I usually try to find something special to do on New Year’s eve, and I was more than happy when a friend suggested going to the seaside. Palanga, one of the main seaside resorts in Lithuania, is a nightmare in summer, packed with families, budget tourists, and party-goers. But it makes a great winter getaway.
Following the Beaten Path: Part 3 – road trip past Nazareth
My friend, Israeli writer and public intellectual Yuval Ben-Ami set off to see what it is like to re-examine his country′s main tourist attractions with a critical native eye (all posts here), and I decided to virtually follow his path. In my blog posts I share my memories on what it was like visiting those places as an expat in …
Following the Beaten Path: Part 2 – Baha′i Haifa
Having read a series of stories by my friend, Israeli writer and public intellectual Yuval Ben-Ami, where he set off to see what it is like to re-examine his country′s main tourist attractions with a critical native eye, I decided to virtually follow his path. In my blog posts I share my memories on what it was like visiting those …
Following the Beaten Path: Part 1 – Western Wall
“Being a tourist, …” “You as a tourist,” “Many tourists say so” – the label ′tourist′ followed me everywhere when I lived in Israel in 2009-2010. Locals seem to be very economical about words, perhaps since the times when words had to be hammered in a rock to be transmitted to future generations. So, when encountering something strange or unexpected, …
Bar food and beer tour with Marius Plečkaitis
Walking by creepy looking blue lights from a wallpaper shop in the central station area, we are disappointed to see that a tiny shop with an old-school concrete sign is closed. Having spent many years in Kaunas, did I ever go there to buy meat pastries (čeburekai)? Definitely not. But on a tour with a connoisseur guide and a group …
Tallinn: like at home, but better
Estonia is often presented as Lithuania’s archetypical competitor, and, judging from many media reports, it seems that the main goal for Lithuania is to be ahead of Estonia one day. Personally, I grew up with my dad’s stories from Tallinn, after he did an internship there in the 1970s, about how Estonia was more western in many ways. Access to …
Going to the Negev again! Sde Boker and Yerucham
I had a chance to visit the Negev desert again. It was very different there.
The most impressive sights in Seoul
It’s been a long time (3 years) since I went to Seoul, but, having found my guidebooks, notes and other things to lend them to my colleague, I realized that memory is fading fast, so I should record it now. The only blog entry I wrote about that trip .
Cambridge revisited
“… When all at once I saw a crowd, A host, of golden daffodils” This is Cambridge – wrapped in greenery and blossoms, full of wildlife and very village-like, although it has been urban and academic since the Middle Ages. This time I stayed at the edge of the town, close to Churchill College.
Better late than never… my trip to NYC
I wrote about my last year when I was still on the road. I edited some of the entries later, adding some reflections and interpretations. But I omitted two stops on my itinerary – a brief visit to New Jersey and three days in New York. The reason for this was that I left immediately after, and I was too …