My name is Aftyn Garvin. My husbands name is Timothy Garvin. We have a dog named Rhythm, and no children. We are nerdy, nature-loving, vegetarians. Except for Rhythm - she eats meat. Anything else you wanna know? Just ask!
Now to tell you about our blog: We have another blog about a road-trip we took across the country. You can check that out here: http://the-cali-blog.blogspot.com/
This blog, however, is going to be about a backpacking trip we are taking through Europe. We love to travel and have been talking about an adventure like this for a long time, and it's finally coming to fruition! In fact, today is technically our third day in Europe already! Let me catch you up...
On Thursday, we left Maryland - where we have been living for the past 7 months - and took a bus up to New York City. We roamed around Manhattan for a few hours, where Tim got roped into participating in a street show! Our goal was to walk down Times Square for a bit, then head towards the Hudson River to catch a glimpse of Lady Liberty.
We accomplished all of these goals, except the part of the river we came out to wasn't anywhere near the Statue of Liberty... so, we had to settle for a glimpse of her from the window of our Lyft ride to our friend Rose's part of town in Brooklyn. We met up with Rose and had a quick bite at this super cute restaurant called Madcap, then went back to her place and watched "The Devil Wears Prada" - which we chose just because it takes place in New York City.The next morning we got up and had to run an errand. You see, my mother passed away on May 20th... that's right, just 8 days ago. So... this might be a good time to mention that this trip either came at the best, or the worst, time - depending on your point of view. We like to think it was the best timing because, the fact is, I really needed a change of scenery. Losing my mom has been the most painful experience of my life so far, and I simply could not go on with "regular life" right now. Besides, my mom always encouraged me to follow my dreams, and I just know she would be so proud and excited for Tim and I if she were here to see us right now.
But the reason I bring all this up is because the errand I had to run was that I needed to get this paper related to my mothers passing signed and sent to my sister before we left for Europe - that evening! She e-mailed the form to me to print, sign, and mail off. No problem, right? Well, maybe just a few problems. The first obstacle to overcome was that Rose didn't have a printer, so we needed to find a place - within walking distance, since we didn't want to have to pay for a Lyft - to do this. There was not a single Kinkos, FedEx or any other similar shops nearby, but there was a library! We made our way there and, of course, the computers required a library card to be used. We asked if they had a guest card we could borrow, and the man behind the counter informed us it would be "just $3 to use the card". Tim and I looked at each other and he said "I mean, $3 just to print a paper. I don't know, what do you want to do?" and I must have looked so crest-fallen that the man behind the counter said "All you need to do is print a paper? Ok, I'll let you use my computer, no charge." Plus, he didn't even make us pay the usual .10 cents it costs to print a page! Next we needed to figure out a way to mail it, since we didn't have an envelope. We knew the Post Office would charge us for an envelope, so we went into the Walgreen's across from the Post Office to ask for one. They didn't have any, but we noticed they had a card section, and plenty of empty slots with just envelopes in them. We picked one and stood in line to see if they wanted to charge us anything for it, but when we got to the register the lady looked at us incredulously and said "Just take it." So we walked across the street to the Post Office and, thanks to the fact that Tim happened to have some stamps on him, we were able to just put it in the outgoing slot! And thus, we spent hours traipsing through Brooklyn in pursuit of this quest, but we managed to do it without spending a cent! That evening we took a Lyft to the airport and boarded a 10pm flight to Lithuania, with a 24 hour layover in Sweden. The plane was huge, and very nice! There was a tablet system embedded in the back of every seat, so each person could choose their own form of in-flight entertainment. Tim and I watched the movie "Wonder" which made me cry many times, then tried to get some sleep before we landed in Sweden.
Ah, Sweden! The green fields, sparkling lakes, and historic sites... that we never got to see. We originally wanted to take a bus into Stockholm, which was 20 miles South of the airport we flew into - but it turned out that the minimum we could have paid to travel there would have been equal to about $60 USD. Well, we didn't land until after 1pm and didn't see much point in spending that much money to only be able to spend half of the day in the city. Plus, we were really tired from a restless night on the plane, and just didn't have it in us to carry our 30 pound backpacks all around Stockholm. So instead, we spent the rest of the day at the airport, exploring their "Sky City" shops and restaurants, watching movies, and napping.
Our flight to Lithuania was around 11am, so we got checked in and went through security, which was quite an ordeal thanks to an "item of concern" that Tim had slipped into my backpack, unbeknownst to me. After the security agents rummaged through my bag, upsetting my clothes and me, they determined that I was not actually carrying anything that was illicit and let me go - well, after I had to completely repack. The flight itself was short and uneventful, and I napped almost the entire time. The program we are working with sent two people to the airport to pick us up and bring us to our flat, which is located at their main office in Vilnius. The flat is small but it has everything we need to get by while we are here. One of the only tricky things was that we found it's almost impossible to do the dishes in the tiny sink we have in our little bathroom. But, we found a solution that involves washing the dishes whenever we take a shower! After we got unpacked and settled in a bit we walked to the grocery store - which is conveniently located in a mall right down the street from our flat - and bought some food and other necessities to get us by for a couple weeks. Before bed we showered (and washed the dishes) and video chatted with my sister back in Maryland. We also video chatted with Tim's brother who is watching our pup while we are away.
We miss her so much, but it would have been too traumatizing for her to be in the belly of the plane for the long 7 hour flight over here. She's sadly too big to be brought over in the cabin with us, even if she is my emotional support dog. I can't describe how difficult the decision to leave her behind was, but we ultimately realized it was the safest and best option for her, despite how badly we wanted her with us.And finally we are caught up to today, Monday the 28th of May! I know this seems strange, but this post is already pretty long, so I'm going to wait until tomorrow to talk about our day today. There is way more material to share than other days, and I think it deserves it's own post. Plus, it's nearing midnight here, and we are both pretty tired. So, tomorrow I will be posting 2 entries - one about today, and another separate one about tomorrow. We will also be coming back and adding pictures to this post, so make sure to come back for those!
Sending you our love from Vilnius, Lithuania!
Checkout all of our photos in our European Adventure 2018 album:
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