This upcoming Friday our nearly 26-month tour in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, will come to an end. The movers packed up and took away most of our possessions last Thursday and Friday, so we've been living in an eerily-empty apartment since. My final day at work will be on Thursday, then it's an early-morning departure from Vilnius Airport on Friday. The first stop will be Taiwan, where we'll stay for about three works, before flying to Seatac for a month-and-a-half of Home Leave in Bremerton. We're due to arrive in Falls Church on Labor Day, where I'll begin ten months of training in Amharic, the official working language of Ethiopia. There will be some additional trainings once I've complete language, with an ETA in Addis Ababa at the end of July 2019.
And so the latest adventure is coming to an end. It's been great having the opportunity to live and work in a charming city like Vilnius and a beautiful country such as Lithuania. Regular followers of this blog will know that we've certainly taken advantage of what is on offer here. Am I sad that we're leaving? Not really, for I'm looking forward to what Addis Ababa has in store for us starting next summer. But there's a lot I'm going to miss about Vilnius and Lithuania - the beautiful springs/summers, the rural scenery, the cathedrals and restaurants of Old Town, the beer. Not to mention the travel opportunities that come with living in an EU/Schengen Area country - in the short time we've been here, we've traveled to Bavaria, the Netherlands, Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, England and Scotland, the Czech Republic, Italy and Slovenia. I'm NOT going to miss the winters - not so much the cold and darkness, but because of the lack of sunlight during the daylight hours due to almost-constant cloud cover - but I'm pleased with myself how quickly I adapted to the unfamiliar (for me) conditions. It also goes without saying that I'm going to miss my colleagues, a great group of people and a pleasure to work with. And, finally, there will be that little twinge of sadness in knowing I won't be seeing this sight again from our living room windows:
Any regrets? Just a couple - although we did visit Tallinn, Riga and Jurmala, I wish we could've had more time to explore Lithuania's Baltic neighbors Estonia and Latvia. I'm also sorry I never mastered Lithuanian. I was supposed to have studied the language in preparation for working here, but the powers-that-be made the unilateral decision to enroll me in Russian instead (without so much as a by your leave), a resentment I'm still feeling. But overall I'm satisfied that we made the most of this tour (just as we did in Shanghai), and my memories of the city, country and people will be uniformly good ones.
So barring something calamitous or at the very least unexpected, this will be the last blog post from Lithuania, with the next one coming from Taiwan. With all the preparations involved in moving from one continent to another, we haven't gone out much in the past few weeks, but here are a few final images from Vilnius. Enjoy...
My birthday dinner at Asia Viet:
June 15 was Culture Night, with over 200 art light projects set up around central Vilnius. Several cathedrals were open until late in the evening - I went inside to have a look around the interior of the St. Apostles Philip and Jacob Church:
A large TV screen had been set up in Cathedral Square to show the Portugal-Spain World Cup match (it ended in a 3-3 tie, with Ronaldo scoring a hat trick, as if you didn't know that already):
Taking place in the inner courtyard of the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania was this odd performance. Art is art...:
Pilies gatvė:
An operatic performance being staged in front of the Vilnius Town Hall:
The Contemporary Art Centre's doors were open that evening, welcoming the crowds and offering a good view across to the Town Hall square:
The Lutheran Church's spire was lit up in the spirit of the evening:
One of the art light projects noted above:
A mysterious sign set up in the park behind our apartment building:
My daughter was lucky enough to join a kayaking excursion on the Neris the day after Culture Night:
Amber with one of her classmates. All this moving I fear will get harder for her as she gets older and friendships become more important:
Father's Day at the Belgai restaurant. Good beer, good food, but the same couldn't be said of the company as my wife was in one of her moods and made it clear she couldn't wait to get back home to resume the online roleplaying game she's become addicted to. No wonder I drink:
This past Friday was Open Kitchen, where cafes and restaurants in Vilnius set up booths at the Tymas market. Actually, every Friday and Saturday is Open Kitchen during the summer months, but this would be our last chance to experience the market, so I took Amber along on Friday evening (Shu-E usually skips dinner). The timing was good, as the weather was still warm - Saturday turned chilly and today has been rainy. On the way we passed a series of signboards promoting Poland that had been set up in Constantine Sirvydo Square:
My daughter plays by a fountain with the French embassy serving as a backdrop:
Eating tikka wraps and spring rolls, and drinking orange-and-berry lemonade, at Open Kitchen:
The Dalai Lama was recently in town and there's a Tibet Square just outside of the Užupis alternative community. In honor of his visit, stone stupas had been set up in the Vilnia River, while photos of Tibet were placed on the riverbank wall across from the Užupio kavinė cafe (making for an unusual juxtaposition with the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Theotokos in the background):
Amber dips her feet in the Vilnia:
Checking out a series of photographs of Astana. One of my daughter's classmates is from Kazakhstan. During our time here, she's also made friends from Azerbaijan, South Korea, Lithuania and Russia, as well as from the U.S.:
This building was recently renamed Zappa Square. If you're wondering why, across the street stands Vilnius' famous statue of the eclectic musician (which you can just make out in the background):
And so I'll end my two-year-long Lithuanian-themed series of blog posts with an anecdote I've probably related on this blog before. Back in my college days, when Lithuania was still part of the Soviet Union but was already showing signs of wanting to break away, I had a summer job cleaning dorm buildings. One of my coworkers was of Lithuanian descent and predicted that the country would soon regain its independence due to Gorbachev's reforms and the nationalist sentiments they inadvertently unleashed. I confidently told him it wouldn't happen in our lifetimes. Never had I been so happy to have been proven so wrong.
The sun sets on the view from our window
Thank you Lithuania!
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