Lithuania: Day 1.5

*Note: I'll revise this later on when I upload all my pictures to give everyone a visual for the different parts of my trip.

I say "Day 1.5" because I left my house at 12:30AM EST, and did not go to bed until 10:30PM LT (Lithuanian time). Since Lithuania is 7 hours ahead, that means I was up for 28 hours straight.

Travel started by taking the CT Limo bus to JFK. Thanks to the fuckin' Van Wyck, I nearly missed check-in for my flight. I was supposed to get there at 4:00, two hours before my 6:00 flight. End result: 4:55. 15 minutes later and check-in would have closed. I have to give it to the bus driver though. While we were coming into the city, he bypassed all the traffic on the highway by zipping down side streets and hopping on and off the highway as he saw fit. Truly masterful driving in the traffic shitstorm that is NYC.

I made it aboard the Finnair flight in time, and I even got a window seat right in front of the bulkhead! Legroom, huzzah! Yeah, I was so happy... but then the stewardess came up to me and tells my "herka derka doodily goobily," speaking in Finnish and pointing at my backpack. Fuck. I have no idea what she just said exactly, but it seems that I can't keep my bag with me, contained within was precious entertainment and, more importantly, nourishment! This is going to be a long 7-1/2 hours, I think to myself as the Finnish flight attendant puts my bag far from reach in the lofty heights of the luggage compartment. I don't think I look Finnish, what was the deal with her speaking Finnish to me? Weird.

This was one of them bigass planes, too - an MD-11. The plane had a three-five-three seating arrangement (three by the left window, aisle, five in the middle, aisle, three by the right window) and was by all accounts, gi-normous. I had all but given up that this flight could be anything more than absolutely intolerable, given the lack of my book, my computer, and food. At this point, you're probably saying "Why didn't you just get up and get your stuff, you asshole??" Well, I don't like disturbing other people's flights. Keep in mind I was in the window seat and my bag was across the aisle and up a few seats. Also, I was kind of afraid of trying to mess with my bag with only 1.5 functional hands. I talked about this with Aras once I got there (you'll meet him later) and we both agreed that disturbing other people on flights is totally not cromulent.

However, the flight turned out to be tolerable, mostly because of the amount of food that was thrown at me throughout the course of the flight. Additionally, I was able to get up and snag my book when the guy on the end got up to use the can. Anyhow, back to the food. Say what you will about airline food, but I think it's all just a stereotype invented by subpar comedians. They gave us awesome curry chicken that tasted fresh, and not only that, but a side dish, bread & butter, water, and then tea afterwards. And then three hours later? Just as I thought my stomach started eating itself again? THEY CAME BACK WITH MORE! Ham sandwich! Yogurt! Juice! MOTHA-FUCKIN' CHOCOLATES! Owned. They would have given me free wine and beer too, if I didn't hate both of them...

Anyway, I arrived in Helsinki, possibly the bleakest airport in Europe, and changed planes to... a turbo-prop! Yup, no jet engines here, just two propellers to get us across the Baltic. It was a pretty big one though, as prop aircraft go, probably 60 seats or so. They served us another small meal on this plane, then I touched down in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. Most of the airport looks like it's a portrayal of some obscure Soviet airport in a 1970's Bond movie. But the newer part is okay, and I deplane. Thank god my luggage survived, and after a quick encounter with some fuckin' SCARY-lookin' customs guards, I met Lokys (my friend from high school) and his uncle, who doesn't speak English but was happy to drive us back to the house.

My friends are Lokys and Liepa, they are fraternal twins (Lokys = guy, Liepa = girl), both of whom graduated with me at Coginchaug. Their older brother, Aras, is currently a university professor at Klaipeda University in Klaipeda, the third-largest city in Lithuania, on the coast. He visited for the majority of the time I was there also. Then, the younger brother, Sirvydas, who is in my sister's class at Coginchaug, was also there. Anyhoo, after saying hi to everyone (I already knew all of them of course), I put my shit away and we went off to downtown Vilnius.

To do this, we took the microbus, which is an interesting mode of transportation. The microbus is a large van with two seats on one side, an aisle, and one seat on the other. It runs on a specific route, but has no stops really. You just walk along the route and wait to see one drive by, you flag it down, get on, pay the dude, and get off whenever - just tell the driver to stop. Best of all, it costs like two lits (short for litai, Lithuanian currency), which equates to around 65 cents.

We walked around downtown Vilnius, looking at cathedrals, old castley places, etc. etc. Then we hit the grocery store to buy cheese and such, and went home to make quesadillas with Aras' quesadilla cooker and the pepperoni I brought for Liepa. Yeah, so before I left I asked Lokys and Liepa if they wanted me to bring any American stuff for them. What did I end up bringing? Powedered iced tea for Lokys, and pepperoni for Liepa. Weird. So we had dinner, and watched some of the Arrested Development DVD's I brought with me. Then, it was bedtime... hardcore.

Funny story though, I had to use the bathroom, so Aras pointed out some restrictions. "Here are the things that go in the toilet," he says. "Piss, shit, blood, semen, vomit, spit, etc. Notice anything that's missing? That's right, toilet paper. You put that in the wastebasket." Gross, eh? Apparently sewer systems can't deal with it there - this is a country-wide phenomenon - there was no throwing of TP in the toilet anywhere in the region.

Okay, stay tuned for pictures and Day 2.