Congratulations to Nuva and Oddsocks for correctly identifying this week's Where on Earth.

It took a bit of wandering myself before I was able to find the monument featured in the above photograph, for the simple reason that government officials in post-communist Vilnius, Lithuania were hesitant to erect a bust of Frank Zappa in the center of town.

In fact, one must certainly wonder how a monument to singer Frank Zappa ever ended up in a city with which he had no connection and never even visited.

A few years ago, I had the good fortune to share some beers with one of the students responsible for this very odd monument. He explained to me in a dark Vilnius pub how he and his friends, caught up in the early 1990s euphoria of post-communist freedom, decided to honor one of their favorite American singers whom they clandestinely listened to during communism because authorities banned his decadent western music.

Last week, Martha's recap left our Amazing Race traveling pals in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. That's where this episode started off since the teams stayed here for a night of R&R at the Hotel d'Ville.

Although the people of Burkina Faso were described as "warm and kind" by one of the teams, that's not the general feeling the teams are now having towards each other. Their determination to win the race has heated up, so no one is chit chatting or making nice whenever the teams' paths cross.

"Our eyes are full of fire and we're going to use our fire [to win] " explained Rachel when the teams found out that their next leg was to Vilnius, Lithuania.

Everyone seemed peppy with this news. "I heard they make some great pastries," said Ron, as he and Christina headed off in a taxi to find out how to get there.

If you've ever ridden public transport, you know that brain-dead feeling that washes over you as you sit down and succumb to the boredom.

A novel program in Vilnius, Lithuania aims to make productive use of this period of mental lapse by injecting some forced education into the commute.

Passengers, whether they like it or not, are subjected to a two-minute language lesson during which phrases are repeated over the trolleybus intercom in Lithuanian, Polish, and English. The phrases are also written on signs posted within the trolleybus so that passengers can learn some of the grammar as well.

"Learning by Moving" is a three-year program sponsored by the Soros International House and is in response to an EU mandate that every European should know at least two languages.

What a great idea! If things go well in Vilnius, the program is expected to move on to other Baltic cities where other captive students will have to endure this repetitive rattle until they too learn how to say "shut the F up!" in three different languages.

Thinking of renting a car and driving through Europe this summer? Want to come back alive? Well then, there are a couple of countries you should probably avoid--mainly those located in the Baltics.

According to a recent EU report, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia had the highest number of per capita vehicular fatalities in 2006. Lithuania led the charge with 223 deaths per million inhabitants. Latvia took second with 177 while Estonia grabbed the bronze with 152.

A deeper analysis of the report in the Baltic Times wasn't able to provide a clear answer as to why driving in the Baltics is such a dangerous ordeal. The paper did point out, however, that alcohol wasn't entirely to blame. Only 14.8 percent of Lithuania's fatalities were drunk driving related. Spain, on the other hand, holds the dubious honor of having the highest percentage of drunk driving fatalities: 29.5 percent. France and Portugal follow closely with 28.8 and 27.8 percent respectively.

Hmm... I might be wrong here, but I'll bet those three countries consume more wine per capita than anywhere else in Europe. Heavy beer drinking countries like the Czech Republic and Austria, on the other hand, experienced only 4.8 and 5.9 percent of fatalities due to drunk driving.

So, where are the safest roads in Europe? Malta with 25 fatalities per million inhabitants followed by the Netherlands (43) and Sweden (49).

I've done a fair bit of traveling through the Baltics but had never heard anything about this fantastic cross-covered hill in Lithuania. It wasn't until I was surfing through EnglishRussia.com last night that I learned about this place. Alas, one of the great tragedies of travel is learning about something you missed while abroad. Damn!

The Hill of Crosses (Kryžiu Kalnas) is located in North Lithuania near the town of Šiauliai--the fourth largest city in the country. No one knows why the custom started, but for whatever reason, the crosses began appearing in the 14th century. Over the years, devout pilgrims journeyed here to place their own cross on the hill--supposedly an act that would bring good luck.

The hill fell on bad times during the Soviet occupation and was actually bulldozed a number of times, and yet the crosses would spring back under the cover of darkness until eventually the godless commies gave up.

Today there are at least 50,000 crosses crammed onto this little hill and more are placed there every day. Wow. I will be sure to detour here on my next visit to Lithuania. In the meantime, join me in living vicariously through the photos on EnglishRussia.com.

No, you haven't gone crazy -- Hannibal Lecter is still a fictional character. However, in the novel-turned-movie, "Hannibal Rising," the authors chose to set the serial killer's youth in Lithuania, a choice that the country hopes will boost tourism.

Enter Saules Kelias, an agency that's offering tours of "Lecter's native land." For only 100 euros ($131), you get a trip around Vilnius, a "Hannibal feast" (I can't imagine what they're serving) -- even a visit with Lecter himself.

The character was created for the 1981 book "Red Dragon," and made famous by Anthony Hopkins in "Silence of the Lambs," a movie that was adapted from a book by the same name.

Would you take the tour?

I posted a few days ago about how enjoyable Moscow can be in the wintertime despite the horrific cold weather which is so legendary in the Russian capital.

The Russian winter, however, has regularly proved fatal to one type of traveler intent on reaching Moscow: the foreign soldier.

Most recently, it was Hitler's troops who fell to the ravages of winter just 41 kilometers outside of Moscow. Before that it was Napoleon's. Napoleon, however, accomplished what Hitler never could; he actually reached the Russian capital. He waited there for five weeks for the Czar to surrender (which he never did) and then hastily retreated as the worst part of the winter hit.

The result was catastrophic.

A fascinating article in City Paper (The Baltics States) retraces this failed military campaign and tells the story of how Napoleon marched into Russia via the Baltics with 500,000 soldiers--only to return a few months later during his winter retreat with just 40,000 remaining.

The account of this tragedy has recently resurfaced due to the discovery of a mass grave in Vilnius containing more than 2,000 of Napoleon's soldiers who had frozen or starved to death.

It was a horrific campaign through harsh lands and stark conditions. I've traveled the same route via train and suffered through equally as cold Moscow winters, but I simply can't imagine doing so on foot, across such great distances, with 19th century clothing and gear, and Cossacks shooting at me.

History, geography, and travel are indeed strange, and at times, horrific bedfellows. When you have the opportunity to combine all three together and understand their correlations, it makes for a very powerful experience indeed.

Every new calendar year brings about changes in the European Union which affect those who travel there regularly.

My favorite change is the addition of two more countries to Europe's non-smoking club. Ireland was the first country to ban smoking in public places a few years ago, followed by Italy, Malta and Sweden. As of the first of the year, Belgium and Lithuania have followed in their footsteps. France, England and Finland will "toughen up their restrictions" as well this year according to an article on EuroNews.net. Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Portugal remain the smoky stalwarts, and the place to go for all you nicotine fiends out there.

2007 also brings the arrival of two new countries into the EU: Bulgaria and Romania. It will be a long time before the Euro is officially accepted in these backwater, post-communist regions, but citizens rejoiced on New Year's with the realization that it will happen some time in the next decade.

Slovenians, on the other hand, celebrated New Year's by extracting Euros out of local ATMs. This small post-communist country, once part of Yugoslavia, is the first post-communist country to officially change over to the Euro. Nine other post-communist countries joined the EU in 2004 along with Slovenia, but only Slovenia has been able to meet the economic requirements necessary to switch over to the Euro. This is great news for travelers tired of changing currencies. The bad news, however, is that both residents and tourists fear this will result in an increase in prices. Considering Slovenia is already one of the most expensive post-communist countries to visit, this is not a welcome prediction.

Okay, so after watching the comical yet sad video below out of Lithuania where a poor man tries crawling across the street after a night of too much drinking (Thanks Neil) it made picking today's word easy. My hope is that no one started their New Year's off this way. Its one thing to have a few drinks, but being in a state like the fellow below is just plain scary.

Today's word is a Lithuanian word used in Lithuania:

alus - beer

First and foremost the best guide to the Baltics seems to be City Paper. They were the only ones who even offered a small list of commonly used Lithuanian words. The paper states you'll be okay if you know a little Russian and the Lithuanian lingo is closely related to the now extinct Old Prussian. Otherwise finding resources on this one were pretty hard and um, weird. This afoto site lets you learn the parts of the face and hair by clicking on a picture of a young girl. Something about this felt awkward, but it works, I guess. Ominglot has their usual written language guide and Orbislingua has a few audio and reading recommendations. To purchase talking dictionaries click here.

Past Lithuanian words: viesbutis, gatve, skanaus

Don't let this happen to you.

You go out drinking in Lithuania to celebrate New Year's Eve and pick a bar that is on the other side of the street. This is very bad planning if you intend to get so knackered that crossing the street to return home becomes an insurmountable challenge.

Check out the above video of an unfortunate soul in Lithuania performing the crawl of shame after a night of too much drinking. It's a rather pathetic sight, but I've got to admit, I sure am impressed with his resolve.