Most of these photos were taken on our first day in Vilnius after we got down from the Gediminas Castle and walked around the city endlessly until we could not take in any more of its Medieval beauty.
There were signs of support for Ukrain everywhere, and there were refugees everywhere. The unmistakable families, mothers with children, older people, dressed a little bit too warm for the weather. We overheard the conversations, the Facetime calls with the loved ones, the talks about whether somebody should go to Germany. On Friday, our tour guide told us that there are about 50,000 official refugees in Lithuania, and with the family members joining those who worked in Lithuania before there could be twice more. It’s a lot for one-million Vilnius and for three-million Lithuania, but not even close to the load with Poland carries.
Still, the support expressed by everybody is enormous, and after learning more about the history of Lithuania we understand why!
The cake from the “chocolate restaurant” – we went there twice, first time just to look at the chocolate and to have coffee with chocolate cakes, and the second time – right before departure, to take chocolate home 🙂The all-chocolate cake. We skipped dinner 🙂
My name is Henrietta (Hettie) Dombrovskaya. I was born in Saint-Petersburg, Russian (actually, back then – Leningrad, USSR) in 1963, and immigrated to the United States in 1996.
I love Saint Petersburg, the city I was born and raised in, and I think it’s one of the most beautiful places in the world. Similarly (but differently) I love Chicago, and can’t imagine myself moving somewhere else in the observable future.
I have three children, Igor, Vlad and Anna, all adults living on their own, and one (so far) granddaughter Nadia. I also believe that my children are the best thing that happened in my life.
As for my professional life, I am working in the field of Information Technologies. When I was twenty, I’ve declared that the databases are the coolest thing invented and that I want to do them for the rest of my life. Thirty plus years later, I still believe it’s true, and still, believe that the databases are the best. These two statements together imply that I think a person can have it all, and indeed, I think so! Keep reading my journals to find out how I did it.
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Hettie's Reflections 