Lithuania: Day 5

Day 5 was based mostly around going to Gruto Parkas. This millionaire mushroom farmer somehow collected all the old Soviet monuments from around Lithuania and then, on his own land, constructed a theme park exhibiting those statues. Kind of a final, ideological "fuck you" to the legacy of communism.

The day began 1 hour after day 4.5 ended. That is to say, we got home from Riga, slept for an hour, then got up at 6:30 to leave for Druskininkai (the city on the outskirts of which is the park). We took a bus to Druskininkai, but to get to the bus station, Lokys and I tagged along with his mother (the mother of all the kids obviously) on her way to work. She's kind of a big deal - she's the Special Advisor to the President on matters of education. That is to say, she meets with Valdas Adamkus, president of Lithuania, at least once a week. Pretty cool. Even cooler, she has a driver who picks her up every morning. So yeah, we tagged along for a ride to the bus station.

I slept the whole way, but apparently Lokys did not. Sucks to be him (again). The bus stop seriously is in the middle of nowhere, along a highway similar to, say, Route 17. This is backwoods Lithuania, for sure. So we walk along the road which has a sign saying "Gruto Parkas" for about a kilometer, then we proceed through the park, taking pictures of various funny things with the statues. I was trying to climb up onto a statue of Lenin, so I could sit on his lap or something, but I slipped off and nailed my leg on his gigantic iron foot. Damn communists can't leave us Polaks alone, can they? After taking many pictures and trying REALLY hard to get one of the statues to hold a disc, we jogged back to the bus stop to try and make the 11:40 bus, which luckily we did.

Lokys made a welcome discovery while sitting on the microbus on the way back to Vilnius: a package of peanuts we had bought at a grocery store in Riga. Unluckily, he had already drank all of the 26-cent 1.5 liter bottle of soda. Not that that was unexpected or anything. Anyhoo, after arriving back in Vilnius, we went to a restaurant for cepelenai (potato dough pockets filled with seasoned meats). The texture of the potato dough was pretty weird, the meat was good, but the whole thing was ruined (in my opinion) by a tide of sour cream, which I hate. Lithuanians love meat, bacon, potatoes, and sour cream. Three out of four ain't bad I guess. But goddammit I hate sour cream.

After that, gift buying. Amber stuff for everyone, starka for friends, linen shirt for Mom, etc. Then back to the house, watching Arrested Development, and sleep.