3/12/17 - Lithuania Part 1 - Solo Banshee Jumps Across the Pond

It's a weird feeling to wake up in New York and go to sleep in Lithuania.

It all started at the JFK airport, where I nearly missed my flight watching the series finale of The Vampire Diaries and saying goodbye to Hannah. Both were emotional roller coasters, and both were worth every second.

The end of an era, the beginning of an era. 

The security line was long, but luckily the TSA agent at the beginning let me go in the expedited line. I ran up to the gate just as they were calling final boarding, and arrived on the airplane sweaty and thirsty, the perfect way to start a nine hour flight.

Just don't crash the plane into fire or water? And we won't have this problem. 

Pronounced "air-oh-flot". Possibly. 

The flight itself was uneventful for the most part; I talked with the nice Russian girl sitting next to me and watched Roman Holiday. The flight actually became quite turbulent in the middle, which was great for pondering life and my own insignificance as a tiny speck above the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Somewhere before and after this we were served an interesting airplane dinner and breakfast.

Dinner: fish with rice and vegetables, lox on top of salad, roll, chocolate cake with crumbly top. 

Breakfast: pancakes with apples and jam, meat pieces with salad, cookie, roll. 

I arrived in the Moscow airport for my transfer flight to Vilnius, and went through a customs station and additional security checkpoint. Upon showing my passport to the woman working customs, she said to me "your cheese?". I must have looked confused because she then said "can I see your cheese? Your smile?". She wanted me to smile since I am smiling in my passport photo.

You can see the resemblance. 

I got into Vilnius at 9:30 in the morning, and took a local city bus to the bus stop where I had arranged to meet the other girl staying at the apartment to get the key. Her name is Zivile (pronounced "je-vee-luh") and she works as an international news correspondent.

Zivile helped me buy a bus card and I took another bus to the apartment, which is in an old soviet cement building. The apartment itself is very small but cozy and comfortable. By the time I got into the apartment (I tried a few buildings before finding the correct one), I was tired and extremely thirsty. Lucky for me there was a giant bottle of water in the fridge! I poured some in a glass and took a big gulp and...it was salty. Turns out there is a popular brand of water in Lithuania called Vytautas,which is salty carbonated mineral water. First culture shock achieved.

Delicious delicious K and Ca. 

Mailboxes in the apartment building. 

Second culture shock was the washing machine, which was in Russian.

Piece of cake. 

This one was my fault and not the washers; wool Pendleton sweater is now a dog sweater. 

I decided to take a quick nap, which turned into 12 hours. I woke up around 4:30am still thirsty for both water and my next adventure in Lithuania.