We had a nice long sleep in again today and neither of us particularly wanted to get up. When we did get up we headed across the city to the bus and train stations to plan our escape route to Poland. Turns out whichever route we take we're spending the full day traveling. We went for dinner back at the veggie restaurant. Rob finally got his falafel, and I had a vegetable crumble, all very satisfying and yummy. During dinner we booked our hostel in Warsaw. We're going back to dorm life, but hopefully it'll be slightly livelier than Vilnius. After [View Full Entry]

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We woke early this morning, but easily fell asleep again until midday. The weather was overcast and didn't really inspire us to get up and do anything. When we did eventually get up neither of us was particularly optomistic about the day ahead. First stop was cathedral square to find the tile that the human peace chain ended at. We really couldn't find it anywhere, so after a quick look around the cathedral itself we headed up to the Gedimino tower. It was around then that we realised we were exhausted. By the time we'd climbed to the top we were [View Full Entry]

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We woke early and eager to find a different hostel to move to. Tourist information suggested a hostel not far from the old town so we went and had a look. We decided it was better than Paupio our current hostel, so we took it. By twelve we were settled into our room and ready to get to know the better side of Vilnius. Instead of trawling round the city looking for lunch we settled for Double Coffee, a Starbucks type chain we had been avoiding but had been recommended in Riga. It wasn't as expected and had a good menu [View Full Entry]

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Well i had doubts about writing this entry or not as i am still having problems in being away from Canada. Yes, it was one year ago !!!! the day i arrived in Canada and started the self discovery journey that brought me to Lithuania. One year ago i was arriving on Calgary international airport full of excitement and with high targets for the future. Evaluating my last year i can say it was full, full of good moments and also not so happy ones but all together it was a lifetime experience. I have traveled to Canada, Poland, France, [View Full Entry]

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Today we got up and dressed in comfortable clothes in readiness for our journey to Vilnius. Breakfast was delicious again and appreciated more for it being our last. We went to catch the bus to Juodkrante but found that it only ran every other hour, so we had a rather pleasant hour reading by the lagoon in the sun. Juodkrante was rather fun. We left our bags in a random hotel and set off up witch's hill. This is a walk around a forest, but there are statues of witches, goblins etc scattered around. Some of the favourites included a seesaw, [View Full Entry]

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The title sounds a bit disturbing doesn't it? actually i wish a had a better one, one that could express what i feel better but i don't. Yesterday i was outside contemplating...Autumn is here, leafs are brown, remembering "Hazy Shade of Winter" from Simon and Garfunkel...Cultures..."Peace corps" and pioneers ...uuu big Word. I was thinking about Peace corps Volunteers coming to Eastern Europe right after 1989, or just people wanting to see what Eastern Europe is. But still Peace corps Volunteers were in my mind, coming to an ex communist country and trying to change something...to he [View Full Entry]

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Yet Another Flavor of Baltic…Oh, It’s Yummy Each of the Baltic states is similar yet, once you’ve scratched the surface, there are subtle differences. As I noted in our last entry, Latvia is a spend happy cousin of the Estonian. Both have an aftertaste of Communism in their crumbling buildings and left over poverty but both have a young, fresh dose of liberation which is leading to growth both economically and personally. Estonia wishes to break away from its Russian roots and is, almost, cussedly independent while it feels like the Latvians hold on to thei [View Full Entry]

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Even though "Senna" and "Prost" drove at break neck speed to try and make up time. We arrived in Vilnius at 10.30am one hour late. After a sleepless night, aching all over but with a smile on our faces (Thanks to "Fric" and "Frac") Had a wonderful welcome from the lady at the bus station who told us off for putting one of our bags on the grass whilst we got our bearings - wasn't as if it was a nice bit of grass!!!!. So if anyone decides to sit on that bit of wall to the left of the [View Full Entry]

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With our eyes firmly set on the coast we rode north from Warsaw with the hope of some beach bumming before heading into the depths of Siberia. On route we passed through Biebrza National Park, a large river delta area, and Poland’s largest national park. Our plans to take the scenic route through the park and spot the elusive black stork (czarny bochin) were foiled when the road we had intended to take was under flood. Nigel attempted to prove to me that it was in fact ride-able, and took his first tumble of the trip, which would have been very [View Full Entry]

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Tired and cramped we arrived in Vilnius after the overnight bus journey. We made our way directly to our hostel where we went straight to bed for a few hours to recover. A few hours later and feeling better we set out to explore Vilnius. Neither of us knew much about Lithuania, I remember hearing about all the run ins they had with the USSR, when they tried to regain their independence, but I was quite young and didn't really understand what was going on. The city was certainly nice and good-looking, and boasted one of the largest old town centres [View Full Entry]

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