I'm a little behind schedule with these photos I took about two weeks ago when I was in Lithuania. Some of Vilnius town itself, some of Trakai (a small town about an hour west of Vilnius with a castle surrounded by lakes), and also some taken during a short camping trip up on the Baltic coast, on the Coronian Spit (a peninsula shared by Lithuania and Russia). [View Full Entry]

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Buying tickets in Warsaw central train station for Russia is not the easiest thing you’ll ever do; be prepared for your blood pressure to rise significantly! You have no idea what the people selling the tickets are saying, and they pretty much just nod at whatever you say. After some intensive discussions / sign language though, we managed to book a ticket on the Moscow train which is over 20hrs! - You couldn’t make this stuff up…. While sitting in a café a while later, I began thinking about something the ticket lady had being saying… Belarus, Belarus!! - Now we [View Full Entry]

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Summer is here and Lauren finished her school responsibilities already. We initially planned to head out to Asia and Australia for the summer. But we decided to postpone that and diverted our summer trip to Europe. Our first destination? Vilnius - capital of Lithuania and the European Capital of Culture of 2009. Again, our friends were curious on our choices of summer destinations. But we were always searching for destinations that were not overly commercialized yet. Lithuania is the largest of the three Baltic countries and got its independence in 1991. This was followed by its membership [View Full Entry]

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Culture is a hard concept to describe...it involves every part of one's existence from the country they were born in, to their values, to their appearance and to their form of dress. I personally can describe my culture as something that is a form of thinking, what one was brought up as. I am Lithuanian (Eastern European) and value this dearly, it is a culture of many things; of potatoes and pork, of large heavy wool and linen folk costumes, of rainy weather, of flat farmlands, of vodka and good beer, a mix of Christinity (and religiousness), of highly valued post-secondary [View Full Entry]

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It had been way to long since i had seen Diana so we decided that I go over for a visit for a little time, only 10 days I could go there for though but it was well worth the effort. Diana had organised a trip to the costal town of Palanga for two nights and it is sort of the tourist town of the country and gets very busy in the summer. Great to go there and have a relax though and look around. Other things we did was go to the famous Trakai and it did not dissapoint. We [View Full Entry]

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Today saw us up and out of Klaipeda and off on the bus to Vilinius (the capital of Lithuania). The first thing that we had to do before we could leave Klaipeda was to take a photograph us all of the card carrying members of the Olympic Casino. :) The weather deteoriated as we got closer to Vilnius until it was raining pretty constantly when we were getting off the bus. This gave me a bit of a dilemma. What was I going to do with Pugsy. He has a bag to ride in, but the bag is pretty full with [View Full Entry]

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Day 10-11 (May 12-13) Moving time again and now it was a trip up north 2 hours by local train to stay in the Aukštaitija national park. We were collected at the station and driven to our local host families home where we were staying (they move out into a little cottage next door while we were there). The family speak little English but were so welcoming that we soon felt right at home. We had a room with window and balcony overlooking the lake. The national park was proclaimed with the villages still to remain inside it, as part of [View Full Entry]

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Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe. ~Anatole France May 11, 2009, Monday, Trakai to Vilnius, Lithuania, “A Problem Day… Somedays are just not easy”, or “The Day Kel almost lost it”. As the rain came down, we parked and rushed to the bus, but we didn’t have the correct amount. (Why would the price change from yesterday?) Maureen rummaged through her purse and paid the additional amount, we took a seat. Ten minutes later, Maureen can’t find her wallet? PANIC sets-i [View Full Entry]

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Day 8-9 (May 10-11) A four hour journey by local bus took us from Klaipeda to Vilnius the capital of Lithuania. Vilnius is a place with many churches and preserved buildings. It has one of the oldest universities (1500’s). The next day we visited the old capital at Trakai about an hour away, and it’s feudal castle and museum surrounded by a lake. Rather amused by the three dimensional picture of a royal speaking from one of the rooms. My room-mate and I found a great place by the river for a leisurely lunch of local fare - a zeppelin. This [View Full Entry]

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The last two days were going to be dedicated to last minute errands, shopping, walking, and general winding down before the trip back. Friday morning we decided to check out both open-air markets, the one by the train station, and one on Kalvariju. The former was smaller. The main hall had mostly produce merchants and the adjacent hallways housed clothes and tchochke peddlers. My attempt to take photographs was met with suspicious eyes and negative remarks, so I had to abandon it. (Yes, I’m there to take photographs of your funky sweatshirt and immediately submit them to my manufact [View Full Entry]

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