The North Eastern European Ancestry Blues

The displaced Norwegian meth-head I met in Kainuu told me over and over again that she needed to feed her kid and I replied (in my pathetic broken Norwegian) that I didn't want any part in what she did - all the European women that approached me seemed to think that all American men only wanted one thing but I wasn't here for that I wasn't here to swing I was here looking for some history I was here looking for some roots and despite the resistance to my queries from officials and women in thigh high boots I was determined to get a few answers I was determined to uncover a few lost truths.

I woke early the next morning

Left without a goodbye

Had three days left on the car hire

Got three hundred miles to drip dry

The first village I hit was an hour outside of Vilnius they had one phone in the post office and it took a ridiculous amount of time to explain to the native Lithuanian clerk who had been taught English by a Russian exactly who I was and what I was there for - she kept wanting to call the police and persisted in that course of action until she succeeded but the young policeman had been raised on American TV shows and understood quickly that I was only there to hopefully find out a little about my family.

That night I was able to find lodging

In a Bed & Breakfast of sorts

Run by a widowed woman and her son

Who stared at me as I ate my dinner of borscht