The Amazing Race: What Goes Around

The Amazing Race finally left Africa this week! Nothing against the continent or Ouagadougou itself but I've had more than enough to last me all season long.

Azaria & Hendekea and Nathan & Jennifer were the first teams to leave for the airport in Burkina Faso by thirty minutes. Ron & Christina, Nicholas & Donald, and Kynt & Vyxsin all left within minutes of each other. Shana & Jennifer and TK & Rachel were the last two teams to head out with TK & Rachel leaving more than an hour and ten minutes after Azaria & Hendekea. After arriving, teams had to purchase tickets to fly to Vilnius, Lithuania (3,000+ miles away) from an official airline ticketing office. Basically, they couldn't buy their tickets online. They could research the flights though and that's what most teams did.

In a refreshing change, there was more than just one or two different flight paths that could be taken to arrive in Lithuania. The best flight to get was the Paris-Amsterdam-Vilnius (PAV) one that would arrive at 1:25 PM. The next best flight was the Paris-Frankfurt-Vilnius (PFV) one that would arrive ten minutes later. The last flight that was used was the Paris-Prague-Vilnius (PPV) which would have its passengers arriving at 2:10 PM.

While at the internet cafe doing their research, Ron & Christina got frustrated with each other and the other teams and decided to take a chance and get to a ticket office ahead of the other teams. That didn't work out so well for them. They wound up being the only team on the latest flight. Perhaps if Ronald would have left Christina alone she could have found one of the better flights. The other high point in all of the ticket madness was with Nicholas & Donald. While Nicholas was ordering their tickets, Azaria & Hendekea overheard him tell the ticket lady to give the other teams later flights. Hendekea in particular wasn't too thrilled with that. Even later, when one of the teams asked Nicholas & Donald which flight they got, Nicholas refused to tell them.

Hendekea & Azaria wound up getting on the earliest flight but Nicholas & Donald didn't have such good luck. Their ticket lady didn't speak much English and didn't seem to like Nicholas too much and gave them a different Prague flight that arrived at 4:35 PM. They stupidly decided to buy the ticket anyway. But when Nathan & Jennifer were next to buy their tickets, amazingly there were still seats available and they got on the early flight with Hendekea & Azaria. What's that saying about karma Nicholas? Donald wasn't too thrilled when he found that out and somehow they were able to get tickets for the PFV flight. All of the jockeying wasn't over though because while the blondes were trying to better their seat position on the plane, Hendekea was trying to look over their shoulder to see where they would be seated. Shana didn't like that and actually asked Hendekea to leave. The nerve!

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, we saw no footage of the Paris airport (or the other airports) or any drama concerned with catching the connecting flights. The next time we saw the teams, they were landing in Vilnius and off to find their next clue. Teams then had to find St. Anne's Church (some of them went the wrong way) where they received a Roadblock. Who's a good listener? One member of each team would have to become a Lithuanian messenger and deliver a package to its proper destination. Kynt & Vyxsin kicked butt in this task and finished first, hence, receiving the next clue.

They would now have to drive to an outdoor museum in Rumsiskes and find a Travelocity gnome among a hundred other gnomes. While Kynt & Vyxsin are looking for their gnome, some of the other players were really having a hard time with the Roadblock -- Nicholas in particular. He couldn't find where to make his second delivery so they lost at least four places. After teams find their gnome, they must take it with them until they reach the pit stop. But first, it's time for a Detour.

In this Detour, teams chose between Count Down or Step Up. In Count Down, teams have to count every single picket in a fence and provide the correct number to a local who would give them their next clue. In Step Up, teams have to walk a stretch of road on stilts to an awaiting local at the end who would provide the next clue. If teams provided the wrong number of pickets or fell off of their stilts, they would have to start over.

Kynt & Vyxsin chose to do the stilts as did TK & Rachel and Ron & Christina. K/V quickly changed their mind though when they couldn't complete the distance required and went to count pickets. TK & Rachel were the first to finish in the Detour and received the next clue -- make your way on foot to the Aukstaitija Windmill. That is the pit stop for this leg of the race.

Almost immediately after TK & Rachel received their last clue, Kynt & Vyxsin finished their picket-counting and began running to the windmill in an effort to catch up to them. It wasn't enough though as TK & Rachel were the first team to arrive. They won a 10-day trip for two to Japan and, from how Phil was describing it, it sounded pretty sweet! Kynt & Vyxsin were the second team to meet up with Phil. Meanwhile, the other teams were still working on their Detours. Ronald was having a hard time with the stilts and fell down pretty hard once. You could really tell he was in a ton of pain but he managed to complete it eventually.

Nathan & Jennifer were doing nothing but fighting while they were counting pickets. She was being a major pain and he wasn't helping matters any by interrupting her counting. He eventually called her a bitch and that's when she became more upset at him and decided they should just do the stilts. Nicholas & Donald and the blondes were having their problems as well. Nicholas had been counting the gateposts (a no-no) and the blondes were squabbling back and forth causing them to keep losing count.

Ron & Christina were the third team to arrive at the mat followed by Azaria & Hendekea and Nathan & Jennifer. Who's going to be the last team to arrive? Nicholas & Donald corrected their counting and wound up being the sixth team to see Phil. The blondes were the last team to arrive and were eliminated. They said they had a great experience even though they didn't always get along. Good for them. Personally, I'm glad they're gone because I didn't really like them very much.

Next week, Azaria loses patience with his sister and Nathan & Jennifer reach their breaking point. They were even throwing around the "hate" word with each other. That's not a good thing.

So what did you think about this week's episode? Were you glad the blondes were eliminated? And is it just me or this season of The Amazing Race not as good as it usually is?