The Lithuania experience!

Labas!!

Well the great adventure has begun. We arrived in drizzle and fog and I must say it has pretty much stayed that way with the exception of 2 days in the past 8 days. According to Rada, we missed the 2 weeks of good weather they will get this summer. Apparently the prediction is for a wet summer from here out. Oh well, side to trip to Turkey or Greece anyone?


We have a walk up apartment in what is called the Old City part of the town.
We have 5 flights of well worn, uneven, concrete stairs to climb get to our tiny flat.

Not that ours is very different than what I have seen all over Lithuania...these multi story concrete buildings, often faded, crumbling or moldy appearing, that are very reminiscent of Russian style apartment blocks. I like to call them tenement chic......Cheryl calls them the projects, like in the USA.

The apartment is tiny but really not a problem...And for those enquiring minds that need to know, yes we have a toilet and bath in our flat, but they are in separate rooms! There is a washing machine next to the tub, no sink....so you wash your hands under the tub faucet which is located high for that very purpose.

I have internet and we have a separate office/ spare bedroom which is also serving as ironing room, storage room, etc.

We are right next to the railway and the trains are non-stop, but amazingly they really don't bother me. They go through very quickly and are not that long so it isn't much different than the flightpath we had over Inglewood.

I like our location in the Old City. I can walk pretty much everywhere I need to go, and I have been walking a lot. I shop for bread or vegetables or wine most days just to get out and about. There are little grocerers or larger supermarkets all over. I have no idea how the population can support them all, but I guess since there are no Macs or 7-11s they serve the same purpose, except that you can also buy liquor in all of them. And that appears to be very important here. We have seen many drunk men stumbling or laying around during the day. Once we watched a man on a bike just fall over and then be unable to get back up. We could not get to him as he was on the other side of the road, but no one else seemed to take much notice. It was sad, but then so are the homeless down by the Bow River in Calgary.

The women are in 2 different camps....those who dress very dowdy (the bubushka ladies I call them) or those who dress very provocatively..extremely tight clothing, always stiletto heels. I have no idea how they manage to negotiate these uneven paving stones that make up the sidewalks but they all do.

We eat out a lot. That may wear thin soon, but for now it is nice to get to try all the local restaurants. There are some extremely good ones. The meat is great...very tender and fresh tasting...and well marinated. The service though is so so..The common demeanor especially in this town is very unsmiling and appears unfriendly. However on the whole I have to say that when you make an effort to speak to people in Lithuanian, they are fine.

The refinery that Tom works at is called Mazeikiu Nafta, located just outside its namesake city Mazeikiai. Here is our place in the world -----> x


As I mentioned, I walk a lot to keep busy and active. I have not yet gone running...mostly because I have not seen a single other person running! I told Tom that feel funny about it...so he promises to go with me to at least break the ice, but he has been too busy so far. In lieu of running, Cheryl and I are contemplating joining the local gym.

Cheryl is the wife of the boss and is going to be my only compadre here I think. No other spouses braved the trip. She has a car now so we can get around if we need to go farther afield than Mazeikiai or need to cart large items. Can you say ...ROAD TRIP!

I will try to figure out how to post more pictures. It seems to take forever to load them...there must be an easier way, but I am new to blogging, so this is another learning experience.

Well enough for today...We are off to dinner again shortly and I must get suitable attired. if I can tomorrow I will write about the disco we went to last night, but that deserves its own post...so until then, IKI!!!
M