more reasons to admire Lithuania

Thanks to John Quin for sending this to me:

http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/lithuanian-book-smugglers

Summer Vacation

My long-time friend, Daniel Spatz and family are taking me to Norway and Lithuania with them as their professional tour guide. I'm even learning 'Norsk' [Norwegian]. The five of us fly out of Oakland on August 5th and arrive in Oslo on the 6th where we’ll spend four days exploring Oslo and Horten. Our accommodations overlook the Opera House and the beach. 

On the 10th we’ll be taking the ‘Norway in a Nutshell Tour’ riding a train across the top of the fjord and dropping 2800 feet down to the sea and taking a boat tour of the fjords on the way to Bergen [just click on the photo to see our apartment after you click on this link: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/18971126?eal_exp=1500873628&eal_sig=3943acaadd2f6d4641c63a45e04c06e3733589e7e42fdce6892677376373e5c0&eal_uid=30816042&eluid=0&euid=3b74fa12-cda4-7bc2-f4b5-0fac1c168f99 ] where we’ll hop on a bus tour of the city.

On Friday the 11th we fly from Bergen to Kaunas, Lithuania, the old capital city and will drive from there through Moletai [the geo center of Europe, two observatories, and the other Jonas’ Perkunas temple and campsite] on our way to Romuva Summer Camp in our village. I’ll have a full house, and the boys will have a marvelous time with a 100 other 12-25 year-olds. Camp runs from 8/10-16 with Zemyna’s [the Earth Goddess] celebration on 8/15.

On the 16th we’ll head back to Kaunas via Trakai and Kernave, and will be staying in the heart of the city next to the Romuva theater for two nights. On the 18th we head to Palanga on the coast to see the Amber Museum, Raganas Kalnas [Hill of the Witches], and will be staying at one of the most beautiful hotels I’ve ever seen, the Bellavila.lt. It’s less than 100 meters from the Baltic Sea and the rooms are amazing. On the 19th, Daniel and family head back to the States, and I fly on to Milan for the Eurovision Awards and even more European adventures returning to California on 9/24 via London.