Round the World

We're big spenders! Upon arrival in Vietnam we withdrew 3 Million(!) Dongs from the ATM. Of course, with an exchange rate of 17,000 Dongs to $1, that's only about $180. It takes some getting used to to spend such high amounts - once I thought we were spending too much money in one day, then I realized that 180,000 Dongs is only about $11.

The first impression I have of Saigon (as does everyone, I'm sure) is the never ending stream of motorcycles (and the noise) on the streets - they just swarm around the cars like ants! Crossing the street is literally like playing Frogger – one step at a time. The trick is to cross slowly so that the vehicles can see you and go around you, and definitely follow the “small yields to big” rule.

The main reason Ashok and I wanted to go to Vietnam was for the food, so as soon as we got settled, we went out in search of real Vietnamese cooking. Unfortunately, because we were staying in the backpacker/ touristy area around Pham Ngu Lau, the food is also “westernized”, so I'm sad to report that our first meal in Vietnam was not very good. We learned to avoid restaurants in Pham Ngu Lau area or touristy areas in general, especially those that offer western and Vietnamese food. We found authentic (and better!) stuff just a few blocks away: amazing Pho (beef noodle soup which HCMC is known for), really good Vietnamese baguette sandwich from a guy on the street, and freshly made thin rice crepe from a woman at the morning market (the one for locals, not the touristy Cho Ben Thang market). Not to mention the Vietnamese coffee: strong, rich coffee (one good influence from the French) balanced with the sweetness of condensed milk, then poured over ice... perfect for the hot, humid weather. If you haven't figured it out already, there will be a lot on food in my Vietnam posts.

It's amazing, too, how little space the Vietnamese needs to set up a food stall.
Everything they need is set up all around them so there's no need to get up from their little plastic stool.

This woman had everything she needed on her bike, down to the tin container with hot coals to keep her food hot:

Getting away from food for a minute, we did do some sight-seeing as well. One of the must-see's in HCMC has to be the Cuchi Tunnels. It's a network of underground tunnels used against the French at first, then expanded by the Vietcongs to fight the Americans. It really gives you a sense for how resourceful & cunnning the Vietnamese are, and therefore, why the Americans could not win the war on their turf. The tunnels are just big enough for the smaller Vietnamese to fit in, but for most people today you'd have to bend over, and in some cases, crawl to get thru the dimly lit tunnel (back in the days it would be pitch black). I was getting claustrophobic in there and couldn't finish.

Here's one of the holes the Vietcongs snipers would hide in. Once again, it's amazing how small a space they'd squeeze into:

It was surreal to see these places, especially since Vietnam today is so geared towards foreign tourism and does not feel like a communist country at all.

Our tour guide, Mr. Bean (Binh), was also one interesting character. Having fought in the Vietnam war on the US side, he was not trusted by the government to pursue a professional career in law so he became a tour guide to earn a living.... and that's just one of his stories.

Three days was about the right time in HCMC so we made our way north along the coast towards Hanoi.

Without meaning to, our next few destinations are all related to the Silk Road. Dunhuang is another important city on the Silk Road, but it is most famous for the Mogao Grottoes, caves that contain elaborate Buddhist paintings and sculptures. It's a lot grander and more important historically than the Yungang Grottoes we saw in Datong because it has over 700 caves and contain artwork created over a millennium starting at 366AD.

To protect the artwork, the only way to see the caves is with a guide and the tour only includes 10 caves. The experience is slightly diminished since we couldn't wander through the caves at our leisure, but what we got to see were impressive enough. One of the more famous caves contains the world's 3rd largest Buddha figure, standing at over 34.5 meters high. Photos were not allowed inside so here I am outside of the cave. To give you an idea for the scale, the Buddha is the same height as the building behind me:

Another famous cave is the library cave because it originally contained over 50,000 rare and original manuscripts dating as far back as 400AD. Interesting story: the manuscripts were discovered centuries after the Mogao caves fell into ruins and were almost covered up by the Gobi sand. Thinking he's doing a good thing, the guy who found the cave sold the manuscripts to raise money to restore the cave and build a 3-story exterior outside of the cave. Unfortunately for the Chinese, he sold the priceless manuscripts to foreigners for very little money so only about 8000 of the inferior manuscripts remain in China, and the rest are in various museums around the world.

After a night's rest to recoup from the bus ride and the long day, we moved on to our next stop on the Silk Road, JiaYuGuan. Dunhuang to JiaYuGuan is only(!) a 5-hour bus ride.... not too painful. JiaYuGuan is where the Great Wall ends. Having climbed the Great Wall in Beijing, it's pretty cool to climb the western end of it, some 2200 KM (1367 miles) away.

Also, the fort at JiaYuGuan historically symbolizes the end of “civilized” China and the beginning of “barbaric” land. Exiled officials, scholars, etc., all leave through the West Gate into unprotected land. It was at the end of the day so the West Gate was already closed, but looking out through the crack it does look pretty barren and desolate.

Our last top on the Silk Road tour is Xian. As the ancient capital of China, it marked the end (or beginning) of the Silk Road.

Today, the main reason people come to Xian is to see the Terra Cotta Warriors. China's first emperor, Emperor Qin, built this army of 8000 life size terracotta warriors around 200BC as part of his mausoleum so that he has an army to protect him and to keep him in control in his afterlife. The most impressive part, I think, is that each face is unique. I always thought it's because they were real soldiers, but in reality (and the less gruesome truth) the workers based their models on real soldiers they saw around them.

In general the food in these places were just ok. Being part of the west, the "specialty" dishes were Islamic food like mutton kebobs. However, they all paled in comparison to what we had in Kashgar. I was told that we should have the dumpling feast while in Xian, but Ashok was not feeling well after our meal in Jiayuguan the day before so unfortunately we had to skip it.

Stopping only 1-2 days in each place is pretty tiring so we're looking forward to resting in the next city or two... or we may have to wait until we get to Thailand.

Here are the places mentioned on this blog:

From Beijing we flew all the way to Kashgar (aka Kashi), Xingjiang, on the western border of China (equivalent in distance to going from NY to LA). Kashgar was a major stop on the ancient Silk Road that linked trade between Europe, Central Asia, and China. Most of the population is made up of the Uighur minority group who has more in common with Central Asians than with the Chinese living to the east, in looks, religion, food, and lifestyle. In fact, many only speak Uighur and not Chinese. Walking around, I felt like we had left China and entered a different country.

Apparently some of the locals feel the same way and want to be independent - there have been protests and violence in the past, though quickly cracked down by the central government. How many Uighurs really feel that way, and whether they are right or not, depends on who you talk to, the age of the person, and whether that person is Uighur or Han Chinese. That said, we didn't feel any of that tension as we walked around.

Kashgar is a very cool and interesting place. It's not as developed as other cities so one can still see the traditional Uighur way of life just by walking around. We went to the Sunday livestock market where people from villages around Kashgar bring their animals (cows, goats/sheep, donkeys, horses, camels) to sell.
There are also vendors selling other things on the outer part of the market. We had a guide (one of our hotel employees offered to be our guide for a fee) who explained things to us and translated for us. Being a city girl, I've never been in such close proximity to so many animals so it was definitely an experience. It's sad if you think about the fate of the animals, but at the same time it was fascinating to watch.

Of course I also had to check out the eateries along the outer ring of the market... the way they hang the freshly cut lamb makes New York Chinatown look like child's play. It's definitely not a place for vegetarians or the weak of heart.

Here's a man making another Uighur specialty dish - Laghman noodles (i.e. pulled noodles):

Kashgar, in general, is a great place for foodies. The specialty here is Muslim food and were they good! The mutton kebobs were some of the best I've ever tasted; the lamb in the Pilaf (a rice dish similar in concept to Indian Pulao or Biriyani or Spanish Paella) was so tender it literally melted in your mouth; and the Samsas (baked mutton dumplings) were on the fatty side but really flavorful. They do like their mutton fat here so it is not a good place for my waistline to stay too long.

I didn't know it but Kashgar (and Xingjiang in general) is known for its fruits as well: super big and sweet pomegranates from Kashgar, sweet and juicy grapes from Turpan, and melons from Hami, to name a few.

We took a day trip from Kashgar to Karakul Lake via the scenic Karakoram Highway, the highest mountain pass road in the world. The highway goes over the Khunjerab Pass, through glacial-peaked mountains and ends at the Pakistan border, but we didn't have enough time to go that far. Just as well since I already experienced some minor altitude sickness at Karakul Lake which is around 3500 meters high. The section we drove through to get to Karakul Lake was scenic enough with red-sandstone canyons, sand dunes, and views of glacial peaks in the distance.

This is Kumtagh (White Sand Lake in Chinese) on the way to Karakul Lake. It's usually really windy but it was perfectly calm when we were there so you can see the reflections of the sand dunes in the lake.

We weren't as lucky at Karakul Lake so this is the best reflection I got of the ice mountains ringing the lake.

After Kashgar, the other cities in XingJiang were rather disappointing. Urumqi, the capital of Xingjiang, is a much bigger city than I expected especially being out here in the middle of nowhere, but it is just another big Chinese city. We made good use of our afternoon there and headed to the Xingjiang Museum where we saw a 8000 year old skull and 3800 year old mummies all preserved by the dry desert sand. That was pretty cool.

Turpan, another important Silk Road City, had many famous sites in addition to the grapes, but all of them were either way over-hyped or too contrived (the traditional Uighur village felt more like a show, complete with entrance fees, a parking lot for tourists, and gift/snack shops in the village). The one good place was the Jiaohe ruins which was established around 2nd century AD. It's one of the world's largest, oldest, and best preserved ancient cities. We practically had the place to ourselves and were able to really appreciate the place.

At least with Turpan, I can now say that I've been to the 2nd lowest place in the world (Dead Sea is the lowest).

Oh, and we had an amazing mutton dish at this restaurant around the corner from our hotel:

Another reason to regret going to Turpan is that we were forced to take a sleeper bus to our next destination, Dunhuang, because the train tickets were sold out. Instead of seats there are bunk beds lined up in rows. Typical of the Chinese, they crammed as many beds in there as possible, not leaving much room in the aisles or any room for a toilet on the bus.

The couple in the picture is this Slovenian couple we met on the bus.

As if that's not enough, they actually oversold the beds so there was one more person in the aisle next to Ashok so I think he got elbowed a couple of times during the night. Despite the smell and the questionable bedding (we brought our own sheets), the 13-hour bus ride wouldn't have been that bad if it wasn't also freezing. We stretched our jackets as much as possible to cover up. Really should have brought sleeping bags for this trip. Needless to say, we didn't sleep much and were so happy when the ride was over.

One last funny picture: it's fairly common, especially in smaller towns and in the countryside, to put babies in these open bottom pants. Just hold the kid over the toilet (or by the roadside)... no need for diapers. Very environmentally friendly!

A note for those thinking about going to Xinjiang: I highly recommend going to Kashgar, especially before it becomes more touristy as they are planning to open an international terminal. Here's the phone number of our driver to Karakul Lake. He's really really nice (and honest) and took good care of us, and even translated for Ashok when he was taking pictures. He only speaks Chinese so either use the hotel as interpreter or do a lot of charades:
Kashi Tiao-Er 13119980657

The Trans-Mongolian Railway connects Ulaan Baatar to Beijing, China, and is what most people take as part of the Trans-Siberian Train trip. Instead of going straight to Beijing, we decided to stop in Datong first since it was one of places on my list. We book the deluxe class (i.e. we had the compartment to ourselves) which was good given the amount of luggage we have. It was great! In addition to the bunk beds, we had a little seating area and a shower (we didn't try it out). The decor is a little outdated, but clean, and an upgrade after Mongolia. The train conductor took care of us and made sure we had plenty of hot water for tea & stuff.

The 24-hour ride flew by pretty fast. Even the 4 hour border crossing into China was interesting watching them lift up the train cars to change out the wheels (the China and Mongolian train tracks are different widths). Train travel is definitely the way to go if you have the time and the money for the soft sleeper compartments. There's more space to move around, and so much more relaxing....

The main attractions in Datong are the Hanging Monastery and the Yungang Grottoes. For us, there was the added bonus of relaxing in our 4-star hotel (for $50!). To have a real bathroom and be able to take a nice long hot shower without having to worry about not touching anything around you!

The hanging monastery is not really hanging, but built onto the face of a cliff so it looks like it's hanging precariously. It's pretty impressive considering it's over 1500 years old!

The Yungang Grottoes are a series of caves that have Buddhist carvings from around 500AD, constructed under the patronage of the royalty. The best preserved ones have the statues and paintings all over the cave and are quite impressive.

One of them has a large Buddha that is over 17 meters tall. Check out the size of the hands vs the tourists standing in front of it.

It is hard not to run into tour groups in China as we are finding out (more on Chinese tour groups later), but we managed to get into a couple of caves that are not on the typical route. Whereas the popular caves are impressive and give you an idea for what the caves were like in their heyday, the unrestored caves were much more peaceful and solemn.

We were excited to be in China for the food, especially after 10 days of similar mutton dishes. We were told that the 2 specialty dishes in Datong are Dao-Shao-Mien (knife-cut-noodles), and rabbit head (!). We decided to pass on the rabbit heads. The noodles, on the other hand, were really good. The most popular toppings are pork or beef stew, but the noodles themselves have a lot of flavor and good texture. There's also a very popular appetizer/side dish which is cold soybean jelly mixed with lots of chili and hot oil (I know my description doesn't sound appetizing but it was good!). It's so slippery that it really tests ones chopsticks skills. Our driver took us to a place in the town near the Hanging Monastery that apparently makes the best jelly noodles. It doesn't look like much of a place but the food was yummy.

I always thought I'm pretty adventurous in food, but after being in China just a couple of days I realized I am not at all. In this northern town I also saw camel meat, mule meat, and even dog meat on the menu (didn't try any of it)! We would've stayed in this town longer to rest up, but we left because the food (that we can eat) besides the noodles were just so-so. Besides, we still have the rest of China to see.

The train from Datong to Beijing was comfortable, but not as nice as the other train. We shared a compartment with 2 other people – one older man from Beijing and a middle-aged man from Shanghai. It was interesting to hear them contradict each other on almost everything, from where we should visit to current government policies.

Since we've been to Beijing before, we skipped all the typical tourist sights. We did revisit Tiananmen Square and made our way out to the new Olympic Stadium, the Bird's Nest. Apparently all the Beijing tour groups have the same idea because that area was packed with people. Can't imagine what the area was like during the Olympic Games.

The Chinese really went all out with the Olympics, and are still milking it as we still see Olympics related signs and commercials everywhere. This is just the entrance to the subway station at the Olympic Park.

Finally, if you're still interested in seeing more, here's the outdoor market in Datong and a woman trying to load 3 huge bags of potatoes onto her bike. Not sure how she planned on riding it home.

Photos are a bit quirky to upload right now, but I will have more of China soon....

Here's the main reason we went back to the US for a few weeks:

Our nephew, Ronak Sinha-Chaudhuri, was born on September 8.

So I'm not a biased aunt, here's our little French niece, Valentine, who was born on September 4 to my cousin Christine and her husband Eric (too bad we couldn't get our tickets to work out for a stop in Paris to see her in person):

It was definitely nice to have a break from being constantly on the go and having to watch out for all your belongings. It was also great to get a chance to see family both in New Jersey and Los Angeles as well as to catch up with friends and attend our friend, Maura's, wedding. Not to mention the yummy home cooked Indian food, sushi, and Daisy May's BBQ. And to sleep on our oh so comfortable bed! I really missed that bed after months of hard/sagging mattresses and rough sheets.

We were busier than expected getting Visas for the next phase of the trip. Before you know it, it was time to say good-bye again. It's weird to think we'll be gone for almost 8 months, but this is the leg of the trip we're really excited about, especially about the food.

Leaving for Mongolia from Newark airport:

From Berlin we took the train to Prague... btw, German trains are awesome! They are new, clean, and very comfortable. I wish all the trains we took were this good. Second time around in Prague was a much better experience. The weather cooperated and except for an afternoon shower (during our walking tour of Prague), it was sunny and nice.

Here are some of the places we got to besides the main tourist attractions: the Czech Cubism art museum, the dancing building in New Town, Letna Park, etc.

This is the Dancing building in the newer part of Prague (picture the curved building is the woman leaning against the man, the straight building)

Stairway at the House of Black Madonna where the Czech Cubism Museum is located

The Grand Orient Cafe in the same building... a nice place to get away from the tourist crowds

The John Lennon Imagine Wall

People started to write graffiti on the wall when John Lennon died. The communist government would white wash the walls everyday, but people would fill up the wall again at night. It was a way for people to express their desire for freedom and democracy. Pretty cool story.

We even got a day trip to Karlstejn Castle, a small fairy-tale like castle. It's not a big castle and the town is very small as well so it was a nice leisurely day trip.

View of valley from the castle

Funny sign at the castle right before the entrance

4 short days in Prague and then back to the US for a few weeks before the next phase of our trip. I can't believe the first 2 months is almost over. At least there's still 7 more months of travel ahead of us, otherwise I'd b really depressed.

We found out way too late that there's a 7am train from Krakow getting into Berlin at 5pm which would've been a much better experience. Instead, we had another 12-hour-long bus ride that got us in at 2am. It's never a good thing to arrive into a new city late at night. This time the movies on the bus were voiced over by a guy in a monotoned voice... the same guy and th same voice for the ENTIRE movie. The movies were all Martin Lawrence films like Big Mama's House 2 so imagine for yourself what that sounds like. I wish I had a video camera to share the experience.

It was a huge hassle to get the keys to the apartment at 2am, but at least the apartment was nice. In fact, it is by far the nicest place we stayed in during our 2 months in Eastern Europe. The apartment owner, and the website we booked it through, was another matter.

I've been saying this a lot but, I can't believe we're in Berlin! It's another one of those places that I've heard a lot about, but had no plans to visit. Even on this trip it was a last minute decision. I'm glad we came, as Berlin was one of our favorite cities on this trip. It's got great architecture – a mix of beautiful old buildings with sleek, modern ones that look like models in architect offices, and is a nice change of scenery to all the old towns:

One of the Bundestag (Parliament) buildings

Reichstag building, the seat of parliament

Hauptbahnhof, the main train station in Berlin

The famous Brandenburg Gate

Potsdamer Platz at dusk

We rented bikes one day and explored the city (highly recommended). The flat terrain makes it easy to ride around, and there are lots of different areas to explore: hip galleries, trendy shops, laid back bars, government buildings, museums, and a Turkish neighborhood with great food.

Over the past couple of years, urban beaches have become very popular in major European cities such as Paris, Budapest, and Berlin. Here are a couple by Hauptbahnhof (main train station), one of which had a sand sculpture competition:

This is the winning sculpture... I think because the subject matter is global warming:

It was also really cool to see the remnants of the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, etc., which I've heard so much about.

It made me realize how little I paid attention to world events when I was younger (not something I'm proud of). For example, I always thought the border between East and West Germany cut through Berlin which is why the Berlin Wall was built to separate East and West Berlin. In fact, West Berlin was actually located inside East Germany, and the Berlin Wall surrounded all of West Berlin. So to get from West Berlin to the rest of West Germany, you had to cross East Germany or fly. The outdoor exhibit by Checkpoint Charlie was really good and tied everything we saw in Eastern Europe together. The only reason this area of democracy existed inside a communist country was because the Allies were adamant about protecting it, and they did it thru diplomacy, not brute force. It also highlighted how complicated foreign relations can be, that it's not as simple as good guys vs. bad guys.

Jean & Ashok in front of parts of the wall (Ashok in front of the famous "The Kiss")

On our last day in Berlin we found out about an event called the “Long Night of Museums”, where a 15 Euro pass gives you access to all the museums plus free rides on the buses & metros from 4pm-2am. It sounds like a lot of time but when you consider the amount of time it takes to get through a museum exhibit it's actually not that long. We went for quantity over quality and hit 5 museums in total. Some of the highlights were: the new garden that was unveiled at the Jewish museum, the DDR museum which shows the typical lives of people who lived in East Germany, and my favorite, the Bauhaus Museum of Design. In fact, I have decided that I like Art Deco. A lot.

Photos of the garden at the Jewish Museum

Finally, here's a funny picture of a store:

Apprently there are quite a few of these Schmuck stores... has something to do with gold & silver.

The visit to Auschwitz can only be described as chilling. Those that have been there know what I mean. I had seen pictures of what happened at concentration camps so I know how cruel the Nazis were, but what surprised me was how much effort they took to track every thing that was done to each person when they intended to kill all of them anyway. Even the smallest punishments were documented. The other thing that shows how sick the Nazis were was how much thought was put into designing a place to make the process of killing people as efficient as possible. The 2nd, and bigger, of the compounds around Auschwitz is a HUGE complex with the infamous railroad tracks leading right into it so they can send the people directly to the gas chamber. The insanity of the Nazis in thinking that they can actually exterminate a race and to actually build a place specifically for that purpose!

There were many disturbing and shocking exhibits, and the one that I think is most disturbing is the one where there is a window running the length of the room, and on the other side of the window you see the floor piled with human hair that was shaved off of the dead people after they've been gassed. There's even an example of how the Nazis use the human hair to weave into textile which were then used to make various things (sacks, carpet, etc.). Just writing about it is giving me goose bumps. Sadly there were many similar rooms each filled with articles taken from the Jews that were killed: glasses, shoes, suitcases, etc.

Photos were not allowed inside the buildings. In any case, being there made enough of an impression that I don't need pictures to remind me of it (and truthfully, I'm not sure I want pictures to remind me of it). I did take a picture of the front gate just for this blog. The words above the gate says “work brings freedom”. How ironic... and sick.

Based on a few things we heard, we decided to skip Warsaw and head straight to Krakow, the ancient capital of Poland. The overnight bus ride from Vilnius to Krakow was our longest yet – 12 hours! While it's still Eurolines, the bus was just slightly inferior to the ones running between the Baltic countries. And forget wi-fi. Instead, we got to watch Flight Plan in Russian (by the way, one of the worst movies I've seen in a long time).

We found an apartment rental site and got a studio apartment for around $85 per night – a lot cheaper than staying in hotels and also a lot less than what we were paying in Croatia and Montenegro but so much nicer. Our studio (Apartment Violet) was nicely decorated and had all the modern amenities, including a dishwasher and a washing machine! It's nice when you're on the road to have a place that feels more like a home. And the washing machine came in handy as we were in need of doing laundry. After this place we're sold on the apartment rental concept. We only wish we had found out about this earlier.

Enough of the mundane details. After a short nap we headed out to check out old town. You'd think after 3 old towns in a row we'd get tired of them, but Krakow is different yet again. Krakow was spared during the two World Wars so much of the old buildings remain. It is very touristy, but the main market square is huge so it's a lot of fun just to people watch.

There was a cultural celebration in the main square with folk dancing, etc. At one point I thought the performance was over as the dancers walked off the stage. One of the men came towards me and extended his hand, and I took it thinking he wanted to shake hands with me. It turned out the danders were pulling people out of the audience to be their dance partners, so I got dragged on stage to dance in front of the crowd! I didn't do too poorly... my sandals only slipped off once.

And what's a festival without traditional food. Here are some vendors selling traditional Polish food. Yummm!

(Josh this picture is for you)

Before WWII, Krakow had one of the largest Jewish neighborhoods, so we walked around the old Jewish neighborhood, Kazimierz. It's now developing into a trendy part of town with bars and restaurants and outdoor concerts, etc. There is also a ghetto across the river where the Jews were forced to move to from Kazimierz, Padgorze. When the Germans came, they built a wall around a section of Padgorze and forced all the Jews to live within that area. Today only a small part of the wall remains, an there is also a memorial in one of the squares, but it's definitely off the tourist route and there were only a few signs pointing out the sights. Schindler's factory (as in the movie Schindler's list) is a short distance from this area and the Jews that worked there and were saved by Schindler live in Padgorze. We didn't have map of the neighborhood, so it took us a while to find the wall and the factory. It's still a working factory, but you can't see much because there's a lot of construction around it as they were renovating the museum.

Continuing on this communist theme that we've picked up unintentionally (and also because we were a bit tired of old towns and wanted to see something different), we headed to another part of Krakow called Nova Huta (aka Nowa Huta). Nova Huta was built during the communist era by the Soviets as a model of Social Realist upban planning. In other words, it was supposed to be THE model communist community - a “perfectly” planned community where even the number of schools and other services (post office, markets, etc) were calculated exactly to match the population. It's a great example of how Soviet communism may sound good in theory but is so impractical: this community was built for workers, so they also built a steel factory for the workers to have a place to work, except that there are no iron ore, the raw material needed to make steel anywhere near Krakow.

The buildings are so blocky and blah that it was a bit depressing to walk through. I have no pictures to show because I didn't even feel like taking pictures. There is one church that was interesting – in defiance to the communists, this church was built to look like Noah's Arc fell on top of the Communist designed church (use your imagination).

Sadly, the uniform, block buildings remind me of some planned developments today I've seen in various countries... and those were not planned by the communists!

We stayed in Krakow for a total of 5 days, including a day trip to Auschwitz. In hind sight 4 days would have been perfect, but we made use of the extra time by taking it easy. Besides, we were really loving having a nice, homey place to go back to at night.

I know I'm really behind on my blog, but after 2 months I'm getting a little lazy. Some days when it's a choice between taking a nap and writing the blog, well... Here's the post on Vilnius. The rest of the Eastern European trip, Krakow and Berlin, should be up by the end of this week.

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The old town of Vilnius has yet another feel from the other two cities. It's a little bigger than the other 2, and also the most cosmopolitan of the three. The main town square is like the Beverly Hills or Madison Avenue of the city with quite a few brand name shops like Salvatore Ferragamo, just housed in old buildings surrounded by lots of cathedrals and churches.

A lot of activities happen at main square. One afternoon there was a concert to show support for Georgia. The banner on the right in the picture reads "Georgia and Lithuania - Friends Always Stand Together"

Another afternoon people were gathered in front of the big TV screen that's been set up for the Olympics to watch and cheer for the Lithuanian athelets.

An interesting thing about Vilnius is the special beer snack section on the menu. The best one is the fried bread sticks - rye bread sticks rubbed with garlic and salt and then deep fried. Garlicky, salty, and deep fried. Need I say more? It is sooo good with beer. Another local favorite is sliced smoked pig ear and pig snout?! For some it''s even better than the bread sticks. We tried it, of course, but I personally think the Chinese version is more flavorful.

For the past month or so, we were really good about not shopping too much. For some reason we found a lot of things to buy in Vilnius. Here's a picture of me sporting my new hat:

Just across the river from old town is an area called Uzupis, known for its bohemian vibe. It's been compared to Montmartre in Paris, but I think it feels more like Berkeley, San Francisco.

People living there declared itself an independent republic with its own quirky 41 point constitution. Some articles in the constitution include:

1. 3 Everyone has the right to die, but this is not an obligation


2. 6 Everyone has the right to love


3. 12 a dog has the right to be a dog


4. 14 sometimes everyone has the right to be unaware of their duties


5. 24 Everyone has the right to understand nothing


6. 29 No one can share what they do not possess

We found a restaurant in Uzupis with a nice outdoor deck (restaurant Torres) by the river with a view of church spires of old town to enjoy our last night in Vilnius.