July 29th, Berlin day 2

Our adventures in Germany continue. In the morning we set off to visit Reichstag through Tiergarten park. It was still cool in the morning and made for a pleasant and relaxing walk.

The start of Reichstag visit was run through series of well-run passages for crowd control remiscent of cattle herding. Once we got up to the dome we were free to roam. The views are gorgeous, photos don't do it justice. The upper portion of the building and the glass dome with the serpentine walkways to the top  appear to be growing right out of the old classical foundations complete with the royal crowns and lyons. Indoubtedly intentional and lovely.

Next we did the round of Branderburg gate, museum island including Neue museum with the spectacular bust of Nefertititi, and finished our planned daily activities at the Alexanderplatz. Enjoyed the street show of the mad inventor with animatronic pan-handling horse and fire-breathing dragon.

We walked to the lovely artistic haven of Auguststrasse and stopped by the Neue sinagogue.

Fascinating and sad story. Gorgeous huge sinagogue built with the assumption that Jews were equal to others - ostentatious Neo-Moorish architectire with luxurious vestibule that opened right onto the street as opposed to be hidden somewhere in a courtyard. With its three storied galleries and frescos at its heyday it was big enough to fot 3.6k attendees. At this point the facade and the dome all that’s around with a small but excellent museum built to tell its story.

One narrative that struck a new chord was that when Germans came to power and started to solve the Jewish problem one thing they did first was deporting the Polish Jews that came around the the WWI and had lived and worked there for several decades. In a manner reminiscent to ‘Catch and release’ males were taken over the Polish border and released in hopes that the wifes and children will follow. General indifference of the German Jewish communities, German population as a whole, and the rest of the world emboldened the Nazis to keep going, in a manner of boiling a frog. Are we there yet?

Fast forward to today... with the armed cops outside the sinagogue doors are a sad reminder that it is never over.

Sad and morose, we sought comfort in a quaint Tadjik teahouse in a courtyard next door. There seated on the pillows and carpets on the floor we were entertained with a variety of interesting teas (Pushkin is black tea with vodka, Sex sect, the old Tadjik favorite, is iced Ceylon with sugar and Prosecco) and Russian food served a lovely Tadjik girl who spoke German, Russian, and English, and presumably Tadjik.

Incidentally the languge of choice is Russian here. We hear it in the restaurants, museums, and playgrounds. Most of the service personnel are Russian, Turkish, or Polish :) Then again Berlin is one of the most international towns in the world.

We walked back to the hotel stopping by at decidedly not-child proof playground in the park that had some tree course features without the safety harnesses. With Georgia’s support by my side I’ve survived my tree walk. 

July 28th, Berlin

Taking over from Georgia... hoping to do as good of a job :)

Polinka, Romik, Maya, Isabella, and I finally arrived to Berlin at around 1:30pm having been delayed at Newark for 6 hours due to the thunderstorms that also knocked out the power at Terminal C. Tegel airport section where the bus dropped us off, with the crowds of people sitting in the floor, no a/c and the overall layout reminded us of an airport in one of the Caribbean destinations

Danik, Georgia, and Isabela met us near our hotel. Our hotel was en route of the gay pride parade so as soon as we arrived we were greeted with the pulsing sounds of techno outside our windows (and off course Dan with the kids.

The party was awesome. Float after float passed by filled with singing and dancing crowds. Very energizing. The kids also got their first views of grown up anatomy of both genders. As we learned later in the day nudity is viewed as something natural, in contrast to the US, and no one freaks out (yet) at the sight of a naked bum, or breasts, or more.

We dropped off our stuff and Danik led us to the gorgeous (even he said so) little mall overlooking the zoo, the Bikinihaus. Sweet modern wooden architecture inside with distractions for kids not to count the primate exhibit outside was a perfect accompanement for the foodcourt filled with cute little nooks serving food from all over the world. A perfect way to start our explorations together.

We took U to see the Berlin Wall murals. It was somehow less impressive than last time, partly because there were some later works, and partly because political murals are best understood in the context. And at this point we have too little of it left.

Walked to Checkpoint Charlie and stopped at the beach to dunk kids onto the sand and for us to have a drink.

Next stop was the DDR museum by the Museum Mile. Lots of Soviet era exhibits which were better than the stuff we grew up with and for that reason more depressive. They did appear to seek solace in sexual liberation and museum covers the subject at length and from the different angles. Kids had lots of fun driving the Trabant - they had one at the museum with the road projection onto the dashboard.

It started to rain and we ran to the mini food court around the corner. Had a very relaxing German meal under the watchful eye of a Russian waiter. Grabbed U back and called it a day. Vacations are awesome!

Day 25 - July 22, 2018; Goodbye Wilna!

Today, it was time to leave Vilnius. I woke up early and packed(stuffed) all of our clothes into my backpack. Then, Dad and I took a stroll around the city for the last time. Sadly, almost everything was closed due to the fact that it was a Sunday and not even nine o’clock. We got back to the apartment, finding Isabella upset at leaving her alone with Grandma and Grandpa. We got pastries for breakfast, took even more for the road trip, and left. I got a pastry with cottage cheese, but Isabella got a pastry with sausage inside. Then, Grandma stopped us at a hat vendor. She got everyone hats, including Sasha and Vika. We went back to the apartment, where a woman was waiting for us to give her the keys to her apartment. 

 We drove to the nearest Maxima XXX, the biggest one, to get supplies for the trip and Irish Cream for Grandma Lilia. Soon enough, we left the Maxima and drove to Grandma Lilia’s house. Grandma was really sad to see us go, but alas, we had to leave. We drove out of the city and carried on for the next hour until we came to a forest. We got out and went looking for mushrooms. Instead, we found wild blueberries and started to pick them and stuff our mouths with them. I felt something crawling on me so I looked down, and there was a tick on me! We left pretty early after that. 

In two hours, we came to Augustus. We ate lunch in a restaurant called The Albatross. While the food is being prepared we left to go look around the city. Grandma and Grandpa also left so when we came back the servers were standing with our food at our table, scratching their heads looking at our table, not knowing where we had gone. It was very funny. After that whole debacle, we had ice cream. Isabella wanted a different kind of ice, but when they gave her the ice cream, it looked like neon chemicals had barfed on it. Isabella tried it and said, "Ew, I’d rather have something else." Well, that took a lot of time. Finally, finally, we left and took an uneventful trip, consisting of at least three hours and a lot of stress. Then, we finally came to our apartment! Whoo! And that’s how this day went down in history. July 21, 2018.

Day 24 - July 21, 2018; Oleg’s Дача

Today we went to Oleg’s summer home. In the morning, Dad, Isabella and I went our favorite pastry place and got everyone breakfast. Then, we went to Crustum, and got six cottage cheese pastries for everyone at the дача. We also got donuts for Grandma Lilia. Then, Grandpa ordered an uber to take him Grandma, Isabella and of course, myself to Grandma Lilia’s house. We got Grandma Lilia and drove to the woods. On the way, we told stories, listened to the really horrible starting sound our car had and watched the city stream on by. 

When we finally came to Oleg’s house, we saw Oleg throwing crab apples a d birds which were eating his cherries. We had a basket with us, which was almost immediately filled with his black currant berries, apples, cucumbers, raspberries, and cherries. Isabella and I went into the bathroom and changed into our swimsuits. Then, we went swimming. We walked with Grandma, Grandpa and Oleg to the lake, stopping for wild raspberries and wild blueberries. We played in the water. Soon, though, it was time for lunch.

We left the lake, though Oleg promised to take us fishing after lunch. For lunch, Oleg had made a weird soup. The main component of the soup was Kvas. It was bette than delicious. In addition, his wife Lena gave me a recipe for her really great white bean fry. Mmmm. It makes me drool just by thinking about it. Grandma Lilia especially liked the zucchini patties Lena made. After lunch, we busied ourselves with catching crickets to use as bait when we went fishing. The forty-five minutes went by like this, (I’m supposed to snap here). 

When the forty-five minutes were up, we went to the lake again. Isabella caught her first fish, but we let it go because it was tiny. When I caught the next fish, the hook got lodged in between the gills. When we tried to take it out, the fish swallowed it in even more. We had to take it with us, because it would have died anyway. After that, I caught two more fish, while Isabella caught one. We went back to the house, and then, we left shortly after. 

Of course, Isabella had to forget her bathing suit, but we didn’t know about that until we were already in Warsaw. Anyway, we drove to our apartment, where Dad was waiting for us. He took Grandma Lilia home, because in the morning, Grandpa had accidentally driven by a car and left a tiny dent. It was no big deal, but Grandpa was worried and didn’t want to go back there. I went with Dad and told him about our whole day. Then, we drove back to the apartment, left the car there and went for a stroll around the city. Eventually, Grandma took Grandpa to a restaurant and we ate dinner there. After that, we had desert in Crustum. And that’s how this day went down in history, July 21, 2018.

Day 23 - July 20, 2018; Bloggin’ From Vilnius

On this lovely, hot day in Vilnius, we did not do that much. In the morning, we woke up and had a Lithuanian breakfast, consisting of black bread, white cheese and black currant jam. After breakfast, I wrote my blog and then we went to the park. We played on the new playground and Isabella tried the climbing course there. If you see Sasha, please tell her for me that the fun spin carousel from which we almost fell off is in working order. They actually fixed that thing up!

When we finished playing on the playground, we fed some ducks and waded into a nearby stream. Then, we waited for Grandpa and went to the main square, Cathedral Square, to wait for Oleg and Lena. We stopped by the white Cathedral to wait there. Grandpa pointed out to me that the huge statues on the roof were not at all in proportion to the rest of the chapel. You see, the statues were made to look modern, while the rest of the chapel looked exactly as it would have back when Grandpa was a kid. Dad called and asked whether or not we wanted to have lunch with him. Grandpa told him that we were having lunch with Oleg. We left the Cathedral and went to the front of the square. 

On the way, I had the idea that Dad should pick us up and go to lunch with him. Unfortunately, Grandpa said that we couldn’t get to Dad in time. Then, I called Dad and asked him to come to the place were waiting to pick us up. Then, we went to him and everything was confusing, but it was all sorted out in the end. Dad, Isabella and I went to Kibin Inn. Dad got three kibinais and then we went to a cafeteria for Isabella’s lunch, after which we decided to catch up on our blogs and diaries with Dad. We rushed through the whole city in the heat to get the house keys from Grandpa. Then, we rushed back to our apartment, grabbed the iPads, and rushed to the nearest Caffeine, their Starbucks Coffee. We spent the next three hours writing blogs, talking and playing some games. 

After the work day was through, we walked over to Grandma Lilia’s house to meet up with Grandma. Then, we went to our very distant relative Nina who in turn gave us plums and apples. Then, Dad was called back to work, so Grandma bought us dessert in the city. I had vanilla ice-cream with cherries, while Isabella had plain lemon sorbet. Later, when Dad was done with work, he and I walked around town. When we came back home, Grandma and Grandpa were asleep so they only let us in after ten minutes. And that’s how this day went down in history, July 20, 2018.

Day 22 - July 19, 2018; Vilnius n’ Vilnius

When we woke up today, we were magically in Vilnius! Wow! Amazing! How did you do it? Aww, I always love to hear from my fans. Anyway, we had Lithuanian white cheese with raspberry jam for breakfast. After breakfast, we drove over to Great-Grandma Lilia’s house. She met us with open arms and smelly cats. We brought her a cute towel, a teacup with cats on it, a reusable table cover, and a lot of sweets. She really has a sweet tooth. I went outside and saw a cat sneak up on a bird and try to eat it. Then I studied a snail named Mika. It was really cool! Soon enough, Oleg, one of Grandma’s friends, came to give Grandpa Lithuanian SIM cards. 

He brought along black currant jam for us, made from his very own garden. He and Grandpa talked about SIM cards, while Grandma Lilia told us about one of her four cats. She said that someone had hit him really hard on his back when he was a mere kitten, so his back legs are longer than the front ones. She told us that she took him to the vet, put him into temporary sleep, took out two of his teeth, completely shaved all his hair off, disinfected him, and washed him. Now, he is still smelly. 

Later, Grandma Lilia compiled a list for Grandma, and we went to Maxima XX, the medium sized Maxima to get her items needed around the household, like munchkins. When we finished getting Grandma everything she needed, Oleg offered to get the kibinais I had longed for the whole year. I agreed, so pretty soon, we were going to Grandma’s house with a bag full of steaming, savory kibinais. After lunch, Oleg drove us home. Soon, Grandpa went to sleep, so Grandma, Isabella and I went to the old city for a walk. 

Last year, there was a hotel they were building for a long time. This year, we finally got to see their masterpiece. It was a modern/old looking house, perfectly fitting in with Vilnius’s other structures. We went on our favorite roads, then rushed back home, because Grandpa would start worrying if we weren’t back soon. Later, Dad came back to the apartment. He took us on a walk to Grandma Lilia’s house. We got caught in a horrible thunder storm, so we had to wait it out under a bridge. Grandma was very excited to see us. She kissed Dad and kept asking him if he was hungry. Then, the half bald cat Karlusha tried to sit on Dad’s lap.

Then, we walked back and had dessert in Krustum, one of my favorite pastry places in Vilnius. After dessert, we walked back home where I diligently wrote my blog and went to sleep. And that’s how this day went down in history, July 19, 2018.

Day 21 - July 18, 2018; Lithuania, Here We Come!

Yay! Today we finally came to Vilnius. First time this year! In the morning, we woke up and packed our bags for three days ahead. Then, we had breakfast and went to the mall for some last minute shopping. We got some pretty school books and some more Polish sweets and delicacies for Grandma Lilia. After getting everything we needed, we left the mall in the blistering heat and walked back to our apartment. As I have said, the heat was blistering and very, very hot; because of Grandpa’s knee pains and Grandma’s hate of the heat, we had to stay inside for the remainder of the day. At about 2:30, Dad came home so we left to get the car that was able to go to Lithuania. It’s really weird how they don’t let German cars into Lithuania. 

I must admit, the views at times were very beautiful. We saw a blood-red sunset over a grassy area, a bird hunting for mice, emerald green and moss green and pine green forests. Small villages and even gardens overflowing with fresh apples and pears and berries. Finally, after a six hour ride, we came to Vilnius. The owner of apartments led us to our rented apartment. It had air-conditioning, a large living room, a kitchen and a dining room. It was great! And that’s how this day went down in history, July 18, 2018.

Days 19 & 20 - July 16 & 17, 2018; Double Dog Dare Ya

WARNING: I am writing this blog a little differently today. Since we didn’t do much on Monday or Tuesday, I am combining the two days. Here goes:

Monday:

Today we went to the mall near our house to get presents for Grandma Lilia. She has a very big sweet tooth. We got her some Krowkas which is basically caramel with gooey caramel on the inside. We also got her candy with some sort of filling on the inside. In addition, as if that wasn’t enough, we got her cookies. After getting Grandma all those very healthy treats, we went to the second floor of the mall and to the huge kids’ slide. We slid down a few times and had quesadillas for lunch.

After the mall, we went home. Later, we went to the old town with Dad. 

Tuesday:

Today we went to the oldest park in Warsaw, called Park Lazenki. It is famous for its castle, Chopin monument, peacocks and half tame red squirrels. We saw all of the above, minus the first one. First, when we got into the park, and we immediately saw a beautiful peacock showing off to its mate. He would open his feathers and waltz to the girl peacock. Then she would shake his tail to show off the glittering parts. It was all very romantic, well it would be if the girl was paying him any attention. After seeing the performance of the peacock, Isabella got it into her head that she wanted to feed the peacocks instead of just watch them. We got a ice cream cone for $.40 so we could feed birds. 

First I fed some ducks, then a whole group of them clustered around me. Even a red squirrel came. Isabella ran off in fright, but I bravely tossed him/her a piece of the waffle cone. The spoiled creature didn’t even look my way! I saw him scamper up a tree and disappear. We took a few turns and saw a group of tourists feeding some other squirrels. We came to the Chopin monument and then decided to go to an orangery. Unfortunately, the orangery was not open, but at least, we took a photo with Grandma’s favorite childhood writer. Then, we walked over to a cafe, Flora Caffe, to wait out the rain that didn’t even start. 

After the cafe, we went to a botanical garden, near the cafe. It was like the botanical garden near Kingston. I found many snails and even saw a glimpse of some garden mice. Isabella stole Grandma’s iPhone and took about 100 photos of flowers, mostly roses. 💯. Soon enough, we got hungry, so we called a cb to take us back to our apartment. We ate lunch, then went walking with Dad around the old city. 

And that’s how those days went down in history, July 16 and 17, 2018.

Day 18 - July 15, 2018; Can you See the Sea?

Sadly, it was today that we had to part with Mom again. In the morning, we woke up and walked to the cafe where we had first gotten breakfast. I got milk and an apple pastry, Isabella had grapefruit juice and her usual cheese covered pastry. Meanwhile, Dad had a sandwich like he had the day before. After breakfast, we went back to our apartment to pack up our bags. We left them in our car, while we went walking around town again. We went back to the river, stopping at a closed restaurant and walking around a half-island under construction. We stopped by the gallery where we had gotten the three pieces a couple of days before, but didn’t get anything else. Finally, it was time to get Mom to the airport. 

We went back to the apartment, gave our keys back to the owner and left. Isabella almost started crying because she was upset at Mom leaving. When we pulled into the airport, we saw a massive, modern building where we were supposed to drop Mom off. We gave Mom two beli naliv apples, so she wouldn’t be hungry, hugged and kissed, then we left. 

Dad drove us to the Baltic Sea, because it was on the way back to Warsaw, and we had brought our bathing suits. First, it was very difficult to find parking. We finally just parked off the road on some dirt. Then, we had to walk for a kilometer until we could see the grey-blue sea and beehive yellow sand. Isabella was eager to jump right into the cold Baltic water, while I was a bit more hesitant. There were many pieces of wood washed up on the coast, so I went about the business of trying to find amber in the woody mass. When I could stand the heat no longer, I changed and dove into the refreshing water. Eventually Dad told us that we had to get home. We stopped by a fish-shop to get lunch-dinner. 

The ride back to Warsaw was a long and tiring one lasting about four hours When we came home, we ate a snack and almost immediately went to bed. And that’s how this day went down in history, July 15, 2018.

Day 17 - July 14, 2018; Mom, Gdańsk and Malbourg

Today we had a lovely day with Mom. It started out in the cafe with the orange-haired woman. We had breakfast in style, right across the street. Dad and I had a breakfast sandwich with ham, native to the city of Gdańsk. Mom had something similar, consisting of a sandwich with cheese, salmon and rocket. Isabella, choosing the most unhealthy choice out of all of us, went with her taste buds’ choice; a chocolate croissant. I was a simple and elegant breakfast, after which we went to their bazaar. We got some beli naliv, but unfortunately, it was not ripe at all. 

After the bazaar, we went to see one of Gdańsk’s churches were Dad and Mom went after college. There was a mill on the other side of the road, which you could see from the top view on the top of the tallest tower in the church. That was a mouthful. It was there where we had the pleasure of meeting salesman of, "Gdańsk Tours". First, a newbie came up to us and offered a tour of the city. When we declined the offer, he went back to his car and a more "experienced" salesman came up to us. First, he offered us to go on a tour of the whole city. Then, when we didn’t want to do it, he got mad at us and yelled at us to go back to where we came from. A few heated words were exchanged. Thank goodness it didn’t lead to a fight. 

After the unfortunate incident, we went strolling down a few streets and ourselves facing an old train station. We marveled at it for a while until, Isabella decided that she wanted to go to a mall. We saw one on the next street, so we went there. On the way, there were some advertisers getting ready for the day. They were dressed as spices in saltshakers. Here’s the recipe for their look:

1. Take a saltshaker with a soft bottom.

2. Enlarge about 20 times.

3. Add a pinch of sweatiness.

4. Mix with weird dance moves

5. Allow to sit in music for one to two hours.

Eventually, we did get to that mall. We got everything we needed, so we went back to the center of the old part of town. Dad found a place he wanted to explore, but he needed the proper materials first. We quickly went home to get the things he needed. Then, we split up. Mom, Isabella, and I walked in to a street called, Marsuchka or something of that matter. We though we would find something in an interesting gallery, but there was only amber, amber, amber. Eventually, we were called by Dad, who told us to meet him at a cafeteria we found near his shop. The meatballs I had were really good. 

We met up with Grandpa and Grandma, so we could go to one of the biggest and most protected castles in Poland, Malbourg. On the way to the castle, we passed a beli naliv tree. When I say passed, I mean, stopped at to get some apples. In Malbourg, we had initially gotten tickets with audioguide, but we decided to explore on our own. We parted with our grandparents and going to the inner castle. The castle had three ways of protection. The river on which the castle was located, one outer wall, and one inner wall. It was all really quite amazing. The castle even survived World War II! 

As we were returning from the castle, we stopped by the tree again. We thought we had gotten enough apples to last us a lifetime, but unfortunately, they only lasted for two days. For dinner, we found a fish restaurant. Here’s a new tongue-twister I invented: A Fishteyn eats fish in a fish shop. After dinner, we walked around the river again for a long time. Then, we went back to our apartment. And that’s how this day went down in history, July 14, 2018.