Happy Anniversary to me…

IMG_0058Today, August 22, 2013, marks the third anniversary of my life as an Ex-Pat.

In 2010, on this date, I packed up some of my belongings into one too many suitcases, loaded a dog into the hold of an airplane and headed off for a small town in Hungary, with absolutely no idea what I was getting myself into. Now, I’m one year past my original expiration date – my original contract being for a single year with a one year extension option. I didn’t exercise it and instead, headed north to Lithuania (I didn’t know where it was, either) to take up my new life as a university docent (associate professor). I’ve been in Lithuania now for a little over two years, having moved to Vilnius for a few months in June of 2011 and into my flat at the beginning of August that year. I’m also a few days away from beginning my 3rd year at VDU. Continue reading “Happy Anniversary to me…” →

Review: Olympus Has Fallen

olympus-has-fallenI know there were two “OMG, the terrorists have the White House” films this year, and I will freely admit one looked stupid and the other looked… well, maybe a little less stupid. That second one is Olympus Has Fallen and it’s got some street cred to go along with the silly premise so I figured it was worth a shot. Antoine Fuqua, who did Training Day, was behind the camera and Gerard Butler, Aaron Eckhart and Morgan Freeman were out in front so at least it would be fun watching them chew up the scenery if nothing else.

And honestly, there was nothing else. Continue reading “Review: Olympus Has Fallen” →

Review: Elysium

Elysium_PosterI was very excited to see the new Neill Blomkamp film Elysium from the first time I saw a trailer. It looked like someone was doing a realistic space epic, pulling in all sorts of SF tropes (Ringworld anyone?) and that someone was the same guy who gave us the incredibly impressive District 9 in his debut.

Shame his sophomore effort is a shallow, almost pointless retread of similar territory albeit with a bigger budget and impressive cast.  Continue reading “Review: Elysium” →

Review: The Mysterious Island

The Mysterious Island
The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Seems like I’ve been on a Jules Verne kick lately, slowly working my way through the classics. I’d heard about Mysterious Island before, and seen several of the films, but like watching the movie version of Around the World in 80 Days, the book is very much different! Continue reading “Review: The Mysterious Island” →

…and fish

2013-07-29 19.06.23

Couple of bits of background are going to be needed here… The first is that my friend Monika gave me, for my birthday, a book of 100 places to visit in Lithuania and a red stuffed goldfish with the admonition that I had until my next birthday, July 13th for those of you keeping track, to take a picture of the fish in as many of the 100 locations as possible. She gave her brother the same book (in Lithuanian) and a yellow crab with the same directive.

The second thing you need to know is another friend, Annie, whom I have known for almost 35 years, is visiting from Australia with her partner Brad. The started their trip in Torino, Italy, where Brad was participating in a Beach Volleyball Tournament and then headed up to Kaunas earlier in the week to hang out and visit and see Lithuania.

So…

Continue reading “…and fish” →

Review: The Purge

The PurgeEthan Hawke has been making some interesting filmic choices lately, the latest being in James DeMonaco’s The Purge, which postulates a future (2022) where, in order to combat the growing tensions and anxiety, all law enforcement is suspended for 12 hours, one night (March 21, 7pm – March 22, 7am) a year. During this time period, (almost) anything goes (high ranking politicians and certain military grade weapons are exempt) including murder. In fact, the argument could be made that murder is the primary reason for this annual “purge” of negative emotions. And things seem to be working. As of 2022, unemployment is down to 1% and violent crime is on a serious decline.  Continue reading “Review: The Purge” →

Review: The Black Book

The Black Book
The Black Book by Ian Rankin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I picked this up because I was in Edinburgh, Scotland and had been on a Literary Walking Tour of the city’s most famous writers and Rankin’s name kept coming up. We passed places he hung out, locations from his books, and heard stories about his life. So when I had the opportunity to grab one of his Rebus thrillers I took it, feeling like it’s a good thing to read local writers. Continue reading “Review: The Black Book” →

A note about (bad) hostels…In particular the Belford in Edinburgh

I recently returned from an amazing 9 day trip through Scotland, Ireland and Northern England and in the past, I’ve travelled through most of Europe and quite a bit of the United States. I’ve stayed in a number of hostels and while some experiences have been better than others, I had one on this last trip which ranked so far down the list, I felt the need to actually write a bit about it – and the hosteling experience in general.

To start with the bad… The hostel in question here is The Belford Hostel in Edinburgh, Scotland. I’ll get to why they rank so low in a moment but first, a word about what, in my opinion, makes a good hostel and where this one fails (and the one place they succeed).  Continue reading “A note about (bad) hostels…In particular the Belford in Edinburgh” →

Spirits of Ireland – Day nine in Dublin

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThis is where that little surprise comes in. I was all set to call it quits after Liverpool and was resigned to a long train ride back to Edinburgh but Jennifer had other plans. She had done her research (she’s good at that) and discovered we could fly from Liverpool to Dublin, spend the day in Ireland and then fly back to Edinburgh that night with plenty of time to spare to make the 6:30am flight back to Kaunas. All of a sudden our trip became 4 cities, 3 countries, 2 plays and 1 knight! I was beyond stoked! Continue reading “Spirits of Ireland – Day nine in Dublin” →

Eight Days a Week – Day eight in Liverpool

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAAs long as we were in the north of England, I had figured we might as well see Liverpool. When we were planning this trip, all sorts of possibilities were presenting themselves but time, cost and feasibility had narrowed things down to flying in and out of Edinburgh with a trip to Manchester and Liverpool thrown in. This was okay by me. I’d never been to any of these places while Jennifer had been to Liverpool and Edinburgh but it was years ago. Jennifer had also take care of planning the latter half of the trip and so she had booked us on an early morning train to Liverpool, about an hour or so away. The idea being to make the most of our day since odds are, we were going to spend most of monday on a train back to Edinburgh for my 6:30am flight back to Kaunas on Tuesday. Continue reading “Eight Days a Week – Day eight in Liverpool” →

The Scottish (cos)Play – Day seven in Manchester

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAThis was the day we were waiting for. Today was Macbeth Day. We started the day all special days should be started… by sleeping late.

We had decided that Manchester was really much more about the theatre than any other touristy sites so there was no rush to get up and hit the day running as there was every other day of the trip. So instead, we just languished. We enjoyed the comfort of the hotel room, sleeping until we wanted to wake up. It was glorious. We also took this opportunity to deal with travel details for the next few days. I had received a surprise but that will come in time. Continue reading “The Scottish (cos)Play – Day seven in Manchester” →

Man and The Machine – Day six in Manchester

DSC_0131The bus to Manchester left at 5am. This meant we had to be out of the hostel by 4ish and at the train station when it opens at 4:45 or so. That’s early. Even for me with an annoyingly early rising dog. But that’s okay, we’re professional travelers, we got this!

And we did. At the station by about 10 to five and on the bus when it arrived. It was mostly empty that early, so we settled in for smooth sailing down south to the English home of Football. If only it went that way.

Continue reading “Man and The Machine – Day six in Manchester” →