Here are a couple photos of the full moon of June in Vilnius. I flew here last night from Stockholm with the cheap convenient Norwegian airlines. Now it is summer, and my sabbatical from San Francisco State University is officially finished, but I will be based here until the beginning of the Fall semester. This is the time in Northern Europe when people come out to enjoy the long days, and activate their bodies among the green trees and spring flowers.
Stockholm has a rich maritime history and most tourists visit the Vasa Museum with its preserved ship that sunk on her maiden voyage in 1628. Now there are boats that take people to the archipelago, and cruise ships that shuttle them back and forth to Finland. You can use the same SL subway card on some of the boats, as an extension of the bus system. On a summer day, these boats are full of locals going out for the day to enjoy the serene beauty of the hundreds of small islands.
This year the Stockholm marathon took place on a cold rainy day. I have been running regularly, but no way could I do a marathon, and certainly not in the rain!
Now is the time for bird watching, and I was impressed by the large colony of grey herons living in Djurgården within Stockholm city. Next week I will be doing some field work with birds in the Kaliningrad region of Russia followed by some more cultural adventures. At this point, San Francisco seems very far away, and I think I would be longing for the California life if I knew I wasn’t going back.
I chanced upon some incredibly beautiful photographs and a very interesting account of the places you have visited .This will definitely help me plan my visit to see them in the near future .
Actually I was looking for a friend named Ravinder Sehgal who
was my class-mate in the 60’s in Meerut ,a small city near New Delhi . Because of age difference there is no possibility of your knowing him. But thats that – my search for my friend will continue . In the meantime keep visiting new cities and keep writing .Good luck .