Christmas Weekend

Christmas Eve is a somber holiday in Lithuania: no drinking. Some families drink wine, but not mine. My immediate family does; I mean my aunts and cousins, with whom I celebrated, do not. So Christmas Eve I got into Vilnius from Klaipeda and was home to meet everybody (we have the biggest house, so a few families gathered here even though nobody was here to greet them). Many delicious dishes, lots of fun catching up with a few cousins my age, give or take ten years, and several aunts and uncles more in what I'd consider "grandparents age." Well, I guess they are all grandparents, after all.

Christmas Day is the big fun holiday here: drinking and merriment before food is even served. On this day there was everybody from the night before plus a couple more families. When the first arrived, and I offered coffee, the riposte was: “well, um, how about let’s have a beer instead??”

And so on. The first thing we ate was sausage, cooked on the dining room table by squirting an inflammable fluid on them and lighting them for a few minutes—impressive and delicious. Next was a big ass ham. The question arose, “who will carve it.” Someone answered, “Well, Jim always carves when he’s here, so why doesn’t his son take over?” I did, and I carved super well—big ass slices. I think that’s my word of the day: “big ass.”

Anyway, we drank a lot more and I had fun with my cousins, we exchanged a few phone numbers, then off to town. Cedric could tell me where he was or where he wanted to meet, so I told him, frustrated, to meet me at the White Elephants, a vegetarian restaurant, which turned out to be closed. We went to another bar, where Cedric downed beers and I nursed a couple, already feeling woozy at nine o’clock.

Gedas called, and I told him we were at Pilies Mene, and he agreed to meet us there. About a half hour later I called back, he said he was almost there, and I said “Oh man, sorry dude, I made a mistake, we’re not at Pilies Mene, we’re at Savas Kampas, sorry man!”

About a half hour later he calls me back and asks where we are. “We’re right inside, man. You can’t see us? We’re right by the entrance. Hold on, I’ll come outside...OH MY GOD WE’RE HERE??? HOW CAN WE BE HERE???” We weren’t at Savas Kampas either, we were at Amatininkai, which is, incidentally, halfway in between the two bars I had sent them to.

They came in and we had a beer or two. Then we left to go to a club, but first, someone thought we should have a drink on the way. The drink—I don’t know whose idea this was—turned into a bottle (.7 liters) of brandy for four guys for about ten minutes. WHAT?! Ok, now we’re...ready to go to a club? Ok, whatever you guys say...

We went to Voo Doo, some kind of trance or techno or something. Whatever it was it was a little weird but I danced for a while anyway—it was fun, the people looked like they belonged there. Then I wanted to leave for some reason (I don’t remember), and Cedric came with me. We went to Pub Near the University, and saw a band we see all the time by accident, they’re good. They’re called Sun’s Bellbottoms (Saules I forget their name). And I got to say “merry Christmas” to a lot of Americans, mostly marines.

While this is going on, Koste, who stayed at Voo Doo with Gedas, is arguing with the bartender:

Koste: I gave you a fifty!
Bartender: you gave me a ten, and you still owe me three!

This went on and on until they were both kicked out, and almost beaten up for trying to sneak back in.

We went home and ate dunes.