Return to the Homeland

I'm just back from a return trip to the homeland. This time I brought two cousins from New York. They came over to Scotland at the start of the month, and we all traveled over to Lithuania a few days later. It was a really great time. We did a lot of the same things as I did last year (including meeting a lot of family!), plus a few extras like a journey to Nida, the Hill of Crosses, and caught a couple national basketball games. Jesse (my cousin), not be confused with Jessee (my partner), is a filmmaker, so we also did some shooting to make a short documentary. The plan is to expand it, later on, into a full length movie.

Meeting the Rolwich clan
(Jesse, Martin, Nick, me, Brian)

Festival Time

Portobello Beach

Calton Hill

First stop in Lithuania was Klaipeda and Nida to get a feel for the coastal area and spectacular environments. It was a quick trip, but very nice.

Dunes

Nida

Baltic Sea

We spent most of our time in Vilnius with second cousins, Elena and Vygintas.

Waiting on cepelinai with Elena and Vygintas

Old Town, Vilnius

The view from Elena and Vygintas's top floor flat.

We also met Sandra, another second cousin from another branch of the family.

Film Crew

Waiting of more cepelinai at my favorite place Dvaras Restoranas
(Elena, Sandra, Jesse, Nick, Vygintas, me)

And we took in the sights, such as the famed Vilnius TV Tower and Trakai Castle.

We made a trip to the hallowed grounds of the
Vilnius TV Tower, site of the January 13th events.

Beautiful day at Trakai

Trakai Castle

And back to Vilnius for the night.

Squeezed into the wee elevator on our way back up to V&E's.

Soviet style housing.

Interviewing Vygintas's brother Gytenis.

We also went to see Rumšiskes, an open-air village museum that has a collection of relocated, late 19th and early 20th century homes. They would have been much like the one my grandfather was born in. Unfortunately, we got there rather late and had intermittent downpours, so we didn't actually get to see that much of it. Another visit is definitely in order.

Probably not unlike the house in which Tevuk was born.

Rumšiskes
(Nick, Elena, Jesse, Vygintas)

We stayed nearby at Vygintas's family's place, which was a really nice spot outside of the city. Part of the reason we went there was to get the opportunity to interview his grandmother, who spent 10 years in exile in Siberia. Such an incredible woman. Her memory is quite clouded now, and her stories are circular, but so cheerful in spite of what she endured. She's quite happy now, and we didn't ask her to talk about anything that would have been traumatic (she no doubt witnessed brutality and starvation). Mostly she talked about the bears, which would intrude on their village and eat their berries. The possibility of bear encounters was clearly something that troubled them, as she repeated the story many times. It was a literal danger as well as a metaphorical one, given the symbolism of the Soviet Bear.

We made a circuit up north, as well, to see all the relatives: Pociuneliai, Mitriunai, Pakiršinys, Pasvalys, and Panevežys. We also stopped at Šiauliai to see the Hill of Crosses. It was a long day, and we met quite a few more people than I met last time.

Family branch stemming from Tevuk's brother, Valiukas.

Me, Jesse, Adolis, Nick, Kristina, Elena, Arunas

Nick, Adolis (Tevuk's brother), me, Jesse

Elena, Jesse, Danute, Juozas (Tevuk's brother), Arunas, Nick, me

Juozas and Adolis look like they could be twins, but I believe there's a couple years between them. Last stop before returning to Kaunas was Panevežys to see Ada, Tevuk's neice, and her wife Povilas.

Elena, Nick, Povilas, me, Arunas, Ada
Jesse

Of course we need to try on Povilas's Soviet and Lithuanian police uniforms.

Taking in the sights around Kaunas.

Filming in Old Town, Kaunas

Not quite the pose that močiute was in when she sat here some 70+ years earlier.

That's more like it.

Loreta Matuliene

Old Town, Kaunas

And we couldn't miss Arunas's workshop Potomkinas. When I went there last year, I knew that Jess and Nick would find it incredible, and sure enough they did. It's a massive space with a mish-mash of all sorts of art, projects, meditation space, construction, and junk (marvelous junk!).

Potomkinas

A magical place.

I love the look of some of this old stuff.

I think this would polish up nicely.

And of course Arunas took us on some of his "small excursions" to sites around the city, including the Second Fort, which is an old Imperial Russian emplacement that was bombed by the Germans when they invaded (during WWI).

Arunas looking godly at the Second Fort

Old Town, Kaunas

We saw two basketball games while we were there too, one at the start against Ukraine, and one on our last night against Slovenia. It was really something else! I especially wanted to see the game against Ukraine because of the current political situation. There is strong solidarity between the countries because Lithuanians understand what it's like to be the target of Russian aggression. There was at least a couple Ukrainian flags being flown in the die-hard Lithuanian fan section.

Solidarity

The second game we saw was even more exciting. We had much better seats - just ten rows up from the floor and directly behind Sabonis and Marčiulionis, who were in attendance (not to mention Algirdas Butkevičius, the current Prime Minister). Sabonis frequently attends games as head of the Lithuanian Basketball Federation, but Marčiulionis was there to receive recognition for recently being inducted to the NBA Hall of Fame. It was a hard fought win, and the atmosphere was electric. Loreta came with us for this one, and I'm pretty sure we made a real fan out of her. We all had a really good time.

Sabonis and Marčiulionis!!

Darjus Lavrinovič

Mantas Kalnietis

Jonas Valančiunas

Big stars Sabonis and Marčiulionis awarding up-and-comer Valančiunas
with tournament MVP

Kalnietis accepting the team trophy for going undefeated in the
friendly tournament.

Team Photo

It was a fantastic trip, and it's astonishing how close of a bond you can form in such a short time. Jess and Nick both commented on that as well. It was as though we'd spent years together. They all really made us feel welcome.

Farewell!
(Nick, Loreta, Jesse, and Bella)

Vilnius from above.