First things first: Happy Birthday, Dad! I'm bummed I can't celebrate with you guys, but I hope you guys do something special for your birthday!
I figured that I needed to finish blogging about Italy before I could leave for Russia or else it would all disappear into the vast recesses of my memories and would be forever lost to all those who were interested in it. That's probably not too many people, but at least I can have all these memories written down so that when I get home I can bind them up in a book and keep them forever. Give them to my grandchildren. And they can laugh with me at how ridiculous I was here in Lithuania. Good times. By the way, Russia is in three days and I'm massively stoked for that. We had a meeting for Russia tonight and we got our itineraries, which are fully packed out, so it's going to be a busy Spring Break, but I'm not complaining about it. We get to spend 17 hours on a train from Latvia to Moscow, 6 more hours from Moscow to St. Petersburg, and then, at the end, 12 hours from St. Petersburg back to Latvia. I'm kind of exciting for all the travelling adventures. But alas, back to Italy
Venice - Part 4
Day 4:
It's our final day. It was nice to sleep in a moderately tempered room. I am still thankful for our warm water as I shower. The girls, as usual, have already gotten up, showered, and are just taking care of make-up, hair, etc. while I shower and stuff.
When I get out of the shower and go to the main room, I suddenly realize the plethora of food that we still have on our table. I put my clothes and things on the dresser in my room and go for breakfast. Natalya is already making tea. We again reuse our plastic cups. First things first, blueberry strudel, then sweet rolls, then fruit.
The night previous, we successfully dominated a 1kg bag of cookies, which is a little over two pounds. Kind of a lot. We successfully ate a lot of the breakfast food, which was good, since we were checking out of the hostel and needed room for all of our other things in our bags. The thing about travelling light is that you just got to pack smart. I love not having things to worry about, just when the end of the trip hits, you ask yourselves things like, "How am I supposed to fit all this bread into my bag ALONG with all these t-shirts?"
Regardless, we ate well and packed what we could, and then ate what we couldn't. Off we were. Out to Venice and then back to Sweden later that day. One semi-stressfully thing is that we were supposed to buy bus tickets to the airport once we got to Venice, and who knows how reliable that is, so that was in the back of my mind the whole trip.
The bus, though, was a cosmic repeat of the previous day. Wait twenty minutes. Bus comes. Packed. Miss the bus. Wait another twenty minutes. Get on bus. Seems oddly familiar.
Finally we get on a decently packed bus and make our way to Venice. Our last time in Venice. Once there we go to our assigned meeting place and meet up with DJ and Elly. From there, we take care of business: first things, souvenirs for Natasha's family and Jessica's Lost Card. The girls head to the glass shop and Elly, DJ, Jess, and I go towards the bank to try to recover her card. The door to the bank was nuts, they had a glass tube that you step into and they do a retinal scan as well as a fingerprint check. Crazy. They were able to recover Jess' card, but they didn't return it to her for security reasons. But at least it was safe.
From here we just wandered on the other side of the island that we hadn't walked on yet. It was mostly a tourist area, and they had a bunch of shops and stores and stuff. It was great fun but very busy. It was about this time, however, that I developed a strong urge to use the restroom. I began checking at all the local hotels, but none offered public bathrooms.
We kept walking. We walked for about two hours and finally came back and decided on a place to eat. At this point, however, I felt like my innards were going to implode. I walked around looking for a bathroom. I hate paying for bathrooms but that seemed to be my only option. I walked up to it, but no! It was closed! This was really bad news. I just decided to walk off and leave in order to find one. I walked for another fifteen minutes and came to a quiet street. I was severely tempted to just go in a back alley, but this was a residential area and people would be able to see from a window if they were home and I just feel bad about doing something like that. Kind of like a criminal. So I decided against that, but regardless of what my cognition decided, my bladder was still in control. I prayed a lot. I ended up walking into a little restaurant and made the saddest face I could as I asked for a toilet. Suprisingly, the man was like "Toi-ell-ette?" (Imagine Italian accent) and said something else and pointed me to the back. I almost lost it. I made my way back there and had no regrets of it. I'm just glad I survived. And so did my pants.
I made my way back to the group, ordered pizza, and celebrated in victory eating my cheese pizza. We met a dude in the pizza shop who was from the States, but was living near Venice for work, he was there with his son, so it was cool to have some camaraderie with other…people.
Afterwards, we just headed back towards the main square, about an hour early, and just hung in the park for a while. We saw a really awkward conversation between a guy and a girl. It looked like they had just broken up and he was trying to explain why. It was kind of funny to watch.
We walked over to where our bus should be loading up, and just in time! We got on, got seats, and waved goodbye to Italy. It was about 40 minutes to the airport and I spent most of them sleeping. It was pretty sad to say goodbye it Italy. It was a really nice break from Lithuania. Different culture, different weather ,different atmosphere. It was really enjoyable. But hey, all things come to an end.
We ordered our last gelato at the airport and prepared to go back to Sweden. It was surprising how easy it was to travel and get around in Europe. Ryanair didn't disappoint us!
We boarded up our plane and I had the good pleasure of sitting next to Rita on our 2.5 hour flight to Stockholm Skavsta. Honestly, the plane ride there was actually one of the highlights of the trip. We just had some great conversations and some really good times talking and getting to know each other. It's crazy to me that rarely are the places you visit what you remember. More often you remember the things you did with the people that you went to those places with. But yeah, it was great. Both the flight to Italy and from Italy were very good and enlightening.
Touchdown in Sweden! It's 10:30pm and we are now in Scandinavia. We get our stuff and walk to our hostel across the street. We check into our very economical rooms and head downstairs to check out the restaurant. Very Swedish. Nothing really that I want to buy so I grab by iPod and head out for a late night walk. The Paris people came in, though, before I left , so we sat and talked for a bit. It was great to see some other friends after a short hiatus.
I stepped outside for a walk. It's about half past eleven and the sky is brilliantly dark. I start walking. The air is brisk, but not cold. And it smells so fresh. Everything is evergreen trees and snow. It's as if it was taken straight out of a postcard. I walked until the streetlights disappeared and just enjoyed the fresh air and the quiet. I've learned to enjoy the quiet more and more. It was great. After the walk, I came back and had some tea with a few of the others. We decided to head into Nykongpang before our flight the next day.
Day 5:
All night I tossed and turned. I was afraid they would leave without me. At 7:30ish we got a knock and I jumped out of bed, grabbed my things and jumped into the shower. Twenty minutes later I make my way down for breakfast. Open faced sandwiches with cucumbers, cheese, and ham. Amazing. We took the public bus into Nykongpang, about fifteen minutes away. It was a quiet little town. It was very beautiful and very Swedish. The atmosphere was vastly different from Italy and Lithuania and it felt very calm; I'd love to take a trip back to Sweden. We walked around for a few hours and then headed back for our flight to Riga.
Here, we met up with all of our friends. Team Sweden, Team Paris, and Team Venice. All in one airport. Fantastic! I sat next to my buddy Will on the flight back to Riga. He travelled to Sweden with a bunch of others and we got a good chance to catch up on the flight back home. I also even go to use some of my German with the Latvia woman who was seated next to us.
An hour later, we find ourselves bumming around Riga airport waiting for our bus back home. It's crazy how you come full circle.
The bus ride was somewhat long, but it’s the people that make it great. We sat for a long time. Sitting. Sitting. Left Latvia. Back to Lithuania. I was on the edge-ish seat and near the end, while most were dozing, Amanda came over and took the empty seat and we chatted for a good while on the way back to Klaipeda. It's these little things that make you remember trips. Interactions with people. Flights. Sharing snacks. These are what makes our trips the way they are.
We arrived in Klaipeda around 8pm. We came full circle. Klaipeda, Riga, Stockholm, Venice, Stockholm, Riga, Klaipeda. It really was a great five days, and it took me nearly three times as long to write a full update but there it is; mostly in part, and not nearly close to being in whole. But if you remember something, tell me, that way I don't learn to forget it myself.
March 3, 2010
February 28, 2010
Venice - Part 3
Here is the third installment in our Venice Adventure
Day 3:
I wake up everyday around 8am. How do I know this? I don't. I have no way to tell the time. But I hear voices and running water, so I know the girls are up. They get up way early to shower and take care of things. They wake me up when they're all done. But I'm already up.
Rita knocks on the door to wake me up. I hop out of bed. Remove my hat. Remove my gloves. Remove my sweatshirt. I am now wearing a normal montage of T-shirt and shorts. The previous night was not nearly as cold, but I think it was due in part to the fact that I dressed quite warmly. I greet the girls good morning as they put on makeup or brush their teeth. Good news: the water is legitimately warm. That's like hearing an inspiring story. This time, I gladly go into the shower. The shower was glorious. And Warm. Gloriously warm.
Upon dressing, I go to the "dining room" (a.k.a. Front Room) to join the crew for breakfast. There are small things, sweet rolls, fruits, etc. The weather outside is normal/warm, so we prepare ourselves for a day of fantastic weather. Actually, that's a foreshadowing, the weather first looks horribly cloudy from the hostel, but upon our arrival on the Island, blue skies appear.
We pack all of our things up, gloves, scarves, food, cameras, and off we go. We walk to the bus station, about a kilometer away or so. There are already some people there waiting for the bus. The five of us wait. And wait. And wait. Finally, the bus comes. We scatter and try to get on, but, much to our remiss, the bus is completely packed. We miss the bus. Rather, the bus missed us. That was kind of a let down. So we wait again. Twenty minutes later the 2nd bus comes and this one is much less crowded. We still have to push and shove our way on, but it is bearably crowded, so we gather the most comfortable standing positions we can afford and off we are! It's our 2nd day in Venice. We will not be meeting up with DJ and Elly today because they are spending the day as date day.
It is Valentines Day. Not going to lie, probably the best way to spend Valentine's Day as a single person is with good friends in the city of Venice. Seriously, what more could you really ask for? We're in Italy and there is no snow; I have zero complaints.
Our first goal is to get to St. Mark's square because we are hoping to beat the crowds over there. We start walking. We end up running into a lot of the same streets that we were on the night before as we figured out our way home. The city is beautiful. We turned so many little corner alleys and ended up in deserted, beautiful little alleyways surrounded by water. It was like the movies.
We were wrong, however. St. Mark's Square is no less busy during the day. The people were flooding out like nuts. There were people in costumes. People with families. People, People, People. We mostly stayed on the outskirts of the square and walked around near some of the little shops. We did get a chance to see the Basilica and to go inside, and that was magnificent. It was relatively quiet by the Basilica, which was nice.
We spent quiet a bit of time walking around the city, which was fine with me, because the company and the city were great by themselves. We took some water taxis around to a different part of the city. By this time, we were craving some food. We stopped at a small restaurant for a late lunch. Our server was very jovial and pleasant, and I think he enjoyed using his English with us, since we had no Italian to use with him (unfortunately). Amanda got Gnocchi, Rita and Jessica Lasagna, and Natasha and I both got Pizzas. I think everyone's meal cost 6 Euro, which was not a bad price, especially since the Pizzas that Natalya and I got were rather large. I had a spicy salami pizza and Natalya had olives and little salt-plumbs (I don't know what they're called, but salt-plumbs makes sense in my head; they are similar in look to olives).
Following this we mostly just…walked around. It sounds kinda lame, I guess, in writing, but words can't describe the colors I saw, the languages I heard, the food I smelled, the gelato I tasted, and the awe I felt. It just was. I could do that for hours and hours. Just simply walking around and being. It was incredible to not have any set schedule--we could just do whatever we wanted and go home whenever we wanted. I had many good conversations and shared experiences with those with me. I don’t remember every word, every joke, or every thing I saw. What I remember, though, are the faces of the people, the excitement on the children, and the laughter I heard. It's like a brand in my mind. I can see some things so vividly its as if they were right in front of me. I can close my eyes and hear people laughing.
Well, around 6pm we decided that we were ready to head back. We had walked most of the day and the day prior. Natalya, however, decided that she was really feeling in the mood for tea, so before we left Venice we headed to the local Coop (grocery store). We all bought some snacks for our tea time, checked out, and waited for our bus.
It came. We shoved our way on. It was crowded, as usual. I think it's more uncomfortable being on the bus for 40 minutes rather than being on the Island for 9 hours with a backpack. It's just super claustrophobic on the bus.
We made it back the hostel, grabbed our key, and entered our home. Relief. We can sit down, chill, relax, hang out. Nice. We all put our food on the table, but something was amiss. The food on the table kept multiplying. More and More and More. We all stood looking at the table. "What the heck did you buy?" we ask each other. We thought we would have some cookies with tea, like we usually have here in Lithuania for tea, but that was not the case. We had tea, yes, and then we had a kilo of carrots, we had sweet rolls, we had a kilo of cookies, we had a blueberry strudel, we had Kinder ca ndies, we had chocolate, we had two packages of chocolate wafers, we had breadsticks, we had a package of spiced bread, we had chocolate rolls, we had apples, and we had oranges. Don't ask me how we accumulated all this food, I guess we just assumed that each of would be buying the snacks for the tea. How were we going to make tea? Very unsafely. First, the water in our bathroom sink was searingly hot, but it was a good warmth for drinking tea, so we got water from the sink, put it in our plastic cups, and drank tea. We used and reused plastic cups; kind of sketchy, but you gotta do what you gotta do.
We thought it was going to be a very quiet night, and it was, but to our great surprise, that night was probably the most memorable night of our entire trip, and we spent it in a hostel 30 kilometers from Venice! We sat and drank tea, we played "I have never" and "Would you Rather" and just bummed around with a purpose. We played a game called Pruihe, and it was just ridiculous. It was a fun night. I don't even know what happened but we ended up spending five hours sitting on the beds and chairs just hanging out. It serves as a reminder that we don't need all these things to keep ourselves entertained; in fact, we don't even need to have all these "great adventures" in order to create memories. We just need good friends. It doesn't matter where you are or what you do, what you will remember the most is the people you are with.
I was glad for that reminder because oftentimes I feel as if I need to be distracted by things or whatnot, when in fact, we don't really need much to have a good time or to enjoy other's company. It's the simple things that make the biggest differences in our lives. It's such a good reminder.
Well, thus was day three in Venice, we spent a lot of time on Venice, but nearly as much time sitting around a table snacking on carrots and chocolate. All in all, it was a very memorable day.
One final great thing of the day was that I didn't need a sweatshirt, nor a hat--not even gloves!--in order to sleep in quiet peace. That's good news.
Day 3:
I wake up everyday around 8am. How do I know this? I don't. I have no way to tell the time. But I hear voices and running water, so I know the girls are up. They get up way early to shower and take care of things. They wake me up when they're all done. But I'm already up.
Rita knocks on the door to wake me up. I hop out of bed. Remove my hat. Remove my gloves. Remove my sweatshirt. I am now wearing a normal montage of T-shirt and shorts. The previous night was not nearly as cold, but I think it was due in part to the fact that I dressed quite warmly. I greet the girls good morning as they put on makeup or brush their teeth. Good news: the water is legitimately warm. That's like hearing an inspiring story. This time, I gladly go into the shower. The shower was glorious. And Warm. Gloriously warm.
Upon dressing, I go to the "dining room" (a.k.a. Front Room) to join the crew for breakfast. There are small things, sweet rolls, fruits, etc. The weather outside is normal/warm, so we prepare ourselves for a day of fantastic weather. Actually, that's a foreshadowing, the weather first looks horribly cloudy from the hostel, but upon our arrival on the Island, blue skies appear.
We pack all of our things up, gloves, scarves, food, cameras, and off we go. We walk to the bus station, about a kilometer away or so. There are already some people there waiting for the bus. The five of us wait. And wait. And wait. Finally, the bus comes. We scatter and try to get on, but, much to our remiss, the bus is completely packed. We miss the bus. Rather, the bus missed us. That was kind of a let down. So we wait again. Twenty minutes later the 2nd bus comes and this one is much less crowded. We still have to push and shove our way on, but it is bearably crowded, so we gather the most comfortable standing positions we can afford and off we are! It's our 2nd day in Venice. We will not be meeting up with DJ and Elly today because they are spending the day as date day.
It is Valentines Day. Not going to lie, probably the best way to spend Valentine's Day as a single person is with good friends in the city of Venice. Seriously, what more could you really ask for? We're in Italy and there is no snow; I have zero complaints.
Our first goal is to get to St. Mark's square because we are hoping to beat the crowds over there. We start walking. We end up running into a lot of the same streets that we were on the night before as we figured out our way home. The city is beautiful. We turned so many little corner alleys and ended up in deserted, beautiful little alleyways surrounded by water. It was like the movies.
We were wrong, however. St. Mark's Square is no less busy during the day. The people were flooding out like nuts. There were people in costumes. People with families. People, People, People. We mostly stayed on the outskirts of the square and walked around near some of the little shops. We did get a chance to see the Basilica and to go inside, and that was magnificent. It was relatively quiet by the Basilica, which was nice.
We spent quiet a bit of time walking around the city, which was fine with me, because the company and the city were great by themselves. We took some water taxis around to a different part of the city. By this time, we were craving some food. We stopped at a small restaurant for a late lunch. Our server was very jovial and pleasant, and I think he enjoyed using his English with us, since we had no Italian to use with him (unfortunately). Amanda got Gnocchi, Rita and Jessica Lasagna, and Natasha and I both got Pizzas. I think everyone's meal cost 6 Euro, which was not a bad price, especially since the Pizzas that Natalya and I got were rather large. I had a spicy salami pizza and Natalya had olives and little salt-plumbs (I don't know what they're called, but salt-plumbs makes sense in my head; they are similar in look to olives).
Following this we mostly just…walked around. It sounds kinda lame, I guess, in writing, but words can't describe the colors I saw, the languages I heard, the food I smelled, the gelato I tasted, and the awe I felt. It just was. I could do that for hours and hours. Just simply walking around and being. It was incredible to not have any set schedule--we could just do whatever we wanted and go home whenever we wanted. I had many good conversations and shared experiences with those with me. I don’t remember every word, every joke, or every thing I saw. What I remember, though, are the faces of the people, the excitement on the children, and the laughter I heard. It's like a brand in my mind. I can see some things so vividly its as if they were right in front of me. I can close my eyes and hear people laughing.
Well, around 6pm we decided that we were ready to head back. We had walked most of the day and the day prior. Natalya, however, decided that she was really feeling in the mood for tea, so before we left Venice we headed to the local Coop (grocery store). We all bought some snacks for our tea time, checked out, and waited for our bus.
It came. We shoved our way on. It was crowded, as usual. I think it's more uncomfortable being on the bus for 40 minutes rather than being on the Island for 9 hours with a backpack. It's just super claustrophobic on the bus.
We made it back the hostel, grabbed our key, and entered our home. Relief. We can sit down, chill, relax, hang out. Nice. We all put our food on the table, but something was amiss. The food on the table kept multiplying. More and More and More. We all stood looking at the table. "What the heck did you buy?" we ask each other. We thought we would have some cookies with tea, like we usually have here in Lithuania for tea, but that was not the case. We had tea, yes, and then we had a kilo of carrots, we had sweet rolls, we had a kilo of cookies, we had a blueberry strudel, we had Kinder ca ndies, we had chocolate, we had two packages of chocolate wafers, we had breadsticks, we had a package of spiced bread, we had chocolate rolls, we had apples, and we had oranges. Don't ask me how we accumulated all this food, I guess we just assumed that each of would be buying the snacks for the tea. How were we going to make tea? Very unsafely. First, the water in our bathroom sink was searingly hot, but it was a good warmth for drinking tea, so we got water from the sink, put it in our plastic cups, and drank tea. We used and reused plastic cups; kind of sketchy, but you gotta do what you gotta do.
We thought it was going to be a very quiet night, and it was, but to our great surprise, that night was probably the most memorable night of our entire trip, and we spent it in a hostel 30 kilometers from Venice! We sat and drank tea, we played "I have never" and "Would you Rather" and just bummed around with a purpose. We played a game called Pruihe, and it was just ridiculous. It was a fun night. I don't even know what happened but we ended up spending five hours sitting on the beds and chairs just hanging out. It serves as a reminder that we don't need all these things to keep ourselves entertained; in fact, we don't even need to have all these "great adventures" in order to create memories. We just need good friends. It doesn't matter where you are or what you do, what you will remember the most is the people you are with.
I was glad for that reminder because oftentimes I feel as if I need to be distracted by things or whatnot, when in fact, we don't really need much to have a good time or to enjoy other's company. It's the simple things that make the biggest differences in our lives. It's such a good reminder.
Well, thus was day three in Venice, we spent a lot of time on Venice, but nearly as much time sitting around a table snacking on carrots and chocolate. All in all, it was a very memorable day.
One final great thing of the day was that I didn't need a sweatshirt, nor a hat--not even gloves!--in order to sleep in quiet peace. That's good news.
Church
Today I went to an Orthodox Church. It was about a kilometer away from my dorm and it was somewhat dreary this morning as I trudged along. But I had high hopes.
I did enjoy the service, although I would have enjoyed it more if I could understand what was being said. I've begun to have a new appreciation for Orthodox theology since I've been here and have been studying some of their beliefs. I really enjoy a lot of their theology and I'm finding myself beginning to understand a lot more of where they are coming from, as well as Catholic theology. Often, in America, we see it as a division--you are either Christian…or Catholic. And that is a very false assumption. Orthodox and Catholic Theology, while I would say also have their areas that are less agreeable, do have some things more thought out and better understood, I would say, than Protestant thought.
I'm not becoming Orthodox, but at the same time, I am learning not to be exclusively Protestant. What I am becoming, I would say, is more like what Jesus would want for us to be, and that is part of the Universal church. How we understand theology is much less important than how we understand Jesus. Of course, I would not drop my theological understandings, mostly because I think they are true, but it's not my responsibility for people to have good or bad theology, I am not the one to judge that. God will judge their theology, but regardless of what "theology" they have, first he's going to ask them what they did with Jesus.
Jesus is more important than being pre-mil, Arminian, Reformed Monergistic, apophatic, or mystic. If we lose track of the big picture and only focus on the little things, then we are doing not only harm to the gospel, but harm to Jesus because we are destroying his bride--his church.
I did enjoy the service, although I would have enjoyed it more if I could understand what was being said. I've begun to have a new appreciation for Orthodox theology since I've been here and have been studying some of their beliefs. I really enjoy a lot of their theology and I'm finding myself beginning to understand a lot more of where they are coming from, as well as Catholic theology. Often, in America, we see it as a division--you are either Christian…or Catholic. And that is a very false assumption. Orthodox and Catholic Theology, while I would say also have their areas that are less agreeable, do have some things more thought out and better understood, I would say, than Protestant thought.
I'm not becoming Orthodox, but at the same time, I am learning not to be exclusively Protestant. What I am becoming, I would say, is more like what Jesus would want for us to be, and that is part of the Universal church. How we understand theology is much less important than how we understand Jesus. Of course, I would not drop my theological understandings, mostly because I think they are true, but it's not my responsibility for people to have good or bad theology, I am not the one to judge that. God will judge their theology, but regardless of what "theology" they have, first he's going to ask them what they did with Jesus.
Jesus is more important than being pre-mil, Arminian, Reformed Monergistic, apophatic, or mystic. If we lose track of the big picture and only focus on the little things, then we are doing not only harm to the gospel, but harm to Jesus because we are destroying his bride--his church.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
Posts
