Before Cafe Babel re-enable comments on blogs and update the blogging platform, all posts are cross-posted with my personal blog - feel free to comment here!

London has become such a usual travel destination for Central and Eastern European people that it would be difficult to surprise them with anything. Cheap flights to most European countries allow going there for business or for pleasure separatly, without the urge to explore everything possible in one go, and some people already go there only for shopping, or academic events, or to visit friends. There used to be stories of commuting doctors. The city, obviously, is so huge and diverse that whatever patchwork of stories you may have heard before, they will not come together to a coherent entity. As I went to visit there for a second time, my goal was to challenge some of the initial not-so-positive impressions and to finally experience the legendary cultural life to its fullest.

Cross-posted from DaivaRepeckaite.com - you can comment there.

I found a fun questionnaire on this blog and decided to use it to ‘close’ 2011 on Wonderland. This year was exceptionally full of travelling, for which I feel grateful. I went somewhere almost every month. I visited 3 continents, 12 countries (6 of them – for the first time) and 21 cities. True, I didn’t blog on Wonderland much, as there were so many things to do and so much to share on my Lithuanian blog. The loss of the possibility to interact with my readers on Cafe Babel blogs was also very discouraging, and this is why I started cross-posting. Anyway, let’s hope the next year will be equally interesting and less busy.

Cross-posted with Daiva.Repeckaite.com - feel free to comment the post there.

Prague is probably by far the most known and popular city in Central and Eastern Europe, with hordes of tourists and large numbers of exchange and full degree students. Some people know Prague as a city of sophisticated culture, the birthplace of Franz Kafka. Others associate it with nightlife and youth. It appears that Prague fell victim of its own success. The city is continuously being reshaped and damaged by the flows of tourism, and locals are losing a sense that the city belongs to them.

The right to free expression, when it risks harming others' political or economic interests, is a hotly debated issue in Israel right now. In a strange coincidence, the so-called 'air flotilla' (activists flying into Israel with an explicit intention to visit the occupied territories in order to show the world how tourists are sorted according to their views) and a controversial anti-boycott law have become a part of a very emotional debate. While I'm far away, separated by already a year of not living in Israel and not even closely following the news from there, this situation affected me in a strange way.

Also posted on DaivaRepeckaite.com

As soon as it became warm enough, Laimikis.lt relaunched its initiative called "Bubble the City" in English (in rather unsuccessful search for an adequate term for the creative Lithuanian "Burbuliatorius"). As last year, it takes place in Lithuanian cities and towns, as well as the most popular migrant destinations. The idea is to encourage people to spend time outdoors and do something together in a non-commercial setting, using one of the green public spaces. I have noticed that Vilnius, which, although blessed with open spaces, has rather unstable climate. It drastically lacks public toilets, and many urban spaces that people like become 'overplanned' due to dubious government initiatives, such as replacing old trees, which used to provide comfortable shade, with new, specially designed trees. Being in central Vilnius in cold weather is no fun at all, to put it mildly. Like in many cities, you must buy something to enjoy a comfortable place to sit. Compared to Tokyo, Vilnius at least has benches.

First of all, to start with something positive, happy International Women's Day, I wish you lots of courage, freedom and solidarity, and a better, more equal world for all of us. Unfortunately, with a gender pay gap at 15% and only 3% women in biggest enterprises, with women performing 3 times more unpaid labour at home than men here in Lithuania, real equality still looks like a distant lighthouse in a foggy sea, but it is also the day to appreciate the achievements of today. We have many more choices, and some struggles present in the West are somewhat solved over here. Most women work full-time rather than part-time, and they are not expected to be housewives. Lithuanian women are the most educated in the EU. Mothers enjoy a long parental leave with substantial compensation. Homosexual women are treated with more respect and recognition than before, although partnerships are not legalised and discrimination is not receding.

To celebrate this day, I joined an event organised by an anarcha-feminist association "Feminist Front". We watched some videos and had a discussion about the objectification of women's bodies in advertising and gender stereotypes in general. The event took place at the premises of the Lithuanian Gay League. As I went into a courtyard shared by several unnumbered houses, I got completely lost. Slipping on thick ice, I walked around several times, not able to find the right house. This is for a good reason, I thought. No signs, nothing indicated where to find the Gay League.

Are multiple languages in public space an issue? Not in many countries. But in Lithuania there is an ongoing battle over some buses and street signs, which, in addition to Lithuanian, give translations in Polish. A law in Lithuania obliges all public signs (streets, institutions, etc.) to be in Lithuanian. The mainstream interpretation is that this implies they have to be in Lithuanian only.

Dear friends, readers, opponents, etc - whoever read this blog. I wish you a great and inspirational New Year! I hope we will be in touch and continue to exchange ideas. Meanwhile, I prepared a summary of the things I blogged, tweeted, facebooked and thought about. There's no way to embed youtube on Wonderland, so please follow the link.

December (Lt. 'gruodis') is named after harsh, dry frost ('gruodas'). After several global-warming type of winters, it's already the second which is exceptionally cold. It is -13 at the moment, and if it goes down even more, it seems that eyelids will freeze together after every blink. Like any stronger weather-related phenomenon, snow exposes the mismanagement of Vilnius' streets. Sloping, narrow streets of the old town, when frozen, are a particular torture for old people. But even young ones get injured. It's too dangerous to keep your hands in your pockets, but too cold to keep them outside.

The country is both blessed and cursed with cold winters. Whenever the pavement is safe enough to look up, Vilnius really looks like a fairytale.

Though the night is cold and dark.
In our soul, there lies a spark.
Each of us, is one small light.
All together, we shine bright.

(Classical Hanukkah song)

Monuments are better neighbours than people - this idea can easily come to mind when observing how the number of 'functioning' lights multiplies in the chanukiah (special set of nine candles) placed in the Vincas Kudirka square near the Government building. The place, previously known as the Municipality square, has been restructured and a rather controversial monument to the famous patriotic writer, the author of the Lithuanian anthem, was built. These days forgotten debates about his place in Lithuanian history have been reignited, on no other occasion than to remind the population of his 'folkish' anti-semitism (see commentaries by Donskis, Vasiliauskaitė; defense of Kudirka by Zaborskaitė). Kudirka is known for publishing, in the early stage of his career, collections of classical anti-semitic beliefs. Now his monument, which reminds some critics of young Lenin, is a silent, non-pretentious neighbour to the only public menorah in central Vilnius. Seems like a no-drama situation, even though I was paranoid enough to wonder whether the menorah will face a snowball attack from local basketball fans after Tel Aviv Maccabi won against Kaunas Žalgiris in the Euroleague (one of the main basketball championships in the region) on the second day of Hanukkah (I also wonder how many times the Tel Aviv team toasted to the Maccabees that night). But even if the locals had seen a connection, it is Kaunas' team, not Vilnius, that lost.

Unfortunately, bad news arrived from the place I lived in just so recently (and what the connection with Hanukkah is, I will explain below). On Tuesday 'dozens' of municipal rabbis in Israel, paid from taxpayers' money, signed a ruling forbidding the renting of apartments to Gentiles (non-Jews) and particularly Arabs (from as much as I know the context, the ruling is something like a fatwa by Ayatollah Khomeini against Salman Rushdie - people will follow if they highly respect this authority, but there is no universal religious validity). Although the ruling was condemned by many human rights groups and a couple of members of the Knesset, and even the Prime Minister, I haven't heard that any of these rabbis would be fired. Here is a translation of an editorial from Yediot Achronot - there's not much to add. It's just that I can't help but react sensitively to such processes happening unhindered in a place I left so recently. I remember my former landlord, partly observant, who was worried about the multiple pressures resulting from renting apartments for guest-workers (there are plenty, and they already find it hard to find an affordable place). Obviously, I don't doubt his or most of other landlords' sanity. But the ruling will legitimise the racism of those landlords who do want to discriminate (I hope that the civil government will take action to punish them disregarding the local-level religious ruling).