Departure time from the apartment was 6:30am. Brooks was the first one awake, followed by me and Greg. Obviously we needed coffee first, then to finish last minute packing and to take trash etc out from the apartment. Since it was so early, there were doors and gates closed and locked that aren’t normally. Greg and Brooks had headed downstairs to take the trash out but Brooks had to come upstairs to get codes from me.

After he got the code and had left Greg texted he was locked outside. After rescuing Greg, he and Brooks walked to the parking lot to get the van to drive to the apartment so we didn’t have to walk as far. Thankfully the entire city seems to still be sleeping after last night’s Ligo festivals.

If I’d been keeping better score I’d say the final tally was Greg: 2 Renault: 1. The van got him real good this morning as a back panel thing that covers up the luggage area closed and hit the bridge of his nose while we were loading up. He immediately started gushing blood and asked for something absorbent.

So see, the thing is, I thought I was so smart last night using the last two Krispy Kreme napkins for dinner by tearing them apart for at least the kids. Greg and I had no napkins and thankfully didn’t need them. The only thing I had available was a receipt. Which didn’t so the job. Maddie found a wipe which somewhat helped until it didn’t. She somehow found a bandaid that she could access which stopped the emergency…until it bled through but it’s fine.

While Greg had two points against the Renault neither left lasting damage. The entrance to the Hilton parking garage in Vilnius was so narrow the side mirrors were knocked in twice.

Unfortunately I never got a better pic of the cool bridge but here we are driving over it.

Next up, topping off the van with gas. This time I’m the one who had the responsibility of double checking that Greg didn’t get the wrong gas. We nailed it!

We finally stopped at a Shell. Although I’m told that Greg and Brooks might have gotten gas at a Shell station in Vilnius when Maddie, Logan and I were getting drinks at McDonald’s. Since I have no proof of such I shall document it here.

Not wanting a repeat of Luton and not being able to find “car hire” I had searched where to return the rental car in Riga. Most things said to follow the signs and other things said P4. It’s all fine and good until the airport is under construction and there are literally no signs. Since Greg had figured out how to easily loop around when we picked up Jake he decided to let us out and he and Brooks would go return the car. He gave Logan his computer bag to lighten his load.

Security was stressful. The agent that Logan and I had made us take out all electronics including power banks but not phones, liquids including toothpaste but not deodorant that had to be in two ziploc bags max. Since Logan had Greg’s computer bag he had no idea what was in it or what pocket the computer was in. It’s a good thing the airport was dead because we would have been those people holding up the line as we pulled things out and tried to put them in bags.

Maddie and Jake only had to remove electronics but not liquids.

Logan got nailed for I guess a random screening and they had to swab all his bags. He did not claims Greg’s computer bag just to lessen the time.

This was so much different than Luton where I was told I didn’t need to have liquids in bags anymore and we didn’t have to remove electronics. I guess it’s the difference between the UK and the EU but why does it have to be so complicated? I made sure to text Greg to advise him and Brooks to go through the line that Maddie and Jake had selected.

We grabbed some seats near our gate while Maddie and Jake went to get some food and water. I’m told Jake got an omelette but you’d never know it by looking at it.

Logan wanted a Coke from a vending machine and it took a minute for he and Greg to figure out it how to pay for it via card. Once they did it spit it out the bottom of the machine. As Logan opened it it exploded all over his hands. Great design that machine was.

Time to board! And by board I mean the bus that takes you to the plane wayyyyy out.

I was excited for another opportunity to shop in the air! This time I was all ready to make a purchase and spend these Euros that I can’t use in Norway. But I got robbed because our flight was too short.

Oslo here we come!