This must be the season when American students learn about the first Thanksgiving, and pilgrims, or the first immigrants. First-graders might not necessarily know the difference between pilgrimage and immigration, because my daughter asked me if I was a pilgrim. Ancient as I might seem to the youngest generation, I'm not that old!


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Museum of the Middle Ages. Lots of medieval arts and crafts -- paintings, tapestries, sculptures, religious objects such as reliquaries or incense holders; jewelry, housewares. I remember a tapestry that portrayed a robbery (at least as far as an eye untrained in art and medieval history could guess) -- you have to wonder if back in the day this ( Read more... )

Louvre is gigantic. Finding Mona Lisa would be like a needle in a haystack, but the helpful signs everywhere assure you won't be lost in making your way to it. All throughout the museum there are arrows pointing you towards the halls where Mona Lisa, Venus of Milo, and other legendary art treasures are displayed. I'm not sure, though, if they are ( Read more... )

For my birthday, my family took me on a tour of haunted places of Vilnius. I was entertained by the stories of the famous ghosts of Vilnius, but even more so by the way the tour guide tried to tie them to her personal life ( Read more... )

Turns out, cavemen loved to sing, says an article headline on msnbc.com. How, one wonders, do modern scientists figure out such things? This article is interesting not just in that it reveals specifics of life of prehistoric civilizations, but also that it shows how scientists reach conclusions about things as nebulous as leisure preferences of ( Read more... )