we just returned from an incredible 11 days in the baltic states, celebrating the marriage of two very good friends! it was completely uncharted territory for us and we learned a lot in lithuania and latvia. we met up with lynton, raimonda and 18(!!) of their closest friends and family departing from edinburgh, at 1:50am for an insane red-eye flight on an airline which i'd be surprised is still in business this time next year. a few pints and one bumpy flight later, we were all in vilnius - lithuania's capital - in time for breakfast...albeit an early one! we spent the day meeting everyone and exploring the city. little did we know at the time, we'd grow quite close to these same people over the next seven days! the next day, monday, everyone headed to raimonda's home town of palanga, while we remained in the capital for an extra day. it was a very small and charming place with more churches than i've ever seen within four square miles. on that last night we had a delicious meal and afterward, we witnessed lithuania's love for basketball. the entire central square had been set up with a screen and beer tents to watch lithuania play china in the FIBA world championships. pretty cool to see NBA players being cheered for on a screen in lithuania! we took a five hour soviet-era train from vilnius to palanga on tuesday and the scenery told us a lot about the rural culture....picturesque, undeveloped, and sparsely vegetated with the exception of an old and somewhat surreal forrest here and there. palanga was a cheerful destination, complete with boardwalk, beach, bicycles, and beer! after the train ride, i don't think either of us expected this colorful and 'plastic' oasis at the end of the tracks.
we spent the next four days in palanga at a fabulous guest house where nearly all the wedding guests stayed. it had many wooden, hand-crafted additions and porches - like a giant fort. a huge stretch of forest was the only thing separating the villa from the beach so it was excellent for walks, happy our, and aussie rules football! (the groom, an aussie, had about 25 imported australians come to lithuania for the wedding week!) the food was tasty once we figured out what to order, and the beer averaged 60 pence (!!!) per pint...you can only imagine how this encouraged all the guests to meet and mingle. we came from all over the world for the occassion: lithuania, australia, ireland, poland, scotland, canada, south africa, and america.
because many of the days were unstructured, dustin and i really enjoyed relaxing and beginning to comprehend all the decisions we had just made in the days before: moving to america, living in austin, dustin accepting a job offer. it seemed a bit surreal to be in a lithuanian guest house planning the next chapter of our lives. we ate blinis for breakfast, had pints with our new friends, rented bikes, and fantasized about one day buying our very own couch...it was pretty awesome.
the saturday afternoon wedding was just beautiful. an epic storm that morning cleared literally minutes before the ceremony. an abridged mass was delivered in both lithuanian and english - pretty awesome. raimonda looked stunning and the boys cleaned up nicely too, shiny suits and all! after the ceremony, the wedding party took photos and all the guests slurped champagne on mini 'trams' which toured the botanic gardens, complete with urban park pit stop! we all met up later in the gardens where many traditional lithuanian dances and ceremonies were carried out. it was so fascinating to see the old pegan traditions involving hand-tying, music, burning reeds, and of course....making toasts while drinking a lot of vodka. (a theme which would be repeated all day and well into the night!) after the ceremonies, we had snacks and raimonda's dad proceeded to empty three bottles of vodka by offering the 60 guests shots, as is customary. it was very difficult to turn down an offer politely in another language, so the result was a lot of very tipsy polite people! by 5pm we were at the reception venue and an open bar and sunshine welcomed everyone to the sprawling outdoor deck. anyone that wasn't friends by this point in the week was now!
the evening was spectacular and like nothing i had ever witnessed: games, relays, dancing, performances, delicious seated courses, toasts, translations, and one hell of a good live band. by 3am (yes, and mass was at 1pm!) the dance floor was only just starting to wind down. dustin and i said many farewells that evening and headed home to the villa.
by 8am the next morning (ugh!) we were on a four hour bus to riga, latvia. my concern about potty stops was immediately calmed when the bus stopped after 45 minutes and every 'local' bailed with urgency to light up a cigarette. i realized that the lithuanian need to stop the bus and smoke would always ensure plenty of potty stops. as we watched hours of scenery go by, i couldn't get over how undeveloped stretches of latvia were. infrastructure was clearly only just becoming a priority outside of major cities. therefore, the small bus stop towns were pretty fascinating. many just beyond riga had beautifully crafted, saloon-style wooden structures which sat just beside the road. then you'd see brick, concrete, and steel structures: a real hodgepodge. the wind farm backdrops to these disparate building types was truly surreal. when we arrived at the bus station in riga, we could see a huge market, a mini eiffel tower on the daugava river, many soviet-influenced towers, and a skyscraper that could have been plucked right out of chicago. the collage was spectacular and it was immediately evident that riga had seen the most development, yet still managed to retain its origins. we arrived mid-day and spent the next two days exploring one of the prettiest cities in the baltics. the museum of the occupation depicted the baltic states' histories and their unique struggles for independence from the nazi's and the soviets. oddly enough my friend zane, who i met in edinburgh, was in riga (her hometown) at the same time so she took us to her favorite restaurant where not a word of the menu was in english but the food was out of this world! only after living in edinburgh would we run into latvian friend while traveling to lithuania for a wedding between a local and an aussie.
we are constantly being reminded - particularly as our return looms - of what an international city edinburgh is and what extraordinary people are drawn together here. we're glad to be home and now have many things to do in order to prepare for our return journey: find insurance, find furniture, buy a car, finish my portfolio, find a job, study for my last exam, etc. the escape for a few days to a completely foreign place was both refreshing and inspiring - gave us a chance to catch our breath. the countdown begins now...gotta make each day a memorable one here in scotland.
to see the rest of the pictures, go here. :)
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