Day 7 - July 3, 2019: New People

 And that’s why I don’t like lipstick. Oh, we’re already rolling? Why didn’t anyone tell me the camera was on? Ugh! Ok, so welcome back to my blog. Today was a pretty packed day. Our parent’s friend from work, Alice, came for the week to find inspiration for her art in the city. In the morning, mom, dad, Isabella, and I went to a bakery on Vilnius St. 

There, I ate an apple pastry, for experimental purposes only. 😉 We waited there for Alice to call mom and tell her that she was ready to go for a walk around the city. When she did, mom, Isabella, and I went on a brisk walk to Alice’s hotel, Stikliu Hotel - check out the picture on the prior post. Once there, we waited for her to get a jacket and went to Svejais Bandeles. There, we got our second breakfast of the day.

For me, it was another apple pastry, just to check which bakery had better apple pastries. Mom bought the food and we went to Crustum (also check out the picture on the prior post) to get, you guessed it; more food. Luckily, I decided not to get anything, or else I would definitely explode. After Crustum, we went to the bazaar, where we got wild strawberries and more fruits. After the bazaar, we went to the Gates of Dawn. Alice and mom went to see the Virgin Mary, while Isabella and I waited downstairs, eating berries, which was probably not allowed. 

After the gates, Isabella and I went home to grandma and grandpa and ate lunch. Then, we walked around for a while. Soon, grandma took us to the Modern Art Museum, which is very new. While we were walking around, we stopped at a few shops and stores. We bought some chocolate, which we quickly ate. My dark chocolate candy had marzipan and nuts inside, along with a cherry. At the museum, which we came to at around 5:00, we got tickets and went inside.

I would really like to say otherwise, but the exhibits were HORRIFYING. The cashier told us to start on the third floor and work our way down. The third floor was an exhibit on the bond between humans and animals. The pictures started out fine, but because more gross and horrible as we went along. I won’t go into much detail, but the least horrifying thing there was a stuffed weasel with horns and a pink tutu or something, but the stand was resin moulded around dead jellyfish. The second floor had technology or something and there was a virtual reality stand where you became a pig and went to a slaughterhouse. The last floor was okay, but we were so grossed out and creeped out by the earlier exhibits that we left.

We went to a restaurant in the neighborhood Uzupis with Alice, where the food was really good, as per usual. When we finished, it was already getting late, so we went home and “tried” to write our blogs. Then, we went to sleep, awaiting a really fun day at the city of Kaunas and Trakai. And that’s how this day went down in history; July 3, 2019. 

Day 6 - July 2, 2019: Life is an Airplane

Breaking news with Isabella Fishteyn. 

Shocking news at the museum of Applied Art and Design Museum. We found that many people in the same places, have way different ways of making art and have many different styles. Isabella Fishteyn the citizen proves it by going to the museum with her sister and her Grandparents. She saw photos taken in the same place, but with completely different style. And that, my good  people, just proves her point! 

Today, we woke up at around seven o’clock in the morning. Mom and dad had gone  for a walk and breakfast without us.😡 So, I got up, made breakfast, and watched TV. One by one, everyone woke up. We went to the bazaar with Grandma. After that, we took a walk with mom for about twenty minutes. 

Then, mom went to work with dad and we went home to get Grandma and Grandpa to go the an art museum with Lyuda. It was beautiful. There were amazing photos of people and landscapes. When we left, it started raining so we thought we should go to a nearby restaurant. We waited too long for our food, so we kids rented and rode on scooters. Then, we ate, paid, and left.

Then, we decided to go see Вавушка Лилин house:it was really hard to leave forever, but we saved her album to remember her and left. Mom took us to Cili Pizza and we told her how sad we were. Soon, we went home. Well, life is like an airplane with ups and downs. Isabella Fishteyn out.😉

And now, Georgia Fishteyn again. 

Hey guys, because Isabella did not write much about us being at grandma’s house, I would like to add my point of view. Went we got there, it was much the same. The same cat smell, the same furniture, the same decorations. 

However, most of the charm we had felt as little kids there was lost because Grandma Lilia was not there. Inga greeted us with open arms and we went into the living room. Pavel, the son of grandma’s friend came in soon and started taking off books from the shelves. He put them in plastic bags and lugged them outside. Thankfully, I was able to save two books. I don’t even know what they were about, but they were grandma’s, so I didn’t want to lose that part of her. She loved those books. 

After that, more people started arriving and taking things for their houses and summer homes. These people were Oleg and Lena, and also Nina, grandma’s friend. Nina kept grandma healthy, and Oleg and Lena bought food and supplies for her, or just sat with her and talked. They probably were owed those possessions of her, but I didn’t want to let them go. I started crying when people began to roll up the rugs and take them to their cars. Soon, the house just looked empty. 

I had come there for a closing, to say goodbye to grandma and her house, but it felt as though my heart had been ripped from my body and I couldn’t find it again. I bid goodbye to the rooms, and we left. 

At Chili Pizza, I couldn’t contain myself any longer. I just sobbed and sobbed. What could I do? Before, I was denying that she was gone, but when people started taking apart her house, I cried because if she was alive, there would be nowhere for her to return to. Now, I feel as though there is a part of me that can never be returned. My family has lost so much this year, grandma and Dina and even Kesha. In time, we can rebuild, but there will always be a part of us that is with our passed family, and this part will remain there for ever.

Day 5 - July 1, 2019: Totally Scootacular

The week started out on a wonderful note. Today we woke up early and along with mom and Isabella, we went to the main plaza, where at that time, electric scooters were all lined up in a row. After getting the app on my phone, I was able to rent out one of the bikes and ride around the square. The thrill of going fifteen miles per hour on a tiny scooter is something that can be barely matched by anything else. 

When both mom and I had rented scooters, we rode (or in mom’s case; walked) down the main street called Pilies gatve. Word of advice people: do not ride on an electric scooter if you are on a cobblestone street. You’ll probably end up hurting either A) yourself, B) someone else, or C) the scooter. We got to the park, which is right down Pilies. By then one of our scooters was not working anymore, so we left it near the park and went in.

Usually, the park is beautiful and easy to navigate, but when you are on a scooter and the gravel is flying in every direction if you speed up too fast, it is not fun, it. Or, should I say, it’s not a walk in the park. Stopping by the tennis courts to see about the information necessary to rent out a tennis court and or rackets to play with. 

Later, we went to the playground and became metaphorical peacocks, showing off to mom and seeing who could show off the most. 

Pretty soon, however, we got bored of the playground and went to Uzupis, a tiny neighborhood that is artsy and cute. We left the second bike near the park and went into one of the art stores, which turned out being called the “Baltic Shamans.” 

It smelled thoroughly of incense, but the clay flutes and decorative objects were displayed beautifully and were very creative. We ended up buying two clay ocarinas and a postcard. Soon, (and yes, the day’s not over yet, I’m barely getting to the second part) dad came over to eat lunch. We walked around Uzupis for a while, then left to eat lunch at home.

After lunch, we parted ways. Kids wrote their blogs, while the parents worked at a coffee shop. Later, we went walking around the city until we returned to the house. 

However, we came out once again and we just walked around until mom called to have us meet at their coffee shop to get dinner, aka chachapuri. This is basically a Georgian type of pizza, which is cheese inside dough. Grandma and dad also joined, but later. 

After that, we went walking around the city. We went up the hill to the old church that overlooks the entire city, then down to a park that is near the Uzupis. Soon, we had started a long loop around the city, even going as far as the highway that stretches around the city. 

We even went into a cemetery that we did not know about. Isabella got creeped out by a cat that was “following” us around. I will not go into much detail, but the cemetery is a Polish one that is from a very long time ago, most likely from the Polish/Lithuanian wars. 

After we finished our little tour around the city, we walked home, as it was getting late, and went to sleep. And that’s how this day went down in history; July 1, 2019.

Day 4 - June 30, 2019: Party Like a Belarysian

Breaking news with Isabella Fishteyn: Today at 5 a.m. we found,most people are afraid of heights, our evidence is… on Sunday in the morning  Isabella Fishteyn the citizen states that 4 people from her mom’s office were worried sick about flying on hot air balloons! 2 even back out and that proves her statement is true!

Today on Sunday we woke up at around 5 a.m. To fly in hot air balloons! It was so fun. First we waited for the hot air balloon to get ready. Then we slowly climbed into the basket. Just sent the basket fell over while we were in it. It was so scary. The people  picked us back up, it was a relief.

Finally, we were off! At first it was scary, but not to worry it soon became very boring. We saw trees, lots of trees, one even brushed the basket bottom! The amazing view, we even saw a castle and a mansion! Then when we landed we hit the ground twice and the why fell over! It really hurt. It took a few minutes to pack up but then we left. We came to a field ad eat desert! The people there told us about the first flight and how champagne saved the pilots when they landed in an unknown place! It was funny.

We came back to the house for brunch.

After, Grandma took us to a dacha, or summer home of her fried. We went fishing. Each person caught one fish, but we let them go and we came back to have lunch. It was so hot I fell asleep. So, we went home. At home we had  dinner n a beer bar, it was great! I had fried mussels and creamy mushroom soup. You should try it at home! Later, we took a walk and i thought we didn’t do that much did we? Dan dan dan! Then we went to sleep. Isabella Fishteyn out!

Day 3 - June 29, 2019: Isabella the Fortune Teller

 Hi! This is Georgia again. I wanted to write about tomorrow, but considering that we already have a pattern (Georgia, Isabella, Georgia, Isabella, etc.) it was impossible. Today was a pretty interesting day, filled with excitement, fun, and just a little bit of annoyance. 

We woke up around the usual time - that is everyone except for Isabella, who woke up at nine thirty compared to our seven o’clock. We walked to Svezi Bandeles, where we ate delicious, fresh buns. They were freshly baked and the flavorful jam inside poured out as soon as the pastry was bitten. As soon as it was eleven, we left the city and drove into the countryside. We were invited by our grandparents’ friends to join them at their sauna. 

We drove for about half an hour, asking if we were there yet all the while. Finally, we arrived at our “location.” In reality, we were in the completely wrong area, but we still drove the dusty road that we believed led to the sauna. However, the plus side of this was that we saw many wonderful sites, like a meadow where a mare was nuzzling her colt. Finally, though, we made it out of the wrong location and drove to the right one - a tiny sauna next to a large house and lake. It was exceptionally cold outside, but after sitting in the sauna, we were able to ignore the weather and jump into the water. 

There, we found two cages - one with a peculiar set of ducks and another with adorable red squirrels, which we fed sunflower seeds. The estate was pleasant, and with a seven-year old boy to lead us around and show us fun sites, we had a really fun time. I caught a frog, and had a lot of fun by flipping over a pull-up bar many, many times. Eventually, we had to get going, as it was already three o’clock, but not before we ate fresh kibinai and попарились, of course. When we came home, I immediately went for a walk with my parents and their co-workers who came to Vilnius from Belarus for the weekend. It wasn’t much of a walk, but we had fun as we walked the people to their hotel.

After that, we came home to grandpa, grandma, and Isabella, and the latter two went for a walk with me. We walked to “Denim Diaries,” where the owner uses old jeans to create new things, like pillows and earrings. We went to the other side of town, where we made a reservation at a restaurant and went for a walk on the other side of the river, an artsy district, we spent some time there, but the time had us walking back so we didn’t miss our reservation. Luckily, we didn’t, and were rewarded with mushroom soup. After the restaurant, we went to a park and walked around there until we had to walk home. And that’s how this day went down in history, July 29, 2019.

Day 2 - June 28, 2019: Sleeping is My Superpower

BREAKING NEWS! Isabella Fishteyn here with the day’s news: reporting from Vilnius with the story that cashiers in stores are in fact meaner than people who own stalls at the bazaar! Isabella Fishteyn, the citizen, reports when she woke up at 8 in the morning she went to the bazaar and saw that people that worked in store were much  more hostile!

When we were done with all that shopping we  probably bought enough for a week. Then we went for a walk. Turns out Vilnius has really changed.😢  But some of our favorite stores were still there! We kept walking until we reached our dad, that meant time to eat! 

We went to the Mermaid Restaurant, but it was to slow. So we tried out another restaurant. It took twenty-five minutes to make dumplings, so we paid and left.😡Finally we went to a great place to eat by the apartment, it was delicious! Pancakes with cottage cheese. Once we were finished, we went to a cafe called Crustum. 

Georgia wrote her blog. Later in a few minutes mom and dad let us go for a walk our selves. We played on a playground then we went home and I became slightly lazy. He he he! Then we went back to mom and dad. Mom took us to a bakery and we got merengue,  cherry merengue. 

White little clouds with cherry tart under the merengue!😀 Then we came to another playground and I hit Georgia on the head with my foot. By accident. She got mad. But just then Grandma came and hopefully Georgia forgot! Once Grandma and Grandpa came mom and dad took us for a walk. 


When we came back, Dad sat on the stairs and I sat down too, but after a few minutes I fell asleep mom woke me up and we went home. Guess  that mean I have the power of sleeping anywhere. Isabella Fishteyn out. 😉

Day 1 - June 27, 2019: The Unfortunate Series of Events

Hi! It’s Georgia Fishteyn again. This time, I’m back at Vilnius with a little surprise! This year, Isabella, my sister, will also be contributing to the blog. Please enjoy! 

This year, our trip was a little different than the other years. My mom came with us. She is going to stay in Vilnius for two weeks with us, then go back to the US for two weeks, and will go to Russia with us and the Novichenoks. 

First, our parents came to pick us up from our house and we got an Uber to drive us to the airport at 2:30. We were supposed to fly out from the airport at five o’clock to make it to the airport in Copenhagen and then to get on the second plane to Vilnius. Super easy, right? 

When we arrived at the airport, the line for both bag-check in and security was extremely long. After checking in our bags, we went to the lounge. We were so carefree and relaxed, but little did we know that a horrible turn of events was on its way. Dun-dun-dun!! We went to stand at security, but quickly gave up and left dad in charge of waiting in line. Everyone else walked back and forth to get steps. Finally, though, after waiting for what seemed like five hours (it was actually less than one), we got through security and went to wait at our terminal. 

Soon after that, while Mom, Isabella, and I were walking around the terminal, looking for food, when the fire alarm turned on. We rushed to Dad and stayed there until the fire alarm turned off. After about ten minutes, the horrible sound stopped and we were told that a flight attendant was investigating why the alarm turned on. However, after five more minutes, the fire alarm went off the second time. This time, though, no one was rushing to their families or the exit sign. 

We bought dinner and got on the plane. However, there was a technical error and the plane could not take off, for an hour! When we finally took off, we knew that we had missed our plane out of Copenhagen. After eight hours in which the flight attendant kept trying to get me to eat airplane food, we arrived at the airport in Copenhagen and immediately rushed to the SAS Transfer Services place to book a different flight to Vilnius. 

Luckily, they found a flight for us, but it took off four hours later, arrived at the airport in Stockholm, and then flew to Vilnius. So there went seven hours of our day. At the end of the trip, we were so tired and felt so filthy (even though we had bought tooth-brushes at the airport) that we just wanted to arrive at our apartment, change, and fall asleep. We went to the luggage belt and waited .... and waited .... and waited. With every bag that passed, our hope diminished even more.

When the doors finally closed, we only had one bag - Isabella’s. We went to the “LitCargo” area, where they find your bags for you and found out *audible gasp* that three of our bags were left in Newark, not even shipped with our airplane. Well, there was nothing left to do but steal someone else’s bag. Ok, ok, I’m kidding, don’t worry! 😉 

We got to our apartment, Isabella and I changed into her new clothing, and went for a walk around the city. Apparently, I was really, really hungry, because I ate a kibinai and then still wanted to eat another one, then dreamt about eating them when I fell asleep. We walked around for a little bit, going down our favorite streets, entering our favorite shops, then went shopping for a late-night snack and went to our apartment. 


This is addressed to Sasha: “It is the same exact one we had when you came to Lithuania with us.” And that’s how these two days went down in history, June 28, 2019.

August 11th, the final day in Berlin

This vacation went by way too quickly and we can barely recall the prior ones now :(

Well, while I still can... we met up this morning and went to get our breakfast at Kempers. Following that, a dash across town to the Pergamon museum. We all had amazing time. Ishtar gate was feat of human ingenuity back when it was built and now when the german researchers put it back together one tony piece of tile after another. The Muslim collection was very impressive too. Kids walked around snapping pictures of the marvelous geometrical patterns.

Afterwards we walked a bit around the art market outside. Besought by hunger got some excellent wursts right there at the market. But soon it was time for a serious meal so we went to Que Pasa (bad choice) by the Neue synagogue followed by the teas over by the Tadjiki Tea House. 

We spent the rest of the afternoon leisurely wandering around August Strasse, stopping at the galleries, playground, and bars. After the final dash through the park we made the last stop at Persepolis, highly recommended for their food, and, with lovely Persian paintings and Ahura Mazda images on the walls a fitting close to the day that started out at Pergamon.

Done with this summer adventure. To be continued :)

August 10th, drive through the racist town Quedlinburg

Today was the final leg of our vacation journey - it went by so quickly!

We escaped hectic Holiday Inn express in Frankfurt and met up with Romiks at the old town square later in the morning. After a quick discussion a consensus was reached to keep get on our way so that we could visit a few sights on the way to Berlin.

The first stop was magnificent Marburg. Home to the university that educated brothers Grimm (and Lomonosov) the town is filled with little exhibits reminding of the stories in their books. A giant shoe, huge flies sitting on the book store building at the old town square and more. Adults who built the town made sure that their fancies will be served too: the town-hall door is right out of the fairytale for the overgrown gnomes. We agonized about taking a break from our drive to sit down at a cellar bar that looked and smelled perfect. The castle complex at the top of the hill was beautifully architected ensuring a good combination of effective and whimsical. It was first built in 1248. We were sad to see it go when we got on our way.

After another 3.5 hours stopped at another Unesco town -Quedlinburg. Its famous for its half- timbered homes - over a 1000 of them. The boys had to look for another parking spot so the ladies got our way through the park to the old town square. I was surprised to see a young girl emerge from the bathroom and crouch down with a cigarette - a lot of people smoke in Germany (areas we visited) but she looked only slightly older than our 12 year olds. Then a little boy came out of the bathroom joined by a man in his late 20s- father/husband? slovenly dressed in a dirty “wife beater” unfazed by the girl smoking. We stared as several more men came out looking very much the same but unrelated to the prior group.

Perplexed we got on our way and soon settled down in a seafood restaurant near the main square. They have a private seating in a little garden with a lemon tree and a leafy koi pond without the fish. Boys joined us. Dan ran out to visit a few stores around before they close at 6pm and got lucky, like a whole little lot bag lucky. 

The waitress, kindly older woman who knew not a lick of English, was very patient with kids - it was funny watching them discuss the portion sizes using the body language. The food was excellent.

We rolled out onto the main town square and saw that it was locked in from all directions because they had some kind of town fair going on. Other than a few merry go-arounds and several food vendors we did not see any great perks that would warrant 5 or 8 euro entry fee but we did want to see the main square. So we said to the ticket sellers that we just want to go through and they let us in. 

The center was lovely - we strolled taking in the old sights in between the colorful vendor booths. That’s when there was some commotion near another entry gate near us and Dan looking very tense urged us to get out of the town square. 

Turns out there was an Indian man with a little girl who said in English to one of the entry guards that they are staying at the hotel on the main square and asked if they could be allowed in. The guard grabbed the man by his neck and dragged him to the building he was pointing to, little girl following horrified. 

Would we get the same treatment if we looked Indian? Suddenly it did not seem that impossible and we looked at this town in a different light. What if told him we are Jewish? This appalling lack of dignity with everyone watching and no one saying a word. If anyone from Unesco organization is reading, stop by at this town for a bit. Designating something as a World Heritage site means that the entire humanity deserves equal access the site. Perhaps a few folks in town need some retraining for the town to keep this designation.

We got on our way and soon arrived to our final pension-hotel in Berlin. To our happiness it was located in the same neighborhood as the last one but was even bigger and more glorious with enormous high ceilings and the balcony. 

Kids stayed up until after midnight repacking our luggage so that we will be all set for sanitation when we get home. 

August 9th, the Rhine River Drive

We did a fun drive from Luxemburg Northeast to Burg Eltz through Trier and then took the classical South the Rhine river stopping at Boppard, St. Goar, Bacharach, Rudesheim, Maintz, and ultimately ending in Frankfurt.

Burg Eltz, locked in on a ledge between two green towers with its whimsical turrets, a multitude of towers, and half timbered living quarters, was a beautiful sight indeed. We initially thought of sending just the kids to roam through the castle while we would enjoy awesome views at a castle cafe while having a cup of coffee and cake. But kids encountered crowds of mostly Russian tours and decided to bail on the opportunity of some autonomy and opted-in to join us for the cake.

We spent some time at Boppard trying to get our bearing. It’s filled with the crowds of German pensioners and features a lot of “antique” stores that really sell a bunch of old junk unattractively piled up in the windows. Every now and then there is a little pearl like the Roman ruin or an awesome cafe that sells dark German bread, or a section of a cute river promenade. We did not get the point and so started back toward the parking lot but then Isabella needed to go to the bathroom so we came back into town and settled at a pretty classical cafe filled with old upholstered furniture. 

Ordered some iced coffees and a little desert from a tall lean older German lady with a mass of blond curls while we waited. The store has pictures of an even older German guy... one of the pictures was framed with a black ribbon in the corner. That picture looked like pictures of grandpa when he was sick. Pensioners sat silently in their seats as if waiting for something. We sent the kids out to get ice-cream on their own. When we were leaving, I’ve asked the owner if the gentleman in pictures was her father. She nodded and said that he died a week and a half ago. That explained some of the drama and suspense in the air. As if those pensioners were still waiting for him to come out and serve them coffee as usual. Are they helping her grieve or the opposite? In any way she stepped out with some prosecco on her serving tray moving remarkably light and graceful. And we too got on our way.

The views of scenic homes lining the banks of Rhine and backed by the hills and featuring neat vineyards and a multitude of castles had started in earnest. We’ve stopped to walk around the ruins of tax fortress Burg Rgeinfels. Kids has a great time. The real perk was the opportunity to take the guided tour of the dungeon and tunnels under the fortress but that plan was crashed when the first droplets of rain started to hit the building and the guide/ticket guy gleefully said ‘nein’ to starting the tour. 

The rain had started and we’ve missed our ferry to Lorelei. We decided to keep going and stopped at Bacharach next. Thanks to the rain, that was already receding, the streets were empty and we had this younger brother to Rothenburg all to ourselves. We wondered around and climbed one of the towers to enjoy the views of the town and vineries below. 

Next we grabbed a ferry to the Eastern bank and ran through the cobbled streets of Rudesheim to make it to the cable cars that took us to the Nieserwald Monument passing more vineyards and lovely Rhine views below. 

Back in town we went through delectable Drosselgasse (as a group we decided that it was cute rather than kitsch - a philosophical debate that challenges a number of travelers). We settled down for the unremarkable but plentiful meal, ad many around here and accompanied it with Riesling as befit the place.

Finally, we’ve made a brief stop at Maintz, lamenting that it was so late and we simply have no energy to give this beautiful town its due, and kept going to Frankfurt to spend the night prior to the final trip of our journey - Berlin.