Day 32 and a few before –Palanga

Skipped a few days. There was nothing new to report in Vilnius and then on Thursday, July 29th we went to Palanga with Irina.

On the way we stopped by at Karpyne. It is a wonderful fish-themed facility a bit past Kaunas. There are plenty of activities to keep busy for ½-1 day. Lots of really creative woodcarvings. Fishing, outdoor games, swimming. Playgrounds, as in most of these places, are really diverse and impressive. There are some fruit trees and berry bushes so covered in fruit that you could hardly see the leaves. You can also pose with beautiful ladies and fish.

In Palanga we were staying in Hotel Zvilinas. It is located in a nice area between Basanavichaus avenue and the Botanical garden, close to the beach. We stayed at the apartment. 20-30 years ago these must have been The Luxury: it was a 2 story apartment with enormous living room with 2 glass walls, soft furniture, bookcase/TV stand wall, and then some. There are 2 spacious bedrooms upstairs and 2 more bathrooms. It must have been some really high-end party members. But it has not been updated in many years. The furniture is falling apart and kitchen appliances are pre-historic. But the place is kept in pristine cleanliness.

Our stay was pretty similar to our last year’s stay except the weather was less cooperative in the first 2 days, and turned good on Saturday, but we were leaving anyway. This is how it works: you get on the boardwalk and it is warm and sunny and the sky is clear and blue. You run to the apartment to get the bathing suits and then get out on the beach. The sky suddenly fills up with clouds and it starts raining. You run back indoors and the rain stops. We did it four times in the first two days. At least we lived really close.

On Friday afternoon it was particularly cold near the sea. We were tired of changing back and forth so stayed in our bathing suits and accompanied Georgia and she ran in and out of the water. This with other people passing by in rain jackets and windbreakers and hats.

We walked to all the usual places. Not a lot of changes. There seems to be consolidation of the junk food eateries. Not in terms the quantity of the eateries themselves but in the stuff they sell. Now most places have: cotton candy, kebabs, waffles, hot dogs, popcorn, roasted nuts, chebureks, and other stuff.

What struck us this time was the lack of safety/monitoring on the various children’s amusement areas: we saw a 4-5 year old being thrown from a go-cart (he was screaming pretty bad but otherwise seemed OK). Georgia went inside the inflatable maze and there was no one inside watching. The kid could fall and break their neck and no one would notice (especially if the parents had had one too many on the way. Dan faced his fears and went with Georgia on a giant Ferris wheel and spent his time counting the cracks that were painted over.

We met up with Dina, her sister Julia, and Ilyusha on Friday and paid another homage to the Ukrainian restaurant. It is consistently great. Nearly 100% of the clientele is with kids. We also checked out a few places along the way – Armenian, Cuban, creperie during the weekend. Nothing too memorable. In the evening, there is live music in half of the decent-looking restaurants on the way. You can walk down Basanavichaus sampling performances along the way. Most of it seems to be either tired old “talents,” or the new talents trying to break in.

Near the pier there is a cool type of ad for a beer company. There is a set up like in a brewery shop. There are actors there dressed up in period clothing. You can put on similar clothing or just hats and scarves. They all get around you; pretend to drink, play accordion and party. Sort of like how you can make period photos in Wildwood and similar places but with other people in it. Crowds gather to watch each new partier. After much convincing Dan decided to face the fear of tackiness and posed with me. Hurray!

On Saturday, the weather was really good. We spent a good amount of time walking along the beach while Georgia playing in the water again. We contemplated staying but based on the logic of this place the minute we would have paid for apartment it would start raining.

As we walked on the pier we saw lots of kids with large inflatable planes around. Turns out the company was giving them out to the kids who could recite a poem. Irina went with Georgia and “put her in the front lines.” Georgia recited a Lithuanian nursery rhyme that Irina taught her and got the prize. We are very proud of her. What we are even more proud of is that given when we suggested that she give the plane to Irina’s daughter who was upset that she could not be with her mom, Georgia agreed. It takes a very special kid to give up a won prize so quickly. The advertising itself was pretty good – the bright orange tip of the plane could be seen all around the beach and in the water.

Later in the afternoon we went to HBH playground. Had dinner and hanged out with the kids in the park. And then we went home and dropped off Irina on the way.

An update about Isabella. She has 2 teeth, can crawl, and says "mama," "papa," and "JoJa." She is also not into the stroller very much and prefers the backpack carrier or hands. Georgia has the boon keeping the stroller warm for her.