The Amazing Race

It all started last Tuesday during a conversation at the Jazz club. I don't even know how we got on the subject of hitch hiking, but the conversation quickly escalated to "WE SHOULD RACE TO VILNIUS!" It started as more of a joke, and then turned into a reality. Hitch hiking in the states is viewed as dangerous and uncommon, but in Europe it is acceptable, fairly easy, and much more safe. Come Saturday morning we were out on the highway with our VILNIUS signs, thumbs out. It was Bree and myself vs. Hannah and Kim. We started out very optimistic yet terrified. We tried a variety of tactics including jumping, waving, smiling, frowning, and looking tired/sad. At one point, about 20 minutes in, Bree looked behind us and realized a car had pulled over!! We were shocked and excited as we ran over to the car before it changed its mind. The middle aged man cleared a space for me in the back seat among his sons car seat, pillows, fishing gear, and other various objects (looked like he was moving). It was a little crammed, but we were just impressed that we even got a ride. We were on our way! The other team started a little further down and we didn't see them anymore, so the race was on! The most important first question, "Ar Jus kalbate angliskai?" ("Do you speak English?"). He responded "only little bit." He explained that he could take us to Kaunas, which is on the way to Vilnius. The rest of his sentences were a mixture of English, German, and Lithuanian. As we pieced together as much as we could understand, we learned a little bit about his family and what places he has lived in. We didn't talk too much after that. He mostly sang along to the Spanish music. As we approached Kaunas we spotted Kim and Hannah on the side of the road! It was a relief to know that they were safe and more importantly that we were now in the lead! We were dropped off a few miles past them. Apparently they caught a second ride within minutes and saw us on the side of the road as they went by. So much for being in the lead. Our location was poor, so after 30 mins of no luck we moved about 1/4 mile down the highway and got pick up without a problem at our alternative location. This man, Jonas, spoke much more English, which was very helpful. He was on his way back to Vilnius after visiting family in Kaunas. He took us to the outskirts of the city and pointed out a bus stop that we could take to get into downtown. Before leaving he gave us his business card and said "Please call me if you have any troubles in Vilnius. I received a lot of help from Americans when I was in Miami, and I want to return the favor any chance I get. Make sure to find me on Facebook and tell me how your stay was!" So we hopped on the first bus and just waited until we saw something familiar. After about 10 minutes, and after all sense of direction was lost, I happened to look down a side street and see what looked the Cathedral Square (the race destination) aaaaaalllll the way at the other end of the street. We got off the bus and walked down the main drag towards the Cathedral. We ended up running into Kim and Hannah who were looking for a place to eat. After a very joyous greeting we all found food and wifi. After eating we began the search for a hostel. We found one right away and they had room for us!

After settling into the hostel room, we headed out to walk around while it was still light out. We walked through the market and a few parks and ended up at the Balti Drambliai ("White Elephant") which serves fancy tea and outrageously delicious desserts. By this time it was 8:30 so we were able to wander around and experience the beautiful old town with the evening lights. We soon became hungry for some good old Kepta Duona. If you don't already know, Kepta Duona is the single most delicious snack in Lithuania, and maybe the whole world. It is deep fried rye bread with garlic and cheesy goodness all over it. Served at any restaurant, bar, or pub in Lithuania. We stopped in a sports bar for the tasty treat. Being full of great ideas, we decided the best thing to do would be a Kepta Duona crawl; trying as many different kinds as we could and determining the best place in town. We headed to the next place we could find, the Roast & Beer pub. After a lovely dish of Duona we were greeted by an overly friendly group of clearly drunk students. They were were quite entertaining, but also very annoying. We convinced them to pick up our check, and we went on our way. Our next Duona destination was recommended by our hostel hostess. The Pogo Bar (in association with the Pogo hostel we stayed in) had the best Kepta Duona as well as the best company. We met Povilas and Lukas who we shared a table with. We had good conversation about all sorts of topics. Of all the people we met during our adventure, they were the most fun. We headed back to our hostel and got a good nights sleep in preparation for our return trip in the morning. We weren't originally planning on hitch hiking back, because we didn't know how long it would take and needed to be back in time for evening events in Klaidepa. We had so much fun/success getting to Vilnius, we figured we should just go for it.

We got up and ready around 9:30 and found breakfast and coffee downtown. Vilnius is so pretty all hours of the day. We transformed our VILNIUS signs into KLAIPEDA signs, bused back out towards the highway and began hitch hike race part 2. Bree and I were having no luck after 15 minutes, so we decided to walk further out; But just as we started walking away someone pulled over! We quickly hopped in proceeded to drive past a jealous Hannah and Kim. "Awesome-heavy-metal-loving-young-English-speaking-on-his-way-to-Kaunas-guy" was a perfect companion for good conversation about culture differences, holiday traditions, and food. He said he once hitch hiked around Europe for 2 straight months with no particular destination in mind. He took us to "the best place to hitch hike from" in Kaunas, which happened to be directly across from where we were dropped off the previous day! He was incredibly helpful and encouraging in our journey. The next ride took about 15 minutes to catch. This time it was an elderly man on his way to Klaipeda for a exhibition show for the wool products that his company sells. He showed us the catalog of items for sale and they all looked extremely comfortable and warm. About 10 minutes into the ride we saw Hannah and Kim on the side of the road again! They looked kind of miserable. We waved and they saw us as we passed by. He was not confident in his English, so we didn't talk too much, but we did learn that he was born and raised in Klaipeda before moving to Kaunas as a young man. He was also formerly in the Soviet Military! Pretty crazy. He pointed out where he went to school as a boy and where he used to live and places he remembered going to in Klaipeda. After the tour down memory lane he took us to the University and we were finally home and we had won the race! I guess we will just have to have a tie breaker some other weekend. I don't think I would ever do this alone, and I would probably never attempt it in the US, but I'm glad that I was able to have this fantastic and memorable experience in Lithuania.

Regal Riga

Our second international stop for the weekend was Riga, Latvia! Riga is the capital city of Latvia, which is the country just north of Lithuania. We arrived Saturday evening around 6:30, just as it was getting dark. We checked into our hostel and broke off into small groups for dinner. We ended up at a buffet style dumpling restaurant. Each pot was labeled with a picture of an animal, such as a chicken/cow/pig, or a something else like cheese or potato. It was pay by weight and super cheap as well as delicious. We explored around old town for about an hour and found a folk club with live music. It was really crowded and we couldn't get service, so we went on our way. We eventually found a calmer location to relax and listen to music, sipping a local brew. As my group proceeded to bed, I went back out on the town with a friend and found two other study abroads wandering through old town looking for people. We ended up going back to the folk club, which had calmed down finally. After that we went to the grand bridge and enjoyed the ambiance of the full moon.

After a good night's sleep, we had breakfast in the hostel and loaded the bus up. We still had 3 hours to kill before heading out. We didn't waste a single minute. With the weather being so splendid we opted to stay outside and see the sights rather than be inside a museum or something like that. We walked along the water, went inside a few fancy churches, found the Riga castle, saw lots of monuments, wandered through beautiful parks, and even stumbled upon a carrot festival.

We were informed that it was a charity event raising money for a local hospital. They had lots of vendors and activities, as well as huge statues made of, you guessed it, CARROTS. We continued on and found a cute doughnut shop with flavors I have never dreamed of. I went safe and tried the cappuccino one, and I was not disappointed. We finished our walk with Freedom monument and the grand Orthodox Cathedral. All in all a great day to relax and be off campus. We are all really looking forward to our week long journey through RUSSIA!!! We started learning the alphabet in class :)

Tallinn is Callinn for You to Visit

The great city of Tallinn was our first international study abroad trip. Tallinn is the capital city of Estonia, which is 2 countries north of Lithuania. We took an overnight bus (10:30pm-8:00am) and tried to sleep on the way. I was fortunate enough to get two seats to myself, so I was able to stretch out and get some sleep and be ready to go when we arrived. We stashed our backpacks in the hostel and ventured out into old town (pictured above). Old town is the historically preserved heart of the city. It was pretty nice out, so we broke off in smaller groups and wandered around to get familiar with the area. We saw several colorful buildings, grand churches, and fancy architecture.

Here is the view from the town hall square. This area was a large open square (of cobble stone of course) with lots of outdoor seating for cafes and restaurants. There were people dressed in traditional outfits, and even some medieval wardrobes. One guy was doing a flaming nun-chucks show! There was also delicious roasted almonds that we sampled. A little further away we found several shops and souvenir stores. All of us bought some local tea for ourselves or friends back home. It started to sprinkle so we decided to get coffee nearby and hang out until we had to be back to check into our hostel rooms at 2. The place we went to was "voted best coffee in Tallinn!" The atmosphere was very rustic and relaxing. It was sort of in a cave haha. After checking into our rooms several of us went to an indoor water park, with lots of slides, pools, saunas, hot tubs, and water falls. It was the perfect way to relax after the long bus ride.
Dinner was reserved for all of us at Olde Hansa, which is an exciting medieval style restaurant. SO MUCH FOOD! They served endless courses of bread, cheese, lentils, ginger turnips, barley, beef, sausage, salmon, and apple pie. Everyone was stuffed and satisfied by the end of the event. That evening a group of us celebrated Ira's (one of the SA interns) birthday at The Butterfly Lounge.

In the morning my friend Bree and I got up to see the sunrise over the old town skyline (first picture). It was a little cloudy but still really pretty. We went for breakfast at a cafe that served delicious pancakes (and by pancakes they actually mean crepes) with fresh jam and fruit. We returned to the hostel and packed our things back on the bus. We still had free time from 10-2. Bree and I chose to rent bikes and tour beyond old town. We saw the options of tandem bikes and thought it might be fun/funny to give it a go. The rental guy was super nice about it and told us we could always bring it back and swap it out for real bikes if we wanted. Being the risk-takers we are, of course we went for the tandem.....and failed miserably. I think it was a combination of never riding tandem, having unbalanced bags on our shoulders, and cobblestone that defeated us. I think we are mostly going to blame the cobblestone. Needless to say, we quickly turned in the bike for 2 new ones. Best decision we ever made. With our new wheels we set out for Pirita, a district on the outskirts of Tallinn. We found the Olympic Yachting Center which was the event locations for the 1980 Olympic games in Moscow. We also saw a convent. On the return ride we went through Kadriorg, another district of Tallinn. It was basically one very large park where we saw a swan pond, fancy buildings and museums, as well as the national song festival grounds, where in 1988 the singing revolution took place as a massive musical demonstration against Soviet rule. (pictured below)

 

After returning our bikes we set out for the market to buy our handmade goods from old grannies. Most of the items being sold were knitted hats, socks, sweaters, or scarves. I purchased a really unique hat that has a scarf attached that wraps around my neck in one big knitted mass of awesome.