Mostly, we hung out a lot. We tried to show him around as much as possible, and we had fun, but moreso it was refreshing to just visit with our good friend.
Here, briefly, is some of what we did (there are many stories, so I'll try not to make them all long...and I'll try to remember most of them):
Suitcase o'goodies
There was an entire big old suitcase filled with presents from home. It was so fun to celebrate Christmas a week later!
Klaipeda
We walked all over, showing off our city and our favorite places. We even tried a place we've never been before called Kurpiai, a jazz club. We will definitely go there again! Other highlights were: our favorite bakery: Bandele Namai, the bridge with all the locks, Stora Antis (a very cool little restaurant), and lithuanian cuisine in general.
Riga
We wanted to go to the capital of Latvia, which is only a mere 4.5 hour bus ride away. We pulled an all-nighter so that we could be awake to get on the 7am bus. Our plan was that we'd sleep on the bus all the way there, get there at 11:30/noonish, spend the day exploring Riga, and then get on the 6:30pm bus back to Klaipeda. At about 8am (still dark out), we woke up because the bus had stopped. I thought we were just at one of the scheduled stops along the way, but soon found out that we were stuck in a snowbank on the side of the road (1. hard to say "ditch" as there aren't that many hills here, and 2. There was no snow before Guy came. Just one of the many things he brought with from Minnesota).
The bus driver went out several times and tried to dig us out, and then would come back and try to drive out -- unsuccessfully. Finally, all the men on the bus got out to try to help him (The one other woman and I stayed on the bus), trying to move snow, pushing the bus, etc. But they were no match for the strong winds, snow, and big bus. A few cars stopped and tried to help. Someone had a shovel, another had a rope (that broke). Some of the men came on the bus to find anything that was flat to try to shovel us out (top of the garbage can, sign that said Klaipeda to Riga -- anything). Everyone got on the back of the bus to weigh it down while the driver tried to drive out...nothing. More pushing, more digging. Nothing would help. Several people were driving by us, not helping. I can't say anything about that, really. If I drove past a big bus in a ditch with a bunch of people standing around it, I wouldn't stop either. I've driven past worse, sadly.
Eventually most people came back on the bus to warm up, and a small plow came. Soon, the three of us fell asleep, because we thought we would be back on the road shortly.
At around 11am, the bus lurched again, and we wondered if we were off the road again. No. We were not off the road again....we were STILL stuck in the same spot! A bigger plow was there though, and had dug us out enough to allow the bus to back up. The truck cleared a big path where the bus had been stuck, and then sanded and salted everything from the bus to the road so we could get back on the road again.
At 11:30am, about the time we should've arrived in Riga, we were finally on our way. We arrived in Riga shortly before 4pm. Just in time to go to the top of a tall church and see the city before the sun completed setting, get some food (we didn't pack a lunch because we didn't expect to be on the bus for 9 hours), walk around for a little while, and then catch the 6:30pm bus back home.
It was definitely memorable. And we made it home safely, thank God!
More Daylight Hours as noticed on the way to church
We've been gaining more sunlight each day by the minutes. And it's noticable and appreciated. The first Sunday Guy was here, we walked to church in the dark. The second Sunday, we were able to walk to church while the sun was still out. (We go to evening church that starts at 5pm). It was good to be able to show where we go to church and introduce people.
Palanga
We caught a bus to Palanga, a city that is about 25 km away (you may remember that we rode bikes there in August). Arunas, a student and friend who lives across the hall from us, is from there and was our tour guide. We walked around the city, walked around in the forest, went to the pier, and went inside a big, beautiful church.
The pier goes out over the Baltic Sea for quite a ways, and we thought, "Let's walk to the end of it." No big deal, right? I forgot to mention that the sun had just set, it was cold out, slightly snowing/sleeting, and very, very windy (we were walking into the wind). I wish I knew the speed (is that how wind is measured?) of the wind, so it doesn't sound exaggerated. Let me out it this way: if the pier was little more icy, we could've let the wind blow us back to shore. It was amazing. I think I really experience God's power in situations/adventures like this.
LCC
On the day we showed Guy where we work, we also were recruited to take down Christmas decorations. Apparently it went faster than in the past, so that was good.
Sunset over the Baltic
One day the that the sun was out, we got on the number 6 bus and went to watch the sunset over the Baltic Sea.
Pizza
We made some of our best pizza over the last two weeks, as well as got to try some Lithuanian pizza...a couple of times. Eating pizza never gets old.
Cribbage/Movies
We played so much cribbage. And watched a whole list of movies. It's been awhile since we've been able to have this much recreation of this sort.
Vilnius
Yesterday (Wednesday), we got on the 6am train to Vilnius. We wanted to see the capital of Lithuania for a day before going to the airport. It's the capital of culture for the European Union in the year 2009. (Trivia: 2009 is also the 1000th birthday of Lithuania's name. In other words, the first mention in writing of the country of Lithuania was in 1009. That's old). We had a really nice day of walking around and looking at the Baroque architecture. There are a lot of old churches in Vilnius.
There are probably many more stories, but these are the ones that I can remember. We took a few pictures, but Guy took even more (he's in the air right now....somewhere between here and the U.S....pray for safe travels!), so we hopefully will get to see those soon.
Here are 4:
At Cili Pizza in Vilinius
Me in front of the oldest post office in Klaipeda (or at least that's what I've heard)
Steve and the bell tower in Vilnius
Vilnius
All in all, it was a wonderful time. Before we left the airport, Guy prayed for us -- and it was really a blessing. Such a great way to end his visit here. We are truly blessed!
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