Iki pasimatymo, Lietuva!

After more than five years of living, working and enjoying life in Vilnius, it is time for me to move on. By the time this magazine goes to press, I’ll already be in New Zealand, where I will spend the “summer” coaching a local ski club. I do intend to return next winter to Lithuania to coach the Kalnų Ereliai ski team and hopefully to resume writing this column, but for the moment, it’s time for this little lietuvaitė to pack her bags and learn to speak Kiwi…

Trys Milijonai

Since much of my winter is spent out of Lithuania, I spend spring getting in touch with friends and catching up on all the activities I’ve missed. As long as I can remember, on April 1st the weather is always warm and what better way to start the spring then by celebrating Užupio Independence Day…

Kalnų Ereliai 2009 Season

Avant-garde Easter Eggs

Easter was spent this year in Panevežys with my cousins.  When I arrived on Saturday afternoon, they had just finished decorating the eggs.  Far from the usual Lithuanian eggs decorated using either beeswax or a scratching technique (which my Grandmother is famous for), they used onion skins, colored string and various herbs and flowers to make what I called avant-garde Easter eggs.

Not only were they beautiful, each one unique, but they began conversations and inspired communication at the table.  There’s no better way to spend a holiday with family than around the table caught up in inspired converstaion!

Pilies Kepyklelė

It’s Saturday morning, you lay in bed semi-conscientious of the sun streaming through the window. You sense it is a reasonable time to get up but your eyes remain closed, in protest to the splitting headache that will surely follow the moment you open them. After last night’s party, one could argue that the only thing to do is remain in bed all day except that after a long winter a warm spring day is not to be wasted. There is only one thing to do: drag your tired broken self to Pilies Kepyklelė for lietiniai (crepes), coffee and a fresh squeezed grapefruit juice…

Ponių Laimė

Many many years ago – in 1997 to be exact – when I first came to Lithuania Ponių Laimė was on Gedimino g. I remember it for it’s pink and red interior, grand piano, clean, free toilets (a rarity at that time in Lithuania) and delicately decorated cakes. Together with Hanna, my Finnish classmate at Vilnius University, we would skip our afternoon conversation course to spend the afternoon drinking coffee…

Glorious Vilnius

From Condé Nast Traveler February 2009

Let It Snow

We’ve had a real winter this year in Lithuania, not like the long, wet drizzle we had last year. It started snowing in December, just in time for Christmas, and with very few exceptions, it hasn’t stopped. And it’s not just in Lithuania, most of Europe has been hit with more snow than the snow-plows are prepared to handle, shutting down roads across the continent and even in the United Kingdom. I’m not complaining though…

Lithuanian for Beginners

When I was hired at Cosmopolitan magazine a week after arriving in Lithuania in December 2003, I told the editor-in-chief “Don’t worry, my Lithuanian is a little rusty, but I’ll be back to speaking fluently in a few weeks.” That, at best, was wishful thinking…

Bistro 18

The unassuming facade and minimal interior of Bistro 18 stand in stark contrast to the rich flavours that jump off of their menu. Thai chicken, pan-fried fois gras, pork tenderloin marinated in olives and sun-dried tomatos…