Can you hear the sirens wail?

The Lithuanian capital has for centuries been a city that is open and welcoming – and this year it is a real melting pot of cultures and nationalities, with Ukrainians and Belarusians fleeing the war and their political regime respectively making up a large number of the foreigners. There were also large numbers of Poles and Russians, who were mainly tourists, although some also appeared to be in conflict with their government. This pan-Slavic microcosm, nevertheless, manages to coexist in harmony in the Baltic state without any major tensions arising from living on top of one another or from hanging out in the same Old Town squares and pubs. Our stay in Vilnius coincided with Lithuania’s July 6th national holiday, as we discovered from the closed doors of shops and museums. Luckily, it was business as usual for the restaurants and bars, which was where we spent much of that day. However, my blogging and consumption of cold soup and cepelinai (zeppelin-shaped dumplings) in