Visiting Lithuania

On Thursday morning, October 6th, the professor and I flew to the capital city of Lithuania. Until we visited Vilnius, the only thing I knew about it was that Captain Ramius (Sean Connery) in The Hunt for Red October was from there. We flew Air Baltic for the first time and it turned out to be a positive experience. It seemed as if it is a well run company. We flew from Helsinki to Riga in Latvia, changed planes and flew to Vilnius.

When we landed in Vilnius, a very charming couple met us at the airport. They drove us to the hotel. Her English was so good and she said it was self-taught. I was so surprised. She had all of the idioms and slang expressions just right. Her husband was a physicist and spoke hardly any English. She told us that she was no longer teaching at the University of Vilnius. She had to drive her car to the university and parking was so difficult. Finally her parking tickets became so numerous that she decided it was not financially worth it to teach in the city. She was so delightful. But we never got up the courage to ask her what her name was. We still don't know. A young woman named Ruta with an impossible last night was Earl's contact before and during the conference.