Eastern Europe 101: Stay away from the Roads

The lake where we went swimming. I should've taken more pictures.
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Traveling in Eastern Europe is always fun in that "holy crap I´m gonna die" sort of way.  I´m sure the further east you get the worse it is, but Lithuania is sometimes enough to get the blood pumping.  But, I guess as far as Eastern Europe Goes it´s one of the tame parts.  The first indication that things weren´t normal was when my flight in was on a tiny, dual-prop airplane on something called Air Baltic which I´ve never heard of.  We made it in alright though, and then I mercifully got picked up by the Bannons at the airport.

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The Bannons are the parents of my friend and old roommate Nate, and showed me an amazingly high level of hospitality while I was in Lithuania.  They picked me up from the airport, gave me a room in their appartment, took me around town, and basically got me into Lithuanian culture.  The Bannons are missionaries in Vilnius, and are working there with their 13 year old (I think) daughter Kristen, who´s a real sweatheart.

Best...Mudfight...ever...in Lithuania...

These crosses are in memorial for the Lithuanians who faught the Russians. I forget all the meaning now.
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The first thing that we did was go out to a lake the morning after I got in for a church bbq, which was pretty cool.  We went out to a lake that had a bunch of white clay on the shore.  The water was a deep aqua color and gorgeous, in the middle of a pine forest.  Kind of reminded me of home.  There was a high platform to jump off and everything, but aside from 2 docks there was nothign else manmade there except a little screen for changing.  No paved road, to parking lot, no volleyball court, no nothing.  I didn´t have my camera with me, but Mr. Bannon had his phone camera, so hopefully the pictures do it justice.  After lunch, which was a whole lot of meat and some pop that tasted like Molases (the Lithuanians love it--a phenomena similar to what we do with rootbeer) we went over to the white clay part of the lake, and basically had the biggest clay fight ever.  As the picture shows, I was covered.  But so was Kristen.  Apparently it´s really good for the skin though.  God knows I could use some more exfoliation in my life.  I even had clay in my eye for hours later on.  Well worth it.  And my skin felt great!  Thanks Lithuania!

This is a sweet castle that the Bannons took me to. It was a real castle: Walls, keep, moat, AND a working drawbridge.
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Vilnius itself is a city that´s trying to become a real european capital , and is busily rebuilding and refurbishing it´s downtown area to attract tourists´attention.  There´s some cool churches there, and a the remains of the once enormous castle that protected Vilnius.  We were even there one night during an enormous summer festival where we sampled some of "the best beer in the world," (or so someone voted in some international contest) saw a bunch of Lithuanian folk art, and wandered around.  In the main square next to their newly rebuilt cathedral (which coincedently looks like a Roman Temple) was a huge concert of a band that sounded something like Stomp which was really good.  Then we went out for hot chocolate, but Lithuanian style, which isn´t cocoa.  You know that stuff in starbucks that you can get which is like a liquid chocolate bar?  Yep.  That stuff.  Amazing.

This is Kristen. She's fun.
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We also went to a beautiful castle in the middle of a lake that was really cool.  Oh, and it actually has a working drawbridge!  So cool!  AND I shot a crosbow there because you could pay to do it next to the castle.  I´m sooooo medieval.  It had a cool set of displays on life in the castle, and, of course, was gorgeous because it was in the middle of a forrested lake.

Lithuanians, generally, aren´t famous for being friends or outspoken, but then again nobody really is in Eastern Europe.  It´s an especially big contrast coming from Spain a few weeks earlier.  That said, nobody was rude.  Lithuania food is also kind of interesting.  It´s this really creamy, hearty food for peasants.  I had my first glass of buttermilk (disgusting!), a bright pink soup that mainly consisted of sour cream and dill, and a bunch of other equally fatty and creamy dishes.  I have to admit, though, that what Mrs. Bannon cooked was by far the best food I had there.  The food isn´t bad though.  Lithuania, like you might expect, doesn´t quite have the infrastructure of the US or Western Europe, but they sure do have a bunch of insane people driving cars.  I´ve seen some crazy drivers in my time (Spain, Italy, Tijuana) but nothing has yet compared with Lithuania.  Seatbelts are highly recommended, as is military grade body armor for those wishing to cross the streets.  Hoorah.  One last thing about Lithuania: the national passtime is apparently picking mushrooms.  Like everybody does it, and everybody knows which ones kill ya and which ones are just good.  Crazy huh?  Oh, and apparently they´re not into soccer, but Basketball.

This is a big Lithuanian thing (I guess). They make these little houses for people to put candles in. Cool yeah?
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Lithuania ended with a bus ride from Vilnius to Krakow, Poland that probably deserves its own journal entry.  A special shout out to the Bannons for making Vilnius about 100 times cooler than it would´ve been without them.  And to Nate, cus he´s my dog.  Until next time...