Vilnius

Vilnius, Вiльнюс or ווילנע: spotlight on Lithuanian capital’s tiny ethnic communities

Lithuania has enjoyed a rich multicultural heritage since being part of the Grand Duchy. Independence was restored for the third time in its history after the collapse of the soviet union in 1990. The motto of this second republic echoes the European union, which the northern country became a member state of in 2004 - ‘Tautos jega vienybeje!’, or ‘strength through unity’ (to the EU’s ‘united through diversity’). A Spanish-Italian-French-German-Russian-British team of journalists and photographers take the temperature of multiculturalism in ‘Vilna’ by focusing on the Jewish (0.3%), Belarusian (1.3%) and Baltic Roma (0.1%) populations. In the capital, Vilnius, dynamic 'foreigners' gradually make a name for themselves in institutions as varied as universities, NGOs, bookshops and nightclubs. In images, we draw multicultural parallels with the buildings which occupy just under a third of the city’s area (Image: (cc) Severin Sadjina/ flickr)

• Read the special edition Vilnius, Вiльнюс or ווילנע: spotlight on Lithuanian capital’s tiny ethnic communities
• Ladies what oppose Belarus in Vilnius
• From San Diego to Vilnius: all Jew you need for a library in Lithuania
• Kirtimai: Lithuania's Roma on education and 'missing England'
• Nightlife in Vilnius: ethnic minority benders

Balkan basketball: Macedonia honour and no 'hate thy neighbour' syndrome

In 1991 SFR Yugoslavia won the 'Eurobasket' gold medal and ended its existence as the second most successful country in basketball championships (after the soviet union). Twenty years on, all of Yugoslavia's ex-republic national teams have met for the first time at the same event. The riveting European basketball championships have reunited a region and end in Vilnius on 18 September

by shadow @ // 16/09/11

vilnius, sport, balkans, yugoslavia, macedonia, politics, society

Lithuania's female bloggers: cooking, sex and the city

Somewhere between the 200, 000 Lithuanians in the UK and the 3 million at home, bloggers are making their own female-shaped dent in the internet universe

by Daiva Repečkaitė @ , English language version of cafebabel.com @ // 01/09/10

vilnius, lifestyle, london, cooking, internet, love, lithuania

Vilnius: 'Jerusalem of Lithuania'

Tired after a busy day and prepared for a casual chat, I meet a summer school student, with whom I've arranged to do Hebrew language tandem. 'Do you mind keeping me company to go to the synagogue?' Apparently, the person is a second year convert-in-progress to Judaism. 'Umm, my skirt is kind of short for that...' Anecdote from cafebabel.com blog ‘Wonderland'

by Daiva Repečkaitė @ // 19/08/10

vilnius, university, religion, lifestyle, cities, judaism, lithuania

How to deal with the tropical climes of Lithuania

Come to Lithuania if you doubt climate change. -22 degrees in winter, torrid floods in spring and unprecedented mosquito and pollen attacks in a summer with rains storms and plus 30 degree heat. How do people cope? Anecdote from cafebabel.com expat blogger ‘Wonderland'

by Daiva Repečkaitė @ // 19/07/10

vilnius, lithuania

Diary: Vilnius and I, reluctant bedfellows

The passion evaporated years ago, after the capital became expensive and inconvenient to live in, or maybe since I stopped being a student. However, jobs for a social science graduate with a Lithuanian passport are here. Anecdote from cafebabel.com expat blogger 'Wonderland

by Daiva Repečkaitė @ // 22/06/10

vilnius, identity, diary, expatriation, expatriates, cities, graduation

Vilnius, crisis from beginning to end

Does crisis come in twos? There's always a definite serving of anger, often directed against 'the others'. It might come in threes too, because apathy is never far behind, which in the darkest of cases can lead to the deliberative loss of one's own life – why does Lithuania have the highest suicide rate in Europe? Less dramatically, it can force the fresher, younger ones to emigrate for brighter horizons. When six pan-European journalists spent a few days under the watchful eye of an Icelandic volcano in Vilnius in April, they encountered these different facets of the economic crisis (Image: ©Pablo Pecora – PnP!/ Flickr)

• Read the special edition Vilnius, crisis from beginning to end
• Polish people: 'united in diversity' in Vilnius
• University-educated flee and woo Lithuania: emigration and erasmus
• Volcano: travelling Vilnius to Paris by train
• Stalin, rock music and bad weather: story behind suicides in Lithuania

Kasparas Pocius, not quite the father of Lithuanian anarchism in the millenium

The 27-year-old is too young to be fairly branded the 'father' of Lithuanian anarchism today. However, as one of the co-founders of anarchija.lt, the critical magazine Juodraštis ('Draft') and the Vilnius Free University, he is the most visible public figure when it comes to presenting Lithuania's anarchist ideas to the wider public

by Daiva Repečkaitė @ // 28/10/09

vilnius, 1968 riots, university, protest, education system, anarchy, best of cafebabel.com

Romas Lileikis on how 'man has the right to laziness'

Drumroll for a president like no other: with great vitality, he directs his own republic, the district of Užupis. The 'Lithuanian Montmartre' of Vilnius declared independence in 1997, and is much like Christiana in Copenhagen

by Pierre-Anthony Canovas @ // 31/07/09

vilnius, brunch, république, utopia, uzupis, lithuania