Prancercising Around the World

When I landed in Belgrade I went to the ATM and was met with the ability to only take money out in denominations of 2,000. I realized that I had forgotten to look up the exchange rate and I had a better idea of knowing what 2,000 monopoly dollars were worth. So I took out 10,000 of this mystery Serbian currency and hoped there wasn't a 1-for-1 conversion with USD. Things got exponentially easier though when I collected my baggage and entered the arrivals area at Belgrade's Nikola Tesla airport and was greeted by a driver holding a sign with my name on it. He drove me to a leafy street right outside of the center of the city. When I arrived one of the We Roam program leads was waiting for me. He took me through a giant wrought iron gate (see below) and a courtyard into my duplex where my new roommate was waiting for me. After I unpacked she took me to the coworking space in the center of the city where I got to chat with some of the other people in the program. Before we le...

This is my last post about Lithuania. I promise. But I had to write about Trakai Castle. It's on an island and was the home of Vytautus the Great who was part of a family that was apparently trying to reenact a Greek tragedy in real life. However, he successfully navigated the familial power plays and became the Grand Duke of Lithuania a little before the beginning of the 15th century. While Vytautus was in power Lithuania became the largest country in Europe, stretching from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea. To get to Vytautus' castle you have to walk almost a mile from the train station all along the lake. While walking along this picture-perfect path I realized that Lithuania is basically just the backdrop to a fairytale (see pictures below). Whether it's a a fairytale of the Grimm Brothers or the Disney variety is up for debate. But really the whole country is mostly just lakes and valleys and cobblestone streets and red roofs. And a sprinkling of brutal concrete build...

My last night in Vilnius my Lithuanian friends took me to Panama - a restaurant on the new side of town. One of the things I like best about hanging out with these friends in particular is that I get to resume my alter ego Jurgita Marsonaite. The last time I was in Lithuania they found out I was part Lithuanian and christened me with this Lithuanian version of my name using a can of beer from McDonalds, as you do. Here is me pretending to be a Lithuanian with them: During dinner we talked mostly about what their friends are doing to make a living - some of which are kind of crazy, such as living in an 18-wheeler to save on housing costs. However, despite the economic hardships I have a feeling the Lithuanians will come to prosper. They've overcome much more than this throughout their history. A list of things Lithuania has successfully overcome includes: - Catholicism (for most of its history) - Prussia - Imperial Russia - Nazi Germany - The Soviet Union ...

This time I came to Lithuania was just like the last time but more so. After the jet lag wore off I felt like I had found my second home. It’s a strange sensation to feel like you fit in so well with people who live 1/3 of the way around the world and whose language you don't speak. But I do. I look around at people and they could all be my more attractive relatives. In order for you to judge for yourself I’ve compiled a collage of random Lithuanians, below, some of which I photographed at an uncomfortably close distance, all in the name of...science?  This feeling of familiarity in a place so far away from home must be a phenomenon lots of immigrants encounter but I am three generations removed from my Lithuanian roots. Radios were still only prototypes the last time an ancestor of mine lived in Lithuania. Locals seem to think I could pass as Lithuanian too because when I inevitably exhaust the little Lithuanian I know and revert back to my American English they br...

I salvaged my jet lag-plagued first day in Vilnius with a drink in a bar with some of the best old world atmosphere I'd experienced in a long time – stone walls, exposed beams, Ella Fitzgerald on the speakers, and 20s-era barkeep outfits. It smelled of rich mahogany, much like Ron Burgundy's apartment. The waiters were also uncharacteristically talkative and made me a delicious gin-based drink called a Siri and then joked about my drink's cognate - the iphone assistant who will one day gain consciousness and take over the world.  The bar was only large enough for five small tables but on a Saturday night it still wasn’t full. With drinks at 8 or 9 euro each it’s not a surprise since the average wage in Vilnius is only € 665 per month. Most drinks in the city are less expensive than these but still expensive to Vilnians (the actual demonym for people from Vilnius, according to Wikipedia). Things in Vilnius are disproportionately expensi...

Ever since I made the decision to leave my job and travel the world for six months - one of the most drastic of my life - I haven't lost any sleep over it. I've stayed up for other reasons - doing research and making travel plans and online shopping for travel accessories but not for second guessing. This might be because there is only one thing I'm certain about in my life and that thing is that I want to learn more about other places in the world and the people who live there. I want to take full advantage of this crazy connected world to fly to different corners of the globe and meet people in all those places where weirdly enough people speak my language and then use this invisible magic called the internet to keep in touch with them long after my outbound flight. I want to know what it's like to live in those places - how they're affected by their history and economy and geography, how they see the rest of the world as well as their own city. I want to know i...