Architectural Flamboyance, Parliamentary Modesty, and New Friends (?)

Riga is a beautiful city. Today began with a tour of Riga's Art Nouveau architecture by Andris, our guide for the city. Now, I've been a fan of gargoyles ever since I saw Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame

Seriously, they were hilarious.

So it comes as no surprise that I dig the ornate ornamentation of Art Nouveau (at least as far as exteriors go, when it comes to interior decoration? Not so much...but I digress)
After the walking tour, we had a meeting with Ojars Kalniņš, a member of parliament in Latvia, little did I know that this meeting was going to blow my mind only a few hours later. Shock number one came when he opened his mouth and spoke with a distinct Chicago accent. He told us about growing up in Chicago and his time as an ambassador in the US. He talked about how he wanted to come work in Latvia and effect change and how he always felt like a terrible Latvian because he wasn't musically inclined (it's funny to me how in the Baltics, it seems that everyone has some musical bone in their body, maybe the singing revolution affected their genetics...) When his presentation ended, we talked with him in the corridor about Twitter, how much he misses baseball, how he gets much of his news from Stephen Colbert, and about his love of Bob Dylan.
 When we got back to the hotel, I googled him (admittedly, mostly to get the spelling of his name right for this blog) but when I found his website, I got sucked in. When I saw that there was a section on music and songwriting, I was jumped at the chance to read more of his thoughts on the subject. 
I had done some research on Latvian popular music (Partially for a travel presentation, and partially because I'm a total music nerd) I'd been listening to Brainstorm, The Yellow Postmen, and Marie N for the past week.

About midway through his personal introduction to his ideas on songwriting, it became clear that Mr. Kalniņš had sold his talents short. He had apparently been writing the English language lyrics for a number of groups, so I decided to look further, with the goal of then searching for the music he had written, but it seemed I had already found it. He wrote for many of the bands I'd been listening to and I didn't even know it! SO COOL!

After I got over my music-nerd freakout, we went and ate Uzbek food and then Andris took us out to a funky little bar where I tasted Black Balsam, the national spirit of Latvia. Straight, it's not really my cup of tea, but mixed with a little black currant juice (as the man next to me at the bar was doing) it's pretty tasty.

After much of the group left, Kara, Chloe, and I shared a table with a group of PHd students who teased us about being in Latvia and talked to us about relations with Russia, Baltic culture (of which they swore they had none except beer), and life in Riga. 

We decided to leave at around the time they started dancing the waltz through the bar...

Rules to Live By and Moving Right Along

Today started with part 2 of the Vilnius walking tour with Jurate. We crossed the lock bridge (covered in locks from couples to symbolize their love. I wonder how many of these exist...hmmm...) into the Republic of Užupis.

It's like a whole other world in there...

Užupis is an artsy neighborhood that went rogue and declared its independence in 1997. It's got its own flag, currency, president, army (with 17 soldiers), and even a 41-article constitution (that has been written out in 8 different languages and affixed to the walls of the city)

Chloe, studying the constitution

The Articles are as follows:

Everyone has the right to live by the River Vilnelė, while the River Vilnelė has the right to flow by everyone.

Everyone has the right to hot water, heating in winter and a tiled roof.

Everyone has the right to die, but it is not a duty.

Everyone has the right to make mistakes.

Everyone has the right to individuality.

Everyone has the right to love.

Everyone has the right to be not loved, but not necessarily.

Everyone has the right not to be distinguished and famous.

Everyone has the right to be idle.

Everyone has the right to love and take care of a cat.

Everyone has the right to look after a dog till one or the other dies.

A dog has the right to be a dog.

A cat is not obliged to love its master, but it must help him in difficult times.

Everyone has the right to sometimes be unaware of his duties.

Everyone has the right to be in doubt, but this is not a duty.

Everyone has the right to be happy.

Everyone has the right to be unhappy.

Everyone has the right to be silent.

Everyone has the right to have faith.

No one has the right to violence.

Everyone has the right to realize his negligibility and magnificence.

Everyone has the right to encroach upon eternity.

Everyone has the right to understand.

Everyone has the right to understand nothing.

Everyone has the right to be of various nationalities.

Everyone has the right to celebrate or not to celebrate his birthday.

Everyone shall remember his name.

Everyone may share what he possesses.

No-one can share what he does not possess.

Everyone has the right to have brothers, sisters and parents.

Everyone is capable of independence.

Everyone is responsible for his freedom.

Everyone has the right to cry.

Everyone has the right to be misunderstood.

No-one has the right to make another person guilty.

Everyone has the right to be personal.

Everyone has the right to have no rights.

Everyone has the right to not be afraid.

Do not defeat.

Do not fight back.

Do not surrender.

And a Kate has the right to stop talking about the walking tour now that she's covered her favorite part of it (ok, so that's not really in the constitution, but I'm still moving right along)
Post-walking tour, we loaded up the bus, bid a fond farewell to Vilnius, and were on our merry way to Riga.
But, what's this! One more stop in Lithuania? Oh, Frabjous day! The travel crew decided that we should visit "that place on the cover of the Lonely Planet guide"

Ain't it Pretty?

So we were allowed a scenic pit-stop at the Trakai Island Castle. It certainly did not disappoint.

Yup, just as pretty in person.

After some more driving, we got kicked out of the bus and were forced to walk to Latvia, leaving all our luggage behind.

It's hard out here for a Franklin Student

Really though, I kid, we just took pictures at the boarder.

I get really excited at boarder crossings...And, let's be honest, all the time, really :-)

 We got in to Riga and had dinner at a soviet-style milk bar (at least that what they call it in Ukraine/Russia/Poland). It really has very little to do with milk...It's just a tasty, inexpensive, buffet-style eatery.
We all went to bed full and happy.

Walking tours, hot cocoa, and...Frank Zappa?!?

Today was our walking tour of Vilnius' Old Town. Our guide, Jurate (which, fun fact, means mermaid in Lithuanian), had some really interesting perspectives on what it was like to be in Lithuania when it was still under Soviet control. We saw a number of churches and heard about the pagan roots of many Lithuanian symbols including the ornamentation on their crosses

Sun rays/Garden snakes

 Even their Jesus's had pagan origins

The crown of thorns was added later, the bored/pensive bearded guy was originally a pagan symbol!

After the walking tour, we were set loose on the city for the afternoon. After spending at least an hour getting lost and looking at street art on Literatu Street (A small, winding street that is COVERED in small weatherproof artworks dedicated to writers, translators, and other folks who are important to Lithuanian literature in some way)

This picture *hardly* does it justice

I grabbed myself a hot chocolate from a glorious little place called Pink Milk Shake

It was Gingerbread hot chocolate and it was MAGICAL

And went on a quest to find the bronze bust of Frank Zappa I had read about in our guidebook. Why Zappa, you may ask? He's not Lithuanian... Well, I didn't know why he was in Vilnius, but I wanted answers and figured the best way to start was to make a pilgrimage to the statue. After much wandering (apparently a theme in my life...) I finally found him. He was a little far off the beaten path, but there he was, all bronze and Zappa-y, on a tall steel pole, surrounded by brightly colored graffiti of other pop-culture icons. I tried to ask other Zappa-pilgrims what his likeness was doing in Vilnius, but everyone either didn't know or didn't know in English, so the hunt continued.

Me and the lovely Mr. Zappa

After failing to find out the reason for the bust, I decided to drown my sorrows in more gingerbread hot chocolate before returning to the hotel. There I overheard a man who was asking (in English) for directions to the Zappa bust, I chimed in with directions and decided it was worth a shot to ask him if he knew its story and......HE DID!!!

Apparently, Zappa had been idolized during soviet times for his anti-establishment stances and, after Lithuania declared independence, a number of Zappa fans decided to test the water of this freedom by basically saying to the government "Prove it! If we're really free let us erect a monument to this non-soviet icon of sticking it to the man!" and free Lithuania said, "Yeah, sure, sounds good to us!" and thus, the Zappa statue was erected.

Pretty friggin cool.

And then there was dinner, and a discussion about Lithuanian basketball culture, and then we decided that we were going to sample a few different night-life locales throughout the city, starting with the Portobello Pub (the one we were at the night before) and moving on from there...But when we got to the pub it was crowded to the rafters (literally) with screaming basketball fans who were glued to a huge projection screen that was broadcasting a game. 

Lithuanian basketball culture is not a myth.

Needless to say, we chose to stick around Portobello and watch culture in action rather than go bar-hopping. I'd call it a good choice.

Let the penultimate AcTrav BEGIN!

Academic travel: Take 1 professor and 19 Franklin students. Add x cities that aren't Lugano (often in countries that aren't Switzerland, sometimes on continents that aren't Europe) Multiply by 2 weeks. Repeat 2 times per year for 4 years.
As has been mentioned, this is my last year at Franklin thus making this my second to last AcTrav. For  11 days I, along with 18 of my peers and our fearless leader, Professor Cordon, will be exploring the Baltic countries (and Finland...Which only sort of counts...) and looking at the idea of cultures in transition.
Today (which is technically yesterday as I'm editing/posting this...Day one and I'm already a day behind...) was a long day of traveling.
We departed Lugano at 4:30 AM after the one of the most stressful re-packs of my young travel-life (I won't burden you with the details, but it involves broken suitcase zippers, incorrect clocks, and frantically running down the street, shoes untied, suitcase half-open, passport between teeth, trying not to miss the bus) Off to a great start, eh? Well, I figure at that point it's all uphill.
So, bus to Milan, flight to Vienna, flight to Lithuania (on which they served Almdudler, an Austrian ginger-ale/lemonade soda, which was super exciting)

Approaching Lithuania in our glorious beast of a flying machine.

And then *KAPOW!* we were there! (well, ok, there was another bus ride first, but *KAPOW!* just had so much more oomph to it...)
Arriving in Vilnius, we checked in to the hotel (a former Carmelite monastery architecturally linked to St. Theresa's Church and the Gates of Dawn) and set out to explore...and try not to get too lost before dinner.
Dinner was traditional Lithuanian fare. I opted to try the national dish (always a good plan, by my estimation) cepelinai, which are potato dumplings filled with meatofsomesort which are boiled and served somthered in buttery/sour creamy goodness and bacon...

Honestly one of the most filling things I've ever put in my stomach.

 After walking off the potato-meat food-baby that was living in my stomach and averting a disastrous food coma, Jessie, Heather, Justin, and I decided to sample the nightlife. We tried out a pub near the hotel and, of course, Justin swiftly made friends with a pack of locals who fancied his beard, were confused by his shorts, and wanted to talk sports. Needless to say, hilarity ensued the likes of which are all too bizarre to even be synthesized into coherent words.

Justin and his new best friend.

I leave you with Justin's new best friend's parting words to him: "Next time I see you, I will slap your face. Then, party will begin."

I've got a good feeling about this travel...

A little bit of background...

Who starts blogging this late in the game?
(B)Logic states that one most often starts writing at the beginning of an adventure/endeavor of some sort (Say: attending a university over 4000 miles from home and becoming some sort of scholastic jet-setter...or something)
But my adventure began 3 years ago...So why now?
It all begins with filed graduation papers. In my time at Franklin, I've become quite comfortable with the unreality of my life. Snow-capped palm trees, breakfast/lunch/dinner each in a different country, clubbing with incognito royals, living in hostels, dining with foreign dignitaries, all amazing and wonderful, but all very typically Franklin. When I handed that paper to the registrar and she measured my head for my cap (sidebar: my head is quite large...) I realized that, sooner than I had ever really considered, I would have to leave this fantasy land where the surreal is real and foray into life as a real person. There was only one problem: I didn't know how to be a real person. At best, I was severely out of practice. How does one step into a world that sees "I'm too lazy to go down to the grocery store" "Me too, let's just go to italy" as an improbable and impractical conversation when you see it as just a typical saturday morning?
Apparently, if you're me, you start a blog.
You turn life events into stories, vignettes, something to be read and understood, something to transition me from surreal college student to real-life blogger.
It seemed reasonable to me at the time...