So, let me begin this post by saying this: I am not very well traveled. Sure, I fool people since I've been to plenty of cities in France and Italy, since I speak those languages and have really been able to learn a substantial amount about those cultures. But, when you think of all there is to see, I've barely even scratched the surface! And my recent trip to the capital of Lithuania, the delightfully beautiful Vilnius, reminded me of just how much more there is out there and how little I actually know. Let me share some of the (probably obvious) things I learned about/in Lithuania:
1) Lithuania is not on the Euro, but is in the Schengen Zone. That means that you can travel freely between Lithuania and other European countries in the Schengen Zone, but you need to exchange your currency. I didn't know that was possible...
2) Lithuania will soon be on the Euro. I am one of the last tourists to get Lithuanian Litas! So for that, I saved 10 of them (a little under $5).
3) Lithuania is in another time zone. It is one hour later than it is here in Berlin. This did not, however, stop the Lithuanian airline (Air Lituanica) from messing up the ETA and saying we were getting in at midnight when we were actually getting in at 1:00am (midnight Berlin time). I got on the flight and they said it would be 2 hours, and my thought was: then how are we getting in at midnight? Turns out, I was right and they were wrong.
4) I cannot understand a single word of Lithuanian. It doesn't resemble any language I know, and sounds totally distinctive. I really enjoyed listening to it, but more than that, I loved being surrounded by a culture I knew nothing about!
5) There are still people there who grow up speaking Yiddish, a language I thought was long dead.
6) Lithuania is so far north, that it gets dark extremely late in the summer, and the sun rises very early. My friend's Yiddish program had a Shabbat dinner which they began before the sunset (whereas generally in Judaism, you begin Shabbat—as you would any day of the week—at sundown). In fact, when we finished the dinner, it was still fairly light outside.
7) Vilnius is one of the only European capitals that it is possible to visit by hot air balloon. Unfortunately for me, it was just too expensive and also a bit inconvenient. Apparently to fly in an untethered hot air balloon, one must either wake up incredibly early or go in the early evening. I will say this, though: it was really beautiful eating a delicious dinner and watching the hot air balloons pass over us.
8) I can understand almost all the Yiddish I hear—apparently it is really just dumbed down German. I knew that the language was created in ghettos, a way of writing German phonetically with the Hebrew alphabet so that no one could read messages, but I had also assumed that it had become a more or less distinct language in its own right. In any case, how convenient for me!
Finally, here are some pictures. The city was beautiful and I particularly enjoyed spending my weekend there. While I may never have an excuse to return, it was definitely a good decision to go!
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