Killing time til our flight to Kiev. Sam’s happy with art supplies, Sarah is shopping, and Victoria is ignoring us with her noise canceling head phones on:) we sadly left Carolina at security as her flight isn’t for another 3 hours, but she is safe and secure! We’ve been through so much together, it’s rough splitting up!
->Cornelia
It started to rain quite a lot this afternoon so we ducked into one of the many cafes in Vilnius for a caffeine wake up! We have been touring the city/churches for the better part of the day and are ready for some more energy to get a move on the rest of the town!
Also learning some fun new card games:)
-> Cornelia
Oh man! This stuff is AMAZING!!!! I wonder if it would be considered a fluid because I want to bring some back on my carry-on! I think this is how I’m going to gain back my weight:)
-> Cornelia
There are lots of churches in Old Town Vilnius and this Greek Orthodox church was having a mass. I found their singing mesmerizing!
-> Cornelia
More updates to come shortly as we just arrived in WiFi areas but right now we are in Jimmy Jumps Hostel in Old Town Vilnius, Lithuania.
We had a great night last night and woke up to waffles… And beer… And a nutella and cream spread… Dare I say heaven?
Right now we are chatting with our fellow hostel mates, an American who is taking the Trans-Siberian railroad across Europe after teaching English in China for 2 years, two Irish lads who are cycling across Europe and a British kid who is going to be a senior in high school.
The girls are now contemplating the ethics of drinking beer and coffee at 9:30 in the am:) oh decisions, decisions, decisions.
In just a few hours we will be going down the course for possibly the last time together.
We bonded quickly and have really enjoyed sharing this journey together and with all of you.
We hope to have a clean race, save nothing, and come away with hardware! As my friends know, my motto is “no regrets.” I write it before every 2k and live it daily – it is ingrained in my belief system.
The girls at GMS did not know this, but somehow Carolina shouted it during our prep for these races and it has since become a boat motto. How much more in sync can you get?
Today Gman gave us an incredible (albeit cryptic) praise: “what you are doing now looks like rowing.”
So let’s do this thing, ladies! “no regrets, this is what WE want, so why the hell not?!”
My sister wisely sent us to Lithuania with red, white, and blue nail polish colors so we have really enjoyed painting our nails with the USA blade pattern!
Last night Victoria asked us if it would make us go faster if we painted her nails and of course we said yes!
So now she is sporting red, white and blue nails with the ring fingers carrying the USA blades.
I think that just cut 4 seconds off our final time:)
-> Cornelia
Lisa Schlenker took this cool picture of us heading back to the dock after practice with the castle beside us.
Thanks, Lisa!
->Cornelia
After practice on Friday afternoon we were given the opportunity to take the team bus to Iki, the local supermarket. We were excited to load up on treats to eat after races!
Victoria trusts us a lot and let us go on our own with a joking “you sure you’re okay to go by yourselves?”
Now, we’re pretty confident that we can maneuver a little thing like going to the store and traveling on a bus…
Which would have not been an issue had the bus actually STOPPED to pick us up after we were done at the store! But NO! It drove right on by!
So uneventfully we just decided to enjoy the mild temperatures as we has books and chocolate to last us the hour til the next bus came by.
We were making contingency plans in case the next bus failed to stop. Maybe we would have to get a ride with a local… But as Carolina astutely stated “The question is not who would pick us up, but rather who would drop us off.”
We entertained ourselves and Sam even made a gorgeous and elaborate flower wreath that could have come out of a fairy tale and Sarah learned the repercussions of “standing sexy.”
-> Cornelia
USA u23lw4x 