Guides of the Year

My friend Daniel from Jerulita called me if I could take around a family from Israel. I knew Hebrew well and I decided to get ready for a tour and to make the best outcome.

I was born in Vilnius and know it well, but it really took me a while to get ready to represent my city to a foreigner. I went on a tour with the founder of JeruLita – Yulik, this helped a lot, as I saw what should be done. It took me a few weeks to get ready. I have been reading books about things I have only heard of, and this was an exciting beginning of my own journey to the Jewish - Litvak world. The more I have dived the more interesting this appeared.

I was a manager of a small hotel, and I was happy with what I had, at the same time the offer was tempting. I could not understand why… Yes, here it is -  I have made my first money by being а councilor of a youth movement. So I wanted to try myself in a different field.

I do not recollect much about my first experience, besides the fact that my clients were happy; they expressed it in an open way and gave me nice gratitude, and I felt suddenly that here I can get also positive feedbacks every day. So I have made a change and became a licensed guide.

I like guiding!  I like meeting new people. Vilnius with its streets, houses, history, culture, and jokes is the same, but every time you meet different people and they make you work interesting.

I like guiding!  I like perpetual learning. People ask questions, and this encourages me and sometimes even forces me to learn new things all the time. Questions can be about absolutely unexpected fields and this widens my horizon. When I was a “young guide” I was afraid to answer that I do not know… not the best feeling… while today I am self-confident and I can tell people that I do not know the answer. This means that I will learn something new that day.

I like guiding!  I like being outside. Sixty – seventy percent of the tours are outside and with people who come to rest and enjoy. It makes the atmosphere fresh, positive and inspiring. We walk a lot – it keeps all of us fit and healthy.

I like guiding!  I like the idea of the presentation of heritage to people. Somebody said –“ be an ambassador of your country” and I fully agree with it. In my work, I present the history, heritage, folklore, culture, cuisine and other things. It makes my work very meaningful to me and as a consequence to my clients.

I love my job, I am well-paid, I do what I know to do! It keeps me going!

Guides of the Year

It could sound strange but guiding for me is like traveling around the world without leaving the doorsteps of your native house. Guides regularly meet new people of very different backgrounds and mentalities, so first of all thanks to this work I make sure again and again how enormous and amazingly various this world is.

I dare to claim that professional guidance is a complex combination of studying, teaching and acting on the stage at the same time: a perfect match for a person whose hobby since the young days is reading, and who likes nothing better but immediately to share this freshly acquired knowledge with the audience. So no surprise, that once upon a time JeruLita and I found each other.

Guides of the Year

It all started in 1988, along with the winds of freedom and the premonition of independence in Lithuania. I have designed my first project called “Discover Lithuanian Jerusalem”. It works till now and contains journeys back into the highs and lows of the Jewish history of Eastern Europe combined with general sightseeing and acquaintance with the present-day vibrant Jewish Communities.

On this basis, I started to run a one-person travel company "JeruLita". I like very much art and music, especially classical music. Therefore I have designed one more project - "Art and Music Tours". We visit famous art museums and galleries, such as Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam, Mauritshuis in The Hague, Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem, Hermitage and Russian Museum in St.Petersburg, National museum in Stockholm, Royal Castle in Warsaw and others.

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Guides of the Year

"When you guide guests for more than a day, you become like a family. If you travel for a few days or longer you cannot speak about the country and its objects all the time, so you talk about life in general. I learn a lot from the clients, as everyone is an expert in his own field.I feel proud of the countries I guide in when I talk about the achievements of the local people and feel sad for them when I talk about their misfortunes. It is even more than empathy; it is like becoming a patriot of a country for a time of a tour."