Early Lithuanian Adventures
Have you ever had that feeling where you stayed out late the night before, woke up in a strange place, couldn't reconcile what was going on, and then realized that you were in Lithuania? Yeah, me too. I woke up blurry eyed and walked directly into the bottom of Vaiva's mother's spiral stair case, speaking what was probably perceived as gibberish to a bunch of Lithuanian's who had spent the night there as well. Long story that I won't get into now (feel free to ask upon my return).
I arrived in Lithuania without too much trouble as the flights went with only slight (20 minutes on both legs) delays. The only odd part is that as I left the terminal in Copenhagen to go to the gate to catch my connecting flight to Vilnius, the stamp put on my passport was for June 32, 2007, a completely fictitious date and now officially marks International Theodorson Day. Hopefully, this faulty stamp won't cause any inquiries or hiccups on my return to the US.
Upon arriving in Lithuania, I thought to myself, this place is nothing like Long Island. . . As a completely unexperienced traveler, I really have never found myself in a situation where the go-to language was something other than English. If questioned, I would try to grab Vaiva's attention or otherwise look confused enough that they would pose the question in English. This method has worked out fairly well so far. Upon exiting the airport, I saw a visibly drunk teenager passing a nearly empty bottle of a strange liqour among his friends and grinning ear to ear. I saw someone peeing on a tree in broad day light. Vaiva and Darius explained that these kind of things, in general, were not specifically frowned upon here. I was beginning to wonder what I'd gotten myself into.
The airport was located on the outskirts of town, and a fifteen minute cab ride took us to Vaiva's mother's apartment which is located in what is referred to as 'Old Town', or the portion of Vilnius that has maintained the historic architecture and style of the city. It is undeniably beautiful. Ornate churchs and towers, and even a castle, grace the horizon in any direction you look. After saying hello and meeting several people at a social gathering at the apartment (I am glazing over so much here, the attendants were ambassadors to different country's and other people who, like Vaiva's mother, appear in tabloid publications with consistency), we departed to Darius' friend's house, just a short walk away. The space was among the finest structures I've ever set foot in. Aside from having a ludicrously large gazebo in a courtyard that was overlooked by a building long balcony, there were countless rooms with huge windows featuring picturesque views of the city. The toilet on the top floor is positioned so that a sky light faces the bell tower of Svento Jono, one of the largest churches in Vilnius. It was unbelievable in every sense of the word.
The main disadvantage of not speaking a language is that you can easily not pick up on something that everyone else knows. For example, the owner of that ludicrously nice house had hired a server for the party that they were hosting. Me and Vai arrived and she said that wine was good for the two of us, and this woman who I assumed was simply being a good host grabbed two glasses and generously filled up our glasses. It took me until about my fourth glass of wine when we were about 50 feet from the bottle where she saw I was getting low and asked if I wanted a refill (well, she motioned to the glass and said something I couldn't comprehend) and I said no, don't worry, I'll get it for me to realize something was up. I turned to whoever was standing next to me and asked what was up and he filled me in that she was just doing her job. I literally had no idea.
The night progressed and things go hazier and I got more tired and me and Vai headed home and so much happened before the morning that I again can't write all of it down. I slept on and off until late afternoon today, struggling with a vicious headache and 7 hours of jet lag. I then proceeded to walk around Vilnius for four hours, seeing the sights that are much more easily described through the photos that I took. One thing I can write about is dinner. I went to Cili Kaimas for dinner, a kitschy restaurant with a small, open pond and some roosters cock a doodling as we ate. I ordered the most decadent thing on the menu, deep fried 'cepelinas'. Roughly the size of potato, the dish was described by Vaiva as a meat ball wrapped in a french fry, and there is no more appropriate description than that. Needless to say it was superb.
I got back here around 1 AM as we are leaving early tomorrow for the coast on the Baltic Sea. Arkliu Gatve (Horse Street) will take us a majority of the way there. I probably won't be back to fill you in for a bit, but I'd like to let you know that I already have a billion things that I'd like to share on this but don't have the time or clarity of thought to accurately describe them. The nine days that I am spending here will undoubtedly be far too little time.
I arrived in Lithuania without too much trouble as the flights went with only slight (20 minutes on both legs) delays. The only odd part is that as I left the terminal in Copenhagen to go to the gate to catch my connecting flight to Vilnius, the stamp put on my passport was for June 32, 2007, a completely fictitious date and now officially marks International Theodorson Day. Hopefully, this faulty stamp won't cause any inquiries or hiccups on my return to the US.
Upon arriving in Lithuania, I thought to myself, this place is nothing like Long Island. . . As a completely unexperienced traveler, I really have never found myself in a situation where the go-to language was something other than English. If questioned, I would try to grab Vaiva's attention or otherwise look confused enough that they would pose the question in English. This method has worked out fairly well so far. Upon exiting the airport, I saw a visibly drunk teenager passing a nearly empty bottle of a strange liqour among his friends and grinning ear to ear. I saw someone peeing on a tree in broad day light. Vaiva and Darius explained that these kind of things, in general, were not specifically frowned upon here. I was beginning to wonder what I'd gotten myself into.
The airport was located on the outskirts of town, and a fifteen minute cab ride took us to Vaiva's mother's apartment which is located in what is referred to as 'Old Town', or the portion of Vilnius that has maintained the historic architecture and style of the city. It is undeniably beautiful. Ornate churchs and towers, and even a castle, grace the horizon in any direction you look. After saying hello and meeting several people at a social gathering at the apartment (I am glazing over so much here, the attendants were ambassadors to different country's and other people who, like Vaiva's mother, appear in tabloid publications with consistency), we departed to Darius' friend's house, just a short walk away. The space was among the finest structures I've ever set foot in. Aside from having a ludicrously large gazebo in a courtyard that was overlooked by a building long balcony, there were countless rooms with huge windows featuring picturesque views of the city. The toilet on the top floor is positioned so that a sky light faces the bell tower of Svento Jono, one of the largest churches in Vilnius. It was unbelievable in every sense of the word.
The main disadvantage of not speaking a language is that you can easily not pick up on something that everyone else knows. For example, the owner of that ludicrously nice house had hired a server for the party that they were hosting. Me and Vai arrived and she said that wine was good for the two of us, and this woman who I assumed was simply being a good host grabbed two glasses and generously filled up our glasses. It took me until about my fourth glass of wine when we were about 50 feet from the bottle where she saw I was getting low and asked if I wanted a refill (well, she motioned to the glass and said something I couldn't comprehend) and I said no, don't worry, I'll get it for me to realize something was up. I turned to whoever was standing next to me and asked what was up and he filled me in that she was just doing her job. I literally had no idea.
The night progressed and things go hazier and I got more tired and me and Vai headed home and so much happened before the morning that I again can't write all of it down. I slept on and off until late afternoon today, struggling with a vicious headache and 7 hours of jet lag. I then proceeded to walk around Vilnius for four hours, seeing the sights that are much more easily described through the photos that I took. One thing I can write about is dinner. I went to Cili Kaimas for dinner, a kitschy restaurant with a small, open pond and some roosters cock a doodling as we ate. I ordered the most decadent thing on the menu, deep fried 'cepelinas'. Roughly the size of potato, the dish was described by Vaiva as a meat ball wrapped in a french fry, and there is no more appropriate description than that. Needless to say it was superb.
I got back here around 1 AM as we are leaving early tomorrow for the coast on the Baltic Sea. Arkliu Gatve (Horse Street) will take us a majority of the way there. I probably won't be back to fill you in for a bit, but I'd like to let you know that I already have a billion things that I'd like to share on this but don't have the time or clarity of thought to accurately describe them. The nine days that I am spending here will undoubtedly be far too little time.
posted by Jamson at 3:21 PM
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