today is our last full day away. mrs. noz and i mostly toured the baroque old city of vilnius. it was a fun day, but to be honest, i'm mostly just posting this because i thought it would be unfair to leave the impression that lithuania or vilnius is all about the holocaust. in fact, mrs. noz and i purposely did all of the WW2 stuff in one batch yesterday so that our last day away wasn't just about the early 1940s. this city has a long and complicated history. part of the reason there were so many jews here on the eve of WW2 was because it had a history of being a tolerant place.
the vilnius old town is a UNESCO world heritage site (the old towns of riga and tallinn are on the list as well). by my count, it looks like i've been to 51 sites on the list now. there's so much more to see out there (like this one. the rumor is that if you call them they answer the phone "head smashed in, may i help you?")
anyway, we fly back tomorrow morning. barring diverted flights or other travel headaches, we should be home by mid-afternoon tomorrow. normal life will return sometime after that. thanks for bearing with me, and i really enjoyed staying out of the political arguments in my comments for a change. this trip was meant to be a getaway, so i just let most of the stuff go. but thanks to everyone who kept up the good fight for me while i was focusing on other things. i'll be back in the ring when i'm back.
