"The Diary of A. F."

Day 3 update: I'm still ALIVE!

I was out all day today. I like Vilnius - except that I think pretty much everything is going to be closed on Sunday. The neighborhood I'm staying in is like the Venice Beach of the Baltics. Very artsy with many galleries and so on. My bus leaves at 8 p.m. on Monday so I will have that day, too, to wander around.

So far, I like Latvian beer, but I stood in line with all the other young houlligans at the market and bought the same beer they did: Taurus Pilsner. It was only 1.9 Lt which is less than $1 for a big can. So, what the heck? I like it in the can... (I can't take credit for the originality of that disgusting joke, nor can I vouch for its validity.)

I went to the Lithuanian History Museum today. Did you know that in 1776 when we were declaring our independence all of the small municipalities in the countryside lost their soveriegnty? Also, there was a section of the museum for the deportations. I got a little perspective on my own deportation. Maybe I should have gotten off the bus at the border, and then snuck back in through the wheat field and became a "Partisan".

On a side note, in the Lithuanian History Museum I also saw the "tusk of a narwhal". Sounds like something out of Harry Potter to me...

A "narwhal"

Ironically, the Lithuanian History Museum contains an extensive collection of stamps dating back to the 18th century. Part of the reason that my visa agent wouldn't accept my paperwork is that it was not sufficiently stamped. How does one test the validity of a fax with a stamp on it? By signing it, dating it and writing "True and Correct Copy", of course. Soviet bureaucracy rises again.

Alight. I'm going to write in my journal. (Yes, I also bought a journal for the occassion.) It's like "The Diary of A. F.". I'm thinking of donating the flip-flops I wore in exile to the Estonian Occupation Museum.

Ok, enough deportation jokes... for now.