tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13406351.post8720856612326014151..comments2023-11-05T09:55:13.077+02:00Comments on Itching for Eestimaa: kiri kaunasestGiustinohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04756707910693785516noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13406351.post-61376396163903477092009-06-25T15:28:48.665+03:002009-06-25T15:28:48.665+03:00If Estonia really wants to have the image of a Sca...If Estonia really wants to have the image of a Scandinavian country, maybe it's time for them to give up their social darwinist philosophy (being poor is your own fault, the flattax-rate,...) and work on a decent social welfare system.Tymen Ferronhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09205299776754179946noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13406351.post-90370387728407243222009-06-17T13:01:14.679+03:002009-06-17T13:01:14.679+03:00Hello Giustino, sorry to use your blog for privat ...Hello Giustino, sorry to use your blog for privat correspondence. If you're at home by the beginning of July, I'm passing through Tartu on my way from an acquaintance in Warsaw to Tallinn and the XXV Üldlaulupidu. Maybe we can have a beer somewhere.<br /><br />Unfortunately my telephone can't be used outside Denmark, but I'll try to get near a computer when I get closer.Troels-Peterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16352302240715963641noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13406351.post-63334071319140689262009-06-17T12:48:58.052+03:002009-06-17T12:48:58.052+03:00"The kroon does remind me of the other nordic..."The kroon does remind me of the other nordics though"<br />Kroon is used as name of currency in other countries too. Kroon (koruna) in Czech Republic and Slovakia. In Austro-Hungarian Empire name of currency in 1892-1918 was KroneMeelishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06624197502208867055noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13406351.post-75025529745665113432009-06-17T10:42:17.968+03:002009-06-17T10:42:17.968+03:00Estonians had the marka until 1928. The kroon does...Estonians had the marka until 1928. The kroon does remind me of the other nordics though: SEK, DKK, NOK, ISK, EEK. Let's see how many of these currencies are still around in 10 years!Giustinohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04756707910693785516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13406351.post-2762183159936375582009-06-17T09:58:28.832+03:002009-06-17T09:58:28.832+03:00More about the Lithuanian money names. I remembere...More about the Lithuanian money names. I remembered about a trila-trala songie they sang after getting the last money change in October 1922.<br /><br />Buvo rubliai/ there had been Rubles,<br />buvo markės,/had been [Ost]marks,<br />buvo auksin-ėli-ai,/had been the lovely Auksinas,<br />o dabar – litai, / and now, so there are Litas,<br />litai – mūsų pinig-ėli-ai./Litas are our lovely [or tiny] money<br /><br />I took the diminutive suffix <i>-ėl-</i> between the "-".<br /><br /><i>Auksinas</i> is the Lithuanian name for the country's historic money (first issued in 1564-65, once again in 1666, last issued in 1922 as renamed Ostmarks). The name <i>Auksinas</i> indicates the same as Polish <i>Złoty</i> or Dutch <i>Gulden</i> - that it's golden or has a value of gold (<i>auksas</i>). Would that be more convenient for Lithuania or less ridiculous to the foreigners if we had this name for our money instead? No.<br />Well, Estonians and Latvians<br />would at least know how to pronounce the <i>au</i> and the rest of the word, others would certainly misread.<br /><br />Also it's interesting that Finns didn't choose the name of their money to be some <i>krooni</i>, and Latvians or Estonians didn't choose theirs to be <i>mark[a]</i>.Beahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17996480170809238457noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13406351.post-18733174989627137932009-06-17T02:31:15.185+03:002009-06-17T02:31:15.185+03:00Latvians and Estonians have the same word for a be...Latvians and Estonians have the same word for a belly button. Oddly, the words denoting bed are completely different. I gather that if there was some quid pro quo going on, it was done in a forest since these words are similar.LPRhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09397977705898254598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13406351.post-89328792215266492602009-06-16T23:11:07.126+03:002009-06-16T23:11:07.126+03:00Vilnius has some 40+ various Catholic churches. It...Vilnius has some 40+ various Catholic churches. It's <i>ubiquitous</i> then. Kaunas has some 10, no many more, most are so simple and you can see max 3 at once if not from the special review place. Kaunas is really empty and boring in that respect. :(Beahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17996480170809238457noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13406351.post-6419344473783440982009-06-16T22:53:27.638+03:002009-06-16T22:53:27.638+03:00Gertrūdos gatvė is very dirty... Some Gipsies mayb...Gertrūdos gatvė is very dirty... Some Gipsies maybe live there, I never walk there, except then I need my cat clipped fro the summer, and nobody does because the dirt comes from cars and maybe chimneys, and the much nicer, central pedestrian streets go in parallel and very close. in fact, I know the way to walk through the whole city in calm, interesting, green or interwar built areas... That's exactly what reminds me of Tartu, its hills and cutesy private or central areas.<br />There's a whole park or square or yard of interwar Lithuanian Freedom fight memorials there..., also the Vytautas Magnus University, some other interwar buildings and yeah, the tsarist Russian wooden houses, lol.<br /><br />You can criticize that all as much as you wish... Who hadn't and who wouldn't? I'll still think Kaunas can be cute if you know where to go and what are you passing by, and what is it's greyness/brownness/boringness and messiness about. :D<br /><br />Ah, you are not the first to have problems with the names either... lol<br />And Mackevičius/Mickevičius are both Polish names Lithuanians are confusing themselves as streetnames, lol. The first one was leader of a resurrection in 1863 Lithuania, the second one is that now called Polish poet Mickiewicz who wrote a poem about his faterland - the Grand Duchy of Lithuania that he was expelled from by Russians. There was Mickevičiaus where you passed by from Donelaičio, lol. But there is Mackevičiaus on a hill near the city center and Gertrūdos gatvė as well.<br />Forget it.<br /><br />Vytautas is the one who tried to reach the Black sea. His name means - "he who saw the nation", and Vygaudas has to do with our foreign afairs now.<br /><br />And as for litas, latas. I don't know what did that mean to foreigners back then, maybe they had suggested these names as well. :D Lietuvis/lietuvietis or leitis and latvis/latvietis are the Baltic male names of nationalities in Lithuanian/Latvian, so for our villagers Litas/Lats didn't seem too ridiculous everyday.Beahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17996480170809238457noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13406351.post-10175620760957814692009-06-16T22:08:47.033+03:002009-06-16T22:08:47.033+03:00You went some strange roads and I could not recogn...<i>You went some strange roads and I could not recognize the place that you first called center of Kaunas already.</i><br /><br />Bea,<br /><br />I walked from Gertrudos Gatve to Donelaicio and Gediminio. I am not trying to criticize the place. The vibe reminded me of Italy a bit -- a little dirty, but lived in.<br /><br /><i>And you haven't been to much of Lithuania yet, it seems. Come again. :) It's not that welcoming right away, but you'd get used after some time and notice more things in common when relaxed.</i><br /><br />I am sure I'll be back. I am going to have to spend more times on those names though. It's not easy to tell the difference between Vytautis and Vygaudis, or Mickevičiaus and Mackevičiaus right away.Giustinohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04756707910693785516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13406351.post-87101219753385729242009-06-16T21:39:44.602+03:002009-06-16T21:39:44.602+03:00Maxima is meant to be, more or less, a cheap shop....<i>Maxima</i> is meant to be, more or less, a cheap shop. Depends on its size, how big the variety of products there is.<br />We also have Rimi, IKI and some Norfa in LT.<br />---<br />You went some strange roads and I could not recognize the place that you first called center of Kaunas already.<br /><br />Did you go right from the Bus station, through that messy park? Is that there the grass was unkemped?(The park has two small Ortodox churches and a small Mosque from the time between WWI and WWII in there, btw.)<br />And the woden buildings? Was that the one or two big ones? (the Russian tsarist military lived there before WWII when Kaunas was the empire's citadel-town and higher than two story buildings were banned).<br /><br />Many active Kaunas' people are by the Baltic sea in summer-weekends, btw.<br /><br />But yeah, the place is still quite dead and boring. Vilnius was constantly, for some 10 years trying to demean it, so that everything new, shiny and expensive would be doubtlessly concentrated right where the power is concentrated. Vilnius is an impressive city and it really needed a good facelift, because it's old town was even more pommiauk-ish than what Kaunas' center now is, and Kaunas shined with order in comparrisson, lol. At least 1/3 of Vilnius oldtown buildings were in ruins and looked [nearly or really] like right after the war. Now they shine morethan they should, but most of the courtyards are tiled way too heavily, because dwellers of that city weren't ever expected to cut their grass or do something like that, lol.<br /><br />And you haven't been to much of Lithuania yet, it seems. Come again. :) It's not that welcoming right away, but you'd get used after some time and notice more things in common when relaxed.Beahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17996480170809238457noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13406351.post-71149385644213769072009-06-16T21:11:47.401+03:002009-06-16T21:11:47.401+03:00There's not a great deal in common, Latvia and...<i>There's not a great deal in common, Latvia and Estonia share saldie sierini (kohukesed). Political parties in Estonia have been known to center on and rally around the kohuke, so I think it is a strong enough symbol for Latvian-Estonian unity.</i><br />Lithuanians have sūrelis/sierinš/kohuke, too. In Soviet times my mum brought it to me once, and then they became my dream although they were almost as rarely seen in shops as bananas were. I eat them everyday now. Many Lithuanian varieties, but there were some Latvian and Estonian, too. We had a <i>sūrelių karas/sieriņu karš</i> - a war caused by export of kohukesed - with Latvia when Latvians said our things were "infected" or vice versa (?). Their special small sieriņi disappeared from IKI here then, and ours, of the very similar shape and taste, stayed. That was one the few LT/LV mutual trade wars to mention.Beahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17996480170809238457noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13406351.post-8477391670205908332009-06-16T20:25:55.405+03:002009-06-16T20:25:55.405+03:00One difference I noticed is that Maxima in Kaunas ...One difference I noticed is that Maxima in Kaunas had no 'riisipirukad' (rice pastries). In Turku they sold them, but they were called 'karjalanpiirakat' (Karelian pastries).Giustinohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04756707910693785516noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13406351.post-31195899261201619152009-06-16T19:13:19.234+03:002009-06-16T19:13:19.234+03:00There's not a great deal in common, Latvia and...There's not a great deal in common, Latvia and Estonia share saldie sierini (kohukesed). Political parties in Estonia have been known to center on and rally around the kohuke, so I think it is a strong enough symbol for Latvian-Estonian unity. <br /><br />It's not such a frivolous example (besides the fact that it is powerful comfort food). There is a lack of strong Latvian-Estonian joint ventures. I think this could change. Baltic economic cooperation is contaminated by the globalist model (an Estonian company will have Baltic subsidiaries and vice versa). Eesti Energia is expanding to the Latvian market, for instance, with a goal of selling electricity to Latvian consumers? Why? It's globalist in form but me-me-me in spirit. <br /><br />Taking the example of the kohuke, instead of worries about whose exporters are going to get a leg up or screwed if devaluation takes place, you could have one single company with a shared interest in exporting sierini (e.g. getting the Scandinavians addicted to them).Kristopherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01394211030848077681noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13406351.post-46000126222349573952009-06-16T18:26:36.776+03:002009-06-16T18:26:36.776+03:00I made a comment in the thread at your Lithuania p...I made a comment in the thread at your Lithuania post, and I feel like asking it here again, in case nobody looks at old comments threads: do you think then that the notion of "Baltic States" isn't really meaningful? In the way that "Eastern Europe" was more of a political thing -- the countries in the Soviet sphere of influence (who would put, say, Romanians and Czechs together for any other reason?)<br /><br />Maybe, as I said, it depends on whether people want it to mean something or not. If Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians don't feel any connections (other than the pragmatic ones the Lithuanian minister mentioned -- shared history, similar problems, etc.), then I suppose "Baltic States" will end up being meaningless.<br /><br />For some reason, I find this a pity. Latvia and Estonia shared a major part of their history (since the Teutonic order); the first chapters from any book on the history of either country look so much alike. Latvia and Lithuania share a common pre-history, visible in their related languages (I remember Peteris Cedrins saying that Latvians call Lithuanians "the brother people", since they're their only surviving close relatives).<br /><br />I don't know, maybe the Baltic Way just looked so cool I feel these countries ought to stick together. But of course it's entirely in their hands; if they don't want to be close neighbors, they won't be.<br /><br />(A comparative note: the three Guianas in South America are reminiscent of the Baltic states, in that there are surprising similarities between them and some shared history and many of the same problems too, but they've been clearly drifting apart for quite a while. "The Guianas" only makes sense as a reference to the fact that they're all on the Guianas plateau.)Lingüistahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06327147408198046253noreply@blogger.com