Playing Catch-Up

I've been back from my trip for a week (seems like longer than that, what with the crazy busy week at work and a weekend in Duluth with sisters and friends....) so I thought I'd write down some highlights from Lithuania/Latvia/brief stop in Finland:

• The travel: AWESOME flights – personal TVs with a selection of 25 movies, 10 TV shows, video games, etc. Problem: never slept on the nine hour flights, which didn’t help with the jet lag. Also, the bus we took to Latvia was sweet – it had a coffee/cappuccino machine, restroom, TVs (that played creepy music videos), tables, comfortable enough seats for sleeping, etc. I didn't have any bad travel experiences during our nine days, except for a bit of fear in the sleeper train from Klaipeda to Vilinus (I kept thinking I was going to fall from the top bed).
• The food: There is no better way to travel than with people who REALLY know the area where you are traveling, especially when it comes to the food. Steve and Laura knew exactly what restaurants to take us to and exactly what to order at those restaurants. I would say my favorite restaurant was Stora Antis: it was like going down into a cave - very quaint and very amazing food. We tried Saltibarsciai, a traditional Lithuanian soup (cold beet soup), and Kepta Duana, a traditional Lithuanian appetizer (fried garlic bread covered in some kind of cheese). Both were AMAZING and I could have eaten them every day! We had some yummy desserts during the week, but my favorite was the peanut flavored gelato (you could even have Coca-Cola or Red Bull flavors!). I was also SO impressed with the food we ate at Steve and Laura's home. I learned that when you live in a foreign country, you become a very "flexible" cook. When I make pizza "from scratch" in America, it means I buy the pizza sauce, toppings, crust, etc, and throw together a pizza. In Lithuania, it means that you even make the pizza sauce from scratch! You can't even buy sausage there, so we decided to use hamburger for our pizza, but Steve made sausage from scratch later on in the week for an egg bake recipe. I was very inspired by their improvisation and the tasty food they treated us to in their home. OH - we also ate at a GREAT Mexican restaurant in Vilinus. YUM. Mexican is my favorite!!
• The sights: RIGA was my favorite city that we went to. Even though it was a snowy and cloudy day, I loved walking through Old Town and seeing the cool buildings. The Occupation Museum there was very educational, and we ate at the strangest restaurant, Hospitalis, that was very Hospital-themed with beautiful, delicious desserts. In Klaipeda (where Steve and Laura live) we saw the Baltic, Old Town, went shoe shopping, and toured LCC (the school where they work). Helsinki was a VERY short visit for us, since it was on a lay-over and also because it was FREEZING cold and we could hardly stand walking around for a minute more. We did see the Church in the Rock there (a church build entirely within a rock) which was very cool. Vilinus was another historical and beautiful city. I loved seeing the Genocide museum, which was in an old Soviet prison (CRAZY things happened there....). Again, the buildings were gorgeous and it was fun to walk around the city and see historical sights. We all made a wish (a Lithuanian tradition) on the Stebuklas (the "Miracle Block") - the place where 2 million people started a chain that stretch 650km to Tallinn as a peaceful protest of Soviet rule in 1989. Trakai is a city just outside of Vilinus where there is a castle that has been restored and now is basically a museum. It was AWESOME! The castle itself was quite the sight to see, and the tour was very informative and interesting. Needless to say, I learned a TON in all of the cities we went to about the culture and history.
• The company: As I said, Steve and Laura were the BEST tour guides EVER. In addition to that, I loved catching up on their lives, having good conversations, playing games, etc. We also enjoyed meeting Steve's student leaders and playing Pass-It-Pictionary and Fill or Bust with them. All of our walking and chatting and sight-seeing was wonderful, but it was also great to relax in front of the Olympics in the evenings (even though it was in Lithuanian, and even though the US hockey team lost on our last night in Lithuania).

All that to say that I really, really enjoyed this trip. I've appreciated it more and more as I've been telling people about all the unique things we saw and did, and everything I learned. I'm sure there's even more that could be said, so I'd love to tell you about it sometime if you are curious! Thanks, Hansons, for all the great memories!!