LJ camp

Left Vilnius on Friday to go to the Liberalaus Jaunimo (Liberal Youth) camp. And by youth they mean anyone, but mainly high school seniors through college grads, but there were even people 40+. But I get ahead of myself. My friend Neringa invited me to go, saying that a ride, tent, and even sleeping bag would be provided...I just needed to bring food/drink, clothes, and 8lits for the camp fee. Turns out the bus driver actually wanted to charge money to drive us out there (imagine that!), so that cost 17lits. No big deal, just unexpected.

Our destination was Lake Rubikiai not far from Anykšciai, about an hour and a half north from Vilnius. Beautiful. The lake and surrounding area were gorgeous. Total, there were about 50 people there with tents and music blasting from their cars. I was surprised to get an actual printed schedule on arrival, but turns out it really was more or less a joke. Not much of it was followed.

First night consisted of meeting new people, sitting around campfires and playing games like charades. Some guy was going around to each campfire instigating fights, and he eventually got what was coming to him, which turned out being a trip to the hospital. Someone beat his face in after he started picking on them. Well, the Anykšciai cops eventually came around to make a half-assed attempt at figuring out who was involved. No luck. Whoever was involved stonewalled them.

One interesting thing was that everyone naturally set up their camps according to city. Vilnius, Kaunas, and all the rest...they camped totally seperately.

The next day was a little better. There was a DJ, and there were different competitions like basketball and soccer. I played soccer and scored 3 goals in one game. Go me. Oh yeah, and there was an intellectual quiz game, where 10 or so teams would have to try and answer questions like "what is the ground in the lowest level of hell covered with?". Our team came in 3rd. Afterwards, we played a bit of volleyball, and then there was a "dance." The DJ blasted Lithuanian pop songs. The music wasn't so bad, but I was beat, so I crashed.

-dr-