JourneyMonkey

All our photos are being moved to our new "Photo Gallery".  There's a new permanent link to the left and a link below.  

We're home now, safe and sound. More posts to follow!

Honestly, we're not dead. Really. An underwater earthquake outside Taipei knocked out virtually all of Vietnam's Internet access to the outside world pretty much as soon as we landed. We assume it's not our fault. We weren't in Bangkok for New Year's either.

We've only gotten access to Blogger today and we only have a couple more days left in the trip. Rest assured, we'll be posting stories and thoughts about the trip as well as pictures after we get back home.

Alive (and having fun) in Vietnam,
Colin & Rachael

Waiting at the gate for our flight to Hanoi. We lined up a hotel in the old quarter, equidistant from the major market (three stories high we've heard) and the lake. It's a great spot for walking around and the hotel came recommended out of the Lonely Planet guide. We'll be three nights in Hanoi and then we'll see where we're off to next.

Our travel plans were reversed when we decided to fly back home through Hong Kong, so we're going north to south in Vietnam instead of south to north.

Apropos of nothing, we're sitting in a new terminal in Bangkok and it's spectacular, one of the best airports I've ever seen. It looks like it's from the future. After I post pictures when we get back, just wait for this location to appear in some big-budget summer film in the next year.

We'll talk to you all again from Hanoi, Vietnam!

I have to concur with Colin- the look on his therapist's face when she saw his feet was something.
I think I could easily get addicted to reflexology though- as much as that hurt (what ARE those things that go CRUNCH in your feet, anyway??) my feet feel great now, despite all the walking. Am definitely considering a round 2 this afternoon.

I had a depressing moment while shopping yesterday at a not-for-tourists market. All the women here wear these tailored cropped pants that look really comfy, so I bought a pair from one of the street vendors. Imagine my horror when she sized me as an XXXL(!!!). So we head back to the hotel and I'm feeling really conflicted. I know I'm a bit big, not just for me, but vs. the women here as well and I'm trying to rationalize that somehow. So I'm still feeling down, when we decide to use the pool. I'm thinking, "Wow, if I'm that big, I have no business wearing a bikini, now do I." So I decide to sit by the pool in the pants to keep from subjecting the other people at the hotel to my unimaginably large ass. And I put on the pants. And they're sooooo huge that they fall down below my hipbones so I'm doing the hip-hop baggy pant thing. Of course, I'm not done with it yet though. Now my head's going, "Well, you're no more than a Large, probably a Medium, so that's not too bad, right?" and then I want to know if I really looked that enormous or she was just really bad at guessing. But it made the pool much more fun. Definitely bringing my XXXL pants back as a souvenir though. Colin's got the biggest feet, and I apparently have what looks like the biggest white-girl ass in town.

Heading out to Vietnam tomorrow- starting in Hanoi, heading to Halong Bay, and then we'll see.
We'll do a little shopping this afternoon and check out some of the museums after we're done with the travel agent.

Did you know that you can get a one hour foot massage here for $10? Did you know how many places your feet can hurt that you didn't even know about? Did you know that I, apparently, have the largest feet that my lady massaging my feet had ever seen? Did you know that you can "pop" your toes by pulling on them really hard?

These and other questions were answered for us yesterday. You don't think much about your feet and probably wonder just how good a foot massage can feel. I thought that too and proceeded to spend the next hour either hissing in pain or just feeling really good. Rachael must carry her tension in her feet because her feet just hurt afterwards. But's it's good that there's a "real" massage parlor just outside our hotel. There's one of those "other" massage parlors just next to it, though. That would be awkward.

We did some late-night market recon last night and bought a couple of things. We're rapidly adjusting to the time zone and have made travel arrangements to fly to Hanoi tomorrow. We'll have to check back on our hotel reservations in a couple of hours.

One more night in Bangkok and then we're off to Vietnam. Later!

"We only have one..."

These are the terrifying words I hear coming from the gate agent in Tokyo. We're on standby from Tokyo to Bangkok and the gate is disturbingly full of aggressively eager passengers, just itching to get on the flight and take our seats.

You have to understand. We got business class from Chicago to Tokyo. Business Class. That's incredible and insane and should never happen. But it did and I figured out travel luck was exhausted. Maybe we could spend a couple days in Japan? It's a bit more expensive than Vietnam or Thailand but still...

"We only have one..."

"Seat in first class. The other is in economy. Which one of you wants to sit in first?"

That's a no-brainer. Rachael's never been to Asia, never been in business class and never been in first class. We're going for three out of three today. She gets to sit in the lap of luxury.

So we're in Bangkok now. The people are as eager as ever to help us spend our money. We checked into the hotel a night early rather than stay up all night and wandered the streets this morning. We came across what appeared to be a local street market that wound up going for many, many blocks. Lots of food and other vendors. Rachael took some really good pictures that we'll post when we get back.

We're off to find Rachael some comfortable walking shoes. Later.

Or, more accurately, we've landed in Bangkok!

The travel gods seem to be smiling on us; I think our last trip must have stored up a ton of travel goodwill credits on our behalf. We not only made it on the first flight out of Chicago we tried for, but we BOTH got business class. The flight was smooth and effortless, we landed early in Narita, and to top things off, I (because Colin's a selfless darling) got a first class seat from Narita to Bangkok and he camped out in economy.

Gotta say- it's a whole different experience travelling like that. The pods in United First are cozy as hell and I rolled off the plane at 12:00 AM ready to run around and check out the night life. Poor Colin though, not so much. He got the rough end of the economy stick. (Did I mention he's a sweetie for letting me have it?).

So we're setting up the rest of our trip at the travel agent, checking out the street markets, and generally having a lazy day. I predict foot massages and a pedicure in my future.

Merry Christmas to eveybody State-and-Europe side. I guess it's Christmas Eve, but you can't tell here. Mission accomplished! Holidays abandoned!

Our next trip is coming soon!  Over Christmas and New Year's we're going on a grand adventure to Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam!

But before that, we're going on a weekend trip to Chattanooga, Tennessee for a friend's wedding.

Anybody out there watch Six Feet Under? How about the episode where David gets abducted by a hitchhiker and is forced to smoke crack at gunpoint? He screams "Why haven't I felt like this before!"

I started drinking coffee on this trip. I know how he feels. I also feel like my head's going to split open if I drink coffee for two days and stop on the third. When I drink coffee my heart rate increases, my fingertips go numb and I develop the social skills of a five-year-old.

I'd like to stop but Starbucks is everywhere.

Our last night in Frankfurt was spectacular. The rain cleared up and we went walking around that day, visiting the Goethe museum among other places. The museum is a relatively boring art museum, but the entire complex is built around Goethe's house. The house is really worth a visit with the wood burning furnaces, library and fabulous wallway clock worthy of your attention.

That evening we walked along the market strip on the way to Rama V, a Thai restaurant that Rachael remembered fondly from her last visit to Frankfurt. In the darkening early evening the entire market was even more magical. We ducked under a tent light by light bulbs strung in lines and drank more new wine from yet another winery. Surrounded by late-middle aged German women getting blitzed and doing shots, we appreciated how mellow and smooth this new wine was compared to the others. After enjoying the smokey-voiced women toasting each other and downing more shots and wine between cigarettes we head out to the restaurant.

Rama V is some of the best Thai food I've ever had, and that included my time in Thailand. Spectacular food and a beautiful decor made for a particularly enjoyable dinner. Honestly, this is a world-class Thai restaurant. If you've ever in Frankfurt check this place out. We'll post the address along with some of our favorite places on this trip in another post shortly.

It was kind of sad walking home because the market was closing up. We'd hoped to stay up until the early hours drinking with locals but it was not to be.

Long story short, we got up super early the next day, got to the airport and (miracles of miracles) got the first flight of the morning out of Frankfurt directly to Chicago. It was only coach but we finally had some good trip karma getting home.

I have to admit, it's nice to be home. But for all the difficulties we had on this trip it was the best time I've had on vacation in a really long time. Most of the time I would long for things at home when travelling but being with Rachael meant that I had what I most wanted there with me.

After much positive feedback from readers about the blog, the second thing most everybody asks is "Do you have any pictures?" Well, yes I have 13 rolls of film that I shot on this trip. I'm looking on having them processed before this weekend. I'm hoping to have some stuff posted to our JourneyMonkey Flickr account soon after that. Anything posted to the Flickr account will automatically be posted here on the blog as well, so you won't have to dig around looking for them.

And, yes, I know that if I had a digital camera you wouldn't have to wait so long. I'll switch to digital as soon as I can afford a digital SLR with equivalent quality as my 35mm so let the donations begin! :-)

We're home safe, back in Chicago. We have lots more to post about the trip, not to mention pictures, later.

It's raining and gray in Frankfurt so our "drive to the country" plans have been scuttled. A late sleep and breakfast at a local coffee/pastry shop later, we're wandering the street market again on the prowl for tasty food and drink for ourselves, as well as gifts for other people back home. We may visit the Goethe museum later this afternoon.

Our hotel is proving to be especially nice and comfortable, thanks to Rachael's recommendation (and Alex's from three years ago). Dinner last night was a smashing success, dressed up in our bathrobes.

We've listed ourselves on four flights out of Frankfurt tomorrow, two directly to Chicago and two through Washington (Dulles) so we're hoping to be back home tomorrow evening. Travelling back in time via jet and time zones is weird.

Dinner with Stasis and Regina was a lot of fun despite the language barrier. We managed to get a conversation going about everything from cooking and farming to what people eat in America and is it really true that everyone is fat?

Getting into the restaurant was also interesting... I managed to crack my head on part of the ceiling even before we had all the beer. And if I managed to whack myself, I´m sure you can imagine the entertaining possibilities of watching Colin squash himself successfully through the gaps. Toothpaste tube, small hole, all that jazz. And then Mr. Picky got confronted with smoked cow tongue and smoked pig ears. You wouldn´t even believe the noise! (Although I will admit that the texture of the pig ear crunching away kind of put even me off. But the tongue was very tasty.)

So we bid a sad goodbye to the Shakespeare Hotel, which hooker room or no, was a great stay. We´d definitely go back. And had a little adventure at the train station in which the individuals in the uniforms in the customs booth claimed that all these things aside, they were actually just bodyguards and could not possibly stamp our tax-exempt certs, thereby denying us a refund on the taxes paid for my coat. ;-( We met a very nice southern couple who were living in Heidelberg for business and Colin loaded up their luggage into the Soviet-style luxury coach. (Read, no back support, left-over glasses, bottles, and half a sausage to be dealt with.)

We hit Riga with 5 hours to spare- enough time to wander around wistfully wishing that we hadn´t had to blow off our time there and making plans to go back, grabbed some sushi at a foreign-cuisine adventure park (Sushi restaurant w locals in Obi) (yes, required, the word fried was beginning to make me ill) and hit the Ryan Air cattle call well enough to get our choice of seats and watch the girl next to us suffer through some type of emotional torment behind her hair. Again, did well in the rush for the Bohr bus and crashed out properly around 2 AM.

Have got to skip out, but more later on new wein and all...

We're back in Frankfurt after a really pleasant five-hour train ride from Vilnius to Riga, a two-hour flight from Riga to Frankfurt-Hahn, a two hour bus ride to Frankfurt-Hauptbahnhof and then a taxi ride to our hotel. Those short hops really take it out of you.

My uncle Statis and his sister, Regina, took us out to dinner our last night in Vilnius. We went to this crazy restaurant so far underground that it's like the Coal Mine ride at the Museum of Science and Industry trying to get down the stairs. Lots of authentic and mostly-authentic Lithuanian cuisine.

This is the right time to visit Frankfurt, we wandered into the city just as they started Fall celebrations with their equivalent of a farmer's market just down the street from our hotel. We spent the morning drinking new wine, direct from the wineries and eating tasty German snacks. The fridge at our hotel has a bottle of new wine, fresh grapes, a sausage and two loaves of freshly baked bread for dinner tonight.

Tomorrow we're planning on renting a car and driving out of the city for further adventures. We're planning on heading home on the 30th, on the first available flight to either Chicago or Washington.

Hmm, let's see. What was left out? Possibly that the TV tower was the location of a 1991 fight between unarmed Lithuanians and Soviets who were attempting to gain control of the tower to repress their struggle for independence. That 14 Lithuanians died there; there's still a memorial of crosses and flowers at the base of the hill. Or that the tower has elevator girls (or matrons as the case may be) who push all buttons for you in the 26(?) floor rise to the rotating restaurant that is on the top floor. (You know, like the ones in Toronto, etc). So you can sit in comfort, have a snack, and watch Vilnius spin.

Or that the hike up the rough cobblestone path to the Giedmas fortress was determined to be difficult enough that in the interest of out-of-shape tourists from the globe over, an elevator/ski lift thing was installed. So you can hiuke up (as we did) or pay for an air-conditioned (and presumably heated) lift.

Or that we went back to Torres ysterday afternoon for lunch, sat outside on a gorgeous patio and reaffirmed the spartan-style vows that we had originally made in the basement of Chicago's City Hall in a marathon 5-minute session with the justice of the draw. Surrounded by one of the most gorgeous views in the city, drinking Muga Torres wine drawn straight from wood casks (no sissy 750's for us!) eating fabulous food that isn't mentioned in any tourist literature anywhere, surrounded by the Vilnius artists' republic. (They've declared themselves to be a separate entity and govern themselves. Maybe. Haven't heard if any of their laws have been tested in court yet.)

Or that we wandered by this gorgeous hotel we found our first night here (and really wanted to swap our reservations to) that hadn't had any room. And they lost some reservations. So now we have a gorgeous room named after an author with scenic city views from the windows, friendly staff, etc. Our last night here is going to be in style! And we found an Azerbyjani (sp?) restaurant for dinner. Ok, and it's really funny because the author our room is named after is Trollope. Yeah, like hooker. Apparently the word was created based on the women in his writings? I choose to believe that we did not receive this room based on anything having to do with me or my clothing though.

I'll dish more later. Share the real shit. You know...

Today's our last day here, we're heading out on a train tomorrow to Riga and then on to Frankfurt. We didn't get to head out to the country yesterday as we hoped, but we did get to visit the TV Tower in Vilnius, the highest point in the city. We also hit the top of Giedemas Hill, a medieval tower at the top of the highest hill in Vilnius.

Many, many photographs were taken yesterday. I'm hoping to post the best on our Flickr account when we get back. There are a plethora of Italian restaurants and cafes here (apparently the current trend) but we had lunch at one in the business district. We were a bit concerned since the place was practially empty but the pizza is Italian style and Rachael's risotto was excellent.

After a long day of walking we visisted our local supermarket-type store and bought some beers and some snacks. To any business-minded individuals, the snack food market here has vast room for improvement. You could really clean up here. The beer is quite good.

We vegged out for a while and watched a marathon of MTV while drinking and snacking. We were going to sit on our balcony and drink our beer and eat our snacks but it was to damn cold. Some quiet time inside was especially nice when we figured out how to turn on the radiator. I figured everybody here liked it to be 65 degrees inside.

We were honored with a massive stuffed fish yesterday- apparently a special-occasion food. I think it was a big pike that had had the insides removed while keeping the skin in one piece. The meat was then ground and mixed with bread crumbs and seasonings and re-stuffed back into the fish for cooking, slicing, and apparently ceremonial serving to the rest of the table. Not Colin or my finest moment- we didn't know we were supposed to be serving everyone, that it was special, or that we needed to get it started so everyone had been sitting and waiting expectantly for it, snacking lightly on other items and trying not to fill up. Thankfully, Giedre, Gytis' wife stepped it and handled it; we didn't realize until it was over how things were supposed to have gone. Not so bad though; for the worst thing to happen, it was pretty damn minor.

Bowling was a great time, in part because I think the lanes here are about 1/3 shorter than in the states; Colin and I looked pretty damn good! For those of you that have seen me bowl, I got 4 spares and a strike. And you also know that that's about as likely as haley's comet landing on my head back home.

So we're out for more pics, some time with the family, historical exploration tourismus, etc... maybe more later.

Yesterday was our full-family reception where about 20 members of my family got together and spent a lot of time staring at Rachael and I. Okay, it felt like that sometimes but after a slow start everybody had a great time. Apparently the two sides of the family don't speak that much, even though many of them live in Vilnius. So our gathering was kind of special for them.

There were many, many toasts. Someone would stand, give a toast in Lithuanian and Rachael and I would nod and smile, waiting for the (occassional) translation. Then we'd have to down another shot of brandy, glass of wine or flute of champagne. But the drinks really warmed people up. Of course there was lots of fish and tongue and all sorts of food.

But imagine our surprise when we were asked to bowl. Would you believe it? There was a two-lane bowling alley downstairs. Everybody likes bowling and drinking! We bowled in shifts, first the younger crowd and then the older crowd but everybody wound up together at the end and posed for a family portrait.

It was great fun and very rewarding. The only downside is that on the drive back to Vilnius we got a little lost and had to drive through all the small-town roads for a couple of hours. It was fun and exciting at first, but got kind of exhausting.

More good news, though. The clouds cleared up last night so not only were we able to see an incredible number of stars in the country, but it's sunny today. Sunshine! My uncle is going to pick us up soon and take us around to some historical sites for the day.

Rachael and I have already been prowling around Vilnius this morning taking pictures, trying to squeeze several days of photographic inspiration out of as much sunlight as we can get. I think we'll have some good stuff to post to the blog after we get back.

Once we get back to Frankfurt, we've got reservations at the Frankfurter Hof, my favorite, and the most gorgeous hotel in the city. (Can't remember the site off the top of my head and I'm on vacation, damn it, so you can look it up yourself if you're interested.) If things work out as expected, we're going to rent a car and take a drive to Ronneburg and Heidelberg, grab some dinner at this kick-ass Thai place (Rama 5) stop at (no snickering- I swear I still have dreams about this place after 2 yrs) the best ice cream shop on the continent, and if the catty emails will quit, consider picking up some treats for you bitches (you know who you are!). Ooh. And maybe lunch at one particular Italian joint. Not sharing the name with you though. Later, all...

We're back in Vilnius again. Our hostel is brand-new. There's literally plaster dust settling in the hallway and the smell of fresh-cut wood and fresh paint. We're only a couple blocks from the Gates of Dawn, the old walls of the city. So we're pretty much in the middle of things again. The train station is only a block away as well.

Today is the big party with as many of my family that can make it. We're wandering the winding streets of Old Town shopping for amber and hoping the sun comes out so we can finally take some pictures.

For the party this afternoon we're renting out what sounds like a complex just outside the city. Apparently there are natural gardens and saunas and all sorts of things there. No doubt there will be lots of alchohol. 100 proof mead, perhaps?

Close your eyes. You wanted a bath, didn't you? You ran the hot water heater for six hours, didn't you? Everybody's aleep, so just run the bath and relax.

Oh. Isn't the water a bit ... yellow? Funny, the tub looked perfectly clean. The water coming out of the faucet looks perfectly clear.

It's your imagination. Just close your eyes and get in. Oooh. That's nice and hot. That's better, isn't it? Ahhhh.

Hmmmm. The water really is yellow, isn't it? Nevermind. You were filthy, obviously. Just relax. Wait. What's that smell? Oh, crap. You smell bad now. Possibly minerals in the water but more likely urine or BO. Damn. What to do?

That aftershave you brought with you! Yeah, that stuff smells great! Shave, dammit! Shave everything you can and slather yourself in that stuff.

Mmmm. My skin is all tingly.

Ever spent a few hours shopping for fur and leather coats? Thankfully such things are inexpensive enough here that we did. And we each walked away with a leather shearling coat.

Mine is reversable. I will only wear it reversable when I'm posing as a pimp. With my cane. And top hat. For Halloween.

Scary outsides aside, we have a nice place here in Kaunas- it's huge and well done once you get past the 4-5 doors protecting it from discovery. So we had a nice night last night. It is, after all, our honeymoon... :-)

We plan to do a lot of sitting in cafes in the Lithuanian/Kaunas equivalent of a Fussgangerzone, checking out the devil museum (as Colin said- I've been hearing how interesting it is for the last two years, so can't wait to see if it lives up) plus the art museum by our hostel, and anything else that comes our way. The weather is supposed to be sunny starting today, so we might also have some decent photo weather going- we've been looking forward to being able to break out the cameras... I'm shooting chrome with an old Pearl River 120 that I was forced to use for my first 2 quarters in school, so we'll see how that goes.

Also looking forward to getting back to Vilnius and being able to really wander around and check it out- because of the delays in our travel we had to rush away almost as we had arrived last time. Again, hoping that the weather forecast proves accurate- saw lots of things I wanted to shoot, but the contrast in the rain sucked.

We need to finalize our reservations for the family dinner/informal ceremony deal we have planned for Saturday and then just generally settle down and play tourist for a while. Should be fun! We'll let you know. I'm also trying to find a plug converter for my digital charger- that way we can start adding in some pics.

OK, an executive decision has been made and we're going to upgrade our accomodations when we get back to Vilnius. Rachael found a nice bed and breakfast for the 23rd-26th. We'll have things like a balcony and breakfast and our own bath and ... well those don't sound like such a big deal except for our, ahem, variable Central European hostel experiences.

We're off to breakfast soon. We plan on shopping for more fur/leather coats and visiting the world-famous Devil Museum here in Kaunas. Devil!

Having left the pleasure of posting about BO man to Rachael, there are three moments that are seared into my memory from today:

1. The look on Rachael's face as I open the car door for her. The BO stink poured out like walking into an oven or sauna. Her face grimaced as she turned her head and body to avoid it. Little did she know...

2. Another look on Rachael's face as we climbed the here-foreafter-named "Beautiful Efficient Soviet Architecture Stairs" following BO man at an apparently unsafe 10 foot distance. She caught my eye from above and literally mouthed "I'm not fucking staying here and I hate you" with only a glance.

3. Our realization nearly an hour later drinking beers and eating lunch in a restaurant here in Kaunas that our jackets still had the BO stink on them. Remember that episode of Seinfeld when Jerry had to sell his car because a valet stank it up? Not so funny when it happens in real life.

Next time I come to this country I'll carry a bag of sample-sized deodorants and hand them out like candy. Damn, the only thing worse would have been if the BO guy got excited while driving and did some some crazy-ass chicken-wing dance. There would have been vomit in that car.

Colin saved me the best details to share. The itty bitty, tiny little negligible detail that made the trip to the hostel/apartment that much more gut-wrenching... Namely, that the bearded wonder looked like a bum, his car was in danger of dropping an engine, an the all important fact that he had the worst goddamn BO that I have ever smelled in my life, magnified by the fact that he apparently spent every waking hour of his life in that car! Let me just say that it was un-breathable from 5 feet. That after we got out, I could still taste it in the back of my throat for a good 1/2 hr after he cleared out, and that my jacket, after a 3 minute ride, still bears witness to the nasal assault that this guy and his hell-coach were distributing.

On the plus side, due to this nasal, mental, and emotional torment, I have now been guaranteed a luxury hotel for the remainder of our trip. And a shearling of my choice, post-Ramune-balls-of-steel negotiating skills. And we had a nice lunch too.
So more, I'm sure, to come...

Remember in our last post how everything seemed to be going great, and nothing but smooth sailing from now on? What a difference a day makes. We'd arranged for a room through hostelworld.com (not necessairly an endorsement) in Kaunas. My uncle was really nice to offer us a ride from Vilnius to Kaunas, taking most of a day off work in the process, apparently.

The morning went great, finding a great breakfast place in Vilnius where we were mistaken for Germans (yay, down with American tourists!). Our $7 breakfast for two included a chicken and mushroom crepe and tea for me and a bowl of semolina porridge with fresh strawberry compote and two cups of coffee for Rachael. The problems only began before we left.

We haven't arranged for hotel rooms when we get back in Vilnius for the 23rd-26th and our current hostel is booked up. Rachael and my mom went wandering around looking for another hotel but our budget seems to be averaging out at about $100/night. But my cousin, Gytis, might be able to hook us up with some business contacts for a better rate at a centrally located hotel in Vilnius. You know, the kind of place where you get your own bathroom and stuff.

So we drive all the way to Kaunas (about 55 kilometers) and check my mom into her hotel. She walked out exclaiming "They have electronic keycards and everything!". All for $10/night less than the place we found. We figured that we'd get a nice place, too. We're wandering down the street trailing our bags like orphan children and we can't find the damn place. We're standing directly in front of the address on the confirmation email so my uncle calls the included number and they tell him they're sending a driver over to take us to the hotel.

Now, a nice notice that you're willing to pick somebody up and take them to your hotel isn't the same thing as withholding the actual address and then sending a bearded guy in a broken down car to drive to god-knows-where. Where is our hotel? Our fevered imaginations could only wonder as we waited. Is it in town? Is it at the airport? Is it on a farm? Is it an old Soviet mental hospital? Who knows?

It turns our that our hotel is only a few blocks from where we were standing, just off the main drag in Kaunas. Imagine the ugliest gray concrete building you've ever seen. Yeah, that's our place. Now, imagine the scariest lobby/stairway you can imagine. Got it? Yeah, we're walking up this non-illuminated concrete and steel stairway (four floors of sphincter-tightening fun) hoping to hell we're not going to get robbed and killed at the top, like some crazy funhouse party. We're going to take pictures of this stairway during full daylight and you still won't believe how horrible it is.

Suprise of surprises, once we get to the apartment it's actually pretty nice. We have an entire two-bedroom apartment with our own television, bath, fridge and hot water heater on the top floor (about seven floors up at this point). So things appear to have worked out.

But we haven't checked to see if the heat or water work yet, so you never know. We're off shopping for leather and fur coats for the coming Chicago fall and winter.

Didn't want to have to break that down into manageable chunks, so thank god for that solid effort on Colin's part. We got really lucky at the airport at Riga- we'd just decided that I was definitely not going to be renting a car (w/o GPS) at 11:00 at night after not getting decent sleep for 2 days and attempting to find Vilnius with maps when, out of the corner of our eyes, appeared the perfect solution- the 12 E bus ride.

So we missed out on the multiple opportunities to kill us that my driving would have presented, got to get some sleep, and wrapped up the morning with a breakfast that we would not have appreciated nearly as much, had we not been so excited to get off the street. Then we chatted for a bit with a really blasted (and therefore entertaining) Brit, and the day improved from there. We now have cell service (thanks to Omnitel) and plan to spend the next couple of days living it up w/ general-style tourisim, dining, massages, etc. Gytis took us to an incredible restaurant (Torres) in the artist district for dinner and we had an incredible meal, so things are definitely looking up...

More to come, but I have got to go to they can lock up this cafe.

Another rhetorical question. What's worse than a six-hour bus ride from Riga to Vilnius? How about being dropped off at a bus station and then having your Russian-only cab driver spin around the narrow, winding streets at 5am trying to find your hotel? How about finding out your hotel is closed and camping out in front of *another* hotel's park bench waiting for them (or anybody else) to open? How about potentially rabid and insane wild dogs making horrible noises just around the corner while you try to *not* look like a really easy mugging victim?

I know all that sounds bad, but we had a great breakfast afterwords, checked into our hotel, had a hot shower and got a few hours sleep. My mother checked in as well and we all had dinner with my cousin Gytis and uncle Statys.

Basically, everything after the shower has been great. Vilnius, like most places, is a pretty nice city to visit if you have a warm place to sleep and food to eat. We're about the close this Internet cafe (midnight) so I'm going to sign off. My uncle volunteered to drive us to Kaunas tomorrow so our transport issues are getting easier. My cousin can pull some strings for a different hotel when we get back to Vilnius on Friday.

The vacation has actually begun!

I'm swearing a lot here. Sorry, I'm just so fucking excited!

Freaking out on how to get to Vilnius from Riga without renting a car with an additional 100 euro charge, sleeping in the airport/train/bus station or trading your body for a ride?

Why, take the express minibus that leaves at 11pm for 12 euros each!

Holy Shit!

Holy crap, we made it to Frankfurt.

Colin phrased everything so effectively that I don't have much to add other than to do some (admittedly) childish sniping, whining, and complaining.

Everything else aside, the last two days have been some damn good people-watching (and I've crocheted a good 1/3 of an afghan that I thought would take all winter)... The most irritating award goes to the young kid in the kelly green sweater with a patch for his Irish clan, talking about how he was planning on kicking around on his Irish and US passports, and if he got bored, ditching his euro plans to go to Brazil instead. Well, him and all the people that screamed at the agents and beat us onto flights with standby status anyway. And the fact that a bottle of Mountain Dew at the airport costs $2.00. But that's neither here nor there. The fact remains that we've been very lucky with being able to reschedule our connecting flights once we hit Frankfurt without blowing the bank, and I'm going to go ahead and throw in a plug for RyanAir in that regard. Don't know how the actual airline is yet, but the flexibility quotient definitely gets snaps.

We're still in Chicago. It's supposed to be our second day on our honeymoon and we can't get out of O'Hare airport. We've listed ourselves on six flights tomorrow going to Frankfurt, London and Paris.

If we can't get on any of those we're ditching the existing plan and heading to Tokyo and onwards to Bangkok. Asia flights are wide open. We have a good chance of getting business class.

My mother used to work for United Airlines, so we're attempting to travel to Frankfurt via her companion passes. They're a way for current and former employees to share their travel benefit with friends and family. The upside is that you can fly to, say, Europe for a few hundred dollars.

The downside that has plagued us today is that you're not guaranteed a seat. If there are any seats left after all the paying customers have gotten on the flight, then all the standby people circle around the counter, eyeing each other, trying to figure out who has the highest seniority.

If my mother were travelling with us, we'd be set. But our seniority level drops since she's not with us so another couple took the last two seats on the evening flight to Heathrow.

We're trying again tomorrow and have pushed back our flight from Frankfurt-Hahn to Riga one day. We're grumpy and frustrated. May the standby gods favor us tomorrow.

Well, we missed our flight out of Chicago to Frankfurt due to overbooking and some reroutes for a flight to Hong Kong. We've just listed ourselves on the 9:15pm flight to London. We're hopeful that we can get from London to Frankfurt-Hahn inexpensively enough to catch our flight to Riga in approximately seven hours later. Thank goodness we had a 10-hour layover on the original itinerary.

If we don't make this flight to London then we're "screwed" until tomorrow. I'm quoting Rachael there.

Onward and (hopefully) upwards. Soon.

Dunno... could be just me, but I think it's funny...

Advantages The Law of the Republic of Lithuania № VIII - 1605 about the discounts, granted by passenger carriers,
issued on March 30, 2000 "THE DISCOUNTS, GRANTED BY PASSENGER CARRIERS"
Valid since 01-05-2000.

Discounts on the distant and local communication routes:

	№		Passenger category		Document		Free of charge		80 %		50 %		30 %
	1.		Two pre-school children (without occupation of seats)				yes		-		-		-
	2.		Officers, who supervise passenger carriers		Special certificate		yes		-		-		-
	3.		Disabled children and the person, who accompanies them		Disabled person's certificate		-		yes		-		-
	4.		Disabled person, attributed to the 1-st group, and the person, who accompanies him or her		Disabled person's certificate		-		yes		-		-
	5.		Persons, whose diseases are enlisted in the list, issued by the Health Ministry, who should be constantly treated by haemodialysis and who should be accompanied by a person		Special certificate		yes		-		-
	6.		Participants of resistance towards the occupation, which took place within the years 1940-1990 m.,- soldiers-volunteers at the age of 70 and older		Soldier-volunteer`s certificate and the document, which proves the age		-		yes		-		-
	7.		Disabled persons, attributed to the 2-nd group		Disabled person's certificate		-		-		yes		-
	8.		Participants of resistance towards the occupation, which took place within the years 1940-1990 m.- soldiers-volunteers under 70 years of age		Kario savanorio pažymėjimas		Soldier-volunteer's certificate		-		yes		-
	9.		Participants of the fights for freedom		Certificate, owned by the participant of the fights for freedom		-		-		yes		-
	10.		Victims of the occupation, which took place within the years 1939 - 1990 - political prisoners and deportees as well as previous prisoners of ghetto, concentration camps and oppressors` camps of other types		Special certificate		-		-		yes		-
	11.		Defenders of independence of the Republic of Lithuania, who are attributed to the category of the disabled persons, who suffered through the USSR aggression, effected on January 11-13, 1991 and later on		Certificate, owned by the defender of independence, by the disabled person, who is attributed to the 2-nd or the 3-rd group		-		-		yes		-
	12.		Family members of the defenders of independence of the Republic of Lithuania, who suffered through the USSR aggression, effected on January 11-13, 1991 and later		Victim's certificate		-		-		yes		-
	13.		Persons at the age of 70 and older		Certificate, proving the age		-		-		yes		-
	14.		Children at the age from 7 till 10		Certificate, proving the age		-		-		yes		-
	15.		Third child and more children under the age of 7		Certificate, proving the age		-		-		yes		-

The passenger groups, consisting of more than 10 persons, may address the TOKS administration with the request to be granted the discounts for the tickets, obtained for the trip.

Departure

September 16th
United Airlines flight 940
ORD-FRA (Chicago to Frankfurt)

September 17th
Bohr Omnibus
FRA-HHN (Frankfurt to Frankfurt-Hahn)

September 17th
RyanAir flight FR4372
HHN-RIX (Frankfurt-Hahn to Riga)

September 17th - September 18th
Riga
Elizabeth's Youth Hostel

September 19th
Riga-Vilnius
Train 357/371
Riga-Truskavets (via Jelgava, Vilnius, Lida, Baranavicy, Lvov)
on Uneven dates

September 19th - September 20th
Vilnius
Bernardinu St. Guest House

* Vilnius-Kaunas (9.8 lt - $3.5)
E6465 Vilnius - Kaunas (E) trečios klasės 20:20 21:57 104 km 9.8 Lt
E6461 Vilnius - Kaunas (E) trečios klasės 18:35 19:57 104 km 9.8 Lt
D6465 Vilnius - Kaunas (D) trečios klasės 20:20 22:02 104 km 9.8 Lt

September 21st - September 22nd
Kaunas
Kaunas Apartments

* Kaunas-Vilnius (9.8 lt - $3.5)
D6442 Kaunas - Vilnius (D) trečios klasės 03:55 05:55 104 km 9.8 Lt
E6456 Kaunas - Vilnius (E) trečios klasės 15:35 17:03 104 km 9.8 Lt
E6458 Kaunas - Vilnius (E) trečios klasės 16:50 18:43 104 km 9.8 Lt

* Vilnius-Riga

September 27th
RyanAir FR4372
RIX-HHN (Riga to Frankfurt-Hahn)

September 28th
Bohr Omnibus
HHN-FRA (Frankfurt-Hahn to Frankfurt)

September 29th
Frankfurt
Hotel - Frankfurter Hof Steigenber

September 30th
United Airlines flight 945
FRA-ORD (Frankfurt to Chicago)