We are in Riga, Latvia awaiting our Bulgarian visa, but after zone
conference on Monday we hopped on a bus and traveled with our dear friends, Elder and Sister
Flake, (and about 20 young missionaries) to Lithuania. As we traveled we were impressed with the
beautiful countryside. The capital city
of Vilnius was our destination and is a lovely city.
On Tuesday
the Flakes gave us a tour of the city from Old Town and around new town. We must have walked several miles before we
returned home. The following day, after
chatting all morning, we visited a local mall named Acropolis! It was enormous and included many stores, movies
theaters, a bowling alley, an ice rink, and a huge grocery store. While we ate
dinner we watched hockey practice. It was very entertaining!
While we
were in Lithuania we took a long bus ride to Trakai to see the sites and visit
the castles. They have done an excellent
job restoring the island castle and we enjoyed the peninsula castle’s art and
relic displays. We ate lunch at a local
restaurant and had the best lunch we have had since we left the US. Banana & chocolate crepes, pizza and the kibinais
were delish!!
On the bus
ride, to the Trakai bus, we met a man who wanted to chat. He spotted our name tags and I guess he
wanted to know what we were all about.
Unfortunately, there was a bit of a language barrier. He was speaking Lithuanian. He noticed that my name tag was in Russian and
tried to get the girl beside him to speak Russian to us, but she was too
shy. Aside from that, my Russian tag is
a bit of false advertising since I speak very little Russian and can never
remember what I know when I need it. He
did seem to understand my, “Я говорю чуть-чуть русский.” (I speak
only a tiny bit of Russian). But
that did not dissuade him. One after another he enlisted the aid of each of the
people sitting nearby. One gentleman spoke
German – but that did not help. Another
lady spoke a little English, but she looked hesitant to be dragged into the
conversation. However, on occasion she
would tell us what he was trying to say to us.
He never stopped chatting, whether we understood or not!
At one point Sister Flake took a bottle of
water from her bag and had a sip. He became very excited! Probably thinking it
was vodka he may have been hoping she would pass it around. We were all
horrified for him to think that. In my
best broken Russian I said,’ это
вода. (it is water!). We
all did our best to explain “no alcohol, no cigarettes!” Charades go a long way in communication. We
wished we could have better explained to him why we are here. It was frustrating for us that we cannot
communicate better. It is seldom that
you find a soul so friendly out in public.
Although he seemed to understand that church had something to do with
us, in the end I am afraid he thought we were merely American tourists. The
upside is, maybe someday when he sees missionaries on the bus, the young ones
who have a better command of the language, he will talk to them too. After he left I changed to my Bulgarian name
tag. I figured it was less likely that anyone here would speak that.
Before
leaving Lithuania we took a trip to Klaipeda. This involved another long bus ride. But it passed quickly for me since I slept
most of the way. Kliapeda is a
beautiful city on the Baltic Sea. There
is a harbor and a coastline with sandy beaches and resorts. A nautical theme is prevalent all around the
city.
Our hotel was located about a ten
minute stroll from the harbor through a park.
To reach the beach area on the spit there is a ferry ride across the
water. We were not in town long enough
to see all there was to see. Someday we
hope to return for a more leisurely visit.
It was a fun
and fascinating week of travel, sightseeing, meeting new people and seeing new
sights. We enjoyed spending time with
the Flakes, who we will not likely see again until we are all back in the US. We were not merely vacationing all week since
we participated in a lesson with the missionaries and a young girl that they
are teaching. She is a very sweet girl that we enjoyed meeting. We also assisted in a Strengthening Marriage
lesson. The week was fun and tiring! It
is great to be back in our temporary living quarters in Riga.
But stay tuned. we just got news that our Bulgarian visas are in and we are traveling back to Bulgaria this week. more to come later.
Love
Elder and Sister Segeberg
On Friday we set off on our journey. Nineteen hours, seven pieces of luggage, six
currencies, five countries, four airplanes, and two shiny new visas later we
arrived back at our apartment in Sofia. We left the apartment in Riga at 4:15
am and arrived at home in Sofia at 11:40 pm.
It was a long day! But we are
glad to be back. 
