Site Title

Nine Months, Nine Countries, Fourteen Cities, One Camino-Leon to Santiago, One Trip to the US, One Visitor from the US ( thanks Jen) and One Plane Ticket Home

When I arrived in Daugavpils, Latvia, on September 2, I had no idea what was in store for me.  It wasn’t my first rodeo living abroad but I was living in a place that had, by appearance, very little to offer me.  Then I realized that there was so much history here so close to my own ancestors–to my history.  I thought it would be “interesting” to explore my grandparents’ journey from Vilnius, Lithuania, to the US in 1910.  What I wasn’t expecting was the idea of living at “the scene of the crime.”  I was first hit with the fact that Daugavpils, the second largest city in Latvia (population 70,000) was once a place where Jews thrived. At one time there were 54 synagogues. Today there is one with a miniscule number of Jews. There were 94,000 Jews in Latvia before WW2 and today there are about 4,000. In Lithuania there were 160,000 Jews and today there are 2,000. It’s the same in Estonia.  It turns out that although Latvia did not have concentration or work camps, it was a place where thousands of Jews arrived from central Europe only to be brought out to the forests and shot.  It became almost too much to comprehend.  Especially because no one talks about it here.  These people in the Baltics are still recovering from the Russian occupation which only ended in 1992.  Six million Jews being killed during WW2 is a vague memory.  Their focus is on Ukraine and knowing that if Ukraine falls into Russian hands, the Baltics may be next.

When we went to Vilnius, Lithuania, the city where three of my four grandparents came from, it was somewhat of an out-of-body experience.  I kept imagining my grandmother, Fanny, as a young girl roaming the very streets that I was walking on more than a hundred years earlier.  Some of it looks the same.  

The most amazing thing that happened was when we traveled to Hamburg, Germany, the place where my grandparents  boarded ships for the trip to America.  I never quite understood that part of their story.  I have visited Ellis Island, where they landed, and I knew the stories of their struggle with the Russian Cossacks and the Program’s against Jews, as well as their early days in America.  What I didn’t know was the trip to Hamburg and the treatment they received.  It turns out that there was a man named Ballin, who owned a shipping company. He was half German, half Danish and he was Jewish.  He arranged the passage for Jews and others to come to America,  Steve and I went to the Emigration museum in Hamburg and we learned the story of their trip.  At one point during our visit, the docent approaches us and said, “Mr. Ballin had saved future generations of Jews by his acts of transporting so many people. You are probably alive thanks to him.”  It hit me that we are among those numbers.  A chilling realization.

My time here has been filled with so much more than this history.  I learned a new culture and customs of the people here.  Although the food we eat here is all familiar to us, the same food my Grandmother made me when I was growing up, the culture was not familiar to me.  Latvians are not engaging and they typically don’t smile.  I asked many of our new Latvian friends why no one smiles back at me. They all said with a slight smile that people think I’m crazy.  Why would anyone smile at someone they don’t know?  On a walking tour in Vilnius, the tour guide told us that if you smile at a Lithuanian, they will spend the whole day trying to figure out how they know you. I continue to smile at everyone. 
All the traveling I got to do in these nine months has enriched my life beyond my wildest dreams.  I love engaging with people and learning about their culture and what makes them happy. These days people want to engage with us about American politics and specifically Trump.  What can I say?  The whole world is watching.  I’m not looking forward to being home and facing the daily barrage of our current situation.  Living out of the country affords me the opportunity to be a little separate from that reality.

In three weeks, I will board a plane and return to the States. I will spend time with my friends and my beautiful grandchildren.  I’ll be cushioned a bit by living in a liberal bubble on Peaks Island.  I’ll be glad to have the routine of my life at home.  In the meantime, I’ll be planning the next adventure with Steve, likely out of the U.S..

With love and gratitude,

Marsha