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Sept 27 Saturday Day 01 (En route to London)
Floyd picked us up from our house and took us to SFO.
We got on our first of three flights no problem and
had a 3-4 hr ride to Charolette NC. A short hour lay
over tthere and we flew on to London. We flew into
the Saturday night sky.
Our plane for this flight this leg had a TV/DVD player
at every seat, so that kept Kerri and Dennis busy, while
Zach slept nearly the whole way.
top
Sept 28 Sunday Day 02 (En route to Vilnius)
Arrived in LOndon Gatwick Airport for a 6 hour lay over
while we waited for the once daily plane to arrive from
Vilnius, Lithuania so it could turn around and take us
back to where it just came from. (Gone three days and
I'm already speaking pigeon English; but my Lithuanian
is improving)
Gatwick is nice with 2! indoor playgrounds for little
kids on layovers and LOTS of great shopping and internet
access! It made 6 hours go a little easier on Zach.
On Lithuanian Airlines plane, I could understand bits of
overheard language. As norude gerete alos! (I want to
drink some beer) the guy behind me said. Aside from that
there's just too many nouns that I just don't know. It
seems that my language tapes are geared for single men
traveling in foreign countries, so I know a few ways
to ask people if they'd like a drink, but this isn't
so useful for me...
The flight to Vilnius was short compared to the 7 hr
flight to London, only 3 hrs and we flew into Sunday
night.
Walking down the outdoor ramp was the first time I'd
been on an outdoor jet ramp since flying to Portland
Oregon in about 1978. Thankfully the weather was only
a little nippy at 9pm.
Dennis' favorite part fo this flight was the
regular safety announcment of seatbelts and
overhead compartments all in Lithuanian and then
English. The language is a very beautiful one to
listen to. Aparently, it's not very related to
Russian or other Baltic/European languages but
of all things Sanskit (India) having been brought
long ago my by Nomads or Gypsies!
We all got cool stamps in our passports, all our
bags were there wwhen we first looked for them, and
had I seen the seperate line for "nothing to declare"
and what they call customs, it wouldn't have taken the
5 minutes that I stood us in the wrong line. When I
finally realized this, the official waved us through
without a word. Darn! I could have brought 9 cases
of Marlboros and not had to pay the duty charge! Ha!
Not what I as an american in 2003 is use to.
there were two familiar faces to greet us once we
walked through customs, my classmate True, and his
wonderful wife Zibuokle. True had told me not to
worry about finding a supply of his favorite brand
of American bitamins after originally requesting them,
as he said that given some recent change in his health,
it didn't matter. What? Did he just find out he had
cancer? No, he had a nice little cast on his foot and
somecrutches to go with it. It seems that he stepped
on it funny, not doing anything too crazy and got a
little crack in his foot, so he's on crutches for 2-5
weeks! But you should see him get around on those
crutches! He's still faster than Zach!
The taxi trip from the little Vilnius airport didn't
take long for two reason,one because it's close to
old town, and two, the taxi drives all seem to be
getting ready for the Indy 500. Pedestrians beware!
Let me tell you, if you hear a car anywhere, watch
out! If you are crazy enough to step out, they seem
to stop for those brave to walk out if front of them,
but we are NOT going to test this!
We got to our appartment in old town and it's very
nice and cozy. It's 2 blocks from Zibuokle's condo,
andn is on the 2nd and 3rd floor. A kitchen/living
room and entryway and bathroom/wc on the lower level
and a bedroom upstairs. Probably 600 sq ft, and similar
to a 1 1/2 bedroom apt with a little nook for zach's crib.
Zibuokle and True got us set up and we did a little
visiting. I took a couple of pictures.
[photo 1]
[photo 2]
And that's about as far as my camera made it. I'm thinking
that it's the batteries, but I haven't had a chace to
get more at Maxima (the Lith version of Albertons/Safeway)
And then goodnight to our friends and we were off to bed.
top
Monday 9/29/2003 Day 03
We all woke up at 5 and it was half light out, half dark.
Was this 5am or 5pm ? Had we slept 3 hours and 15? With
a look our our window and no one on the street, we quickly
deduced that it was 5am. Dennis fell back asleep and Kerri
and Zach were up long enough to watch people stroll down
Prakiciou Gatve (Church Street) on their way to their day,
and then they were also back to sleep. Dennis woke up
at 4pm and 3 of us did some exploring. The first thing
Dennis saaw was some graffitti that said "Avril/Bitch."
That's awfully polite for graffitti to go and supply a
translation for you!
[at some pointwe went to a little grovcery store
and got 2 bags of groceries for 30 Lt ($10), and
it all taste quite good. Food is cheap here, but
so are the wages]
Some school kids were allowed to paint the wood fence
outside the chruch yard that we can see just outside
our window. This happened the day before we showed up
and the next door neighbor said they must have done
it because they knew we were coming. Not really...
Dennis was back to sleep until 4pm. (someasked kerri for directions)
up and exploring around a little. looking for the
american express office to cash trav checks. Dennis
forgot to bring the address so went to the internet cafe to
look it up on the web. by this time, we presumed
they were closed. when i went back up to the apt,
i pressed the wrong doorbell, and kerri and zach were
just coming out so we all met the little 1 yr old
girl next door and her mother who rents us the apt.
(it was all aranged before we got here) and now every
time we walk by their door, zach wants to knock and
visit the little girl!
Zibuokle stopped by to visit and we all went to pick up true.
we went to a restaurant near their house that wwas more
of a cafe, but still had afull (30 page, lith and english,
so 15 pages each) menu. we had a big table in the back.
i had meat and potatoes, kerri had...?
over to true and z's nice place for a night cap.
some lith spiced rum! good for the cold baltic nights.
it is starting to get a little nippy.
back home to sleep or zach's jet lag version thereof.
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Day 04 09-30-2003 Tuesday
Zach woke up at 2am and asked for what he likes
to eat for lunch. Pasta. He clearly is under the
impression that it is time for lunch. My brain is
not so sure that he's wrong. I'm having just as
much of a problem adjusting to the time that he
is. Kerri is doing better, and Zach is starting to
pull ahead of me. I got very little sleep. At
around 9am, we were off to Amex to try and change
some money. Amex sent us across the street to
a bank. The bank we went to turned out to not
be the biggest bank of lith (about the fifth)
and we had a bit of a wait while they figured
out what was going on. Then, they thought kerri
signed in the wrong place, when it was clearly
marked countersign... it took a little while,
but we got them straigtened out... the first woman
was new, the 2nd woman was set in her ways that
this spot was for the signature and that spot
was for the name of the bank, and it didn't
matter that amex had moved those two slots
around... she was set in her ways. then the
bank manager was insecure about his english
even thoughth he was completely intelligable.
then i heard them talking back and forth
"aman dillman aman dillman" and i know where
they're going. again with kerri's passport
having her maidenname... so out comethe
passports and drivers license and zachary's
birth certificate... da daa da daa... wait
wait wait while the red tape rolls. okay.
good thanks, this is okay, now please stand
in this other line. whatever.
it didn't really take that long. it just
felt weird that american express sent us
there. i thought we could cash them AT
amex. that's how i did it before in the
US and in Venice, Italy, but we're not in
Kansas any more, and I can't expect the
influence of Karl Malden to reach all the
way out here. In fact, I haven't found a
single place yet that acepts the Amex card.
Every place that a bill comes to over 50 Lt
(~$16 seems to take Visa and Mastercard)
Back to our apt, and we took the landlord
the rent for the duration of our stay. (havent'
seen her husband but our sleeping hours are
quite eradic) and Zach played for ~hour with
little Houra (sp?) She is 1 hr 2 wks old and
walking very well! We also got all the inside
scoop on where all the little Old Town lith
kids hang out, so when we are not being tourists
or sufferers of jet lag and the weather is good
at 4pm - 5pm, we will go check out the playground
by the churchyard. Houra's mom who is about the
same age as us, sent with us a few toys for
zach. we told her we brought some toys, but
nonetheless, she sent us with a top, a truck,
and musical toy, which is the most annoying
piece of child entertainment every known to
a parent, and given my tollerance for weird
music i really can take these kids toys for
longer than most people , and this one took
seconds to stick a finger in my wound and wriggle
it around... amazing.
Back to our appartment for lunch and a nap.
While Kerri and Zach tried to nap, Dennis
went to the Internet Cafe to work on this
Travel bLog. When I came out an hour later,
it was raining. The iCafe by the way, has
a dozen or so computers that rent for 3 Lt/hour,
(33 cents/hour) for Internet access. really not
so bad at all. There are mostly teenagers
playing networked video games and some older
folks (my age) checking email or also playing
video games. Also, sometimes some young kids
who I would guess SHOULD be in school, and
my guess is that they're teachers and parents
expect them there as well.
When I came out of the iCafe, it was lightly
raining. Kerri and Zach hadn't napped but
were watching an Italian Kids show that teached
English. REally good for Zach's age!
Dennis, Kerri and Zach walked over to True
and Zibuokle's, where we met Z, and we went
to pick True up at the American English
School, and then went for Pizza. Quite good
pizza if fact. Kerri and True had what we
would call a traditional pizza in the states.
Zibuokle had a pizza with chicken, and dennis
tried the pizza with ham, onions and sour cream.
actually really good. i ate the whole 14" pizza,
and a small svyturus (what budwiser wishes it was)
Zach wanted to play in the rain, but that
wasn't going to happen. True and Ziboukle went home,
and so did DKZ. DKZ all slept till 6pm
Back over to True and Z's for a little visiting
and talk about music, and some really good apricot
cream cheese. They love their dairy here, really!
And with good reason too. It's really good. Zach
fell asleep in Kerri's arms, and we almost got him
home the 2 blocks without him waking up. Maybe
some of the GenXers who were staggering down the
street woke him up. Or maybe I'm just jealous that
I don't stagger much any more. It was still raining.
top
Day 05 Oct 01, 2003
Dennis was up at 1:30am. and felt quite rested. Was up
til 6am when Zach woke up. I thought i wouldnt go back to
sleep, just lay down for a sec. Kerri woke me up at
3pm, herself just waking up with Zach at 2pm. Kerri
started a load of laundry with the little washer in
our apt. and got ready to go to Maxima. No Rain today!
We went to Maxima and got a little lost when we
got to the bottom of a large outdoor staircase.
It seemed like we had been told to go up the stairs,
but with Zach on our back, the possibility of going
up 4 flights of stairs only to come back down because
of a wrong turn, is cause to ask for directions.
Dennis: [to Lithuanian 1] Atsiprasua (Excuse Me)
Lithuanian 1: [Doesn't even turn his head even though
he is clearly within ear shot. He either
doesn't understand Lithuanian, MY lithuanian
or chooses not to]
Dennis: [to Lithuanian 2] Atsiprasua (Excuse Me)
Lithuanian 2: Tiep (Yes)
Dennis: Pracham, pasaketus, quor irah Maxima? (Please,
can you tell me, Where is Maxima?)
Lithuanian 2: Chea, Chea (Here, here) [Motioning up
to the top of the stairs.
Dennis: Aciu, Aciu (Thank you, Thank you)
Lithuanian 2: Pracham (You're Welcome)
I don't have to tell you, Dennis was on cloud nine.
A complete exchange of information with NO english
words and no problems, and only a hand signal that
a would have occured with two native speakers.
And at the top of the stairs, when we were in sight
of Maxima, we run into someone we know! Ziboukle,
who is on her way somewhere... We tell her Dennis'
triumph over his new found ability to pick of the
basic basics of a language in under a month, and
we're off for our big shpping adventure in the
Lithuanian version of Walmart and Albertson's
combined. They're actually about as big as a
regular old Target, so for a former USSR
republic, it's a pretty big shot of capitalism,
and they seem to know how to use it.
We were able to get most of what we needed.
Dennis and Kerri needed some cheap watches, and
Dennis picked out 2 quality Chinese specials,
that set us back 66 cents a piece. And for a
second once we got out of the store, I thought
that I got ripped off, but after a little persuation,
I got the display to stop reading in broken
english, "I'm fine, how are you?" it instead
read, "Don't panic" and then for awhile, I
was actually using it to tell time, albeit,
1 hr 15 minutes fast. We eventually got them to
behave.
We dropped off our treasures at home and went to
collect True at his class. He's been contracted
out once a week to the Lithuanian version of
Amtrak to teach English to some of the executives
and such. He usually has ~5 or ~6 students. While
we were waiting, someone asked Kerri for directions.
Zibuokle says she looks Lith. Kerrri wasn't able
to help the woman, but give her a week, and we will
see. Dennis and Kerri make a good pair because she
has a great sense of direction, and dennis can
speak a little. Kind of a deaf person and a blind
person helpilng each other around town.
After finding true, we walked him back to his
office, but bumped into no less than 3 seperate
people that he knew! 2 from his classes and another
from his building. Also met another teacher at the
school. Alan from St. Louis MO is our age, and had
been here for 5 yrs teaching English. He came for
a week during a tour of the Eastern Europe area
and is still here.
True, Dennis, Kerri Zach went
down to a nice area near many of the embassies
and touristy area called Pilies Gatve (Castle Street)
and tried out of a good Tradtional Lithuanian
Restaurant. True had good cabbage rolls, kerri
had some great gypsy pancakes, and dennis was eager
to try the national dish, 'cepelina' which translates
to Zeppelin, as in, it looks like a Blimp/Dirigable.
Meat wrapped in high glutinate dough, and lots of it.
Let's just say it was quite filling. Come for the
Architecture, but stay for the .... Architecture.
The people seems nice too, once you get to know them.
Or once you have an in, like you're a friend of a friend.
At that point, you're basically family.
We saw many nice churches and shops in this area. On
the way back, Dennis almost tripped in a spot, and True
couldn't believe it. In the states, there'd be a
law suit in progress because it is the exact same spot
that 5 days before True broke his foot!
At 10pm, Kerri and Dennis couldn't figure out how
to open the washing machine. Dennis ran some more of
True's books over and asked how to open a Lith
washing machine. Also took my camera to true to see if
he could fix it. new batteries didnt' help at all.
But true was able to reset it and get it working.
We took a couple of photos at his place while i checked
my email. By the time I got it back to my place,
I got a shot of Zach in his favorite jammies
[photo03]
and then i'd take some shots of our place.
[photo04]
At about this point, the camera came incdebily close
to becoming a cobblestone in Mikalojaus Gatve. I
don't know what's up with it. This city is so beautiful,
I'd really like to take some pictures... but it
looks like maybe I'll have to buy a little
camera... Kinda of a bummer... Oh well. I'm having fun
looking at everything and so is Kerri.
Ziboukle said it best that while Zach will not
remember his big trip to Lithuania when he is 18,
he will remember that Mom and Day didn't leave
him alone for 3 weeks. That's keeps it all real.
Talked more music with True and Z, and polished off
the last of the Rum, thinking that would help Dennis
sleep. Did it help?
top
Day 6 October 2, 2003 Thursday
Another sleepless jet lagged night. It's a good thing
that our 3 days of london are at the end of the trip,
otherwise, I would have spent all of the london leg
asleep from the time change.
I got my 66 cents watch going. DK&Z got dressed to go
do some sightseeing at 6am. We will meet T&Z at 1:30am
at the American English School.
Our walk was really great and we circumnavigated most
of old town in about 3 hours. The city was slowly waking
up, and by the time we got home, most of the townsfolk
were either where they were going or were already there.
Among the things we saw were the old city walls which are
stunning. They're still standing even though they're 750
yrs old. They start from high on a hill, and the view of the
city from up there is amazing. We walked through Pilies Street
again and also saw Katadros Aichstay (Cathedral Square) which
is huge! Some poor woman was sweeping up the whole thing.
most of the city is very clean. stopped for breakfast at
7:30 at ciji pijia (Chili's Pizza) on Gediminas P. (the
main prominade/blvd. very modern street, with very new
and nice granite cobble stones. (appartently part of the
spiff-up-the-city so we-can-get-into-the-EU project) I
had a glass of OJ that tasted like the orange was still
on the tree; 40 cents.
We walked by all the flower seller stalls and one woman
gave zach a free daisy. He's really having a good time
exploring around with us.
We saw from afar the city center with some medium sized skyscrappers
and some new ones going up, and a freeway, and a nice
pedestrain bridge going over the river (river Vilnius).
Kerri and I stopped dead in our tracks because of the
smell coming out of a store with hourglass shaped bundles
of wheat in the front window. for $2 US we got drinks and
the best pastries i've ever had. better than the fresh
chocolate croissants in paris. and anyone who doubts me
is just going to have to come here to prove me wrong.
how fortunate that this place is so close to our apartment.
we probably could navigate from the smell eminating from
the place.
I broke my 66 cent watch but was able to fix it.
This 750 year old town is just amazing. Gorgeous.
Dennis went to iCafe and made a 2nd update. Zach watched
Sesame Street in Swedish.
DK&Z went to the post office and got cards and stamps.
Then we played with Zach on some wooded slides (no splinters)
and teeter-totters. We sat in a park while we were waiting for
True to finish giving a class, and we stopped Alan who was
walking by. We talked with him more about Traikai castle
which Kerri really wants to go see.
With T&Z, we went to a nice restaurant on Traku street.
Zach slept through the whole meal. At the next table were
some people the Zibuokle knew and we said hello to them
briefly as we left. One was a musicologist and the other
was the director of the contemporary music festival which
is set to start today. Very lucky timing for dennis. we'll
see if he gets to go to any of them. kerri is also thinking
she'd like to see something. maybe dennis will watch zach
one night, or two or three...
We stopped by T&Zs to borrow their camera as true and dennis
have finally given up on dennis'.
now, it's home to try and sleep. I"m trying to wait unitil
it's at least 6pm, because i'm a little sleep deprived, and
i should be able to sleep.
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Day 7 Friday October 3rd, 2003
Finally, some sleep. All of us got some really good sleep.
Woke at noon. And finally some good pictures.
Here's the front of our house, the back of the house from
the courtyard. Ours is the door on the left. The view from
our kitchen, and then a shot of True's new bookshelf he
had custom made by a local cabinet maker. (that's for you
Chris and Gren)
All the kids in the iC are doing couterstrike
Some woman on the street my age scholded me, i think
because Zach's pants legs were riding up and it was
cold... she has a good point, but i didn't like her
telling me this, but it's maybe part of the mentality
of, "It takes the whole village to raise the child"
which is not a bad mentality (to a point), and truth
to be told, i didn't completely understand what she
was saying, but it was emphatic.
kerri zach and i had lunch at a little cafe and something they called
tiramisu, at
least that was what was written on top of it in cocoa.
in the late afternoon, we went exploring and saw
the frank zappa statue. we also stopped into a
polish roman catholic chruch that had friday
mass happening. very gorgous acoustics.
went to a bbq that kerri wanted to try. went with true
and zibuokle. if it had been an american style bbq, it
would have been funnier that they were out of beef, but
it was mogolian style. the chicken was good though. and
a nice dark tavern style ambience with sturden wooden
tables. i've stopped drinking cocacola after lunch and
drinking svyturis for often. very good local beer.
i don't drink much at home because i drive a lot and
am a total lightweight, but here i'm not driving,
and also it's cold, so a 0.5 liter (pint)
does almost nothing to me, not even a buzz and this is
okay, and i've yet to have more than 1 at a meal
which is good for me.
again, dennis didn't get to sleep until 6am to 9am.
i've been trying to think if they're's something
bothering me that is keeping me up, but i can't
think of anything. i normally fall asleep to the TV
at home, and i can't do that here, so i'll just have
to run around more or something.
top
Day 8 Saturday October 4th, 2003
went to maxima to find a bigger digital camera memory
card, but they didn't have in the size i wanted. i could
take more pictures before i have to bother true to
transfer the photos to his computer.
came back and made breakfast for keeri and zach, then
we went and got zibuokle who took us on a beautiful
walking tour of vilnius. w e saw lot's of stuff and it
was great to see the city with someone who knows it well.
i hope we get to go for another walk with her as it
helped so much to get some stories behind all the
beautiful architecture.
the best thing i saw on this trip was this tiny
russian orthodox chruch on pilies gatve, and also
this painting for sale of theh virgin mary and baby
jesus. but the painting was expensive, and i'm not
sure how i'd get it back in one piece. the painting
was not for sale in the church by the way. The chruch
was an objectlesson in BIGGER IS NOT BETTER.
we then went to get true and went for dinner at
a chinese restaurant which was empty except for us.
i normally consider this a bad sign for a restaurant,
but we studied the menu long and hard in order to
guess what would be the best dishes we could get,
and all of us enjoyed all of our food very much,
including zach who ate a whole plate of fried
rice while he sat on my lap. he's really being
a very well behaved little boy, which makes me
feel very good about making the trip.
there was a dish that i almost ordered in
honor of chad. many of the menus are in lith
as well as english. in lith as well as english,
the dish was called, "the fire explodes a fraility"
which even the lith waitress didn't know what it
consisted of, but when the answer came back from
the chef that it was "fried pork kidneys and liver"
i decided that i'd just i'd brave it some other life,
and be satisfied with the poetic name. it'll probably
end up as the name of a piece of mine though.
also on our working tour, we stopped in st. annes
chrch which is the one napoleon thought was so'
cute he tried to have his soldiers carry it back to
france. lith is also where the russians caught
up with napoleons retreating army, and thus, every
time they start building a new skyscraper in the
new thriving city center, they find a few more
thousand of them. oi vey.
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Day 9 Sunday October 5th, 2003
dennis slept okay. kerri is sleeping fine and so
is zach, but he's now able to crawl out of his
crib, and this means that as soon as we get back,
he'll have this trick figured out as well.
this morning, kerri felt like taking a break from
dennis and zach and she took off for an outing, and
came back with stuff from maxima (lith target/safeway)
for $20 US. she seemed to have a good time and i'm
glad she took a break. i hope she'll do it more too.
i feel like in many ways, she's not getting a vacation
like i am.'
we then went to run zach around and take some pictures
of things i wanted to see but didn't have true's camera
yet. saw a young kid playing bach on saxophone. kid was
great. almost all the street musicians are as good
or better than my college classmates. i'm envious. also,
as cold as it is, there's frequently adult eating ice
cream in the cold. not me though.
we got ready to go to Vytas' parents for dinner and
we were running late. kerri started talking to someone
out our windown, and i couldn't begin to guess who it
was but it was zibuoike and tru who were out for a walk
and they said they couldn't believve we hadn't left yet,
because they wer sure we would n't make it in time.
and if we hadn't decided last minute to take a cab, we
wouldn't have, but with the cab we randg the door at
4:59pm. My father would be surprised. So would my mother.
She recently said when we were talking about zach being
born on his due date, she said, "dennis was born 3 days
early, and it's the only time since that he hasn't been
late!"
We had a great time at Vytas' parents. they are very warm
and friendly people, and made us feel very welcome and
comfortable. we had a tradtional meal and lot's to drink,
which we're told is also very tradtional. Mrs. Germanavicus
knows how to make these Zeppleins (like a meat dumpling)
the right way. A very balanced and filling dish, and lots
of wonderful sides preceding the main course, my favorite
of which was a pea, carrot and potatoe cold salad. Very
tasty.
I'm haven't had Vytas over for a home cooked American
meal, and I think I will, but maybe I'll try to get him
to come along the next time there's a BBQ or pot luck.
I think that might be more representational than me just
making one meal for him, and he can try lot's of different
things. (Vytas is currently at Mills College in Oakland
studying electronic music.)
We stayed at Vytas' parents a long time, until 9:30pm.
Mrs. G. speaks English very well as she was an English
teacher and one of her coworkers/friend had dinner with
us. She spoke English rather well also.
We also bouth a copy of "Vilnius In Your Pocket", a
local guide book in english.
Well, the postcard reads, having a great time, wish
you were all here. Also, wish my English wasn't falling
to pieces, but that'll all come back quickly.
top
Day 10, MOnday Oct 6th.., 2003
lost day... can't remember what we did?
top
Day 11, Tuesday Oct 7th, 2003
D,K&Z went to Maxima, did some shopping, and ate upstairs at
Libo (or Lido?) which would probably equate to sometthing like
Reb Robin. Kerri had Chicken, so did zach, and dennis had a
clazone, very good.
We saw a big church (looks like rus orth) with huge green
onions.
Came home and zach fell asleep. Later, True stopped
by to visit with D&K, and True and dennis went for a beer
at the beefless BBQ for an hour.
top
DAy 12, Wednesday Oct 8th, 2003
Checked the news and found out that Schwartzenegger won.
That's all I have to say about that. Glad I was out of town
cause I had to go looking for that news.
Made plans for the day with our neighbors True and Z. very
glad that they're abailable to hang out with. It's nice
to know some people, cause everybody else is a stranger.
Gintas stopped by True's to deliver his business cards.
He's Egle's husband. Kerri and I picked up Egle from
the Oakland airport last year when she was doing a
lecture at UC Berkeley.
We stopped by the library that Egle works at around
4pm, but she had already left for the day. We'll try
again. (this is true, d,k,z)
Stopped by a spice store and got some sort of red
pepper.
Took a taxi to Maxima, got the makings for dinner,
then took taxi back to t&z's.
Prepped dinner makings and started cooking about
the time that the guests, Nettinga and Skydra
came over. Nettinga is Zibuokle's best friend. She's
a pianists, and he's a painter. Very very cool people
and we all had a great time. True made ground beef
steaks and pasta with olives, capers, etc.
Dennis found a bottle of Jack Daniels at Maxima. A
little expensive, but man, did it make dennis sleep
well, and everybody but zach seemed enjoyed it, even
kerri, who probably would partake of it if we were
in the US. 500ml/100LT. Looks like 1.75l/US 29 at bevmo.
Also, earlier in the day, D,K&Z went to the Congress
hall where the State Symphony Orch plays and got tix
for Friday night, and across the street to the Opera/
Ballet theatre where (yep) the opera and ballet perform
for Thursday night.
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Day 13, Thursday Oct 9th, 2003
Boy did kerri and i sleep well. the full belly
helped probably more than the JD. I haven't felt
a buzz at all here, and i'll tell you, the cold
has something to do with it.
D,K&Z did some exploring and then had a good
Italian meal. It was the most expensive meal
we've had so far, and still cost less than a
dinner at Acualpolco in Alameda. Zach ate a
lot of raviolis (his whole plate) kerri had
lasagne, and dennis had veal scalopini. very
good. (01010110 Lt) Very full. This seems to be the
key to getting sleep for dennis. I can't say
I've been going to bed hungry, but... As
negeno (trans: i don't know...)
Came home & zach fell asleep. Dennis got
ready to go to the opera, opening night of
Gaida, the Contemporary new music festival.
As Ziboukle was feeling under the weather a
little, we didn't go to the preconcert talk,
even though it's a rare thing here. Ziboukle
and dennis took a bus down gedimo to pick up
true, and then a bus back to the opera house.
It's really not far, but the guy has a cast
on his leg, so it's no problem.
On the way into the hall, we stopped and
talked to a friend of Z's who is the
director of the lith Philh and chatted for
a while. We also asked him if he knew
about the guy who's conducting the symphony
tomorrow night (dennis is taking kerri to
see some shostakovich vn conc and sym 5)
what we want to know is, how is the
conductor maxim shostakovich related to
composer dimitri shostakovich? seems that
he's grandson. i'm temped to call my mom
from the concert hall tomorrow. man!
Can't believe it.
Also, when we went to meet true, we were
a little ahead of time (that doesn't sound
right, i think the right word is early) so
we had a look in the Lith Academy of music,
building 1. (comparable to Juliard)
the opera was interesting. it was a world
premeire of a new work by a lith composer.
atonal mostly throughout, some tonality.
mostly freely atonal i think. lot's in latin
and some lithuanian. it was in two acts, which
both dealt with related historical events in
the cronology of vilnius. very cool and elaborate
sets, amazing lighting. about 2hrs.
left the hall and a moon one day short of
being full was rising over the upper castle.
gorgeous.
hurried home to zach and kerri on the bus.
in my dress slacks, i almost froze my capers
off. it was by far the coldest it's been so far.
we all had a little trouble getting to sleep
and seemed a little cranky.
Dennis was reading a book on the couch and
zach got his dr. seuss book (i think) and
crawled up there with me and looked at it.
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Day 14. oct 10, friday, 2003
A strange beeping sound woke us up at 9am. it
seems the power is out, and the alarm tells us
about it. poked our head outside and the
next door neighbor/landlord told us that most
of old town is w/out power. Zach was reticent
to get up, butas the hot water heater is out,
no hot shower, we all got up to go exploring.
We'll see how he like's the strawberry rhubarb
yogurt.
we went off to look at the amber museum which
is also a gallery (meaning you can buy some stuff)
very informative about amber...
we ran into aideta, z's friend from the cafe
the day or two before...
we then stopped into a rus orth chruch for a quick
look and then into a bakery for rolls and something
to wash them down. we were getting ready to go and
zach was being fussy, and dennis was forgetting
that zach is 22 months and wanting him to be
a calm and relaxed tourist, which he has been
up to this point, and dennis was having some
trouble with this, so kerri suggested politely
that dennis should go exploring on his own while
kerri and zach play in the park. dennis was
a little hesitant about this, thinking that he
neded to hang out with kerri and zach to make
sure they got around okay, etc, but kerri
insisted... so... kerri and zach played in the
park, and there were some older kids who played
with zach a little, and then they went home.
dennis walked the length of gedimino prospektas
out of old town to a rus orth church which from
far away looks huge, but when i got there, it
wasn't so big, but as far as rus orth chruches,
it's the biggest i've seen.. very gorgeous.
walked back mostly the same way. stopped in
at the statue/memorial tot he soviet occupation
and then in the soviet genocide museum which
is house in the unaltered lith KGB HQ. pretty
powerful stuff that i won't divulge here.
walked by the frank zappa statue which it
turns out is near the american embassy, and
also the church with the green onions. reminds
me of a booker t and the MGs song...
then stopped in at maxima and got some long
johns. took a little studying to be sure i
was buying what i wanted. ending up costing
$3 US.
came home and z&k were watching tv. dennis
took the garbage out and bouhght a rotisseri
chicken and the butcher shop. dennis was the
only guy in there. an old woman in line
behind dennis was talking my ear off. didn't
know what to say but she seemed to be
complaining about how long it was taking,
which wasn't all that long.
got home and combined the chicken with
some pasta, zach ate a lot.
ziboukle came over and we got here oriented
on zach, then kerri and dennis went out for
a couple hours to the symphone. beautiful hall,
very intimate and our 3rd row balcony is
close enough to throw tomatoes... but this
was not necs. they all played beautifully.
at the beg, a woman came out in front of
the orch. she's the onlly one with a program,
she named the piece and the mvmts, the soloist,
and the conductor.
1st half, shostakovich violin concerto in 4
mvmts. soloist was ____________. very good.
did a shosh? vn sonata as encore, then a
solo over a drone he requested of the strings
and then a waltz solo after quickly teaching
the strings the omm pa pa.
intermissions, and then what dennis really
wanted, shostakovich's 5th. especially the
4th movemtent. maxim was REALLY into it.
dropped/lost/through his baton in the last few
bars... man, it was good. kerri and dennis
didn't stick around to see if the orch
did an encore.
got outside and it was raining, and we had
forgontten our umbrella, so we took a cab,
who took us on a rather cicuitour route,
but we later learned from zibuokle that
there are some heavy restrictions on taxis
and which streets they take.
got home and the fare was 7.51 LT and all
dennis had was 7 LT in coins and a 100 Lt
bill. ($2.33 US in coins and a $33 US bill,
with fare being $2.50) i offered the cabbie
the two choices and he opted for the coins.
nice guy. i felt bad, but...
came home and zach said hi, but then he
wanted to continue playing with zibuoike.
they were playing the the grandfather clock
that is similar to poppa's (grandpa aman's)
cuckoo clock.
after zibuoikel left, zzach told us all about
what he did, though we didn't really understand
the words, it was obvious that he had hada
good time as well. we all had a resful sleep.
looks like snow will get to vilnius thursday,
the day after we leave lithuania.
saturday, breakfast, simpsons, cafe, bus ride,
rehearsal/park, dennis making dineer.
( Log Continues at http://www.postalnauts.com/daman/lithuania/log-part2.txt )
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