by Julie Skurdenis

July 6, 2009, marked the apogee of a yearlong celebration of Lithuania’s 1,000th anniversary. It was in 1009 that Lithuania was first mentioned in a written source, a German manuscript called the Quedlinburg Chronicle. In honor of the occasion, Vilnius had been selected as a Cultural Capital of Europe for the year.

To cap it all off, the reconstruction of the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania had just been completed. July 6th, a national holiday in...

Dear Globetrotter:

Welcome to the 411th issue of your monthly overseas travel magazine, the original travelers’ forum.

Before ITN came around, over 34 years ago, travel magazines and newspaper travel sections were rather one-sided, never printing a discouraging word. The subscribers, themselves, contribute the bulk of the words comprising this magazine, and they’re allowed to speak freely about matters they feel other travelers should know about, no matter whose toes are...

by Julie Skurdenis

In Lake Mälaren, 18 miles west of Stockholm, Sweden, lies the small island of Björkö. Its size belies its importance in the Viking world of 1,100 years ago. On this island are the ruins of the town of Birka, which, together with the towns of Hedeby in Denmark and Kaupang in Norway, was one of the most important trading centers in Scandinavia during the Viking Age.

Founded around AD 790, Birka was part of a royal strategy to control trade in the Baltic through...