From Paris to Vilnius

Friday, January 29, 2016

I write this morning, which is really Thursday night, from our apartment in Vilnius, Lithuania.  Six months ago when Adam was laying in a hospital bed, I never would have dreamed we would be here today.  What a hard and horrible six months we have endured with Adam’s Crohn’s flare up and the remodel on our house.  The flare is lessening, though not over, and we left our house on Monday full of construction workers trying to get our house finished, which was supposed to be done months ago.  But we made it happen.  We knew if Adam ever filmed on location and we had the chance to go with him, we would do it.

So here we are.  Adam and Russ came to Lithuania to film a Christmas movie for BYUtv – the Leo Tolstoy story of the Cobbler.  They are hoping for a snowy scene on the streets of old town Vilnius.  Their crew will consist largely of locals who operate this film location, including a stage on which they are building the interior set.  At the moment, it is raining.  We hope the snow will come…

Our journey began with a direct flight to Paris.  Since we were there, we stayed overnight and spent half a day in the city to see Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower.  Tyson and I also braved a journey to see the Paris Garnier Opera House, but unfortunately, it was already closed for the evening.  Thanks to our time in New York when Tyson was 11, he was helpful in getting us around on the Metro.  The greatest part of our adventure that day was when we went in search of a restroom, a hard thing to find in the city.  We knew there was a street toilet by the Eiffel Tower, so we headed off in that direction on the subway, which then just sat there.  We finally found someone who spoke English who informed us that the subway was stopped due to someone being on the track.  We had no idea how long we’d sit there, so finally got off and decided to walk.  Tyson remembered Massimilliano telling them in Italy that the best places to eat and find restrooms were on the side streets away from the touristy spots.  So we hit the side roads and soon found a cute little shop with a case of yummy sandwiches and pastries.  They were just getting ready to close, but had a toilet and let us order dinner to go.  We walked to a park and enjoyed quiche Lorraine, a tuna sandwich, carrot salad and a delicious slice of chocolate cake.

Ready for lift-off.  Bon voyage America!

Trying to be excited to see Paris, but just…so…tired… 

The Metro ride knocked them out.

Not sure he’s awake yet, and feeling unsure about 

what we’re seeing.  Dude, it’s Notre Dame!

Crepes gave us the strength to climb the Notre Dame stairs.

A million stairs woke us up.  The Notre Dame bell tower was pretty amazing.

We also had time for a trip to the top of the Eiffel Tower.

Garnier Opera House – Tyson wanted to see it because it is where Phantom of the Opera was written about.

We flew through Brussels and I thought of the Woolfs, who both served their missions there, and landed in Vilnius, where we were met by members of the production staff who got us to our apartment.  We are in a 2 bedroom apartment on the 3^rd floor of a renovated building.  The whole place looks like it was designed by IKEA – which is just a few miles away from here.  But it feels modern and cozy, so we are quite happy here.  Out of every window, we have views of rooftops.  It is so fun just to look out the windows!

The courtyard to our apartment (which is above the Azia Spa).

We take the stairs to the door on the left, then up another flight of stairs to 
our apartment #14 – the red window at the top right is in our dining area.

The fun key to our apartment door.  It also has to be used on the inside 

to lock us into the apartment when we are home.

I'm obsessed with our rooftop views!

We have battled the jet lag since we arrived on Wednesday.  Yesterday we had to just get up and leave before sleeping the day away.  We met up with Christianne Kendall and her 3 kids – Jacob was excited to have a friend – bought postcards, then did a walk around old town.  We are just working to learn the area.  The streets weave around, so it will take some time to understand how everything fits together to where we don’t get lost.  We found the oldest church in Lithuania, built in the 1300s.  There are churches everywhere.  We are also very close to where the Jewish ghetto of WWII existed, so there will be much history and architecture to explore.

Hanging out with the Kendalls

Kids: Braden, Maya, Ari

Church of Saint Nicholas: the oldest church in Lithuania, built in the 1300s

Mostly, I just feel really blessed that we were able to fulfill our dream of taking the boys on an adventure to a new place and culture.  All of their teachers were very cooperative, working with us to be able to do homework abroad so that the boys could have this experience.  It’s that once in a lifetime moment and what a month it will be!