Užupis Day

Entrance Sign to the Republic of Užupis

I've never been to Lithuania, but I get the feeling I'd like it there. Take for example Vilnius' Užupis neighborhood. Imagine the people basking in freedom for the first time after the fall of the Soviet Union. They look around their neighborhood and see a now unsightly statue of Vladimir Lenin. What should they replace it with? Perhaps a statue of a national hero? Or how about one of the nation's poets? Oh, I know. Let's replace it with a statue honoring American avant-garde musician Frank Zappa. Strange as it sounds, this is precisely what they did.

Frank Zappa Statue

As if that wasn't strange enough, in 1996 the neighborhood decided that it had had enough of being a part of Lithuania and declared itself an independent republic, based on artistic ideals. They drafted their own constitution, created their own set of flags, and enlisted a 12-man army. The short constitution is definitely worth a read, as it lists several peculiar and idiosyncratic freedoms (e.g. a dog has a right to be a dog, everyone has the right not to be distinguished and famous). In a sense, the light-hearted tongue-in-check constitution is refreshing, since in America more and more vitriol seems to be spread on all sides about how our constitution should be interpreted.

Of course, it's hard to say exactly how seriously we should take all of this, since the people of Užupis intentionally selected April Fool's Day to be their Independence Day. As such it could be one of the greatest pranks ever pulled--just strange enough to be true and impossible to discredit, so that it can be repeated every year.

At the very least, what can be said of Užupis is that even if the people aren't really a sovereign nation and pay taxes to the Lithuanian government, their declaration of independence can nonetheless be seen as a declaration of community. They're still a united neighborhood and a strong community, which is something admirable and lacking in most neighborhoods in the United States, especially as attitudes shift from serving the good of society to placating the good of the community. 

Ultimately Baked Cepelinai with Apple Sauce

With that said, perhaps the real practical joke was the recipe I attempted to make in vain, since it did not work at all. I found this recipe for Cepelinai (the name actually means Zeppelin), which are meat-filled potato dumplings on Wikipedia. Perhaps I needed to squeeze more of the water out of the grated raw potatoes, but when I attempted to boil these they simply did not hold together, and I ended up with a gross potato soup with meat floating around. I even tried adding a little flour to them, but it didn't work. If anyone knows how to hold these things together, please let me know. I ended up baking them in the oven, which worked fine, but dried them out. They still tasted fine, but weren't the moist dumplings I had hoped for.

Let me close with a few lines from the constitution of Užupis as I put on some Zappa. 

Everyone is capable of independence.

Everyone is responsible for his freedom.

Everyone has the right to cry.

Everyone has the right to be misunderstood.

No-one has the right to make another person guilty.

Everyone has the right to be personal.

Everyone has the right to have no rights.

Everyone has the right to not be afraid.

Do not defeat.

Do not fight back.

Do not surrender.