Vilnius: Balloonies

picture from Tampen.

The 15th Lithuanian Hot Air Balloon festival will take place this weekend - August 2-4 (Thursday to Saturday). This should be a great opportunity to see balloons floating over the pretty Old Town roofs. Watching balloons lift off is also a treat. The balloonies will be firing up their burners and filling their balloons with hot air at 06:00 and 19:00 each day. They will probably take off from the apron in front of the Vingio Parkas stadium thingy, but that can change with the wind. In any case, if you're in Old Town during the weekend, get your camera ready, and when you hear something that sounds like a dragon breathing, point it at the sky. The balloons can be spectacular.

By the way, the photo shown on this post is from a balloon festival in New Jersey, and taken by a guy called Tampen - a flickr photographer who consistently posts great pictures with thoughtful or thought-provoking comments.

EasyJet to Bucharest

EasyJet yesterday announced officially what a few of us had known for a while; it will begin flying the London Gatwick - Bucharest route in November. Tickets are on sale now, from around €70 (including taxes) return.

The question is, which airport will they be flying into? Until recently all budget airlines had been using the less than satisfactory Baneasa Airport, described in this blog as Europe's worst.

Baneasa however closed in May for major renovation - which was due to be completed on July 31st - with all flights moving to the city's main airport, Otopeni.

However, July 31st rapidly approaches and there has yet to be any confirmation that Baneasa will reopen: either on July 31st or indeed at all. Romanian newspapers have reported that while repair work on the runway was being carried out, two villas were being illegally constructed just 500 metres from the end of the runway, exactly on the spot where new radar masts were due to be erected.

Quite how nobody noticed until just a couple of days ago that the two villas, the property of two Syrians, were being built is anyone's guess. Expect this story to run.

Meantime, expect all flights to Bucharest to continue to take off and land at Otopeni.

Cruising: cool or what?

The excellent Gadling blog recently popped-up an item about cruising, prompted by an article in the New York Times. Caught my eye as I have recently been on just such a cruise, and was surprised to find that it was, like, fun. And, at a stretch, kinda cool. I had expected grannies, blue-rinse and bingo, but found the ship was a great place to be with plenty of other 30-somethings all having a great time. Plenty to do, plenty to not-do if you prefer, and never a dull moment. My opinions were completely changed. Not sure if that ever means we're going to see a 'Cruising In Your Pocket' - but hey, why not?

Travel brings you closer

Travelling together is a 'relationship tester' - right? Well, maybe. But according to a lastminute.com survey, most couples who travel together return home more in-love than they were when they left. (And that's not just the 18 per cent who forget to take their pyjamas.)

The survey also found that 75 per cent pack no more than 24 hours before departure (would have been 24 minutes if they'd asked me) and 80 per cent arrive at the airport at the recommended check-in time. Oh - and almost every nationality considers themselves to be the 'loudest' on a plane. So they obviously didn't include Japanese in the survey.

Source: TravelMole. Photo: petervanallen on Flickr.

IYP students hit Vilnius Markets

We've got a couple of students here at the Vilnius In Your Pocket office right now, Susanna Larminie and Branwen Spector. They arrived right at deadline time, which was most inconsiderate. So, as punishment, sent them out to the markets to get in amoung the hustle and bustle and old ladies trying to flog time-worn plastic bags and so on and so forth. Here's what they came back with:

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A trip to Kalvarių market requires both a tight clutch on one’s handbag and a tolerance for large amounts of ladies’ underwear. This is no tourist market, but a hardcore centre of dodgily-obtained clothing and electronics sold alongside fish, meat, and local fruit and vegetables. (The term local should be interpreted somewhat loosely as things are labelled as Egyptian, Polish, and Belarusian). Gardening enthusiasts can find a large selection of plants and gardening equipment, whilst mobile phone aficionados can bargain for cheap cases and chargers.

Fruit should be approached with caution as, when squeezing peaches, some were unearthed as mouldy. However fruit and vegetable squeezing is highly encouraged at Kalvariu, and many kind traders will encourage you to fondle their offerings. The produce sold is seasonal – at the time of writing, cherries, peaches and nectarines (the latter of which are both imported from Italy) were in stock, as were large watermelons (Lithuanian watermelons are most interesting as they are both watery and gritty) and Ecuadorian bananas.

Should you wish to give your house a cheap spring clean, Kalvariu market is the place to come. Here you can buy not only Russian cleaning products and equipment at knockoff prices, but also cleaning smocks and washing up gloves in an assortment of colours and patterns.

Halės market, however, is the place to go if you would like to indulge your inner carnivore. Row upon row of pig, lamb, chicken and beef can be found, including excitements such as trotter, ear and slabs of fat. Sausages in every size, colour and texture are also sold, and all cheaper than at the supermarkets. This is, of course, only doable if you are manly enough to handle the sight of a pig’s face grinning at you.

As well as meat, you can also buy denim. Shorts, jeans, jackets, waistcoats, coats and bags – all can be found at the back of the market at specialist denim wholesalers.

Among the maze of glass cubicles in which the market is contained can you find a range of ladies’ underwear able to compete with Kalvariu, mixed in a mountain of more cleaning smocks, shiny trousers and bibs.

Both markets sell practical items rather than souvenirs and other tourist memorabilia, however they are worth visiting if you care to see how the ordinary people of Lithuania shop, floral smocks or a grinning pig.

Europe's Best Airport

Baia Mare airport in the north of Romania is not, by any stretch of the imagination, the world's busiest. One small plane from Bucharest lands each night at 10pm; it leaves for the Romanian capital again at 6am the next morning. That's it.

As a result, the staff have plenty of time on their hands. This could in most cases lead to negligence of duty, laziness, or worse. Not at Baia Mare.

In fact, given the level of personal service, I have decided to rate it Europe's best airport. I mean, where else do airport security staff look after your baby daughter while you pop off for a coffee? Where else do you receive hand written boarding passes?

Where else is your luggage carried to the plane by friendly, joking baggage handlers?

All airports should be like this.

Lithuanian parking

It's deadline time in most In Your Pocket offices, which probably explains why there have been so few posts to this blog in the past week. But, just to keep things moving along, so to speak, I thought I'd just offer a photo of the in-equal-parts baffling, annoying and amusing phenomenon of Lithuanians trying to park their cars.

What a pratt!

Lithuania wants online voting. For all the wrong reasons

Lithuania is hoping to introduce internet voting in time for the 2008 elections. So, Lithuanians will be able to choose which vile, self-serving, bribe-taking, incompetent nincompoop politician (seems there are no other kinds in Lithuania) will mislead their contry into the next decade with a click or two. No surprises there - but I love the reason cited for introducing e-voting:

"I hope that in this area we will catch up with Estonia, and
by doing this we will surpass most European Union states," Prime Minister
Gediminas Kirkilas told a news conference.
- Scientific American website

Right - so it's nothing to do with efficiency, facilitation democracy or providing convenience for all the net-savvy pensioners living in Lithuania. It's about playing catch up and surpassing other states and, presumably, earning ner-nerny-ner-ner points. That's all very noble and mature.

I simply cannot believe that a grown man, let alone a politician, would say something so daft.

Minsk In Your Pocket out now

A spanking-fresh Minsk In Your Pocket is now available. You can spy online, or download your very own Minsk In Your Pocket PDF (5.6Mb) so you can print it out and read it on the bus, on the toilet, or when you're supposed to be reading the latest memo-missive from the boss or whatever.

We are especially proud of the fact that we bothered to create a map that has street names in English, Russian and Belarusian - possibly making it the only map to Minsk with which you won't get repeatedly and irrevocably lost. Or at least not so often, anyway. Of course you'll need to download the Minsk In Your Pocket PDF (5.6Mb) to see the map.

Those of you who have been to Minsk, or will be going, might like to remember that you can add comments to the listings on our website. So you can share your Minsk experience with other IYP readers.

Romanian sues God

According to Libby Purves of The Times, a convicted murderer in Romania has attempted to sue god for fraud and betrayal of trust after his prayers went unanswered. The court wouldn't have it, saying that God 'is not subject to law and does not have an address'. (The claimant had provided an address for God - the heavens - but failed to include the correct postcode.)

Estonian turns wife into beer

Estonian, Estonian Madis Uusorg, has won his wife's weight in beer after carrying her across the line and becoming the 12th Wife Carrying Champion. He carried her upside-down on his back, with her legs over his shoulders.

Another Estonian couple came second in the competition, which was hosted in Finland. Contestants in the burden-carrying banality have to haul their wifes along a 250m track, pocked with pools and hurdles. There's some photos of the event, from previous years, on Flickr.

More also on Reuters.

Happy Nonsense

Is it possible to judge happiness? Almost certainly not, though that hasn't stopped a few people trying.

One bunch of people who try to measure happiness is the New Economics Foundation, who have published a Happy Planet Index that ranks the countries of the world by their 'happiness' quotient. Apparently, the happiest place on the planet is the group of Pacific ocean islands that form Vanuatu. Given that there is no income tax, that may be so. But while the offshore finance industry accounts for some jobs, most of Vanuatu's residents live a life of subsistence farming. Life expectancy is a less than happy 68. So is it the happiest place on earth? I doubt it.

Likewise, quite why drug-torn, crime-worn Colombia ranks as the second happiest place on the planet is also beyond us.

In fact, you have to scroll a long way down the list to find anywhere remotely civilised. Switzerland, long considered the most desirable place to live on the planet ranks a lowly 65th, three places behind India. Albanians can rejoice: at position 92 they make the top 100. Poor old Britain, at 108, does not. As for the USA (life expectancy 77.4), if you keep scrolling down you'll find it at position 152, just behind Lithuania and the paradise that is Burkina Faso (life expectancy 47.5).

Happy nonsense indeed.

Red Mist

The fountains in Bucharest's Piata Unirii and all along the Centru Civic were last week given added colour. There was no announcement, and no explanation. We just woke up one morning and the water was running red, green, blue...

There are more photos here. For those who speak Romanian you will also find a suggested explanation: putting dye in the water will stop Gypsies bathing in the fountains.

Sounds like typical Romanian racism to us...

O Gore, deliver us from evil

Essential anti-hot air reading ahead of the Live Earth concerts tomorrow. It's all on Spiked.

http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/issues/C113/

Lithuania: Pop tart beats monkey with typewriter

Ex-Spice pop tart cum footballer’s wife, Victoria Beckham, has ‘written’ a book that has out-sold Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code in Lithuania. The ‘author’ formerly known as Posh Spice has somehow produced a book called That Extra Half An Inch: Hair, Heels And Everything In Between.

In it, according some blurb we found on amazon.co.uk, she “shares her secrets on dressing for special occasions, everyday wear, accessorizing, holiday tips and making the most of your wardrobe.”

It seems this is even more appealing to Lithuanians than The Da Vinci Code, the best-selling dribble of Dan Brown, who has been described as “a sort of rich monkey with a typewriter” (India Knight, The Times, June 24).

Posh was quoted as saying "I mean we only got about two pence (profit) and Lithuania is about as big as that coffee table, isn't it? But at least we beat The Da Vinci Code."

This all says plenty about Posh, but we just can’t work out if it means Lithuanians are very clever, or very stupid.

Source: Daily India

Read by all the right people in all the right places

Miss Belfast Rebecca Hughes - from the Style Academy model agency - reading her favourite city guide in the newly-revamped £500,000 public loos at Belfast's Winetavern Street.

Pic courtesy Belfast City Council. More from Belfast In Your Pocket here.