Lithuania : Day One

My father met us at the airport, waiting for us right outside the baggage claim (some would say uncharacteristicly untime, but I know the truth - when it counts my Dad always comes through!). Between myself, Eileen, Gail & Daniel we had 8 large pieces of luggage plus 3 smaller carry-ons and the mandatory car seat & stroller. I'm constantly amazed at all the stuff that goes along with transporting an 18-month old - we must shlep along 5 times his weight in assorted goodies!

My father flew in the day before with his sister, also a survivor of the German's wickedness. He was unsuccessful in renting a van yesterday for all of us plus our luggage, so Eileen & Daniel went with my father and Gail and I each took taxis to our hotel. My Lithuanian is non-existant, and the cabbie took full advantage. He didn't turn on the meter and quoted an outragious 40 lita when I got to the hotel. Gail's cabby told me in broken English, "my rate is the same as yours", and since we both managed to beat my father to hotel, I was stuck paying the crooks. I knew I was being taken but only later would I learn by how much - the same ride costs about 12-15 lita.

The hotel we are staying at in Vilnius, Ratunda, is a wonderfully small hotel in the European intimate style of living. The rooms are specious (especially the bathrooms) but things that you'd take for granted in the States such as an A/C are non-existant (Not that there are too many days that a nothern climate like Lithuania needs air conditioning!). Even though we have three rooms in our room, there's only one phone extention. - things like that gnaw at you, but appointments like a four poster bed and a plush couch that Daniel loves to climb on more than make up for the missing touches.

After unpacking and freshening up, we all headed to the local Lubavitch branch in Vilnius. Run by Rabbi Krinsky, we had contacted them before our trip about providing kosher meals for us throughout our stay in Lithuania. This was the one part of our trip I was a little apprehensive about since the email communications we had had from them were at times a little unclear. Thankfully, they had all our information down correctly and had completely prepared for our trip. Dinner was served within 15 minutes of our showing up, (a good thing too since we were all famished from all the flying) and it was delicious!!! I highly recommend them for anyone traveling to Lithuania; Rabbi Krinsky can be contacted at http://www.jewish.lt

After dinner we all packed into the Corolla and headed off to the Rotunda. We quickly stopped at a rather large supermarket that had the one small kosher section in all of Vilnius. We were now ready to sleep and tackle Kaunas in the morning.