From Lithuania 2 - the South

I am again on a sad little slow computer with a Russian keyboard, blogger in Lithuanian, in a sunny hotel lobby. We are in Druskininkai which is a spa/relaxation/rejuvination town way in the South of Lithuania, spitting distance to the Belarus border (which we cannot go into as you need a visa in advance).

I've dropped Aunt B off at the nicest spa in town, she's getting a full two hour treatment for the equivalent of 55 USD. I love Lith prices. Personally I was not in the mood to be wrapped in honey, peeled, irrigated, and whatever else she is doing under foreign hands, so I settled on a 20 minute head and neck massage where I can remain as fully clothed as possible, for which I pop over for at the end of her thingy.

It's not the American nakedness phonia that's the problem but rather that I am not touchy/feely and the more clothed I am the less they will touch. The only massage I ever had made me cringe and I ended up more stressed than when I started. I've never had a manicure or a pedicure, it's just not my thing. I'd much rather sit on the sunny balcony here with a glass of wine or here in front of the slow computer next to a sunny window with their very stong Lith coffee. My female roommates in Atlanta used to go each Sunday an enourmous mall where they went for their beauty and shopping session. I was dropped off on the way to the mall to our male work colleagues for a Sunday session of football, beer and pizza. So be it.

However, Aunt B has been quite a trooper on our trip and she's more into that sort of thing so I hope she has a nice time. I dropped her off at the desk and there is someone who speaks basic English to bring out a robe and start her off. Aunt B is 18 years older than me, but basically up for whatever direction I'm taking her. Interestingly she didn't kill me after the third 3.5 hour cross-country bus ride on a 1960's volvo bus that had seen better days. Or when I made her get up three days in a row before 8 AM because of said buses. Or when she caught my cold/flu that was in full swing when she arrived. Our relatives fixed her right up when they heard her coughing and sniffling. Shot glasses of vodka starting at 10 AM. They tell us it cures all problems.

The relatives in this part whom we visited yesterday and will see tomorrow are very nice. Although the older female ones, perhaps 60+ years old come at you upon arriving and leaving with a full on kiss on the mouth. Good thing the vodka is freely running to lessen this experience. After the 7th kiss and yet another old lady forcibly wiping the lipstick off my face that she just planted there I was beginning to re-think the whole visit.


We arrived yesterday lunch time and we remain until tomorrow afternoon when our relatives pick us up to meet other relatives I have yet to meet (French/Lithuanian/Russian speaking), and then we go to Vilnius in the evening where we remain until we fly out on Sunday morning. And yes, we're on SAS who sorta lost a wheel upon landing in Vilnius the other day, but fortunately we're not on a Dash on either of our routes (Vilnius to Copenhagen and then Copenhagen to DUS), so we should be ok.

******after the massage

I arrive and a 30 something woman in a clinical jacket points me toward a room. She's going on in Lithuanian, but I have very little to go on in that department, except to answer no when she asks in Lithuanian if I speak Lithuaninan. I ask her for English? No. She then asks if I speak Russian. No. I ask if she speaks German? No. She asks if I speak Polish, and my crappy little Polish is about the best we're going to get here.

I am instructed to remove all top part clothing. She starts in on the back. Apparently neck and head massage means a different thing here in Lith. I thought perhaps that I pointed to the next one down which was the back one, but later when I paid, that was actually the neck and head one. She did work her way up to the neck and then head, so maybe there is a whole body connectedness thing. I didn't find it offensive, but I can't say that I really enjoyed it either.

Depending on how Aunt B enjoys her two hours, we'll either stay in town and she'll do something similar again tomorrow while I chill out, or we'll take a local bus to Grutas Park to see Stalin World. Grutas Park is the largest in Lithuania and they have put many of the old Soviet statues from around Lithuania there along with information about life in Lithuania under the Soviet ideology. It is near Druskininkai, about 8 km away, so the closest I'll probably ever be to it.

Our other option as the relatives won't arrive to pick us up until 16 would be to day trip into Poland by going North in Lith to Lazdijai and then West to Poland via the Lazdijai - Ogrodniki border crossing. The only purpose would really be to get Aunt B's passport stamped so that she could say that she's been to Poland. As we have been with bus aross the entire East-West and then North-South of Lithuania, I suspect we'll be able to skip the Poland option in favor of one of the other two.

Greetings from Southern Lithuania.