TravelPUNK Backpacker College Student Budget Travel Message Boards!

TravelPUNK Backpacker College Student Budget Travel Message Boards! (https://tpunk.com/index.php)
-   Europe: Eastern (https://tpunk.com/forumdisplay.php?f=32)
-   -   Vilnius Lithuania anyone?? (https://tpunk.com/showthread.php?t=4151)

Sexy_European 01-20-2005 09:46 PM

[size=7] Ok so this sumeer I'll be in Vilnius from July 15 until the end of August visiting relatives and traveling around!!! Anybody wants to come see this beautiful country and hang????

urOZm8 01-21-2005 12:04 AM

Oh man, how I'd love to hit the baltics. I got as close as Helsinki and met some Estonians. Damn fine too...

ev

worldwidemike 01-24-2005 07:19 AM

Vilnius was cool...I was there for 3 days or so a couple years back. You'll find Russian is a better language for getting around there than Lithuanian, actually. Now, Kaunas, it's the opposite.

Lots of nice churches in Vilnius...
http://home.earthlink.net/~mikedeman.../lith_chur.jpg
And there's a cool castle not far away in Trakei...
http://home.earthlink.net/~mikedeman...s/lith_cas.jpg

And yes, Baltic women are indeed good looking...

worldwidemike

tumblezweedz 02-22-2005 05:12 AM

We've been living in Vilnius for a year and a half or so, but unfortunately will be moving end of June, so I can't hook you up too much while you're here. But if you need any on the ground intel before you come, ask away, we know a couple of local secrets!

WWM, gotta take issue with the language comment, though! Older people, and young, too do speak Russian, but it's not considered polite these days - pride in independence, hatred of oppressors, etc. If you do speak Russian, but not Lithuanian, I'd recommend learning the phrase, "Atsiprasau, as nekalba lietuviskai, ar Jus galite kalbeti rusiskai?" in a suitably embarrassed and humble tone. It means, "I'm sorry, I don't speak Lithuanian, is it possible that you speak Russian?" That avoids the sometimes offensive assumption that everyone does speak Russian and makes it seem more of a favour to you if they do.

But, in the last year or so, we've noticed a massive increase in the amount of English spoken, virtually every young person will have some capability, many are quite fluent. So if you don't feel up to learning this most ancient of living Indo-European languages in the next 6 months, you should still be able to manage. Actually, Polish is a viable alternative in Vilnius, too. However, none of these will be much help in Kaunas, which is pretty much pure Lithuanian as you said.

But visiting relatives, you'll have the best time imaginable. We've been adopted by a local family, and have had some of our best experiences with them. And coming when you are, you'll enjoy one of Lithuania's two seasons, "winter" and "waiting for summer". I can't tell you which one, though... I have honestly seen a child in a snow suit in August.

tumblezweedz 02-22-2005 05:14 AM

Ooops! That should be "As nekalbu lietuviskai.." sorry.

worldwidemike 02-22-2005 10:23 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by tumblezweedz@Feb 22 2005, 01:14 PM
Ooops!* That should be "As nekalbu lietuviskai.."* sorry.
And I was JUST about to correct you...NOT!!!

Tumbleweedz, I defer to you on all Lithuanian issues. You are definitely the TP expert on that country. So, listen to what she says, guys!

:worship: :worship: :worship:

worldwidemike

tumblezweedz 02-24-2005 11:18 PM

Quote:

And I was JUST about to correct you...NOT!!!

You're such a gentleman. But someone might actually catch my glaring error!

Quote:

listen to what she says, guys!

Could you talk to my kids, please?


All times are GMT -7. The time now is 04:45 PM.


Copyright©2002-2018 TravelPUNK.com


Search Engine Friendly URLs by vBSEO 3.2.0 (Unregistered)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121