Country by Country: Lithuania

My initial plan was to spend much time in Lithuania, but I enjoyed Estonia and Latvia so much that my trip was cut down to 2 days as I had prebooked a flight to Warsaw for the 9th of June, which was the first day of the world cup. Back at home while planning my trip I came across a deal on WizzAir where tickets were 1 Euro Cent, and then extra taxes and fees. After fees/fuel surcharges and the like the total price came out to be 23 Euros or about $30 Dollars. While at the time this seemed like a great deal, and flying for only 45 minutes versus an 8hr bus/train ride in the end I probably would have chosen to take the train ride. Why? Well intitally at home when booking the trip I didnt think I wanted any bus/train rides over 5hrs, and while this still is a tough amount of time in Eastern Europe, in Western Europe its a breeze. The bus time from Vilnius to Warsaw is listed as 8hrs, and about $30 US. So about the same price as the flight but a much longer trip. I have since learned if there was a nightbus, that 8hr trip is nothing, as you can sleep and save on a night accomidation, have a couple of beers(remember you can drink just about ANYWHERE in europe), put on your MP3 player and the 8hrs is gone quickly. What I opted to do instead was only spend 1 night in Vilnius, which is a wicked party city.. Then spend a whole day wasted by traveling to Kaunas, a city I didnt enjoy, spending the night in Kaunas in a Hotel that was about $25 US per night, as there are not alot of Hostels in that town, spending some $20 US on a Taxi to the Kaunas airport since my flight was at 6am. overall it was much more expensive and time consuming overall to get the WizzAir flight, but I've learned my lesson. 8hrs is not that bad of a trip, and the nightbus/train is your friend to keep your days available for sightseeing when you have short amounts of time in each country. Only use those discount airlines for flights that are much cheaper than the bus/train option, or long long distances like over 12Hrs, especially if those are times in Eastern Europe, where bus/train might be much cheaper but times can be longer than what is listed.

I arrived in the capital of Lithuania which is Vilnius by bus from Riga. It was an easy 5hr ride, on again a modern full sized bus that only cost $12 one-way. Again in Eastern Europe dont buy rail/bus passes for unlimited travel as point to point tickets are almost always cheaper. In fact forget rail travel totally in the Baltics as is the case of most of the "less developed Europe" bus travel is much more efficient than train travel. Vilnius is a city of some 600,000 people and unlike Riga or Tallinn does not really have the same sort of centralized old town with windy/twisty streets. It does have plenty of nice old architecture, rich cultural centers, a very important old jewish ghetto/quarter and most importantly a rockin nightlife. Here is a picture of a church I found lovely


The center of town is a bit difficult to navigate as again streets are not in a grid, but with a decent map you should be able to get around fairly easily. I stayed at the Vilnius Backpackers Hostel which was in a great location, not too far from the bus station, and right off a main pedestrian street filled with Cafes and Resturants. The cost was about $13 US per night, a good deal, the only problem was slight lack of bathrooms, one on each floor, and each floor housed about 12-15 people if full. I only spent one night here, and then traveled to Kaunas for one night there. Vilnius is by far a more exciting city, I found Kaunas to be rather dead and dreary, yet Kaunas is suppose to have more students so during the university year it could be very active, in the summer I found it dead.

Vilnius has some great club/resturants, I was there on a Wednesday night, so it was in a way the start of the party week. Like most of europe things dont get started till much later. I sat at a really colorful nice resturant called Dienos Naktys(no idea what it means) at about 6pm and it was empty, but I was able to enjoy my lunch/happy hour beer. The main beer is choice seemed to be Kalnapilis, a very tasty golden beer, cheap at only 7 Litas(about $2.50 US).
I also found my first microbrew and one of the few in the Baltic at this place named Avilys, I enjyoed their half liter of the Honey Lager, yet I couldnt taste much of a honey taste. This was a nice basement cosy place with supposed great food, it was 11pm at night or else I would have sat outside as it was a bit chilly at night, but the basement was cozy and comfortable for a quick brew.

Only having one night in town, I wanted to try to find cool places, but I was struggling as my guide book has very little info on Lithuania. After I left the microbrew, I found a place called Pablo Latino on Turku St, It is a very very nice joint, with a big upstairs room and then a deck that overlooks an inside Patio. It was closing at 1am, so I only had a bit of time there, but it was funny to see that Salsa dancing is the rage everywhere in the world, even where there aren't too many Latino people as in Lithuania. In fact I only saw one minority other than me, and he was this tall lanky brother, like over 6"5 walking down the street, and looked like he was African. I figure he must be an import on a local basketball team, as Lithuania is HUGE on basketball. Winning the Bronze medals in the summer olympics in 1992, 1996, and 200. They also won the European Championship in 2003, and there are several good/high paid Lithuanians in the NBA including Žydrūnas Ilgauskas for the Cavs, partnering with LeBron James for a solid pairing for the future. Don't be shocked the next time the USA Basketball team disappoints at a world event, it loses to Lithuania and people are like who? where?

Ok back to hanging out, first thing I realize at Pablo Latino that will be a theme for the rest of the night, Lithuanians LIKE TO DRINK, and the women especially can DRINK. At the bar a man/woman couple were doing flaming shots of something, so you know it was strong stuff, she was downing them with no problem.. I leave that place at 1am and head back a few blocks to the hostel, ready to call it a boring night, there are some people there staging to go out to this bar/pub open to 6am. I'm like what the heck, only got 1 night here. We posse up and head out to Prospekto pub right up the street to this big church.

Its good the church is there as after a night of what is going on in the Pub, you might need to run to church when the pub closes at 6am. This is an awesome bar, with multiple floors, there are 2 stripper poles attached to the top of the bar, and these get a good workout, as in Lithuania being a stripper is a job you can make alot of money at, and there are PLENTY of establishments to show your skills you have learned here.
The cover was 10 Litas($3.50 US) for any male foreigners, but seemed to be free if you could speak soem Lithuanian. Beer was well priced, if you could get to the bartender as the place was PACKED this night, I guess being the only place open so late its the spot to goto. The night seemed to start off slow, but when Usher came on, the folks all jammed the dance floor, if Usher only knew he was a big thing in Lithuania he would go there and might not come home. I gotta say not many brothas hanging in Lithuania so you are a HOT commodity, people seem to like what is different from them. And considering they are mostly young, tall, skinny and blond, I was rather different.. I had the skinny and hopefully young part down tho..

Another song that seemed to get the crowd going much to my shock was Tina Turner's "Simply the Best". Maybe its a motivational thing..The music was varied including some Lithuanian pop songs, Lithuanian hip hop and Euro techno trash. Now the drinking, I was sticking with my normal beer, but after noticing people were buying bottles of vodka and drinking it straight. Unlike clubs here in the states with Bottle service that after you get ripped off for a $300 dollar bottle of Vodka, at least they give you free juice and keep it on ice, not so here. You paid only about $20 for the bottle of vodka, but got it warm, like straight out of the case. You had to buy your own OJ, or Cranberry.. so what did the locals do, DRINK IT STRAIGHT WHILE WARM.. I must say I tried as the locals, and couldnt get a sip of this cheap vodka down, without the thought of throwing up all over my new friends and causing an international incident. So in this picture below, that is the bottle of VOdka I am holding up, but no way was I drinking it all night, I stuck with the cold beer.
Oh and for those wondering her name is Jurgo, and like most everyone there they speak PERFECT english, almost rivaling the Dutch. Finally left at closing time, at 5:40am with the sun up high in the summer Baltic sky, the DJ played "One" first the U2 version and then the Johnny Cash version and then it was time to go home and pretend to get some sleep. The next day sucked for a variety of reasons, and while I am sure Kaunas is a nice place, I'm going to skip writing about it, as its a day I want to try to put in my past forever.

As for getting to Lithuania, first off get a good guide book specific to at least the 3 Baltic Countries, Lonely Planet does a good job as someone at the Hostel had this, and while I was leaving the Baltics I spent some time looking thru his book. There are no direct flights from the USA, but check out Air Baltic, who I flew and has flights from London, Germany, Ireland, even Austria to get you to Vilnius. I would say for partying this along with Riga are great.. and oh yeah there is some culture in the daytime, including a statue of Frank Zappa's head on a tall stick.. yeah its strange I saw it, didnt understand it, but oh well..

You Don't Need a Spleen to Play

But you do need a heart to live.. Wow after a weekend of watching sports this weekend and some great games, gutsy performances and bad injuries. Like any red-blooded American man, I went out on Sunday to watch some NFL football games. Only watched the end of 2nd half of the early games, but there were some great finishes. Watching the Bucs vs Panthers game, I saw Chris Simms run in a touchdown and take a massive hit, and said to myself wow that kid got some guts, he learned well from his dad. Then later in the 4th quarter he was being pounded like a rag doll. Later we would learn he played for some of the game with a ruptured spleen and after the game had emergency operation to take it out. He will most likely be gone from this whole season, and with the Bucs 0-3 no point in him rushing back. The kid has heart for playing the rest of the game in obvious pain, and I hope a full recovery for him, as he is playing on a 1yr 2.1 million dollar contract and was going to be an unrestricted free agent next year waiting for the big payday. Thankfully its not an arm injury so if Drew Brees could get a mega-contract coming off a shoulder injury, Chris Simms should be able to set himself financially for life this off-season. One of the possible side effects of not having a spleen I read was possible Erectile Dysfunction, so glad to read his wife gave birth to their daughter this past off season..

The other world class athlete I know to have his spleen removed was Peter Forsberg who in the 2001 playoffs had it taken out after Game 7 of a series. He missed the whole next regular season but returned for the 2002 playoffs and led all players in scoring, and the following full season had his 2nd best season in his career. So for world class athletes is seems losing a spleen does not end a career.

It reminded me of one of my favorite cartoon moments from a simpsons episode over 10 years ago, as I was in college when watching it. In fact now looking it up, its from Season 4 of the Simpsons, the Episode titled "I Love Lisa". Simpsons 4th Season DVDDuring the cartoon Itchy & Scratchy that is within the Simpsons, it was a valentines day episode where Itchy gives Scratchy his own heart as a valentine. Scratchy learns later he needs a heart to live, and dies before he can reach it. Well any athelete who plays a game or career after losing a major body organ deserves props. Check out the clip of Scratchy's ultimate demise. Warning might not be for kids, but then what the hell kids should be reading this blog anyway??

Also in baseball this weekend, Nick Johnson of the Washington Nationals had a horrible outfield collision with his teammate and broke his Femur in his leg, I hope Nick can come back from this injury, but in todays age of mega-contracts that 3yr, 16.5million dollar deal he signed in spring training is looking really good right now. I Hope the Nationals have not missed an insurance payment on that contract, or else OUCH.. These 2 injuries had me thinking what are the most memorable performances in sports for a player after sufferring a horrible injury, either playing in that game or later in their career. While I am not a list person, i'll leave that to buddies like PaulKatcher who writes some amazing lists for his blog, among my favs are What Your Yankees Jersey says about you I am here writing my first list, not even sure what to call it

Top 10 Gutsy Performances by Sports Athletes

10. Kirk Gibson. Game 1, 1988 World Series. Yes the home run was legendary and will be replayed forever. Yes it was off Dennis Eckersley.. Yes it was his only At-bat of the series.. But it was GAME 1 of the series and also I dont think it was ever revealed what his injury was. He has soem pain in his leg and a bum knee, he had been diving all around the field during the earlier series vs the Mets but what was the injury?? True he was gimpy around the bases, but in baseball you swing with the BAT, only players like Rickey Henderson use their legs to win games.

9. Willis Reed. Game 7, 1970 NBA Finals. Ok even in NY lore this moment of the captain coming out of the lockeroom all gimpy can bring tears to grown men's eyes. I wasnt alive in 1970, so I have no memory of it and my dad was probably playing a concert somewhere that day, and not watching the game so I have no reference point from him. True Reed won the MVP of the tournament, true the Knicks won the NBA championship that season(probably the only one they will win for a while, lets see how long before Isiah is fired), but lets remember folks Reed scored the first 4 points of the game and that is IT. Nothing else after those first 2 basekets. True it was a huge lift for his team, but it was Walt "Clyde" Frazier who led the team that game with 36 points and 19 assists.

8. Clint Malarchuk. March 22, 1989. Just a regular hockey game, but anyone who has seen the video clip(search on youtube i am not going to post here and be responsible for people losing their lunch) with a puddle of blood on the ice after a skate blade from a player accidently cut his Juglar Vein. He would return to play 3 more seasons and have a .500 record, which for a career .500 goalie beforehand meant he was always an average goalie his whole career.

7. Ronnie Lott. 1986 Off-season. One of the hardest hitting football players ever, had many injuries over his career. After multiple injuries to his left pinkie finger and the bone refusing to heal, he opted to have the tip of his pinkie cut off DURING THE OFF-SEASON to prevent any further injury. Now the legend of this story has grown to the point, where people think he came out of the game for a play, went over grabbed a chain saw, hacked the finger off, taped it up and went back out and tackled some players. Not the case at all. Still yet he would go on and play many more seasons, and today if you meet him and shake his hand, part of the man's pinkie is gone.. Still doesnt compare to that rock-climber who cut off his whole damn arm cause it was trapped under a rock, so he could free himself and get to safety..

6. Alex Zanardi. F1 Race Car Driver, Sept 2001. On the weekend after the 9/11 attack when almost all sports around the globe were canceled, there was a F1 race in Germany. During this race a horrific crash happened, where Zanardi was T-boned at 200 mph by another car. His car shattered in half, his body cut in half and he lost something crazy like 70% of his blood. He was given last rites on the track, and rushed by helicopter to a hospital. Somehow they managed to save his life, but not his lefs. Both legs were amputated above the knee, but yet this man continued to have a positive spirit. In one of the best interviews Bryant Gumble has ever done for Real Sports, he visits Zanardi as his zest for life is shown and is amazing. Zanardi drives his boat, swims, plays with his kid and yes even DRIVES. In would later have special legs fitted, special brake/gas controls on his race car and in 2005 he won a race in the European Tour Car Series, more than U or I would be able to do with both our legs. Yes he wrote a book and its pretty damn inspiring. Alex Zanardi

5. Shun Fujimoto. 1976 Summer Olympics. Who?? This male gymnist on the Japan olympic team at the '76 games in Montreal broke his kneecap during the floor excerise. With his team in a virtual tie with the Russians, he went on to compete in the Rings event and on a triple somersault dismount, maintaining perfect posture he earned a 9.7 and the Japan team went on to win gold. During that dismount, he further injured his leg, and years later asked by ESPN if he would do it again, his answer "No, I would not!"

4. Jack Youngblood. 1979 NFL Playoffs. Argubly one of the toughest SOBs to ever line up on defense, this NFL hall of Famer, played in 201 straight games, only missing 1 game in his 14 year career. So would a broken Fibula in his leg keep him out of the whole 1979-80 Playoffs, HELL NO. He played all the games, including the superbowl with a fractured left fibula. Sadly the Rams didnt win the game, he never won a superbowl. While I am not sure how well he is walking today after 14 years in the NFL, you would hope with that courage he would at least have a superbowl ring to attest for his gutsy performance during those playoffs

3. Donovan McNabb. 2002 NFL Week 11. The Eagles were as they always seem to be late in the season thinking SuperBowl before injury diaster sets in. On like the 3rd play of this game, McNabb goes down hard. Test show a sprained ankle and he comes back in the game with it taped up and goes on to throw for 4 TD passes, 250yards, and goes 20 for 25. After the game x-rays reveal a broken ankle that sidelines him for 6 weeks, he comes back for the playoffs but the Eagles cant get it done and lose before making the superbowl. Ahhh despite the pain I'm sure Donovan longs for these easy days, the days before a certain Rush "oxycoton" Limbaugh and T.O came into his life. As brave as his performance was, I am sure while on the table for his operation, he was thinking it was a good thing he signed that 12yr, 115million dollar contract before the 2002 season, and hoping his 13.5million signing bonus check had cleared. His career might have been in jeopardy, but financially he was set.. this makes the last 2 performances on this list even more amazing

2. Byron Leftwich, Marshall University 2002 MAC championship game. In his last game of his college career at Marshall University, Leftwich was trying to lead his team to the MAC championship. He helped his team win 49-45 with a last minute 40TD pass. Now what makes this performance so damn incredible was the fact he played with a broken leg for most of the 2nd half of this game. At some points, he had to have is offensive line carry him down the field. Leftwich would later say, "my leg was broke, my arm was fine.." As a college player making ZERO dollars(at least legally), the fact he would continue to play and possibly jeopardize a future NFL Career is pure guts, pure love of the game, love of his team and school colors. His guts paid off, making him the Number 7 pick in the NFL Draft the following year and signed a nice little 7yr, 30million(or so) contract.

1. Bob Baun. 1964 NHL Stanley Cup Finals. The most coveted trophy in sports, players say they will do anything to win it, play with any injury. Well Mr. Baun showed everyone just how tough hockey players are. After breaking his ankle in the 3rd period of Game 6 of the 1964 Stanley Cup Finals, he would i guess tape it up, shoot it up or whatever and come out and play in the overtime. He scored the game winning OT goal. While I have never seen video of this, so I dont know if it was a Jagresque end to end rush, or just an Esposito like tap in fron of the net. Still he won the game, kept Toronto alive in the series. He would go on to play in Game 7, and the Toronto Maple Leafs won the cup and his name will forever be inscribed on the best trophy in all of team sports. Why a guy would play with a broken ankle, well rememebr in 1964, before the age of guaranteed contracts, many players had off-season jobs to put food on the plate. These guys at these times were playing for their future a spot on the roster next year. Unlike in modern times, when Scottie Pippen can have a migrane and not want to play in a game, or Carl Pavano can in one year deal with injuries to his shoulder, back, buttocks, elbow and ribs.. oh and being a horrible driver. But then I guess Pavano wanted to be known for something other than giving up McGwire's 70th home run ball, stealing $10 million from George Stienbrenner this year and most importantly banging Alyssa Milano

Country by Country: Latvia - so nice did it twice!

I visited Riga, Latvia on 2 seperate ocassions on my trip. They were almost exactly 2 months apart, so basically at the beginning of the trip, and then right before the end of the trip. The reason for a 2nd return visit, was I enjoyed the city and heck i was in Europe, alot closer than I would be to Latvia for a while, so why not get back again. Plus one of the discount airlines Air Baltic flies to/from Riga to where I had to goto next, Oslo very cheaply. The difference between my first trip early June and second trip early August was noticeable, more on that later.

My first visit I Arrived in Riga from Tallinn by Bus, not even a week into my trip and I learned one of my first lessons about efficient travel, BUY YOUR TICKETS IN ADVANCE. I walked all thru the construction of Tallinn to get to the bus station and check schedules and prices a day before I wanted to leave to Riga, yet I didnt buy the ticket at that time.. So when I go back the day and time i want to leave, naturally the bus is sold out and I had to wait another 3hrs at the bus station wasting time that could have been spent in Riga or Tallinn waiting on the bus. So in advance when you get the schedule info about when the bus/train/plane leaves buy your ticket then. My ticket was all of 200EEKs, which is about $16 for a 4-5hr ride between countries, it costs about as much to take a bus from Port Authority to JFK airport here in the city, so it was certaintly a good deal. The bus was as modern as any Greyhound/Chinatown bus here in the states and the ride was easy and comfortable.

The arrival in Riga was much easier than in my last stop, this is due to the fact I was staying about as close to the bus station as any place on my whole trip. It was about 300 meters away and simply had to cross the main street. I stayed at the Argonaut Hostel in Riga, which I would highly recommend. It was probably one of my top 3 Hostels during my entire trip. The location was a great factor for sure as it was located so close to the bus/train stations, along with being right in the old town. They had a good security system of a keycard the opened the front door after 10pm at night and also opened your room door at all times, along with small safes that you could put your own padlock on right next to your bed. While I wouldnt call it a bar, they had a fridge where you could buy a beer for about $1 and enjoy in their really nice common room which had free internet access, a 42" plasma TV and lots of couches to chill on, with books, maps, magazines and the like. Also the people were great, both in terms of the ones working there and the folks staying, it was a nice mix of people from all countries and in the evenings everyone would sit aruond have a beer or ten, talk about places they have been or going, trade stories and plan to hit the town at night, and oh what a town Riga is..

Riga is becoming known as the Sex Capital of Europe, or at least the Baltics. While I wouldnt go as far as saying that, it was obvious it was a popular destination for those horrible English Stag/Hen parties and all the debauchary that goes with them, also alot of "strip clubs" are around town, in fact one was located literally right under the Hostel, which made for a great last stop for that last beer you really dont need at 4am when hanging out. The stag parties are really bad, the first time in many on my trip I would experience drunken, costumed, stupid groups of Tourists, in fact they are so bad I am told the local ladies in Latvia basically stay at home on weekends to avoid these men.. Thus Riga is a city where every night you can find a party, so Monday thru Thursday are great nights to hang out. In my trip in June I honestly didnt notice the so called Sex Capital aspect of the town, my 3 nights there were peaceful and I wasnt distured on the street except for this one group of friendly guys hanging outside a place called Mary's that was a strip club and every night when I was coming home they were outside and trying to get me to come in.. I realized I would have been the only customer so I would chat them up and joke with them but realized their club was dead.. Yet in August when I went back, it was a bit more busy and hustling out on the street. Approaced by a few typical tourist scams, and also by men and or women, handing out flyers, trying to get you into their club, some were very pushy, others it was easy to ignore and just keep on walking. I must say in the 2 months I guess since August is high tourist season the activity picked up greatly.

The Old Town of Riga itself is a lovely place, the streets are narrow, few cars drive the town as there is a tariff for driving in the old town. While initally the names of the streets confused the heck out of me as they would change block by block, and no street went straight they all curved, after a few days and once you knew the landmarks to help guide you home, it was all good, I still walked around with a map on me as much as I could. All the resturants, museums, churches, and Bars are located in easy walking distance in the old town. There are also a few main squares where people have stands and sell local products, as with any city if you buy these in the main tourist areas you are going to pay twice or higher the prices than if you were to search out for the same items for sale away from the tourist centers. Here is a view of the Old Town from up high from the Church.

The currency in Latvia is the Lat. The exchange rate close to that of the British Pound, where the dollar isnt even worth 1 lat. In fact 1 US Dollar is about 55 cents(called Sentimes). Because of this and the fact the smallest paper money unit is the 5 lat note(about $9 US), you can have a pocketful of change that is worth something, so dont lose your change in this country. Why the Lat is such a strong currency I have no idea, it could be due to the fact that Latvia has one of the strongest economies in Europe with a GDP growth rate of 8.7%. They plan on switch to the Euro eventually but as of right now no formal plans are set for when that will take place. This could be one of the few countries due to good economy where the switch to the Euro does not make prices go up for the local people.

Bars, Beer and Women, yeah I know what you want to hear. Well lets start with the women... there are lots more lovely latvian ladies than there are men, some people estimate the ratio is about 3 to 1, I wouldnt say that high, but surely on a nice day in the Old Town, there seem to be women everywhere, and young blond women at that. In fact Latvia seems to have more blond women than the few Scandinvian countries that I visited, I never made it to Sweden or Denmark, but the Baltics have plenty of blondes. The women are not only tall and blond, but very nice and speak english, so no harm/no foul for going and approaching and talking to these women.

The Beer, while there are plenty of choices of Western beers, like Carlsberg, Heienken, etc the real action is in the local beers. Saku was a favorite of mine available in many bars, the prices were about 2Lat each on average, so that is a bit more expensive than other Baltic countries, but its possible to find it at some bars for 1.50Lat, still a bargin for a full half liter

The Bars, plenty of them scattered thru the old town, for the best info on the city and a great map check out the City Spy Map available for Riga and a few other cities, you can usually pick these up at Hostels and they fold up in a great size for your pocket, the best reference, and the writers are funny, witty and plugged into the local events. The most popular bar by far is probably Pulkvedim Neviens Neraksta(Nobody Writes to the Colonel) which is a resturant and at night a great club with 2 levels and a minidance floor, this was one of my favorite spots for sure. Located right in the old town, stumbling distance to most of the hostels.
Alright hope you enjoyed the wrap up and I do urge you to visit Riga, if you are ever in the area, a great place for history, and most of all will bring out the party animal in you.

5 Years Later 9/11

The view of the fallen Towers from right outside my home in Harlem 9/11/2001

Well with today being the 5th year since the attacks of 9/11/2001 I am sure this is the most blogged about topic of the day. Well since now I am trying to blog on a more regular basis being home I will talk about what is going on, and today in NYC it was all about 9/11 remembering 5 years later. I guess this will be my take on the day in 2001 and where we are now in 2006.

The day itself for me started as many days back then did, I was not working at the time, so I would wake up whenever my natural body clock had me waking up, on a Tuesday this was about 9am since I rarely go out on Monday nights. I woke up and turn on the TV around 9am and naturally went to the Today show, the first plane had already hit the towers and I kinda woke up thinking this was a dream, then within a few minutes of watching the 2nd plane hit and I was like oh damn.. What they tried to do in 1993 with a simple truck bomb, they are going to accomplish today with large airplanes. Yet despite the terror going on in lower manhattan there was no immediate terror or worry for me. I remember calling a buddy of mine in Jersey to tell him to Turn on the TV and watch. I knew my mother was working at an elementary school right across the street, one of my sisters was at City College even further up in Harlem on 138th street than me, and my other sister was in the Bronx at the time at her High School. While my father lived downtown on 19th street, he doesnt have any business near the WTC, so I wasnt initially worried at all about him. Like many others I was tranfixed on the TV, the phone rang every once in a while I remember getting a few calls from former work collegues in Chicago asking me what the hell was going on. I got on the Internet as DSL was still working despite many phone and celly;s going down, seems alot of people were on AOL Messenger and people were using that to communicate they were safe and wondering how to escape Manhattan as all the bridges and tunnels and subways were closed off.

As the day went on, and both of the towers Fell and the death toll was going to be extreme, first reports had 50,000 people working in both buildings when they were full. Well thankfully the Towers each stood about 1hr after being hit, which allowed plenty of people both in the Towers and in the surrounding area to get out of town. One thing about Lower Manhattan/Financial District, and I knew this from working down there as a summer Intern years before, was that all the buildings are PACKED in one tiny area, so alot of people worked in that little area. Thankfully a majority of people who could escape did, and sadly most people trapped above the strike zone had no chance to get out and perished. Yet on that day I never got a chance to mourn, never got sad, and dont think I cried. Why? Well my main concern was "How the hell am I going to find a job now.." knowing that the economy of NYC which was already fragile after the internet company crashes from 2000 and 2001, and the stock market that had taken a bit of a nose dive were going to be in the shitter. I had been searching for work for about 2 months pretty full time, and in fact about a week before 9/11 actually mailed a resume and cover letter to a Storage Area Networking company that was based in the tower, not sure if it was South or North tower, but I do remember it was on a high floor, like the 90th plus floor, which as we all know was a doomed zone.

Once everyone in my family made it back from work, we watched TV at my place since I had the biggest TV and was home all day. I know my mom cried, my sister was shocked and had to walk from the Bronx to Harlem, and my other sister kept on saying "remember this day, this is going to be the day that changes your generation.." boy was she ever correct in that regard. The news reporting was full of confusion in the first days that followed as the missing presumed dead numbers went as high as 7000 people. The city below 14th street was basically shut down for a week. In the end i think the offical count at the WTC turned out to be 2,749 people killed. From watching today the names/ages of the people I was shocked at how many young people, in their 20's and 30s were among the dead. The future almost totally wiped out, I read today the average age of the dead was 39 years old. I also remember the first time I went anywhere near downtown was a week later to see a band David Kolker that always played on Tuesdays, play at the Baggot Inn on West 3rd street. Walking from the subway stop at Sullivan Square you got out and usually could see the towers right down 7th avenue, instead you saw a pile of smoke, and could smell the smoke.. The Baggot Inn is located right next to a fire house, and walking past that firehouse, it was filled with flowers and candles, considering their proximity to the towers, it was no suprise that they lost some men on that day, I believe it was 2 or 3 members of their squad.

The Healing process took a while for sure, but again for me I didnt have the anxiety attacks, fears, or worries that most people had, I just needed a job. Well in February I managed to get a job at the time so my wait was not as long as others. As it turned out I didnt know anyone directly who was killed in the attacks, while this does not mean I was excused from grieving, it did make the whole incident less personal for me than for people who worked in the area or lost loved ones. My sister did have a friend from high school, whose husband is a photographer and rushed to the area to take pictures and perished when the towers fell, so in some ways eevryone in NYC was way less than 6 degrees of seperation from knowing someone who perished.

5 years later it is embarassing at the status of the rebuilding. When Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans called the site a "hole in the ground" I clapped and agreed wit him. That is exactly what it is now, when people come to NYC to visit and want to go see Ground Zero, I tell them how to get there and stay home. I have no desire to go there until it is a proper memorial and not some construction site. Between the in fighting of the politicians, insurance companies, private developers, governors of 2 states, congressman and city council members using the WTC rebuilding as a political way to get more $$$ for their area its totally sickening what is going on. The fact that 5 years has passed and all we have to show in a rebuild 7 WTC building that is still without any tenants to rent out. Its obvious that office space is not needed, there is plenty of other office space in NYC. This is a burial ground people, of the 2749 victims, I read more than half of those people NOTHING human was recovered, zip nadda no human remains of the people. The intense heat and fire basically creamated these people, they were the dust that fell on the site. Just like other mass grave burial sites from Pearl Harbor to the Titanic, it should be left as a final resting place. Dont build 10 million square feet of office space on the site where 2749 people died, while I dont believe totally in ghosts I know there will be some bad vibes and haunting spirits in whatever building are built. Turn the whole 16 acres itno a memorial site, a nice memorial site, even if it costs $1 billion dollars, the price tag that Gov. Pataki balked at years ago. He also said in 2003 that by 2006 the Freedom tower will be completed and topped off at 1776 feet, well its 2006 and its still a hole in the ground.. I dont buy the whole if we dont rebuild, it shows the terrorists that they won... I dont buy that argument at all..

As for the immediate aftermath of the attacks the War in Afghanistan and Pakistan, along with the illegal war in Iraq.. hmm where to begin. While initally I might have supported the war in Afghanistan, word is coming from there now that that Taliban is regouped and stronger than it was when we first attacked 5 years ago. They are attacking more, more organized, more money from a banner drug crop, got plenty of weapons and now are attacking the USA at a higher rate..

So what exactly have we done in 5 years, other than introduce the word "Daisy Cutter" into our vocab. We havent gotten Osama, we dont even know what the leader of the Taliban Mullah Omar even looks like much less how to caputre/kill him.. The world standing of the USA is about 5 notches down, between our secret prisons, not sticking to geneva convention, Abu Grave prision torture pictures, CIA eastern european torture cells, whatever.. As for the war in Iraq, well that was BS from the start, a way to steal their oil and get rid of Saddam, son G.W Bush finishing off what his daddy couldnt do in 1991. That war sickened me from the beginning and now in 2006 its worse than at any time. Average of 2 american soldiers dying each day, 100 Iraqis dying each day, the country on verge of Civil War, oil output down from pre-war time, the country having no interest in "Democracy" or any other american imperialism we try to impose around the world. Basically the world has had it with the bully americans. While I would like to support the troops, I just simply cant. I know they are just following orders, but when the orders are Illegal and totally tearing a country apart how can you just blindly support that and tie a yellow ribbon around the old oak tree. While it does pain me every time i read or see a 22 year old Marine getting killed over Bush's war for oil, the term "support the troops" is something I have a problem with. I dont support the commander in chief or his decisions, so how could I also support the troops.. I dont buy into that "they are fighting so we can have our freedoms at home" well Iraq had nothing to do with the attacks of 9/11 as Bush has said, but yet he tries to find a way to tie it into the whole war on terror as if we dont get them there, they will get us here stuff.. whatever..

I think we need to worry about our problems at home and not in Iraq, Katrina taught us about protecting and providing for our own. We have an immigration problem, we have Health Care costs out of control, Bad Economy, Climate Change, Energy Policy needed.. The $$$ being spent for a war that cant be won, just isnt worth it, so yes cut and run, get out, bring the troops home, admit we messed up Iraq worse than any backwards dictator could ever do and bring the troops home.. Bin Laden is chillin in a cave watching CNN on a 50" TV now and will be for a while. While i know if we leave the chance of Al Qaeda getting stronger and planning another attack yes will be greater, we will just have to strengthen our defenses, our human intelligence, electronic intelligence whatever, but its not like we have caught him now after 5 years, who knows if we can catch him if given another 5 or 10 years.. Yes in the years while the USA has been spared from attacks other cities like Madrid and London have been hit and hit hard. While in a sick way, I expect NYC to be hit again sometime in the future, I dont dwell on that in going about my day to day business.

The future has lessons for each of us for sure, and 9/11 might have woken some of us up to these things. From now on, we should hug our loved ones a bit longer, call that person you havent in a while, end dumb grudges with friends/family.. as in todays world you never know when the next earthquake, tsunami, hurricane or whatever is going to come along and take someone away from us..

Country by Country: Estonia

Ok I am going to try to write a country by country recap in the next few weeks/months. Since I didnt have a laptop while I was overseas it was hard to do more than 30 minutes to an hour at a time at an internet cafe so I was not really able to put all my thoughts on the blog. I did manage to keep a diary/notebook of thoughts, but looking back alot of these posts were written after a few too many Beers, so it makes it almost unreadable. I am going to start off with Estonia, as while it was my 3rd country(UK, Finland first), I spent 3 nights here so I have something substantial to say about it.

For those who dont know where or what Estonia is, It is located way way up north in Europe, Just south of Finland and East of Russia. That is the flag for those of you who want to see such things up at the top of the post. The capital city where I was is Tallinn, and the population of the city is 430,000 of the 1.4 million people in the country. The language is more a mix of Finnish than it is of Russian, who were the main occupiers of the country over the past century, yet the Country has a long history way before the russians took over in recent memory as it was been taken in the past by the Danes, Swedes, Nazi's, Russians you name it!

I arrived from Finland via a Ferry. The Ferry ride was 3hrs, yet the distance covered was only 18km, so basically a person could walk as fast as this ferry was moving, yet the reason for the slow boat was was SHOPPING. Finland is so damn expensive that tons of Fins come over to Estonia and buy up as much Beer, Wine, Spirits, Cigarettes, Perfume, whatever they can legally carry back. Waiting for the boat at the Helsinki port the best sight was when the boat arrived from Estonia and every man, woman and child were each carrying on a rolling cart the allowed 5 cases of beer. I can feel them knowing a beer at a pub in Finland is about $7.50, whereas the same beer in Tallinn is about $2.50. The boat was was nice, as it had plenty of shopping, a casino, places to eat. I was actually having a slight hangover, so I didnt do much on the boat but lay there and wish it was moving faster and not in a circle. This thankfully was the first and only a very few early hangovers, by the 2nd week my liver was working overtime and I didnt feel after effects, in fact I was like a functioning alchie.. able to stay up all night and drink and sightsee or travel by day.

The Hostel I stayed at was the Old Town Backpackers. This was initally a bit of a struggle to find. Seems the Hostel has moved their address from what was posted online on their website and also on the booking sites. So I arrive and at this time my backpack was heavy and uncomfortable, it would later basically be like having another arm and I didnt feel it at all walking up hills, in the heat. So after making my way, the LONG way from the port to the Old town, i came upon the old address. I rang the bell, knocked on the door, threw rocks at the window, anything I could do finally someone opened up and told me "sorry hostel moved, other side of town.." I was able to find it on my map, but it felt like a long hike. Upon arrival things calmed down a bit, I was staying in a room of at least 8 other people, but it was thankfully a large room, unlike that crap in Amsterdam. I think the cost was about $15 per night for a dorm bed, definately a good deal and about average for my overall Hostel cost.

So what were my expectation of Estonia, well every article I have read about it boasts of it being a party city, the new party place in the Baltics. Take this New York Times article as an example. I must say I wanted to goto this famous Club Hollywood, but never managed to get there during this trip. While I did have fun hanging out, and had met a few people in Finland who were living in Tallinn, so I had people to hang out with, overall I didnt feel it had the top 10 most beautiful women in the world as Maxim Magazine claimed, nor was it a big Party Capital.

The Beer, yes the most important thing.. The bar The Hell Hunt, had an amazing selection of beers on tap. Everything from Belgium, Estonia, Dutch, German to even Miller Lite. The cost of these were about $3 to $4 each, which at the time I thought was a greal deal, but I would later learn when I got to Eastern Europe $4 will buy you a round of Tequila shots. The local favorite beers are Saku, or A Le Coq. Both are very good golden pilsner type of beers, very refreshing. Cost were about $2.75 each, and without feeling pressure to leave a tip, a very good deal. The music in the bars was typical western Hip Hop, I didnt get a chance to experience any Estonia pop tunes at least at the bars I was at.

Food, They have their own fast food Hamburger chain, which is actually based in Finland its called HesBurger, I ate there on a rainy day, and must say it was great soak up the beer in the stomach from last night food. A whole meal of a big burger, coke and fries was less then $4, cant beat that at all. As for a real Estonian meal, I cant say that I had one during my time there, but considering its proximity to the ocean, I have a feeling it would have been fish and sadly for me probably uncooked fish and I aint down with Sushi, so the HesBurgers were just fine.

People, the most famous Estonian from a goole search is Supermodel Carmen Kass While I didnt see any girls like her walking the streets there were plenty of cute girls, but more of the blond/blue eye variety. As fro foreign tourists, there were a few, but early in June it still seems like a dead period for tourism as the city seemed fairly empty. The old town streets are a maze, but after a few days you can manage to get around and not too lost by using the old town city hall square as your reference point. I met an intersting American guy who was working in Kuwait doing oil rig/drilling whatever and was on his vacation and decided to come to Estonia he claims for both the weather and women, he was an interesting texas loud kind of guy, while not someone you would want to travel with, surely someone having a few beers and watching a game was fun with.

Overall Estonia is a very nice place, but by no means the party capital of Europe in terms of late nights or lovely women, the lovely women award would later be awarded in eastern europe and the late nights are better surely in other places. But I would not rule out Estonia as a stop either on the way thru the Baltics, or if you are on the way to St. Petersburg Russia as it seemed alot of people at the Hostel were on the way to or from.

Below here is my favorite picture of the old houses vs the new construction boom going on in Tallinn. Taken from the top of the Old Town City Hall which is about 300 feet high and you gotta walk up a tight circular stairway to get there.