"My Travel Life In 8 'Chapters'" by mrdarius

I was born in Syosset, NY on New Years Eve in 1979 (my parents are still greatful for the tax break). They lived in Lattingtown (which has no post office, so I went to school and got letters in Locust Valley), so I joined them there.

We lived there for 2 years before my sister, Vaiva was born. Another 14 years there, and we moved on to Oyster Bay. In those 14 years, we travelled a good amount.

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Trying not to slip at a Jamaican waterfall

IN THE BEGINNING...

My parents were always internationally-minded, as all of <I>their</I> parents were born and raised in Lithuania. For the first 12 years of my life, Lithuania was occupied by the Soviet Union, and both my parents were active in working with exiles in trying to get all sorts of aid into Lithuania. Plus, they had a hankering for travel!

As a result, my sister and I got to go lots of cool places for family vacations growing up: Jamaica, Scotland, London, Cape Cod, Dominican Republic, and all over the east coasts of the US and Canada (Florida, S.Carolina and every coastal state up through Nova Scotia and PEI).

Early on, I learned from my mom that "YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE," meaning that if you have the means, you should totally use your money to travel NOW rather than save. Well, fortunately and unfortunately, I have followed that advice. Here is my favorite picture from our travels from when I was just a lad and into Aquasocks. It's in Jamaica by a waterfall with my sister and little Johnny.

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Yessir, all Lith-Amer. boys wear Lithfolk clothes.

INSPIRATION

Probably part of my obsession with Lithuania has to do with this picture. In 1992, Vytautas Landsbergis came to Long Island City, NY. At that time he was the Lech Walesa of Lithuania...leader of the opposition and first president of Lithuania.

He had come to the US (partly) to see off a shipment of medical supplies to Lithuania from CARITAS. My mother was able to arrange for me to meet Landsbergis (on the condition that I looked super-dorky and that he wear a maroon silk tie).

Now I have been to Lithuania every year since independence in 1991, and am thankful that I have a nationality I enjoy studying and interacting with so much.

ps, the other guy in the photo is Father Pugevicius- then-head of Tautos Fondas.

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IN THE HOMELAND

I have now been to Lithuania a total of some ten-odd times, and the best part about going so often is seeing how much it changes- how the streets and building are renovated, what kind of businesses are downtown, and the political climate.

It is hard for me to give one overriding tip for Lithuania, as it depends on when you go and what you're looking for. I think tourists would probably enjoy the summertime more, but you can't really know Lithuania without being there during the wintertime.

I take that back, I <I>can</I> give one tip: if you're a mountain climber, go elsewhere...Lithuania's highest point is less than 300m high. This picture is from southern Lithuania I believe, featuring me, my mom, and Arturas Paulauskas, current president of Seimas (Lithuanian parliament).

During my freshman year spring break, I went on spring break to Paris, France with my Aunt and Uncle. We had a blast, and that's the only time in my life I could say I was fluent in French (I am fluent no more). Since I only had one week there and since none of us had ever been to Paris, we felt obligated to do as much of the big sites as possible.

We did, and that was the first time while travelling I figured out that my favorite part of travelling is doing the stuff that fewer people do. Here's my Aunt noshing on a baguette.

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Nachos by the water

SPRING BREAK 2

My sophmore year spring break was spent in Cancun, Mexico with a bunch of friends from my floor. I could give a million tips on this one, and probably will when I get all my photos together, but 1 for starters: do not use studenttravel.com.

This trip was significant to me because I further realized my desire to seek the unsought...in this case my friend Raj and I trekked out to Chich'enitza (sp?) one day while the rest of our gang peacefully nursed hangovers on the beach. The picture here is the cafe near our hotel we would have lunch at daily.