Lithuania Day 4.5

Day 4.5 was a long day indeed. It all started at 6:30am. Liepa had planned a trip to Riga, capital of Latvia, the country to the north of Lithuania. Some girl had sent an email to the student listserv at Lokys' and Liepa's school saying that she was going to Riga and wanted some company.

Now, I must say, Lithuanian drivers as a whole are pretty erratic and/or terrifying, but this girl had me just as scared for my life as I ever was riding with Codrea. Different reasons though. This girl had passed her drivers test like 4 or 5 years ago, and had basically not driven at all since then. She was going like 30 down roads akin to the Berlin Turnpike. Not to mention that the roads were barely plowed at all. She tried to pass at the least inopportune times... like trying to pass a garbage truck when a sharp bend is not more than 500 feet ahead, with a car coming head on AND WITH AMPLE SNOW COVER. I mean, I don't want to die just because some rookie driver was getting impatient behind a frigging garbage truck. She kept checking her oil too, as if that made some impact on her horrible driving. No amount of oil can save your slut ass from crashing us into a pile of frozen potatoes or something!

Anyhow, we made it to Riga, without physical injuries. The shit-driver was going to the airport to pick up her boyfriend, so we just took the bus from the airport and started exploring. First stop was the central market, which is actually five hangars that were made pre-WWII to house zeppelins, but now comprise the city market. We tried to see some cathedrals, but it was still a holiday post-New Years, so some were closed. Other cathedrals (at least one) wanted to charge us admission. Admission. To a church. Apparently god is pay-per-view now. ("Oh no, not the church! Jesus lives there!") Took some pictures, did some stuff, blah blah. Went to a cafe for something lunch-ish, although I think we may have had lunch someplace else, I don't remember.

All I really remember about Riga is that I wanted to go home around 3:00 or so, but since I probably will never go there again, I continued walking around without protest. The plan was to go to a bar, order some food, and play cards until the bus left at 10:30 to get back to Vilnius overnight. Except, when we went to the bar to eat (and by the way it was amazing food) the manager yelled at us and told us no cards. What the hell? So we reminisced about things that happened in middle school and high school and pieced together how our group of friends met, and some of our funnier moments. All in all, it was a top-10 conversation of 2005.

Bus back to Vilnius took a really long time because it stopped in out-of-the-way cities. It was a microbus too. The problem is that the frigging heater was under my feet, and I was wearing the best warmest hunting boots ever (these boots are amazing). Thus, my socks were soaked through when I got home and I was thoroughly grossed out. I managed like 2 hours of sleep, but Lokys didn't manage any sleep. Anyways, we got home at like 5:00am the next day, and slept for one hour before getting up for Day 5.