says funny things sometimes. The other time she said “Mommy, go away.” I said “That’s not a nice thing to say, and I never say that to you.” So she thought about it and provided improved “Mommy, go away, please.” It is interesting to see her learn conjugations in Russian. She has the regular verb conjugations right, but for irregular she sometimes makes mistakes. If you correct her, she uses it right moving forward. It is almost like the correct way sounds right to her.

Day 57 – Kernave & Trakai

In the morning Dan’s mom left to have a final breakfast with a friend. We went to Vero Café on Traku to check it out. IYPG said it is a better alternative to Coffee Inn. The best Coffee Inn is on Gedimino, behind the post office, so we were eager to try out another alternative.

The place is pleasant and comfortable. Georgia liked the windowsill. Coffee has the familiar better taste but lacks the coffee flavor. The cakes are stale. The girl at the counter is very nice and friendly. So maybe we will come back some other time.

We were not sure when Bestcar would pick up their car – as it stands we only got it for one day on Saturday and already had it from Friday afternoon till the morning on Sunday. We decided to keep it for another day and go on a day trip.

Dan’s mom has not seen Kernave so we picked up Alicia and started from that. It is a beautiful place and a pleasure to visit. It is not as run down with visitors and tourists as Trakai. It is really peaceful here. We noticed that are some additional trails to explore but we only hit the main circuit again.

Approaching Pilies street we passed a velobar – one of Vilnius rentable attractions. Never seen one life yet. It was operated by a bachelor party. I wonder if the barterer has to move the pedals as well.

We climbed several mounds again. We found a little metal heart – possibly a part of a pendant or an earring. Georgia got really excited about the “treasure.” We dug a little more to see if we can find another one. She was holding the heart and did not allow anyone to touch it. Alicia gave her a little wallet to keep the treasure.

Near the souvenir kiosk there was a sign for a gallery 2.5km off the main road. We decided to go there. The gallery is on the farm. There is a young artist family of living there. Their grounds are like exhibition place and a shop at the same time. Most of the works are ceramic. It looks like they bought the farm and came here to create their art. They also have a little girl, a cat, and a dog. We went into an old kitchen in a separate house where they have their studio. The lady artist gave us directions to Trakai so that we would not have to go back to the city.

We followed really scenic (and occasionally one way) road to Trakai. We wanted to avoid the busy restaurants in town and stopped on the way at the yacht club overlooking the lake for lunch. The view is really amazing there. We decided not to bother with the food and kept going since the restaurant there is really on the expensive side.

There were loads of people in Trakai and surrounding areas where you can park the car to go swimming in the lake were full too. We found parking near Karaimu street and walked over to Kybyniar on Karaimu 29 to order kibinai. There are some abandoned Karaim homes on the street facing the lake and probably costing millions. At Kybyniar restaurant they were playing cheerful Arabic music and the menus had Arabic flair to them. Kibinai were 7LT minimum. It is a baked good the size of a small bagel. For comparison purposes it costs 1.5LT at Hyper Maxima.

While we were waiting for our meal, Dan’s mom, Georgia and I walked over to the lake to feed the fishes with some old bread and ponchiks we were carrying around. The fishes were there but non-responsive. We were on the boat rental pier and rentals were sold out for the rest of the day. Every few minutes a boat uploaded and a took off with fresh boaters.

Kibinai were awful – the dough is all wrong, the meat is made from left over lamb parts with tendons, there are too few onions, and most importantly there was no juice! It did not agree with anyone’s stomach afterwards. Even before we ordered Alicia got a really bad stomachache so we drove back home and got her some painkillers.

We had a slow afternoon with Dan’s mom packing and Alicia resting. Georgia and I went to the playground. There was a British girl there. She said she is visiting her husband who is a pilot at Air Baltic. It is his first job. She was very proud. It is a good thing he was not a campaign.

We went to the store and got some food for dinner. Georgia carried a bucket of pickles. She was very excited about that. Theoretically they are for the cold borsht but given the one I make is awful, I am the single consumer of these.

Day 55 – Traku & Vokieciu Backyards

In the morning Georgia and I toured the local backyards. Dan’s mom did that for some time and has some amazing pictures. The initial goal was to go to the Pottery Artists guild shop on the street next to the Franciscan church. The place was closed in the morning. We found innovative way to get back to our street though its backyard.

We’ve stopped at Šviežios Bandelės and got some pastries and then moved over to Coffee Inn next door on Traku to consume them with cappuccino and juice while leafing through a magazine. What a great way to start the morning!

Most of the backyards are very scenic – both renovated and dilapidated ones. Often a place that looks like complete ruin would have beautiful flower garden – with wild and garden flowers growing almost out of every crack. We found a this pretty tea shop tucked away in one of the entry ways. We also found a nice looking cafe Sauni Vietele inside a courtyard next to a church. We will check it out closer next week.

For lunch we went to soup and pierogi (here is an attempt to spell: Sultiniai ir Pierogiai) place tucked in the courtyard off Gedimino blvd. It is kind of parallels ex-Pieno Baras.

Early in the week we reserved the car from Bestcar for Saturday to go to Kaunas and to Olshevsky dacha. We usually speak with a manager called Marius and then his colleague Ivaras drops off the car. Marius told us that he will be away this weekend and his colleague will have his phone. I called his number on Friday to confirm the drop off time. Gediminas, the replacement first said the car is not available and then called back to say that it is. And Ivaras dropped it off pretty early again.

In the afternoon Dan’s mom and I went to back to the guild shop. Basically it seems like a place for starting out pottery artists to learn their craft, use studio space, and sell their masterpieces. It has some nice works but most of the other stuff are attempts to duplicate mass art sold in the souvenir shops.

Alicia came and made cold beetroot borsht. She was dismayed at the leanness of our kefir (only 2.5% of fat) and neutralized it with a package of 40% sour cream. Cholesterol gods are smiling.

Oleg and his wife came in the evening. We had a nice time.

Day 56 – To Kaunas

We left apartment at about 9am to be in Kaunas close to the opening of the galleries. When we got there, the streets were still empty and most of the shops were closed. So we went to the old familiar Kavine Kerai for some morning coffees and cakes.

Then we made a quick run through the city. Dan’s mom was impressed with galleries. Kaunas is moving forward in terms of art while Vilnius has stagnated a bit. But the town really feels provincial. Central street is empty and the only signs of live at noon on Saturday were on the city hall square where several weddings/wedding photo shoots were taking place at once.

We bought the right golden delicious apples – first of the season. They are really great!

We also got 2 aquarelles made in the prevailing theme of our house. They were really heavy with frames so the shop owner offered to take them off and ship via bus transportation service to Vilnius where we can pick them up.

We stopped by at Hyper Maxima to get cake and alcohol, then ran home and changed before heading out to dacha.

We had a really good time there, as usual. Ludmila Olshevsky is a great! Georgia and I visited Dina’s dacha and saw her parents and aunt and uncle. They are awesome people and very easy to be with. They reminded me of the parents of someone I know from Boston. They were very nice to Georgia - let her pick the plum tree, offered the cake and brought down Dina's and Yulia's toys. They have a grandson now so all those piles of dolls, dollhouses, and strollers waiting.

As usual we dashed out like Cinderellas at 8 and missed the cake part. Oblshevsky's got three blond mermaids staying at the next dacha - blond, high-heeled, and with more glamor than their counterparts in Califormia. They were having a tea party in their dacha garden as we were leaving. Looked very cute. Vitalik told us later that he asked one for a cigarette and gave given one with the look worthy of Paris Hilton.