ESTONIA
One of the difficult things for me, to do on the road, is to take picture and enjoy what you are photographing at the same time. Is not easy to catch the beauty of what you are watching, often by photographing all the time, you even lose connection with the reality and the enjoyment of the moment. That’s why sometimes I just leave the camera on my bicycle and I record everything without even pointing at it! (not always with the best results….)
Blood drinking girl in Pärnu
On my way south, from Finland to the bottom of Estonia, I was searching for a place to sleep, suddenly I met someone…
We met in the middle of the night without knowing each other, in a dark street in the countryside.
I was lost and she offered me her place to sleep (without even seeing my face).
I liked her style, her way of behaving and her apparent foolery, she was really extravagant.
While we cycled to her place, she was telling me that she was a monster and enjoyed killing people. Drinking their blood.
I was slightly scared, but tired enough from the trip to follow her without resistance.
We arrived,
her room had many dark-style decorations on the walls.
It was the house of her grandparents, with her alcohol addicted grandfather, always drunk, screaming all the time, and her extremely sweet grandmother, gentle and kind, suffering all the time.
Even being afraid that someone is a dangerous person, if you like that person and you think it’s someone worth to get to know, you should go for it. Everybody is a potentially dangerous person, and remember that even if someone is ‘bad’, he may change as well. Better to be now, with someone that looks like a dangerous person, or maybe not perfect, than to get to know someone thinking he is totally safe (which does not exist actually) , that will eventually change in the future in someone dangerous while the first person may get better.
Not even death always related with ugliness: the dying of leafs on a maple tree are delightful to see for example.
LATVIA
RIGA
The most people has a quite archaic and conservative opinion about sex and man-woman relationship. If you like to be in company of women you are seen as a dirty, stupid, unwelcome.
The first impression is that western Europeans can be just good to get scammed and ripped off.
There is a huge Russian influence here, even if people told me: “Lithuanians are more Russian-style than us…”.
Anyhow, I don’t see here a big wish for change from the past.
If a man is not prone to expose himself for his ideas, or his ideals have no value at all or he, as person, has no value at all.
Luca x2, the paradoxical coincidence
Passing by a hostel in the center of Riga, asking some information’s, I notice a person that I have seen somewhere before.
I ask:
“Hallo, did I see you anywhere before?”
“yes, maybe” – he says with a strong french accent,
“ah, that’s funny, where were you the past weeks?” – I reply,
“in Tallinn,”
“me too! we should have met there then, did you hitchhiked to here?”
“no, I came with the bicycle”
“me too! what a coincidence!”
“what is your route?”
“I am coming from Scandinavia”
“me too! that’s more than a coincidence… ! where are you going?” – I say, almost not believing it!
“south, direction middle-east,”
“me too!” – I even start to worry about too many coincidences! – “since when did you start?”
“many months”
“me too, seen that we have so much things in common, we should introduce each other! What’s your name?”
“Luca” – he says
“me too!!” I reply
This is funny, weird and does not even look like to be possible, but it is. And you have seen it on video!
I love Gulliver’s travels because whenever he was traveling, in the each new place he arrived, the people could not understand or properly interpret experiences he had in the previous places. This happen in real life as well, who hasn’t traveled into a country, is not really able to understand certain things about that culture.
LITHUANIA
What if we would say to an anthropologist: “are you sure the culture you talk about is not just a scientific stereotype?” – I don’t think it is, but would be interesting to hear the answer.
Vilnius
If you just go in the street and shout: “Giedre” you will get at least the half of the girls turning their head. This is the most common name for girls.
Food
Lithuanians really love to add sauces to any kind of food, especially ketchup!
Pizza with ketchup, mayonnaise or tartar sauce is quite common.
Coffee and tea are not filtered, which means that you are mostly eating, not drinking it.
Vegetarians and vegans in Vilnius
When I asked to a waiter in a restaurant for a vegan meal, she gave me this explanation:
“Vegetarian here means that you are allowed to eat fish, Vegan means that you don’t eat fish or meat, but you do eat milk and eggs.”
I was surprised, but actually I have to admit that in Lithuania people is still much more forward than in more southern countries about fair and healthy food, for sure Latvians and Belorussians are not better…
Police
A group of three persons was behaving a bit annoying around the main train station during night time, once I called police they came really fast, they were helpful and did a good job, I even got a translator.
With Police the truth is sometimes the least credible.
The danger of who generalize is to end up fighting against his companions.
Cycling
There are public bicycles and some bicycle paths, still the system is not perfect and in many streets it’s really hard to cycle because the path may be marked as “cycling lane”, but , it has in some areas paving stones that makes it almost impossible to cycle. The crossings points need to be improved too.
Street Theater, Street Performances
Lithuanians have a sense of creativity, art and modernism, I was quite surprised to notice that.
There are many enjoyable street performances in Lithuania, regardless the cold climate (of course mostly in the summer), if you happen to pass in Vilnius in August you may enjoy some carfree days with Art, Sports and performances open to all.
Theater VS Real Life
Theater and reality overlap in my life, it merges until the point I don’t play theater anymore but I play my life, making the world as scene. This makes my technical acting skills decrease, but my social and life skills improve.
Technology
Regardless some other fields where there is room for improvement, in Lithuania, you have great internet infrastructure: the best European fibreoptic internet penetration (usage) and both home and mobile internet really fast and affordable.
Technology VS Nature
How to know when tech is going against nature?
Well, one easy attitude would be to use technology to better understand and follow nature’s rules.
CyclOrbit: Bike - Travel - Theater 