My baby boy is 17! Not sure how it happened, but it feels like he's really changed physically in the past few months and is so much more manly. Adam started growing a beard the day we left. They have several outdoor filming days, so the beard is to help keep his face warm. With so much weight loss, he's having a hard time staying warm. So Tyson decided to join him and I'm impressed with how much his has really grown. I'm not sure it like this feeling that he's going to be grown and gone soon. I love the stages my boys are in right now - it's easy to go do things, they can actually be useful when they choose to be and we can have real conversations and laughter together. There are days when I want to freeze time, and our more simple days spent together here have increased that feeling.
But enough of the sentimental. We literally celebrated the entire day. At the last minute of packing to come, it occurred to me that even with our house torn apart with the remodel, I actually knew where some streamers were. There wasn't much left, but I tucked what we had away in my suitcase. Last night after Tyson went to bed, Jacob and I hung them in the family room. That totally surprised Tyson when he woke up this morning.
On our grocery shopping outing yesterday, I let also let Tyson choose our breakfast. I should have known better. We had lots and lots of meat.
I also made everyone eat some fruit.
Because we had our cleaning lady come last week on Tuesday and we were late to get out of the apartment, we scurried off on time today. The Kendalls youngest (Ari, 5) was in no mood to walk all around town, so just the 2 oldest came with us. Tyson thought his birthday would be more interesting if other teenagers were a part of the day. I feel like I spent the whole day trying to keep up with teens. I kept getting distracted with what I was seeing and then I'd have to walk real fast to catch up again - a lot of it on cobblestone sidewalks. I am pretty sure that everyone in the 1500s walked around with sprained ankles. They had to! That stuff is just plain hard to walk on.
We began our outing buying tickets for the afternoon English tour of the Vilnius Cathedral Crypt, which need to be bought early in the busy season, so we could have perhaps skipped that step because there aren't a lot of tourists around in February. But at least we knew we had our spots in the group. Our next destination took us past the Presidential Palace (their version of the White House)
on the way to Vilnius University - which was about the size of AF High School and took all of 10 minutes to see.
A courtyard at Vilnius University
The highlight, that was a must see according to all of the tour books, was the bookstore, which is in the oldest building on the campus and had the ceilings painted. They were lovely - if you like naked people, which made the boys uncomfortable and they ended up walking through the bookstore looking only at the books, which were mostly in Lithuanian. Hmmm. But we didn't let the campus flop deter us.
Bookstore door. And my reflection.
We had seen an Italian restaurant and headed in that direction. Yummily, but unfortunately, they only sold dessert. We would end up back there later in the day.
Italian shop called Soprano. Tyson's into Italian mafia right now,
so the reference was funny.
But we were on the hunt for real food. We knew there was a good restaurant several blocks away that the dads had had on one of their work days, so we wanted to try it, too. We got all the way there and found it was closed. It wasn't even a Monday! We tried the Indian restaurant next door. It was also closed. So we walked further and found another Italian place. It wasn't open, but the waitress was standing in front of it smoking and informed us it was opening and let us in. The restaurant was in the basement with really cool low ceilings and a steady stream of American 70s music playing in the background.
Two side notes: 1) There aren't really many restaurants that serve actual, authentic Lithuanian food. They are mostly like what you would find in the states - pizza, sandwich shops, Italian, Asian, Mexican, and so on. One local crew member said that when they go out, they want something different than what they would make at home - like us. 2) Most of the older people you meet speak little to no English, they don't smile at you and they act like they really don't trust us. On the other hand, most 20-somethings and younger know enough English to be able to converse with us and they are very outgoing and friendly. Our waitress at the Italian place today spoke very well and told us she learned mostly from watching TV as a kid. She even knew slang phrases and had less of an accent than others I've heard. The difference seems to be the Soviet occupation that lasted until 1991. The older generation knows Russian and the younger English. I'm sure the older generation also has memories of loved ones lost who were deported, imprisoned, etc during the occupation. There is definitely a feeling of hope and energy that exudes from the rising generation of Lithuanians.
Our lunch was delicious - as has been everything we've eaten here. I guess I have a 3rd side note. The food feels more organic and fresh here. We've been told that they are really fighting the food industry to keep GMO foods out of Lithuania. You can taste the difference. The food is just better.
I made everyone use the W/C, as restrooms are labeled here, before leaving. We've learned that you use one when it's available because there just aren't many around otherwise. We still had time before our crypt tour and we were now back by the Vilnius Cathedral, so we decided to tour the old castle that stands above it on a hill. That hadn't been in our plans because Maya had already been there, but we had time. This castle hasn't been rebuilt the way Trakai Castle has, but there is a tower you can tour where they had real 15th century armor and weapons on display.
Tower of the Vilnius Castle
And, of course, there were lots and lots of stairs. We walked around the castle top and enjoyed the views of both old and new Vilnius.
New Vilnius
Panorama of Old Town Vilnius
On the hilltop next to the castle was the Hill of Three Crosses, so that became our next destination.
We crossed the river and started on the road up to the crosses when Tyson decided to detour and take the scenic, muddy, steep route instead - and apparently, we weren't allowed to argue because he was the birthday boy. After slipping and sliding and huffing and puffing, I made it to the top just a little behind the young, energetic teenagers. (Remember, we've been walking for about 21/2 hours by now.) They had found sticks along the way that were now acting as swords and were all well into their make-believe Lord of the Rings world.
I made them stop and walk around the crosses once, just to make sure they actually saw what we had climbed up to see.
They wanted to take the 4-wheel drive route back down the hill when they were done with their battle scene. I told them I'd meet them at the bottom, but was taking the trail. The joke was on me. I took the path around the corner and was met by hundreds of stairs, some of which were missing. My knees were very unhappy with me by the time I reached the bottom of the hill.
By this time, Ari was ready to be out in the world, so he and Christianne joined us. (Christianne has a local cell phone from the production office that she was given because she's the Kaleidoscope Accountant and sometimes their office accountant needs to talk to her. Thanks to the Corbridges, we also have 2 phones, and the production office gave us SIM cards for them, so we can all communicate with each other. And the husbands each have one, also from the production company, so our communication here with each other is great!)
Our hiking had brought back our appetites, so we knew it was time for the Italian dessert shop - where most of us proceeded to ordered crepes. But they took some time to cook, so we also shared several scoops of gelato while we were waiting.
It was finally time for our crypt tour. We were taken into the basement of the Vilnius Cathedral where they have been excavating dead people. They actually don't know who most of the people are that they find. Between floods washing things away and the loss of information during the Soviet occupation, there is little left to give them details. But it was a great tour with a cute college aged girl as our guide, and so interesting just to see what it was like under the church.
One of the famous people they do know is buried here -
Queen Barboros, translated into English: Barbara.
Yes sister, your name is popular here!
By this time we had walked at least 5 miles, so it was time to head home. We stopped at our favorite dessert shop and bought a birthday cake for Tyson's birthday party that evening. We were ready to be home. And walked in to discover that the cleaning lady hadn't come. I was so sad! We learned that it was a holiday today - a pagan holiday celebrating the end of winter where people dress up in costumes. We had seen some college students walking around in costumes and had wondered what they were doing (we thought the holiday had been on Saturday). We wonder if that's why some of the restaurants were closed and the cleaning lady didn't come. We'll try to resolve the cleaning situation in the morning. It wouldn't matter, except that we don't have a broom and our floor desperately needs one.
Adam came home about 30 minutes later and we headed out to dinner. We always eat in because it's so tiring for Adam to go out at night, but we made the exception for Tyson's birthday. He wanted to go to a yummy burger place we liked called Le Butcher. It was closed. We've now walked at least 6 or 7 miles today and we were all exhausted. But we had no dinner, so we walked back to the main road and much to Jacob's dismay, found a sushi place. But it's Tyson's day, so his choice. Jacob had a Coke for dinner. I had soup and a little of their sushi - it was actually quite good.
We were in our own private little booth - renamed by us: The Birthday Booth.
But because of the delay from the change in restaurants, we now had to hurry back to our apartment for Tyson's birthday party. We had invited the Kendalls and the 3 other guys who are here from home for the filming - Marsh Morford (another producer from Kaleidoscope), Travis C (cameraman), and Gerald Hartley (sound man) - to come over for cake. We had used google translate at the shop and hoped it was really hazelnut. It was. I felt worried for a moment that it would end up being mocha and we'd have to throw it all away and there would be no birthday cake. But my relief was short-lived when Ari's lips started to puff up. We all learned tonight that Ari is allergic to hazelnuts. Thankfully, they had Benadryl and live just down the alley. Still, Tyson felt very celebrated to have everyone come and sing and eat. (Unfortunately, the pictures from the party are on Adam's phone. I may never see them.)
The night ended with a facetime call with grandma. She always makes Tyson feel loved. He went to bed feeling like he'd had a very good day.
And now I am exhausted. However, I think I will need to stretch out before I go to bed. My leg muscles are tightening up and I don't think I'll be able to sleep until I pay some attention to them. Sorry for such a long post. It was a long day.
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