I'm going, going. Back. Back. To Nida, Nida.
My Plans are Made for Me
I don't usually get too involved in planning a trip, event, or my life in general, and this time was no different. Gaile and her friend Laura informed me and Linas that we were going to Nida for the weekend...2 weeks in advance, exactly long enough for me to forget completely about it and attempt to go with Vytas to Poland with his band. Fortunately Gaile is very good and keeping everyone in line and Vytas was informed that I had already "made" plans for this weekend.
It was only because of my failed attempt to double-book my weekend that I was reminded of the trip, and therefore packed a bag in advance, unlike the previous trip where all the packing was done in a semi-drunk blur.
We were picked up by Laura, who had the company car...and gas card, in a parking lot near our office...Linas and I brought our bags to work with us so we could leave as soon as the day was over. We all crammed into the almost roomy-enough toyota; Mer, Linas, Gaile, Laura, and her cousin, who lived in Nida and was coming with but just for the ride up.
Road trip games are even more fun when they are in a language you don't speak
About halfway there we all ran out of small talk and I ran out of questions about language and history, so...we did what all people do on medium to long car trips, we looked for inane games to pass the time. What we began to play resembled "20 questions" where one person thinks of a person, place, or thing, and the others try and guess it in 20 yes-or-no questions. However, in this version, there was no limit to the number of questions, the "yes-or-no" rule was really a loose guideline, and the word you could think of was any word (existential concept or anything)...in any language. Needless to say it was sufficiently engaging for the trip.
Awkward sleeping arrangements
We arrive in Nida just before sunset, drop off Laura's cousin at the hotel she "lives" in, and spend some time searching the complex of cottages and apartments that is Nida, for the place we are staying. After negotiation the cost (I believe that haggling is another Lithuanian national sport, just like basketball) we unload the car and survey the two beds in one room, and a pull out couch in another, arrangement. No one wants to be the first to say it, but someone is either getting the shaft here, or getting to know one of the others very well.
Gaile and Laura took the big bed, Linas set up camp by the couch and gave me the cot/bed for which I was very grateful but also felt vaguely guilty. A reasonable solution which, for some reason, completely failed to alleviate any of the tension obviously surrounding this (I was beginning to think my man Linas, although fantastic at knowing and picking up ladies, was a habitual NBC). Gaile cut the tension by turning on the TV, finding VH1, and cranking up the Beyonce. At which point she plopped on the bed and proclaimed that she was just going to watch trashy tv the entire time we were there.
How much can you drink when you don't have to pay for it right now?
We peel Gaile off the bed and we all walk over to our favorite bar in Nida, Faxe. As we get closer I can hear the sounds of live music, which is always easily distinguished from recorded music by the shitty-ness of the execution, coming from the bar.
Inside is a 4 piece bad, playing, what sounds like, early 90's alternative jams. But the bar is not crowded, and I sidle up the bar to order some whiskey. However, when I try and pay for my drink Laura stops me, we are all drinking on her cousin's tab tonight and we will settle up before we leave town...a dangerous situation.
1, 2, 3, Booze! We drink, we talk, and we listen to some unoffensive music—which is being performed by a group Gaile and Laura claim was big when they were teenagers, and they both say they had a crush on the singer. After five or six double whiskeys, Me and Linas are talked into switching to Trejos devynerios ("999") and apple juice, a delicious drink that the girls have been consuming like water all night. We leave without paying, as promised, and stumble back to the apartment, we don't know how much we have drank (it was a lot) or how much it cost, but we (and you) will find out soon enough.
I swam in the Baltic!
The next day was all about the beach, but first, we headed over to In Vino, in Nida, for some legendary breakfast...we were all a little worse for wear from the night before and the sun and slow service made us even grumpier. All was bright and cheery after we ate though...like magic.
Then it was off to the beach, with a quick stop for ice-cream on the way, and several moments spent admiring the in-depth series of pictograms and signs that get more and more intense as you get closer and closer to the water.
There were signs for weather, features, gender, clothing options (all or none), bathrooms, lifegaurds, and many that i couldn't even begin to understand...but they were all entertaining. The various methods of representing gender (as you can vaguely see in the photo to the right) as best as possible on androgynous silhouettes that are only distinguished in form by the length of their arms, all fail when you remove the clothing from the icon.
We got to the beach early in the afternoon, walking past all the families and aging rich people, and claiming our own stretch of pale, sandy, beach. The last time i was here i did not get in the water since it was still very cold, this time i was going to swim, but the trauma of feeling how cold the water was last time was still weighing heavily on my mind. So i watched while old men and naked screaming babies easily swam out into the baltic and told myself "if they can do it so can i".
It was cold, but not too cold, and once i was in it was very nice. The strangest thing was how shallow the water stayed for as far as i could walk. It was no more that knee height for at least 60 yards, and after that never quite hip heigh, there were people standing in the baltic so far out that they were just dots to my eyes. It's not a sand bar, and it's not some isolated feature, the shores on this side of the baltic just take a really long time to submerge beneath the water. The slope is very slight and the land just continues, at an almost flat trajectory, under the water.
...and then it rained
The rain came and went several times that day, and we, along with all the other beach goers, would seek occasional refuge at our favorite beach-side bar (the one that Linas and I drank mimosas at). It was a good excuse to drink a little each time.
The sun came back, and we continued to wander the beach, sometimes sunbathing, other times just swimming. Eventually Linas and I began to collect the flat, round stones from the area and skip them out over the water. I hadn't done this since I was small, and it was awkward at first, until it came back to me. Then, as all men/boys will do, we started to see just how far we could throw a rock and if we could hit one of the bowies far out in the distance...we came close. I knew I was too old for this kind of behavior when my arm started to hurt from throwing...that isn't supposed to happen.
Aš visada noru valgyti + Over-eating is my speciality
After a long day of being a jack-ass at the beach, i was hungry. The one lithuanian phrase i have used more than any other is "Aš visada noru valgyti", roughly it means "I can always eat"...which i can.
We went to the second of the two restaurants in town and i ordered food intended for three people. I ate it, and some of the food the girls did not finish. It was an unwise decision, but i couldn't help myself, it was delicious.
That night we all got alcohol at the grocery store, along with snacks, and watched the movies i had downloaded onto my Xoom...it worked perfectly and would have been ideal for one or two people, four was a stretch.
Leaving town
We almost forgot to pay our bar tab on the way out of town, but we remembered just in time and Laura ran into Faxe to pay up.
How much can we drink? Over 300 litas worth, and the drinks were only 5-10 each.
Misheard song lyrics
The ride back contained fewer games, but the same number of people as Laura's cousin was also getting a ride this direction. The lack of road games made space for the music ont he radio, and it was fantastic to hear the various english words Laura's cousin believed were in some of the songs (mostly hair metal hits form the 80's...good stuff).
Cookies-cockies
We stopped for a coffee and cake snack, where i was introduced to the concept of "cookies-cockies" it is a brand of sugar cookies with a rooster on the wrapper, great for making delicious Lithuanian coffee cakes, and for making Americans choke on their latte when they hear it.
My Plans are Made for Me
I don't usually get too involved in planning a trip, event, or my life in general, and this time was no different. Gaile and her friend Laura informed me and Linas that we were going to Nida for the weekend...2 weeks in advance, exactly long enough for me to forget completely about it and attempt to go with Vytas to Poland with his band. Fortunately Gaile is very good and keeping everyone in line and Vytas was informed that I had already "made" plans for this weekend.
It was only because of my failed attempt to double-book my weekend that I was reminded of the trip, and therefore packed a bag in advance, unlike the previous trip where all the packing was done in a semi-drunk blur.
We were picked up by Laura, who had the company car...and gas card, in a parking lot near our office...Linas and I brought our bags to work with us so we could leave as soon as the day was over. We all crammed into the almost roomy-enough toyota; Mer, Linas, Gaile, Laura, and her cousin, who lived in Nida and was coming with but just for the ride up.
Road trip games are even more fun when they are in a language you don't speak
About halfway there we all ran out of small talk and I ran out of questions about language and history, so...we did what all people do on medium to long car trips, we looked for inane games to pass the time. What we began to play resembled "20 questions" where one person thinks of a person, place, or thing, and the others try and guess it in 20 yes-or-no questions. However, in this version, there was no limit to the number of questions, the "yes-or-no" rule was really a loose guideline, and the word you could think of was any word (existential concept or anything)...in any language. Needless to say it was sufficiently engaging for the trip.
Awkward sleeping arrangements
 |
| Our place in Nida was a piece of a house that had been segmented into several apartments. Ours included, what had been, an outside patio but had been walled in and now housed the couch and kitchen. Rad. |
Gaile and Laura took the big bed, Linas set up camp by the couch and gave me the cot/bed for which I was very grateful but also felt vaguely guilty. A reasonable solution which, for some reason, completely failed to alleviate any of the tension obviously surrounding this (I was beginning to think my man Linas, although fantastic at knowing and picking up ladies, was a habitual NBC). Gaile cut the tension by turning on the TV, finding VH1, and cranking up the Beyonce. At which point she plopped on the bed and proclaimed that she was just going to watch trashy tv the entire time we were there.
How much can you drink when you don't have to pay for it right now?
 |
| Faxe. At the bar. |
Inside is a 4 piece bad, playing, what sounds like, early 90's alternative jams. But the bar is not crowded, and I sidle up the bar to order some whiskey. However, when I try and pay for my drink Laura stops me, we are all drinking on her cousin's tab tonight and we will settle up before we leave town...a dangerous situation.
1, 2, 3, Booze! We drink, we talk, and we listen to some unoffensive music—which is being performed by a group Gaile and Laura claim was big when they were teenagers, and they both say they had a crush on the singer. After five or six double whiskeys, Me and Linas are talked into switching to Trejos devynerios ("999") and apple juice, a delicious drink that the girls have been consuming like water all night. We leave without paying, as promised, and stumble back to the apartment, we don't know how much we have drank (it was a lot) or how much it cost, but we (and you) will find out soon enough.
I swam in the Baltic!
 |
| In Vino, in Nida |
The next day was all about the beach, but first, we headed over to In Vino, in Nida, for some legendary breakfast...we were all a little worse for wear from the night before and the sun and slow service made us even grumpier. All was bright and cheery after we ate though...like magic.
Then it was off to the beach, with a quick stop for ice-cream on the way, and several moments spent admiring the in-depth series of pictograms and signs that get more and more intense as you get closer and closer to the water.
 |
| signs, signs, everywhere there's signs |
...and then it rained
The rain came and went several times that day, and we, along with all the other beach goers, would seek occasional refuge at our favorite beach-side bar (the one that Linas and I drank mimosas at). It was a good excuse to drink a little each time.
Aš visada noru valgyti + Over-eating is my speciality
After a long day of being a jack-ass at the beach, i was hungry. The one lithuanian phrase i have used more than any other is "Aš visada noru valgyti", roughly it means "I can always eat"...which i can.
We went to the second of the two restaurants in town and i ordered food intended for three people. I ate it, and some of the food the girls did not finish. It was an unwise decision, but i couldn't help myself, it was delicious.
That night we all got alcohol at the grocery store, along with snacks, and watched the movies i had downloaded onto my Xoom...it worked perfectly and would have been ideal for one or two people, four was a stretch.
Leaving town
We almost forgot to pay our bar tab on the way out of town, but we remembered just in time and Laura ran into Faxe to pay up.
How much can we drink? Over 300 litas worth, and the drinks were only 5-10 each.
Misheard song lyrics
The ride back contained fewer games, but the same number of people as Laura's cousin was also getting a ride this direction. The lack of road games made space for the music ont he radio, and it was fantastic to hear the various english words Laura's cousin believed were in some of the songs (mostly hair metal hits form the 80's...good stuff).
Cookies-cockies
We stopped for a coffee and cake snack, where i was introduced to the concept of "cookies-cockies" it is a brand of sugar cookies with a rooster on the wrapper, great for making delicious Lithuanian coffee cakes, and for making Americans choke on their latte when they hear it.
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