Lake Powell, Arizona and Las Vegas

For those of you who don't know my family had planned a family trip months before my eastern europe trip. This trip is in the western US so I'm back in the us for a bit. We (my parents, sister Hagar, brother Guy, and his girlfriend Lindsay) begin by flying to las vegas and driving to Lake Powell where we rent a house boat (three bedrooms - nice), a power boat, a jet ski, water skis, and a doughnut inflatable thingy (technical term). None of us have advanced knowledge of marine navigation but how hard can it really be - plus we did this thing a few years ago. Well we start with my dad driving the houseboat out and I'm manning the power boat. We exit the marina and meet up to tie the power boat to the houseboat so the houseboat can tow it. We get it done, but when we start the houseboat up the tow rope gets caught in the houseboat propellor and were stuck - doh! Lindsay immediately jumps in the water to investigate the propellor and I follw her to pretend to be useful. A utility boat that had been watching us with suspicion comes over, tells us to get our asses on the boat, and end up calling over a mechanic to loosen the propellor to undo the rope. Ok everythings cool now and we're off!

We had gotten directions to go to the right of a huge rock but we soon got lost until we turned on the boats GPS and figured out where we were. After an hour or so we found a nice beach and anchored the boat. We had dinner, made a fire, had smores, and slept. Really well.

From Lake Powell, Utah

The next day was all fun in the sun type stuff. We got a jet ski, did some water skiing, and other fun stuff. Eventually we had some issues with the jet ski so we radioed for a jet ski mechanic to come over. We were finishing up water skiing as it started to get windy so we headed back to the house boat only to see that one anchor (out of two) had dislodged. Oh crap. The wind had really picked up and was blowing away all our stuff on shore. Luckily the jet ski guy was there to help with a buddy. Next thing we knows its dark and hailing with huge waves shaking the houseboat. Both anchors are now dislodged and the boat is turning out of control. One of us turns to my dad and says with total seriousness "Are we gonna die?" Well we didn't die and after 30 minutes we weathered the storm and got the houseboat anchored again (really well). The jet ski guy had grown up there and said he had never seen anything like that. Oh and he hit on Hagar (promises of jetsking together) which was awkward but amusing.

From Lake Powell, Utah

The rest of the time was really fun (water skiing, etc) and then we went to Vegas. Checked out a bunch of casinos and plays hours and hours of poker. Saw Love (Beatles cirque du soliel) which was ok but nothing out of this world.

Also had an interesting encounter with a cab driver. My mom starts chatting him up and we get into politics. The man had some interesting revisionist history. Turns out Bush didn't want to go to war in Iraq but the UN begged him and Bush reluctanly lead the world. Interesting. He also admitted to not knowing about the existance of Islam until a few years ago. Needless to say this guy was a McCain supporter. And since Vegas is in a desert, the man has middle east foreign policy experience. If McCain wins in november (shudder) maybe this guy could be Secretary of Defense. (sarcastic Sarah Palin reference).

Vilnius, Lithuania

Vilnius is beautiful. Recently the EU pumped in tons of euros to redo the entire old city. Check out the pics - amazing. The city has a much more laid back feel than Riga or Tallinn. In Riga every girl wears heels. In Vilnius its more of a punk type of scene with piercings and dyed black hair. I randomly saw young people ballroom dancing in a square. They say that Lithuanians are the Italians of the Baltics. Its a bit of a stretch but I see where it comes from. I've gotta leave Vilnius to get to Warsaw for my flight back to the US, and its hard to leave.

From Vilnius, Lithuania

Baltijos Garsas rock festival in Kernave, Lithuania

I found out about the Baltijos Garsas festival on the Internet before I left for my trip and decided to check it out. On Thursday, I took the bus from Liepaja, Latvia to Klaipeda, Lithuania, and then on to Vilnius, Lithuania. From there I took a bus to a small town called Kernave which used to be the capital of Lithuania in 1253. Now it's known at the "Pompeii of Lithuania."

I got off the bus and followed signs into the forest. The dirt road went on and on into the forest and I really felt like I was in the middle of nowhere. Part of me was wondering what the hell I was doing there - going to a random festival that I know nothing about in the middle of the woods by myself. I really had no idea what to expect. Finally I get to the festival grounds - essentially a field in the middle of the forest. I buy my pass for $25 (not bad for 4 days). The place is relatively empty - maybe a few hundred people are there. I walk around the field looking for a good place to set up my tent and a random dude walks up to me, introduces himself, and offers me a sip of his beer. After a 45 minute hike with my heavy backpack, I couldn't resist.

I set up my tent with a hand from my neighbors and check out the music. Interestingly enough, I hear an American blues band called Chip Jordan and Voodoo Soup play covers of songs like "Born on the Bayou". The music was great all night and I quickly made friends with some Lithuanians. I ended up hanging out with some Lithuanians and Chip Jordan (from Atlanta, GA) by a fire till 7:30 in the morning. One Lithuanian dude loved asking me about 9/11 conspiracy theories he heard about on the Internet. I mostly drank random people's cheap beer that comes in 2 Liter plastic bottles - 40 oz malt liquor bottles are small in comparison.

For the next few days, I played volleyball, basketball, went swimming in the river, met awesome people, and heard some really awesome music. One really memorable band was a Lithuanian folk band. They were all dressed in traditional clothing and had three female lead singers. I figured it would be pretty boring, but it turned out they were a heavy metal folk rock band. With tunes that seemed lifted from Metallica, the lead singers head banged their waist long hair, inspiring a huge mosh pit. Half way through the show, security guards pushed people back to form a semi circle where half naked girls performed dances with fire while the band rocked in the background. Awesome.

Sunday it was time to leave - I said bye to my friends and hitchhiked back to Vilnius - my first official successful hitchhike. Vilnius is absolutely beautiful at night. I got a few drinks with some German guys I met at the hostel and watched ballroom dancing in a public square. People in Vilnius have a punk rock style that couldn't be more different than the dressed up 24/7 look in Riga. I'm gonna like this place :)

Pics to come...

Into the Wild

Just finished reading Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. It's about a guy who donates all his money to charity and goes "backpacking" in the US in search of eternal truth. It's probably not fair to compare his trip with mine considering that I have the luxury of buses and hostels but its providing some inspiration. Thanks for the book mom!

Valdemārpils, Latvia

Today I embarked on a trip to visit my grandfathers home town. Its a little village in northwest Latvia called Valdemārpils. My grandfather Shalom Glickman (Sulems Glikmanis in Latvian) was born here in 1921 and left for Israel in 1934 when his mother predicted that Hitler's rise in Germany would eventually impact Jews in Latvia. It was a good call because in 1941 the Nazis swept through and deported all the Jews to concentration camps. My humble mission was to find the town find his childhood home at 6 cuncs iela.

I departed by bus from Liepāja at 8:05, transferred at Talsi, and arrived at Valdemārpils around noon. I got off the bus and asked a young looking guy where the tourist office was. With very good English he explained there was no tourist office but he'd be happy to help. I explained my story to him and he gave me a ride (30 second ride - this town is tiny) to the town's municipal building to ask around if someone could help. We waited 30 minutes or so until after siesta was over (there was no siesta in Riga) and walked into the building. There were a bunch of old pictures of the town including one called cuncs iela! My grandfather's house was just out of view but the man working there told my friend he would show us to the house. We hopped back in the car and the municipal worker into his and our caravan drove (30 seconds) to my grandfather' old house. It turned out that the street was no longer named cuncs iela and my grandfathers house had actually been destroyed and rebuilt, but nevertheless I was standing a cuncs iela 6 - the spot my grandfather grew up!



The municipal worker went back to work and my friend then drove me to a Jewish memorial / cemetery in town. It was obvious the original Jewish cemetery was destroyed (in Riga the Nazis had used Jewish tombstones to line swimming pools) but someone had managed to find a dozen or so Jewish tombstones and put them up in a makeshift memorial. They were all in Hebrew or German. My friend then drove me back to the center of town and he departed back to his home in Riga. He offered to drive me back to Talsi but I declined so that I could hang around for a bit longer.

I then picked up a Latvian SIM card at the (there was one) Valdemārpils corner store. I had trouble activating it because the instructions were in Latvian but a guy who saw I was struggling offered to help. He got my Sim card working and then asked me if I knew the story of the 'Jewish Gold'. Apparently before the Nazis came a bunch of rich Jews buried their gold somewhere in town. And locals were always looking for this mythical gold. Of course I have no idea whether the story is true but I told the guy that if I found the Jew Gold I'd give him a 10% cut for the lead. I then called my parents (pretty sure I woke them up - Sorry!) and had them tell my grandfather to call me. He was very happy to hear from me and I walked around town describing what I saw. Afterwards I tried to find a Valdemārpils postcard to mail him but they apparently do not exist so I sent him a generic card, making sure it had a Valdemārpils postmark. I then caught the bus to Talsi and was on my way back to Liepāja.



Overall everyone was really nice. When my dad visited his mother's home town in Poland they found pro-Hitler graffiti. The only graffiti I could understand in Valdemārpils was some praising the Wu Tang Clan. I guess here they prefer the American Ol' Dirty Bastard over the German one.

A little bit of "real" Latvia

I figure the best way to explore Liepaja, Latvia is to rent a bike and get lost in town. I decide to bike to a Soviet prison in nearby Karosta. It was supposed to be a 4 km bike ride, however the bridge on the map turns out to have been destroyed 3 years ago when it was hit by a ship. So I ended up having the bike an extra 7 km to get around a canal. Liepaja is a very nice town, but if you go to the outskirts, you find some pretty shocking Soviet style apartment blocks. These huge, ugly concrete buildings were put up in Soviet times because they were cheap and quick to build. I saw apartment block after apartment block, all deteriorating, but still inhabited. Some of the huge structures were abandoned or boarded up - adding to the sense of devastation. In the distance a factory was releasing orange fumes into the air. This was my first taste of Soviet influence in the Baltics.



Eventually I found the prison, and got a tour. But the apartment blocks on the way affected me much more than the prison.

Liepaja, Latvia - the home of Latvian Rock

Liepaja is the home of Latvian rock. I went out to the Fontaine Palace. Official motto: "Food, Beer, Rock N' Roll".



The first live band was a 90's-style heavy metal band. Everyone was going crazy, and you could see girls' hair flying in synchronized head banging. Sweet. Next set was a DJ who kicked off his set with an electronic remix of Smells Like Teen Spirit. Afterwards an emo band (self-style Nu Metal but yeah right) called Return to Surface was up. They really kicked ass, but their myspace page is the epitome of ridiculousness. Live rock all night - have I died and gone to heaven?

Sigulda, Latvia

I decide I want to get out of the city for a while so I looked up canoeing on Latvia's Gauja river. I spread the idea around and two Dutch guys are up for it. We head to Sigulda by bus where we get a ride to the river and hop in the canoes. The view from the Gauja river is actually pretty similar to what you'd see in West Virginia, expect every once in a while a medieval castle pops up. After canoeing we had lunch. There was a fallen tree nearby a few feet off the ground, so we got some sticks from the woods and had a gladiator fighting championship. Some inspiration was provided by the Latvian beer Zelta. Then we headed back to Riga just in time for a night out.