People to People Lithuania Latvia Estonia/the Baltic Republics (People to People Guides)

by Jim Haynes

Release Date: April, 1993

Edition: Paperback

Price:

More Info

Wonderfully useful - essential for the independant traveller

Found out about the book - People to People, Poland - by accident. Before we left England on a tramp steamer I phoned a fellow mentioned in the book from Gdansk who offered such hospitality to my self and my friend. We were accepted as guests by his family for two days. Without the book we wouldn't have met some splendid people and wouldn't have had our eyes opened to their warmth and generosity. This experience has been repeated time and again.

An excellent way to write to and learn about real people.

I knew I would be going to Lithuania for a dance festival that occurs every 4 years. This was the first time (in 1994) since the country was returned to freedom from behind the Iron Curtain. It was also the first time my mother returned after 50 years! I picked a few people from different cities based on a few characteristics listed in the book: age, what they like to do, and how much Enlish they knew (my Lithuania is quite basic). My longest pen-pal, now friend, have been corresponding for years. She invited me to stay in her empty flat for all three weeks! She even met us at the airport when we arrived with an armload of flowers - a big tradition in the eastern bloc countries. She showed us many places, we met with her family, we went to her beach house on the opposite side of the country. I visited other people I met in the book in other towns. One person gave me ideas of places to go, another I met in the town where my mother grew up. My mother and I met up with some relatives of ours in other towns, went driving to many smaller places and really learned a lot about how life has changed since the forties, and since the Soviets were driven out. I picked people who from their 20s to their 40s. One was an artist, one a translator, a student, a newspaper writer, a homemaker, and a teacher. Two did not write back, but I made many friends a learned a lot about the people of Lithuania and how they lived. To me, that is more important than sitting in a hotel room, or taking a bus tour; it is the people who make up a country. This book provides a way for People to meet People. I highly recommend it, or others in this series. Poland is next for me.