I know that the city you live in is often the last one you consider to explore. And I promised myself this would not happen to Warsaw... and I did not keep my promise. Of course, I saw the city, and you can see some things I have done in my Experiences in Warsaw blog post. However, I could have done it much more and much better. Nevertheless, I had my free last full-of-sightseeing days and I want to write about Praga district. This peculiar part of city is separated from whole Warsaw by Vistula river. Failed attempts to build a [View Full Entry]

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When I was writing my couchrequest to Tomasz I was in Krakow and not entirely sober. Just before I had two shots of "good night sleep" vodka with my host. But the request was successful and in few days I was in a minibus Krakow-Lublin. Going there alone gave me time to think and conclude my journey. I had been on road already around 18 days and Lublin was my last stop before coming back to Warsaw. Even though I would not say I had the "happy happy" feeling at the time of traveling, but in conclusion this road gave me [View Full Entry]

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I went to Vienna because of Vienna Calling - the couchsurfing summer camp. It was really intense so I cannot write this all into a blog post; there are just scarce memories and impressions. This will be more a photo blog. Living in apartment with 7 people. Beer drinking at first day BBQ. The huge park and finding the exact place there. The MUSHROOM. The huge party, lots of lots of people. Meeting Casey. Salsa lessons at workshop camp. Opera. Little pub crawl the last evening. Waking up in 3 hours and getting a ride to Krakow. Crazy, dynamic and good. [View Full Entry]

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“So maybe for a day you would like to go to Salzburg?” - my hostess Jackie wrote to me. And the next day in the morning she dropped me off at hitchhiking point about 20 km away from Salzburg. I got my ride in just 5 min - a truck driver from Bosnia stopped. We did not have common language, so we did not manage to talk more, but it was short ride anyway. I got off at outskirts of town, but soon I got to the center. Before I got there I did not know what this town is famous [View Full Entry]

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Burghausen was not anywhere in my travel plans. Before that I did not even know this town existed. The destination of whole trip was to get to couchsurfing meeting in Vienna and to visit a friend in Germany before it. So I managed to hitchhike to Prague, where my friend picked me up and then I had to find some way to get to Vienna. Luckily for me there were few people offering a ride to Vienna for this meeting and I wrote message to Jackie. She answered fast and positive and that's how I got to Burghausen. We entered town [View Full Entry]

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It was early morning, but the traffic was already rushing. Me and Edita met at the hitchhiking point in one end of Warsaw. She said she hasn't slept all night - Erasmus party. - Have you hitchhiked before? - I asked her. - No. - Have you couchsurfed before? - No, - she smiled. So it was going to be a double adventure for her. It was not my first time hitchhiking, nor couchsurfing, but still I had an up mood for traveling and adventures. A mood for the road. So I raised a sign and Edita raised a thumb. People [View Full Entry]

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So, I was on my way in a minibus to Chemerivtsy where my American couchsurfing host lived. Of course I got some attention from the driver, as there are not so many travelers going to Chemerivtsy. But that was lucky encounter, as he said he was going to Kaliningrad the next day, so I can have a ride all the way to Warsaw. The mini bus was full of people and very warm. A woman nearby started talking to me. She came to minibus earlier and heard me talking to driver, so knew that I was foreigner. Apparently she used to [View Full Entry]

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The overnight train was with no adventures. I was in same coupe with some construction worker, we talked a little and he was surprised that I am traveling in Ukraine and alone. I even told him about couchsurfing and he was concerned if my host will really host me and even offered place to stay if, by any chance, I had none (well it did seem like an honest offer, with no other intentions, so it was nice from his side). Morning was sunny I, after putting my backpack in train station storage, went to the Old Town on foot. I [View Full Entry]

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Zheckov was quite different world indeed. The town itself has nothing special - it’s a leftover of Soviet Union. The main sight of it is statue of Lenin. It has 3 huge factories around it 2 of them not working - very typical town built for workers. I stayed there with Masha, who is a friend of my grandmother. She has lived in my hometown Siauliai for around 20 years and then after the break of SSSR she had to move out and came back to her home in Ukraine. She became very good friend of my grandmother. Strength and bad [View Full Entry]

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First impression arriving to Kiev was - big, ugly (Soviet style) and big, but also very interesting. And that impression stayed for all the time. First experience was waiting in a huge irrational line by metro to get our zhetons. It took around 20 minutes to get them. Metro is one of really impressive things in Kiev - it goes so deep down and has these shiny advertisements that it looks surreal (and it looked surreal and hilarious when I listened to Moby - Run On song). As my host was busy I had put my backpack in hostel where my [View Full Entry]

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