Classes equality – Back in Latinamerica you can easily spot Rich from Extremely poor people anywhere you go. Lithuania seems to have all the population in the same social status (from my point of view). This is like the dream of every government.
Peace – Since I arrived here I live in so much peace with myself and the world. The violence rate is extremely low compared to Latinamerica. I feel totally safe walking in any city in here.
Silence – Streets aren’t noisy; people don’t drive their cars listening extremely loud music; you can rarely see people talking inside the public transportation.
Bus Tickets – You enter the bus, validate your card once a month, and no need to do it again. Sometimes officials do a random check if, but this only happens once or twice a month. In Latin America we have to validate the ticket every time we get in and someone is always checking. You cannot enter without validating you ticket. Lithuania is sooooooo practical. Also the education of people and the confidence the system puts in lithuanians is amazing !!!
Transport system – You can find the schedule in the bus stops and they arrive 99% on time. There are some online and offline applications that can help you a lot !! Buses also talk to you and inform about the next stops. To get a Taxi we need to call or use an application. They won’t stop if you wave them.
Seasons – This country if gifted with 4 very cool seasons. It is interesting that Europeans usually use the seasons as a reference. “Next summer I will…” “Last winter I was…” “During Autumn I will….” We don’t use them in Latin America as a reference 🙂
Washing Machine – They usually have them in their bathroom or kitchen. In Latin America we have a special room to wash our clothes and to hang them.
Light Switches – They are placed outside the room. It happened twice with me where I was in a situation where someone outside switched off the light while I was sending a fax 😦
Marozai – BMW cars and Adidas sportwear are gangster stuff.
Pizza – Lithuanians add ketchup and onion sauce to their Pizza. Also they eat it with forks and knives.
Beer – On thousand time better than any beer in Latin America !!!
Extremely Fast Internet – The download speed can be faster than your hard drive reading speed !!! Fastest commercial internet in the world and very cheap as well. Mobile internet is also super fast and ridiculously cheap !!!
Weather – Winter is okay but for one week you will have to handle -20°C. This is freaking extreme !!! I burned my hand and face. Autumn and Spring are cold. Summer weather is perfect 🙂
Summer – To have sunlight until 23:00h is simply a gift and I LOVE IT !!! So much sun light. It doesn’t even bother me the fact that it is the opposite during winter. It was the best summer of my life !! It is a little bit difficult to concentrate at work with so many girls wearing short dresses, but I am not even mad 😀
Check my other posts related to Lithuania:)
#1 Work Enviroment
#2 Cultural Shocks
#3 More Cultural Shocks
#4 Kissing, streets, sun and soviet times
#5 Girls Girls Girls !!
#6 Food
#7 You are (not) my friend
#8 Beach walk, flowers, quiz and mosquitoes
#9 Russia
Life in Lithuania & Eurotrips 
This is the typical description of any european baltic country. Enjoy it !
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European Baltic contry 😀
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Yeah, european baltic countries are indeed much different from asian, american and african baltic countries 😀
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by saying european baltic countries, he ment european countries which ar near baltic sea.. lol
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very interesting and easy text. I liked it.
But I suggest you to write more about yourselfe. We dont even know if you are male or female (I guess that you are male:)),your name, what are you doing here (in Ltu) etc..
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Thanks a lot 🙂 I will consider this for my next post 😉
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most of it actually true. just for us it is usual stuff 😀
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Hey, thanks for being so positive! I think more lithuanians need to appreciate their country. 🙂
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Hi, this is true 🙂 some of us just need to travel more 😀 to see for e.g. pour countries…. and we do one bad thing we complain for each other but do nothing to solve a situation for our selves….we do like when someone else takes the responsibility.
And yes, we all do need to be more positive 🙂 that also includes me somethimes 😀
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Thank you Rita and Rokokoli. I loved your comment !!!
I must confess that I used to hate Brazil. I started to love it after I lived abroad. Now I love Brazil so much that I can defend it with my life. But I know we have to improve a lot of things and is the reason I’m here in Lithuania. I want to learn from your culture (even though I know is not perfect). Lithuania is and always will be in my heart together with Brazil.
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Your points are very nice, however there is one very funny thing – almost all locals tend to be unhappy about all your given advantages of the country 🙂
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Hey, not entirely true – we love our beer :)) and the internet connection!!!!
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🙂
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pfff :DDDDDDD
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I can bet that guy who write an article went to capital only. Haven’t been outside the city and never left hotel after 22:00 😀 😀
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I’ve been to Vilnius, Kaunas, Šiauliai (in all these cities I’ve even walked drunk after 22.00 all alone). Also, in Kaunas I usually party with my friends and I come back alone in the first train. Also I’ve visited Klaipeda and Nida. I’ve never been in a hotel but in friend’s house. Also, I knew many foreigners (2 brazilians) that lived in Kaunas for one year and some of my inputs are based on their view of the city. I should have given more information in my post. Sorry for that
But I recognize some places are dangerous and I take extra care when I walk.
In my next posts I should talk about each city.
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When a foreigner says Lithuania is bad, Lithuanians say no, it’s good.
When a foreigner says Lithuania is good, Lithuanians say no, it’s bad.
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Hi Mark Splinter,
Thanks for your comment. You are 100% right !!
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I guess you have never been to the capital?! Beach is far away from the capital and my American friends had a LOT of fun after 22:00 almost every night in LT.
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Thank you for a positive view about Lithuania and its life – very refreshing to read both parts of your cheerful article – one of the best advertisements of Lithuania I have spotted in 2014.
Enjoy your stay in Lithuania!
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Thanks Kestas. My intention was not to promote directly Lithuania, but talk about my internship experience, something that we have to do in our association. I wasn’t expecting so much people to read it, but only my friends. I’m glad you liked it.
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Kind of funny – I think most (western) Europeans would disagree with your statements, but from a Latin American perspective its probably true 🙂
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Hi John. You are 100% right. I have a tourism book written by a German and says the transport system of Vilnius is really awful and several other bad stuffs. When I went to Germany, citizens were all the time comparing East and West Germany, and inside West Germany they were criticizing some cities there. We will never be satisfied, but this has a positive side, since we always want to improve our society. What I don’t like are people that only complain but do nothing to improve
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very well said.
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I love it ! I was leaving one year in lithunia in Kaunas with a brasilian man, e was felling the same as you ! Enjoy lituania !
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One year of “leaving” is a damn long time!
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Thanks Nini. Most of this are things me and my Brazilian friends think about Lithuania. We were told Kaunas is a dangerous city, but compared to Brazil, is heaven. I go there all the time. I will keep enjoying 😉
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As a man from Kaunas but stuyding in Vilnius, i have no idea why you were told that Kaunas is dangerous city. Maybe your friend was from Vilnius and just wanted to shit on others.
Here is a criminal activity map of Lithuania cities, and as you can see, in almost all categories capital is in 1st place: http://www.ird.lt/nvzrgis/map/
So stop your slanders and come visit first 😉
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Hi Kazys. I’ve been in Kaunas several time and had visited other cities in the north. This is something some foreign friends told me while living in Kaunas, since some of them had small incidents. As a matter of fact, I have more friends in Kaunas than in Vilnius. I understand my post was confused and with some information missing, but I was not expecting so much attention to it 🙂
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Hey man! That’s a nice post.
I would add high quality medicine, food and fresh air to this. Most of the people tell what they think straight away instead of hiding their not-so-positive minds under the smile.
It’s quite easy to be unhappy with Lithuanian salary – minimum is 245 EUR a month. This country needs more international business…
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“You can find the schedule in the bus stops and they arrive 99% on time.” oooh dear, wait and see, that this is so wrong… 😀 ..anyway, thanks for all the positive comments! They sure do brighten a Lithuanian’s day ;]
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Thanks Silber 🙂 I had trouble sometimes waiting for buses, indeed. I just like to exaggerate when writing 😀 None of the cities I visited in Latin America have a schedule at the bus stop and if you are lucky they might inform which bus stops there.
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Google will always shed some light on stuff going on in Lithuania for lithuanians 😀
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Thank you for such an amazing description!!! I am so happy you have visited my country;))
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Hello, I’m from Lithuania. I am really glad that you liked our country! Come again :))
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Happy to read this! I am a Lithuanian, now living abroad and I can say that moving abroad made me understand the advantages of my own country. Have a very great time in Lithuania!
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Olá 🙂 percebi que estas brasileiro, portanto decidi escrever um commentario pequeno. Peço desculpa por meu português engraçado 🙂 Sou lituana e moro em Portugal portanto o teu blog é muito interessante por mim. Obrigada para gostar de Lituânia tanto! 🙂
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Olá Monika, eu achei que tivesse respondido o seu comentário.
Eu ADORO a Lituânia. Acho muito legal que uma lituana aprenda português :))) Eu também estou aprendendo lietuviškai.
Beijos e abraços
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“You enter the bus, validate your card once a month, and no need to do it again.” – only in Vilnius. In Kaunas you have to validate your ticket every time you get on the bus.
And that’s strange, that you think that VIlnius is safe city… 😀 Maybe you haven’t visited train/bus stations? 😀
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Try visiting some places in Brazil capital city. There are places where simply walking through can be deadly dangerous. I don’t think that homeless in the bus station care about some random passer-bys and also they definitely don’t carry guns or belong to gangs 😀
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Kaunas have cards to ^^ And we don’t have tickets from last year.
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Yes, Kaunas have cards too, but you have to validate it every time. 😉 Even if you have 1 month ticket.
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Yes, I lived that experience in Stotis. Three guys asked me for cigarettes and I said I didn’t have. They started to yell at me, but they did nothing else. I think that since I am from Brazil, we are super paranoid and always avoid trouble. I can say that Lithuanians don’t take the same precautions since one was murder last year in Brazil because he tried to resist an armed robbery.
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Dude if you try act like a rat, they will treat you like a rat…
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“We don’t use (seasons) in Latin America as a reference”???!!! I live in Chile and here we also have 4 seasons, very different from each other. I think is the same in the south of South America (Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Southern Brazil) and also in central and northern México, were there is a temperate weather. I guess you are from somewhere near the Equator, where the climate is more tropical and you only have dry and rainy season (in fact that’s the same in every other tropical places, such as India, Thailand, Indonesia, Nigeria, etc.)
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Hi Juan. I lived in the Southeast of Brazil and in Panamá. I could only notice the Autumn in Brazil but we don’t use seasons as reference but months. In some ways we do, but not as much as in Europe.
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Homicide rate in EU: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php?title=File:Homicide_rate_per_100_000_population,_average_per_year,_2005-2007_and_2008-2010.png&filetimestamp=20130729093846
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Thanks for the info, but I was comparing Lithuania with Latin America. Lithuania is #94 in the world and the countries I live are #30 and #32, and please notice that the most dangerous countries in the world are in Latin America and not in Africa as many people think.
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Woohoo go on Lithuania :DDD
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Just wanted to say that the capital city – Vilnius – is much much much different for the rest of Lithuania
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Vilnius is the worst place. Other parts of Lithuania is much better.
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it’s not true, all cities are good in their own ways. The problem is – people don’t want to know other cities, they only go to Vilnius thinking it is the best place to spend a good time. Whole Lithuania is beautiful and has great places to see and to bee: with castles, estates, parks, attraction parks, nature… as any other country
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Hi all, thanks for your comments and I can understand them since I wasn’t detailed in my post. I visited many cities while living in Lithuania. I lived in Vilnius. Most of my friends are from Kaunas and regardless what everyone say and think, I freaking LOVE Kaunas. I had never visited the castles, parks and attractions from Kaunas. I just met the people and some places. What I love about Lithuanian cities and villages are not the places or the public transportation, but the people. I must confess that I also have a curiosity for Panevėžys since I had many smart and close friend that I love from there.
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Reblogged this on Pensamentos Nómadas.
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When you compare places you are willing to be criticized. I know your intention here was to be funny and make a easy going article about life there and here. Well, that’s your opinion and I wouldn’t walk your line.
I’ve lived in Vilnius for a semester and had the greatest time of my life. Lithuania is a great place, with great people and everything. But it’s far form the heaven on earth you’ve described.
I’m glad you’re living in peace. I did for most of the time, but not ALL the time. Once, when I was leaving a quite famous bar called Snekutis, near Pylimo Gatve, I was simply attacked by 4 guys, probably skinheads. I was beat to almost unconsciousness. The reason? I was a foreigner.
That’s a long long story and my former flatmate wrote a great article about that day.
http://balticreports.com/2010/03/29/beaten-by-skinheads/
This kind of violence is more usual than it seems and I don’t see lithuanians fighting back in the proper way.
And Brazil (I assume you’re brazilian, even though you’re repeating ‘latin america’) is also hell on earth as you want to show here. We have a lot of issues, no doubt. But it’s not like there are people walking on the streets seeking to kill people randomly, like someone on the comments suggested. We are far from that, for christ’s sake!
We may be still in deep shit, but we have been improving and I think it’s time to brazilians stop with the so called “stray dog complex” (if there’s a proper translation for that).
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A minor mistake. I wanted to say Brazil ISN’T hell on earth.
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And another correction, please write “Christ” and not “christ”! Respect.
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Hi Renato,
I appreciate your comment 🙂 But we also have skinheads in Brazil. Homosexuals, people from the north of Brazil, bolivians, peruvians are the main victims. There was a Swastika sign painted by them in the main library of my city, and the skindheads of Brazil are not even “white”. I was several times victim of violence in Brazil (once I almost got killed for 3 Reales), but I must admit that we are much safer now than in the 90’s. For me is usual to hear from my family and friend that someone close to them got robbed, kidnapped, murder, etc. Even in Panama where I also lived. Everytime I go to Costa Rica one of my friends is robbed. I’m used to go out in the street and expect to be murder or robbed. I didn’t have the same feeling living in Europe. What I wanted to say is that Lithuania is less violent than Latin America, I didn’t say there is no violence. I put some number saying that 219 people were violently murder last year in Lithuania. Hope it makes sense 🙂
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I will assume you didn’t read my comment properly. Where did I say there aren’t skinheads or intolerant people here? I just said: Lithuania isn’t heaven on Earth and Latin America isn’t hell on earth. Remember, you want to compare places based on things you’ve seen, that’s okay, but deal with the critics.
Go take a walk in Gedimino Prospektas in 4 days, on March 11, with a gay flag. I hope you’ll survive to tell us.
Here, at least, when someone beat you because of the color of your skin or you sexual orientation, the Police will treat you well (and trust me, they NEVER treat anyone well). There they will try to blame YOU for what happened.
But I didn’t want to say bad things about LT. I love there and I almost have only good things to say about it. But as you wanted to put it as there is sooo much better than here, I wanted to point out a few things.
But it seems you don’t know how to deal with critics. Better think twice then if you wanna be a blogger.
I’ve lived in São Paulo for decades and I was never robbed. I used to work near one of the biggest and most violent favelas here and never ever happened to me. I think when you think positive and don’t get stuck with the “fear” that everyone has put in your mind, nothing really happens to you.
I think people here are more affraid of the FEELING of violence than the violence itself. And this can be explained with the first thing you said in your article. Social Equality.
PS: Daniel, I’m not religious, so I think I don’t have to write christ or god with capital letter. I don’t think I was disrespectful. If you think I was, I’m sorry. But I won’t change it.
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Hi Renato,
Thanks for your comment. I misread you, sorry. I usually use real statistic to prove my points to be more objective. Me and other brazilians that wrote about Lithuania used the Homicide Index Rate to make this point. Here in my post you can see that there were 219 violent homicides in Lithuania.
In the blog I use statistics from “experts” and try to be objective 🙂
But I also think your comment was subjective. My mistake was to ignore this as many people would share some bad experience. My other mistake was to think only my friends would read my post, as you can see there are no comments in my previous post. I need to study more how the social media in the internet works.
In my previous reply I agreed with you and said that I FEEL Brazil is much much much safer than in the 90s, although the stats say IT ISN’T http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate_by_decade
=(
Also, I didn’t mention that the transport system from Curitiba is much better than the one from Vilnius. For my next post I will make clear in which cities I lived. I wrote this blog to friends that know me, but it seems the thing got out of control.
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Very true. I’m Lithuanian, now living in US, and we had it pretty bad with damn skinheads at least until early 2000’s when we left. I heard that the situation improved, since gaining the access to any country in Europe and no Visas required. But they (skinheads) do make a bad name for us normal Liths all over Europe. And, F*ck You Daniel, shove that christ up yours!
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Fake story. The “journalist”, Charissa lived about a year in Lithuania, and all she did was writing pale and muddy stories about this country. skinheads, beating a white lady, because she is foreigner – nonsense… Probably they were not skins.. Or this “story” never happened..
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Goofie, you can’t be serious.
Charissa was my flatmate and she was way more into lithuanian daily life than 99,9% of the Erasmus students, who often don’t give a fuck about anything of the country where they are.
She was pushed to the ground violently while trying to help me. And I was being kicked in the face. Have you ever been kicked in the face? Well, trust me, you wouldn’t want it. Specially when all you did was being a foreigner (actually I have Arab roots and my skin is darker that lithuanians. When the media covered the situation, they said I was a black student from Brazil. Here and anywhere else in the World I’m white, just so you know).
This kind of behaviour that keep things like that going on. Instead of try to make a change, you rather believe it didn’t happen. I’m glad I had a lot of friends there who cheered me up and made my life go back to its path. As I said before, I really love Lithuania and nothing will change this feeling. But still, it is NOT heaven on Earth.
Now it’s for the owner of the blog. You’re a funny man, I gotta admit.
I didn’t doubt about the “numbers” you used. They’re official number and who am I to doubt them? The thing is: You are comparing a country with 3 million inhabitants with a WHOLE continent!! 3 million people x 400 million people. Do you really think that’s fair?
One more thing about “official numbers”. Don’t be too attached to them. They may say something, but often they don’t say the truth. It’s like the example: I drink two beers and you didn’t drink any beer. Generally speaking, we both had one beer. Is it true? No. So official numbers are the same. And they way you said, it seems like there isn’t any safe place in whole Latin America.
Also, your speech is the standart middle class affraid of poor people speech. You’re affraid of poor people stealing you just because you’re “rich”. But you forget to see why you’re rich and they are poor. Of course that poverty doesn’t mean violence. Poor people aren’t violent by “nature”, but, as I said before, social equality is a good way to start fighting violent countries. Just check a list of violence by country and social fairness by country. Don’t be surprised if the ranks are similar.
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Hi Renato,
Emotions are growing higher in here. I will try to answer to your comments without promoting any more rage.
#1 I just want you to know that I also know of another case of similar violence that occurred with a very close foreign friend of mine that lives here. They were skinheads and he was saved when someone revealed his nationality. Also I remember a similar case in Australia (crime rate 1.56) where a Brazilian was almost killed in New year’s eve by locals. This was a very sensitive case at that time, if you wish I can look for the link. Saying that, we must know that the world in general is not heaven on Earth. I just wrongly assumed everyone was aware of that. I admit my mistake. Flying by plane is by far the safest way to travel, but accidents occur even in the most developed countries. I just said the violence rate is lower and I feel safer. Sorry, it was my opinion. But I can understand your reaction. I was told here that I get too emotional and angry easily. This is the perception of Lithuanians towards me and even some venezuelans that lived here. I’m trying to change myself while I live in Europe and avoiding becoming too emotional.
#2 I’m comparing the rate. Sorry if it wasn’t clear. If Latin America had 100,000 inhabitants and Lithuania as well, the numbers would be like that:
Latin America ~ 22 (because the rate is low in the Caribbean)
Lithuania ~ 6.6
South America is safer than South Africa; but if we compare the number 4 times more people were killed in South America compared to South Africa. Lithuania’s numbers are higher than the average of Eastern Europe.
But if you want to compare with a country with almost the same population as Lithuania, let’s take the one I lived for 9 years: Panama; and other places with the same population
Lithuania ~ 6.6
Panama ~ 21.6
Puerto Rico ~ 26.2
Uruguay ~ 5.9
Piauí (Brazilian State) ~ 12.4 (This is the LOWEST number in Brazil)
Alagoas (Brazilian State) ~ 60 !!! (highest in Brazil)
Mato Grosso (Brazilian state) ~ 31.8
Federal District, Brazil ~ 34.1
#3 Stats are just stats. But the influence in whom are we going to vote; to know how well we are; where we have to improve. Sorry for being to analytically. But I feel safer now in Brazil than 10 years ago, and I say that to everyone. But the stats say other thing. You can get killed anywhere in the world. But there is more probability to get killed in a country with a violence rate 91 than one with 6.6. That is just what I wanted to say.
#4 Yes, my speech is standard middle class afraid of poor people; but I’m more afraid of corrupted people. I’m afraid of people stealing from me because If they do, I lost everything. All my life I had to take the bus and didn’t even have money for a bike. Lithuanians find strange that I don’t know how to ride a bike, but sorry, I didn’t have the money and my family was more focused in proving me a good education so I could have a better chance in life. I must thank many of my familiars for donation and the help they provided me during these years. Many people were trying to rob me during my way to school, but 90% of the time I had nothing, because the reason I was walking, was because I had no money for the bus. And I had to walk through middle class residential places. I don’t hate poor people. I hate politicians and governments that steal everyone’s money and don’t even get to jail. I work in an ONG and we promote internships to educate people and even with low access. We want to increase their awareness. I’m TRYING to bring a change to the world, that is our motto. Even in Lithuania we do that. In Brazil, in Africa. I’m here in Lithuania because of them; and I created this blog to show people the things I learned here in Lithuania and HOW to bring back to Latin America. I share my knowledge from LAtin America to Lithuanians and theirs with mine. I invite you to read about us https://www.aiesec.org/#/about and that way you will understand me a little bit more.
I might have a better social status now than before. All these travelling I do around the world is because my family had a culture of saving money. In Lithuania I earn less money than in Latin America; and notice that Panama City is cheaper and economically more developed. Brazil is super expensive.
But I am aware I made a HUGE mistake by ignoring how much this post would become popular and by comparing the violence rate. I’m sorry if I offend anyone, that wasn’t the idea and I will make a public statement for my next post.
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And another correction, please write “Christ” and not “christ”! Respect.
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Probably the only thing that Lithuanians are not happy about is their wages. But there so much more about this country. For example, all forest, lakes, rivers are open to everyone no permission required, as far as I know, in UK you need a permission or it is private. And talking about internet. When you see “free wifi” it is free. No ads, no login screens, no banned pages no nothing.
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I am native lithuanian living abroad and I do agree with all your statements after having experience in foreign countries for a long time! Obrigado!:)
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Thanks a lot User1 🙂
I just can say that after all, I really really love your country (Lithuania) and I also love mine. Ačiū
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Dear blogger and commentators 🙂
I think its lovely when foreign visitors have good exprience in Lithuania. There is no need to tell them than they can ( or should) have bad ones too! Every sane person in modern world should know that crime and violence can come up on them in any country. Being cautious and careful in my opinion should be a basic skill. Lithuania is not special. I think even better in some cases – at least we don have gangs that are shooting around or looting places…I have never encountered one in my 22 years… 🙂
Having said that, I think to take precautions such as walk home with friends or take a taxi home at night is a good idea. If you walk around and speak to random strangers you can easily get robbed or beaten up – especially if you look foreign (as I think robbers imagine you have a lot of cash on you). But again this is a question of (bad) luck.
Also, when you come from another end of the world, naturally everything interesting, different and great. It is not only regarding Lithuania but every other country in the world. But as a local I feel grateful for these nice comments of yours. The make me to rethink some things I thought to be not so useful (like validating your ticket once a month – I mean its easy to forget you had to validate it at all! Especially if you use a 3 month version….. then you can get a fine easily… I prefer the London system in this case – you don’t have a ticket – you cant enter the tube/bus= no fine 🙂 )
I think that you discovered already that lithuanians are extremely self critical. Self criticism is the drive of our nation. Even when you post compliments, you will get replies from Lithuanians denying them. I believe this would not happen in western countries of Europe. I think to accept compliments is one of the thing lithuanians should learn to do. And be grateful for them.
So thank you for the nice post and please continue to update us with your experience here. 🙂
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Thanks a lot for your lovely comment Viktorija 🙂
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Good morning Victoria, is just about the London. I understand that you’ve learned English in University. And your writing seems staring. But you can’t be straight. If we mention metro tubes, trains or buses we can discuss many obvious problems.
Many people top up their ‘oysters’ every week in 30 pounds just for 1-3 zones that’s not include all London. And the problem we have every morning you feel as squished orange.
Moreover, about entering the tube/ train. People are passing by the barrier’s and no one stops them. London’s public transport are occupied by 20% people who not willing to pay for a journey.
We have delays all day long .
And I don’t know have you lived here. But you can’t decide or argue without knowing the truth of big cities problems.
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Guys watch documentary about Juarez narco culture, you will see its nothing compared to that we are at ease, we are just emphasising things, that really do not make too much of trouble. Well someone dies, well probably he who did doesn’t know how to act in life threatning situations, You can avoid lions or bear head tearing bites, just know how to behave. Be calm, be gentle and realise your disadvantage. That is what a lot of lithuanian people are missing which latin, asian, especially philipineese are tought. They have one of the greatest threats for such environments in human criminal world.
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Reading this as a Lithuanian, I realize that most of us don’t fully appreciate what we have, seeing how positively you react to some of the differences between our countries.
There are only two things I’d like to comment on-
Pizza- while I understand where your impression is coming from, most of the people that I know are eating pizza with hands and are not using any additional sauces.
Marozai- it is like an unofficial subculture of low intellect hooligans from poorer families and neighborhoods, mostly. However, there are indeed several known groups of organized criminals- that you could call gangster stuff :3
Great article,
Love, kukki
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Thanks Kukki 🙂
My comments about pizza might be very narrow, since when I go to my nearest čili pica, they always give me forks, knives, ketchup and garlic/onion sauce. But you are right, I know lithuanians that don’t do this.
About Marozai, I acted as an ignorant to post this. I LOVED the way you described Marozai as a subculture, and not as a gangsters. I will consider this in my next post. Thanks a million :))))
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This is like all European countries, you should try Germany…
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Interesting how your background defines your view on Lithuania. I come from Western Europa and allthough you made some good points I believe you don’t see the country yet for what it is.
Food is not tasty and the beer is chemical rubbish . Bus shedules are amazing but only so because the drivers are driving crazy just as most people in traffic here do. Totally asocial.
It is very calm in public life and I discussed over this with other foreigners here and after a while you just miss the warmth in people. If by accident you are a little more tanned, like I am, try to take public transport alone and enjoy the racism and asocials you encounter.
Could point out more things, like poor education, but as an erasmus student that’s not realy a problem 🙂
Oh yes, and internet is the best;
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I think you made a really bad impression of our country. For example beer is one of the best and it’s not chemical rubbish, you just need to know which one to drink. And about the food: you’re probably not used to eating such food or you just ate at some fast food restaurants. You should try real Lithuanian cousine.
I agree that racism is a big problem in Lithuania but it’s constantly improving. There are a lot of foreigners, especially in Vilnius and they don’t get that much racism as they did 10 or 5 years ago.
And finally about our education system. Our specialists are probably ones of the best because education in Lithuania is a hard work. Sadly, most of the specialists emigrate to other countries because of the low wages in Lithuania.
As a native Lithuanian I find your post not very accurate. Take care, visit our country once again and try to spot the good things. Good luck. 🙂
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I am native aswell, but I agree on most of Davids points. My first thought after reading the post was that your background defines greatly what you spot in the other contries when visiting.
I can say that our food hasn’t as much flavour as bother european foods. We are just used to it. But im my opinion there is another problem we have. The serving places, do not care of quallity of the food as much as the cost. For example: when you eat cepelinai in any restaurant you rarely get them as good as home made. The potato mush isnt usually mixed with boiled potatos nor there arent any starch separetion made. And the meat is usualy not as high quallity as it could be. It is always covered with too much salt and onion. As a dish we are proud of we serve it poorly. As for pizza, we are used to the food of such plain flavour, so to cover it up that our most cooks cant change thier habbits we use souces. Alteast thats my opinion.
Speaking about beer, there is not much to speak of. We have Švyturys major manufacturer and they totally make chemical piss, not a beer. Yeah we have smaller breweries who does better, but the selection of beer they make isnt as wide and the flavour isn’t as distinguishable.
Our mass-transportation services are actually in horrific state. I do agree that system of tickets in Vilnius is great, and the cars are getting better. I feel like as a consumer i cant enjoy my ride. When ever you enter are entering a vechile there is always someone who are pushing. It does not matter if you are a woman or a huge man. When someone misses the time they have to exit the vechile and tries to do so while doors are open no one ever lets them pass by, you just have to shove your way through. Whenever you ride there is always someone who is speaking loudly, swearing, eating (even if rules do not permit that), or listening to a music as loud as they can or even through speakers of the phone. That distrubs my ride as a customer and i do not like it. As for drivers, they are rarely nice to you, and usually drives like crazy. As our whole traffic. Sometimes i think there are no rules in roads and its whole other topic to discuss, but sice author didn’t made any points on it so ill just leave it at that.
As for warmth of our society. We have none. We are very individualistic society, we hardly aprove other persons efforts. We do not account the work they put into it. The biggest example probably is Eurovision. I have never heard more prase for our entry than criticism our even badmouthing. No one cares how much work did that person put into it or how much hardships he/she went through. And that saddens me greatly. I can’t feel mutual understanding or realisation of dependency on others.
And I can’t even start on racism. I know its there and it’s big. I cant even force myself from looking strangely at a bit more tanned person if I see one. And I bet it’s AT LEAST a bit distrubing to that person.
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Hi David, thanks for your comment. I read some blog of Europeans travelling to some Latin American countries and their complaints are the same as yours an even worse. Some countries in Latin America now are have a huge and developing economy, we are important to the world but we still have problems. Europeans usually like and complain about our food. It is a matter of taste. I just know one European that really liked a Latin American beer, the rest were really rude and said it tasted like piss (funny how they all repeat this word). Tourist that visit Panamá say we have the worst customer service, people are rude and some are cold. But, our Colombians neighbors are the kindest in the World. I don’t know what you mean with “racism”, but I can say people looked at me when I enter the buses in Lithuania, in Panamá, in Perú, in Costa Rica, etc. Even some of them asked me question in Lithuanian when I clearly don’t look like European. I find this normal because I look different. Even a British told me he felt the same in Lithuania but understood that as curiosity. But yet again, it is not 100% clear for me what you do really mean. Interesting your point about poor education. Our association works with children in several schools in Lithuania, and they got amazed with the level of education. The ones who commented this are Europeans.
Some random point about riding a bus. One friend of mine with little dark skin lived in South Korea and said innocent little children were always staring at touching her and touching her skin. She interpreted this as curiosity and since she was never attacked verbally of physically by anyone there, she considered this as not racism. I was stared here as well but interpreted this in the same way. You might had a worse experience so I will not judge.
In that case; Western Europeans will criticize anywhere outside their zone. What I would like to see is to Western Europeans to give constructive feedback to other regions and not negative and destructive. Some people might get really offended. We see the world in a different way and the best we can do is try to understand it and make it a better place. That is what I’m trying to do by writing this posts even though I made some mistakes as I realized now.
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Gal jau uztenka cia tos jusu angliskos kalbos , rasyba zmogaus ir makniunu ten netoli panevezio turbut. Lanku , giriu gluduma
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I think you should visit Druskininkai 🙂 you will like it 🙂
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Inhave traveled all around South America. Especially Bolivia. Boy I gotta say cochas (taxis) are pretty funny because they fit aroung 6 people in a 5 seat car. Or when you buy a ticket for a bus you must buy your taxes seperately and go true many check ups. I think the Brazillian transport is quiet great. Your post is quiet funny. Actually I saw people keeping their washing machines in kitchen in Latin America also. And their toilets are usually way outside the house, like detached 5 meters away or more.and people wear fliplops in the shower while showering. I think people in South America are very warm friendly and curious. I had a great time.
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Interesting. I’m sure that Lithuania is a very different country today than it was before and during World War II. My grandparents who were Lithuanian Jews told horror stories about Lithuania and they got out a few years before the Nazi invasion. Instead of using “the Boogieman”, they would say “You better behave or the Litvaks will get you!”
They said the level of hatred and persecution of Jews was so terrible that the place was unliveable for Jews. There had been a thriving Jewish community in Vilna for centuries
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Douglas, Litvaks is Lithuanian Jews
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Great post! 🙂
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Very nice post about visiting Lithuania, because frequently people like complain about Lithuania. It is not so bad!
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Very interesting comment about Lithuania. I’m Lithuanian myself and I completely agree with you. Some Lithuanians don’t appreciate what they have. It’s really funny and sad at the same time. But hey we have our pros too 😀
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They were using the term “Litvak” to refer to Lithuanians generally. I’m sure Lithuania is a totally different place now and I’m sure really friendly and progressive. But when my grandparents left, it was a very bad place for Jews at least.
And then we all know what happened after the Germans invaded. My grandparents would have been murdered as all their neighbors and relatives left behind were. Most of them were lined up and shot right outside the city of Vilnius and some beaten to death in the streets.
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Douglas,
Let me tell you a short story:
Even before the ww2, Jews owned stores in Lithuania, and if any Lithuanian open his shop near by, the Jews have agreed to reduce the price of their stores between, so Lithuanian business man would go to bankrupt. Then what horror are you talking about? You should be thank full for Lithuania they saved your grans Life’s and let escape just before German invasion.
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Funny article, but it seems the author never set a food in Latin America. There are several cultures within LA. Take for example Mexico, Argentina and Brasil. All different. It’s like saying UK, Spain and Russia have the same culture.
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20 years in Brazil, 8 in Panamá. I have visited and explored Bolivia, Perú, Colombia, Costa Rica. Also, inputs from Venezuelans, Mexicans and brazilians that lived in Vilnius, Kaunas, Šiauliai and Panevėžys
1 year in Lithuanian, Germany, Poland etc
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Also Marco, I understand your point. I cannot compare one country with another. But in this way, I cannot compare one state within a country with another. Then I cannot compare a city with another. Then I cannot compare one individual with another.
The reason I make this poor comparison (I don’t want to be sarcastic) it that we got influenced by the Spanish, Portuguese and French culture. By the stats, we are very similar compared to other cultures. I also know about Iberoamerica. That is why Napoleon named us Latin Americans. I have visited many Latin countries. I don’t know your background so I cannot judge you; BUT I understand and accept your doubt since I didn’t make clear I was Latin American and visited all these countries. The ones that know me, and I thought I shared this post, KNOW me. I made the mistake to assume this would never get popular.
Sorry
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Chandé, nice original blog. Its a shame that occasionally when we notice a bird singing sweetly, it then gets ripped apart by some alley cats with issues.
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Very wise words James. Thanks for it 🙂
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Thank you for an interesting blog post – I look forward to reading more, and who knows, maybe I’ll see you in Kaunas one day 🙂
As for comments, it always surprises me when people want blogs to be more detailed, more objective and more depersonalized than the news they read/watch. Chill, someone shared their personal experience – that’s exactly what blogs are for!
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Nesuprantu, kodėl kai kuriems žmonėms norisi apderginėti savo šalį? Tai taip žema. Ir jei mane dabar koks Rokas užsipuls, kad tai realybė, atsakysiu Jums – tai Jūsų realybė Jūsų galvoje. Ir su tuom akivaizdžiai nėra gerai.
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Very nice post 🙂 i am Lithuanian, but lived one year in Venezuela and visited Brazil couple of times. I really liked both of these countries, the only thing that was hard to me – -was to feel insecure. that is a big problem there.
I hope you are enjoying Lithuania!
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Ha ha Go a Head .LT is Banana country
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hi,
thanks for your kind words. Sometimes we all need a reminder – someone from “outside” – just to tell us how lucky we are. It`s always a pleasure to know that someone else also see your country as a really good place to live. To read your text was like to see my own thoughs written down 🙂 Thank you for that.
I missed your opinion about our nature – lakes, forests. But i did not read your #3 post yet 🙂
if in any case you have not been anywhere in our “wild” nature, please do so. Ask anyone you know and can trust to take you in Aukštaitijos Nation Park. Try water roads starting from Palūšė. If you are in good shape and love hiking i recomend visiting Labanoras forest.
Best wishes to you and small hope some day i will write something similar about Latin America too 🙂
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It’s amazing how enjoyable you find everything 🙂 Really, we complain a lot but we don’t see how great we have it here 🙂 Well, except for that one week of -20 C weather 😀 Great posts 🙂
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Thanks a lot Vita 🙂 It is really an amazing experience and all my foreign friends are also enjoying their stay. You are so lucky to live in Lithuania 😉
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