Adventures of NaDave: Dave Germany: 81-84 (Last Day Lith) 5/5

Other than the snoring man on the top bunk, I slept great on Saturday night. Up early and out the door. But this time the hostel had some local bread and spreads, so I had a tastier breakfast.

I found my car safely where I had parked it. And I started my 3.5 hr journey back to Vilnius to catch my 230pm flight. If I missed that one, the next flight was 6am the next day!

Once I reached the Lithuania border, I felt a sense of relief. Nothing had happened to me while I was in Latvia with the rental car. I had made it back safely, right?

My final special idea for our family, was to bring back some soil from Lithuania to spread on the graves of Benedicta & GPa Urbon. I thought it'd be a great way to bring a little bit of home back to them. So I found a nice pull off overlooking a farming field, where I imagined Benedicta could have been, and scooped up a little bit of the home country into a plastic bag.

I arrived into Vilnius safely, and had an extra hour to visit any last minute places. I knew basketball is the main sport in Lithuania, so I drove over to the arena, and walked around a bit. They had an Olympians walk, which also featured the Lithuanian girl who won 100 meter Breaststroke olympic gold medal at the 2012 London games.

I had a little spare time to find a souvenir shirt, so I headed near the city where I knew some shops were. I quickly found a shirt I wanted, then looked at my watch and it was almost 1pm. I had to move quickly! Thanks to the GPS, I fueled up the car (at the 2nd gas station i found, cuz I couldn't figure out the 1st one worked!) and made it to the rental car place. The check-in guy was right there, so I thought I could quickly head to the plane.

"You were in Riga yesterday", the man said "we has GPS on the car, so we know where it goes." OH NO! $@#! I was caught! So I just fessed up and said ok, I'll pay the fee. I couldn't afford to miss the plane!

We walked into the office, and he gave a slip for 8 Euro. I asked about the 300, and he said it is okay, I don't want to charge you, you made small mistake and it was for just a day. What a reversal of luck and emotions! I was so thankful! But I needed to run to the terminal.

I got checked in time, but when I went through the security, they picked me out for a security check. Nothing was on me, so I was okay. But they also wanted to swipe my bag, and remember I had soil from off a farm in there. My heart rate went up. After the machine did its thing, the lady said I was okay to go. So I grabbed my stuff and headed for the gate. They were boarding, but I made it!

I got on the plane, and exhaled. I looked out the window, and we were flying over Kalingrad Russia. Wow, I was looking down on Russia!. I landed inFrankfurt, then took a high-speed train direct to Erlangen where I biked home.

Oh my god, what a trip. I would need lots of time to reflect. The past 3 days were some of the most stressful, uplifting, emotional, you name it...days for me. But worth every second. Our family had finally made it back home : ) !!