Wednesday, February 3, 2016

The Closest I've Even Been to Russia

I acknowledge knowing a lot of people and having a pretty large network of people around the world, but I do believe I only have a few true friends.

One of them is Bernadas "Bernard" Vingilis. I met the 6ft6in Lithuanian at Jacksonville University initially as a teammate. We then became very close friends and housemates. Being a year ahead of me, he graduated and decided to go back to Lithuania and live there. At this point I had started my Master's degree in France, and after nearly 2 years of physical absence amongst our friendship, even though we communicated regularly, the moment seemed right for him to come visit. 

This visit started a truly weird pattern. He showed up around mid January 2015, a few days after the Charlie Hebdo attack and other terrorist activities. This did not hinder his trip and the opportunity to visit Paris.


Almost an entire year later, I found an off weekend from my training schedule and decided to go visit him in Vilnius. No more than a few days before my trip, the Paris terrorist attacks happened. Such a weird coincidence, but there is no correlation, just randomness. 

On the brighter side, I had never been further east than Hamburg, Germany so this was definitely an adventure, a 48 hour one. During this trip, I wanted to take in everything the country had to offer and try to understand why certain things are the way they are; especially in a post-soviet country. The whole idea was to make Lithuania look beautiful and exciting even in December through my film.

A photo posted by Scott Del Vecchio (@scottdelvecchio) on

A photo posted by Scott Del Vecchio (@scottdelvecchio) on


I was astonished on how low the cost of food and drinks was. A full meal for two plus 2 liters of beer cost 14 euros! That's how much one plate would cost in Paris. I had such an exciting time eating as much as I could, drinking as much I could, and understanding the language as much as I could. For the most part, Lithuanians are just a regular laid back people. I don't know how they deal with sundown being at 3 pm, but besides that, are very nice and open. 

To say the very least, this place has a lot to offer: castles, forests, churches and cathedrals, and lots of beer. 

Thank you for having me Bernard, I had an awesome time.

Here is the film I made



Much love.

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