Today was a busy day for Del. We both suffered through Lithuanian class, and it's hard - so many words, so many endings, so little memory. I was ready to put a straw in the bottle by the time we got home, but Del had a speech to give to the Young Scientists after lunch, so sobriety seemed wise. I planned to wander through the shops in the area during the serious part and show up for coffee, so we both put on appropriate clothes and shoes instead of clodhoppers and headed out. Del said the afternoon went well, and they were all still talking when I got there a little after 6. We took the bus back to Old Town and went to a restaurant we like for dinner. We each had a calamari dish and shared a banana and chocolate crepe for dessert. Del hadn't eaten since oatmeal at breakfast, and he was starving. Little did we know that we should have saved room for more food two doors down the street.
As we left the restaurant, we walked past a group of families out in the street laughing, talking and launching heart shaped hot air balloons. I had never seen anything like them. They were about the size of garbage bags with a metal frame in them and some sort of wick. I happened (yes, I know you can hardly believe it) to have the camera and snapped some pictures. After a bit, Del suggested we head home and started to head toward a side street that was sheer ice all the way down it.. I said that we needed to find another way, because it was not safe going that way in the dark without boots. It never crossed our minds that anyone was paying any attention to us. One of the men in the group laughed and said that going that way without insurance was not a good idea. I also laughed and replied that at my age, it wasn't a good idea with insurance. I asked what occasion they were celebrating. It was a fund raiser for children with heart disease. We had a nice conversation and he insisted we come into the restaurant to have some of the special cake from the party. It was really good cake - sort of like a meringue tort with nuts. They are going to have to roll me out of this country.
Turns out Ramunas was a policeman for 13 years and is now a Met Life representative. His English is amazing. We tried to give him a donation for the fund, but he suggested that if we really wanted to do that, it would be better if we put the money directly into the organization's bank account and gave us the printed brochure with the account on it. I guess he wanted us to know that they were on the up and up. He then went upstairs where the art auction for the event had been held and came down with one of the pictures as a gift for us. We all exchanged cards, and he assured us that he and his family would love to give us a tour of Vilnius, where they live. It was an unexpected treat that will be one of the highlights of our trip. My cousin Marsha and her husband Bill have had wonderful encounters quite frequently in their travels, but I never thought it would happen to us.
Del looked up the organization on the web and learned that one of the income tax provisions here allows one to designate up to 2% of the tax owed to a favorite charity. I thought that was kind of interesting.
I'll take a picture of the picture once we get it unwrapped. We met the artist, and he wrapped it before we left the restaurant. It's framed, by the way, and I'm not sure how it will get to VR, but it will.
Be sure to check out the pictures. Have a great week end!
https://picasaweb.google.com/118279613107347865536/DinnerAndHeartEvent02?authkey=Gv1sRgCPe3zfjTguWQ_QE
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