Dalius, Aurija, Taurus, & Laimis.
Vikki, Mari, Darius, Vytas, & Elena.
Because of hotel check-out, we spent the afternoon at the Dublin airport. Found places to get on the internet, walked circles around the terminal, and finally checked in and go through customs. Easy again. Then the girls got lattes and Elena got a muffin. We took the long hike to the RyanAir gates. From there, we had a fantastic view of the Dublin Mountains to the west. Whew! Getting onto the plane was like a cattle call! But we got two rows together - I had a nice Lithuanian guy heading home to get married next to me.
Although we got on the RyanAir plane to Lithuania at ~ 4PM, and it was a 3-hour flight, there was alsoa 2-hour time difference. So we landed at ~ 9PM. All we hope for is that there would be a couple of relatives to drive us to the hotel.
Ha. Not with our relatives. We walked into a lobby filled with or family - more than we have total in the US, even counting all the branches of all our families! And they packed us into Kestas's van, with Kestas and Vytas, to drive to a restaurant that they had hired and set up just for us. A Welcome Home party!
An aside. I will use our Lithuanian-American convention of using ^ after a letter to indicate the sort of check mark over a letter that, in Lithuanian, is kind of like our adding an h after a letter to sort of soften the pronunciation.
There was a long table, covered with home-made food. And a side table with beers, tea, coffee, home-made peach juice, water. And a room full of family. Everyone remembered how I enjoyed the alus tamsus (dark beer) last time. So there was always beer for me wherever we went. I always ask for the small glass (a half pint), but I do enjoy a good ale. Luckily, there was also juice, cola, and water. Elena is not a beer person.
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Dalius, Aurija, Taurus, & Laimis. |
Vikki, Mari, Darius, Vytas, & Elena. |
Elena got the first of many bars of Lithuania dark chocolate that the relatives showered on her. She became a fast fan.
Roz^e, Ona, Darius, & Vikki. |
Clock-wise from the left: Dalius, Aurija, Taurus, Laimis, Lestutis, Aldona, Elyte, & Vytas. |
We feasted on canapes with shaved ham, herring, egg, tiny pickles.... And platter of dark rye toast covered with melted grated cheese - a real hit.
Vytas, Roz^e, Ona, a friend, & Dalius. |
Antanas, Roz^e, Ona, & Darius. |
And only some of the great food.
A friend, Antanas, Roz^e, & Ona. |
Aldona, Elyte, & Vytas facing - Elena & Mari's heads. |
We had a wonderful introduction to Lithuania - and to our large family. We all grew up in a tiny family that was spread out across the huge United States. Sharon said exactly what I did back in 2000, "I can't believe that I'm related to this many people. And that they all like me!"
Finally, time to clean up and take us to Metropolis, in downtown Kaunas. We'd planned as far as Musninkai on Saturday. And probably an overnight trip to the Baltic Sea on Sunday. The relatives helped us check in. Our rooms in Metropolis were neither as nice as I remember from my visit one afternoon in 2000, nor as shown on their web site. Then again, we did arrive about midnight - and the hotel seemed to always be full. Sharon had a single room with a bathroom. Mari & Elena had a double room with a bathroom. Vikki & I had a double room with a bedroom, a sitting room, a toilet room, and a room with a tub with shower and a bidet. OK, why is the bidet in a different room from the toilet? We are Americans and do not understand this.
The bedroom Vikki & I had. |
Sharon & Vikki in our sitting room. |
Mari & Elena had a balcony, on which we later had this family group. |
Elena loved the revolving door in the lobby. To the point of "helping" other guests through. Who never seemed to mind, no matter what language they and Elena didn't speak. |
I have to say that the staff did offer to find us other rooms. But we would have had to be there to change rooms around mid-day. And we were too busy to be back there at such a time. We had so little time to do all that we wanted to do.
Anyhow, we all fell into bed and had a wonderful sleep in our family homeland, finally all knowing that we were only a small part of a large and loving family.
The next day: 9/25
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