23 September 2025

Early morning stroll in Vilnius

Every time I come to Lithuania, I stay in Kaunas. This time I stayed in Vilnius. That too in Old Town. Like most of the European Old Towns, this had all the essential parts – city hall, the town square, cobble stone roads, restaurants on the streets where people were either drinking coffee or beer. This is the one part of European smaller towns that I absolutely enjoy.

Category: Travelogs | LEAVE A COMMENT
22 September 2025

Portal into other places

Saw something unique in downtown Vilnius. Apparently, there is a company called Portals.org that has installed these Portals that basically give you a view into other cities. That scene you are seeing in the circular screen is from a portal in Lublin, Poland. From their website, looks like they have so far installed similar ones in Philadelphia, Dublin (Ireland) and Piaui (Brazil).

Was pretty cool to wave at people on another end of the world…

Category: Travelogs | LEAVE A COMMENT
4 September 2025

That was a close shave

“You know what I figured while shaving today?” I asked her as I emerged from our hotel bathroom in St. Lucia.

“No.” she said, betraying absolutely no attempts to conceal her disinterest.

“Well, if you start from the day we got married…,” I continued.

That must have piqued some level of interest in her since she turned back and looked quizzically at me with that familiar “Now, what?” look.

“Exactly 30 years, 30 months and 30 days later…”

I was losing her quickly . All that math made her countenance turn decidedly unquizzical – if that is the word I am going for.

“… will be your birthday this year!” I finished triumphantly. Smug in my belief that I had delivered a mic drop moment.

She looked at me. Disbelief writ large over her.

“THAT’s what you think of while shaving?”

This was not going in a way I had anticipated. Truth be told, I do not have the faintest idea what others think of when they are shaving. For me, numbers, equations and geometrical figures come to life while shaving. There is nothing strange about that, right?

“You are a strange man”.

I was wrong.

In my defense, she knew me very well 30 years, 30 months etc etc ago. So, there!

Category: Humor, My Family, Vacations | LEAVE A COMMENT
1 September 2025

Local coffee producers

On our way to the airport, we stopped at Noble Tree Coffee place. I had talked to the owner – Candyce – beforehand and let her know that we would like a tour. It is a relatively new place that she and her husband Keith has started. We got a full tour and got to taste some really good coffee. Finally found some coffee that was neither overly bitter nor sour. We spent over an hour at the place getting to know about the locally grown beans (arabica, robusta and the relatively rate liberica) and the whole process of coffee making.

If you ever visit St. Lucia and are remotely interested in coffee, try out Noble Tree.

Category: Coffee, Vacations | LEAVE A COMMENT