Dreaming About Day One

Today was my first day in Lithuania. Technically my second day but considering I only spent about half an hour on my true day one, we will call this day one. I arrived in Vilnus, Lithuania after a 44 hour trip in which I ended up stuck in Germany for about 7 hours, sent to Poland (not on the original itinerary) where my fourth flight was delayed (again!!) and finally landed about 12 hours after I was originally set to arrive. Lucky for me everyone already knew my name thanks to my lovely Rheanna, who, knowing I when I was originally set to arrive, apparently kept asking when I was going to come. The staff picking me up where very amused to meet me.

After all three hostel roommates sleeping through the alarm and causing us to be late we set out on our first day. Morning consisted of breakfast in a cafe, a visit to a KGB prison that was in use in my lifetime (it closed after the USSR collapsed in '91), and a trip to the US embassy (yes Mom, they do have an embassy here) where we met the ambassador. By this time, despite the fact that I was sure my trip had messed me up so much I wouldn't have jet lag, I was exhausted. Right now it almost midnight here but amazingly I am no longer tired (go figure). However, we set out on a walking tour of the city with a wonderful guide in the freezing weather, and finally had dinner at a beautiful restaurant.

Some brief Lithuanian history for you: It is the oldest country (1,000 years) with the oldest living language, it was the last European country to convert from paganism in the 14th century, it used to be 30% Jewish but the Nazis killed over 90% of the Jewish population in WWII, the synagogue count pre WWII in Vilnus was over 100, today there is only 1, there are 43 churches in Vilnus with 30 still in use (and they are beautiful).

My biggest impressions thus far:

1. It is COLD (no way to get around it, it's -7 C or 19F outside).

2. The architecture is BEAUTIFUL (one of the biggest things I was looking forward to).

3. It smells funny (not necessary bad, except for the bus which smells like cigarettes, gross).

4. Business play English music (most random song of the day, the theme song to Married With Children).

Tomorrow is our last day in the capital, we are shopping in the morning and then taking the bus to Kaipeda tomorrow, which is where the school is located. On the way we are stopping at a castle! According to one of our guides it has real princes and princesses running around... and a dragon... and Star Wars... but I'm not sure if he was telling the truth or not. :)

Well, off to try to sleep and dream of princes and dragons.

Peace.