A Nida weekend

After the staff/student barbecue on Friday night, Jude and I went to Nida for the weekend. Nida is a quaint artist village about 60 km from Klaipeda, located on the spit.

On Saturday morning, David went to the market to get spinach while Jude finished the laundry. Then at about 10 a.m., we walked to the ferry to take us across to the spit, the thin strip of land where the beach on the Baltic sits. We drove in a pocket rocket [minivan] waiting at the bus stop until we had enough passengers to head to Nida.

Upon arrival at the bus station, we started to look for our lodgings. Ieva, one of the girls at LCC's reception desk, arranged the room for us. We found it with little trouble. Walking in the door, Indira, the girl behind the desk asked me, "Are you David." I guess she knew we were coming or that we just looked out of place. We spent the afternoon looking for amber at the shops, walked to the top of the sand dunes, and then proceded to the beach for the rest of the day. It was delightful, relaxing and peaceful. Jude was reading "Poland," a history by James Michener while I read 19 minutes by Jodi Picoult--testing out the Kindle 2 that I borrowed from school. The Kindle works pretty well, but we haven't been able to download any books while in Europe.

After the beach, we walked back, showered, slept for a bit and then went out for a bite to eat. We settled at a seaside cafe after strolling though the village of Nida. The next morning, we found the seaside cottage Thomas Mann, the German author of Dr. Faustus, who lived in Nida during the summers. We also visited a Lutheran church, know for its unique footstone designs [see photo]. We, then, caught another pocket rocket back to the other end of the spit and decided to walk to the beach before heading back to the dorm. The clouds started to come in, so we called it a day and walked back to the ferry, where we met Erika, Eric and Erwin, who had just finished walking 25 km from Joadkrante, another small fishing village on the spit. Since we were hungry, Erwin suggest a real Lithuanian spot on the way home. It was delicious like most of the food in Lithuania. One really can't order wrong. Even in the little out of the way restaurant, we noticed the menus were in English. Times are a changing. Jude had potato pancakes and I had the same only with meat inside. Then, it was off to the dorms to get ready for lessons on Monday. When we got back to the dorms, Jude had a note from Robin. One of the teachers was still sick, and Jude, along with a couple of other afternoon teachers, were tapped to teach in the mornings too.

Thought you might enjoy the photo of this little boy on the beach. He reminded us of our grandson, Grayson.