Day 46 - Approaching Usupis

Today was was also like a "typical" day in LT. Dan and I went to Double Coffee while Dan's mom was with Georgia in the park in the morning. She dropped off Georgia at noon and we went to Kavine Usupis. We had been passing by the place for some time and today was the day to immortalize the experience.

The restaurant is located in a beautiful spot right at the entrance to Usupis neighborhood, near the bridge of Vilnyale river, steps away from the infamous Green Duck. We got a near the railing. The service was so so, but not through evil intent but through the lack of training. Even though we though our body language was obvious (the menues were closed and we followed the waitress with hungry eyes), the waitress first cleaned all the tables on the deck by carrying away individual plate/cup/utensil at a time in a way reminiscent of Woo, and finally came over.

While the food was being made Georgia and I walked over to the interesting colored house (in past pictures). The artists who run the place are preparing for some event and there are white baloons tethered above the river. There were several men drilling cage-like welded metal boxes nearly.

We walked down the steps to the river to throw in a few stones. There was a multitude of beer bottles thrown around - part of decor or stimulation. In general the place has a forced artistic atmosphere.

I was hungry and actually liked my meal - lamb stew in a pot (5 nail sized pieces floating in the bean soup), until Dan found a little caterpillar on his steak. Don't know if it was part of the plan - combine dead and living carbon forms, but he was not excited about it. He also said their cold beetroot soup that he had taken a liking to this summer was far worse that even mine. So feel free to mark this place off the list on that account.

Stayed at home in the afternoon. Dan's mom went to the cemetary with the family. When Georgia woke up we went to the playground outside. There were two other kids with grandmas in the sandbox and two teenagers drinking beer on the bench next to it. I still can't get used to this and it is a bit distrurbing.

Georgia learned to operate a little carousel by getting it to rotate and jumping on top (mind you very slowly). It was fascinating to see her learn to do it in stages. Then an older kid came over and tried to rotate it much faster. He spoke with her in Lithuanian asking to speed up a notch, and she responded in Russian asking to slow down. They did not work it out.

In the evening we walked around Basanavichiaus (spelling looks right now) buying and consuming various baked goods.

When we got back home we had one of those parent moments when we tried to give Georgia antibiotics. They are sold as a coarse powder mixed with sugar. The idea is giving parents an option to mix the powder (it does not dissolve) with water, juice or milk. It tastes sweet for a few minutes and then becomes intensely bitter and the bitter taste stays on (possibly to encourage drinking lots of water). After 5 times Georgia already figured it out and flat refused to drink it. We tried a number of tactics including reasoning, trying to leverage off cartoons, candy, mentioning the doctor, leaving her in her room, feeding a stuffed animal with it, mixing it with honey. Finally Dan suggested ice-cream and that worked - we gave her tip of the spoon of ice-cream followed by one sip of the mixture. It is so much easier with Dina.

At night we walked with Inga and Michal (who came home with Dan's mom) to Gedimino prospect where we met with Andrei, Natasha, Isolde, and Dustin. We decided to go ice-skating in Acropolis and possibly see a movie in the evening. On Friday we are planning to go to Riga for 2 days.