I returned to Lithuania after a long and restful, yet somehow also hectic and very busy, two months being home with family, grandparents, friends. It was a really great visit, and also special because Viktorija traveled with me and it was her first visit to the U.S. It was fun and exciting to see her experience my home for the first time, and especially to notice the ‘firsts’ that she found most exciting. Things, for example, that you don’t see/have in Lithuania that I never thought about. A short list: fireflies, turtles (she never saw them in the wild!), skinks, krispy [View Full Entry]

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DOVYDAS NEVERAUSKAS SIGNS WITH THE PITTSBURGH PIRATES; FIRST LITHUANIAN IN HISTORY TO SIGN A CONTRACT WITH MLB TEAM 7/13/2009 For the first time in the history of Lithuanian Baseball, one of its own has signed a professional contract with an MLB squad. On July 9th Dovydas Neverauskas, a 16 year old pitcher from Vilnius, Lithuania, agreed to terms of a professional contract offered by the Pittsburgh Pirates, making him the first player in Lithuania's history to do so. Neverauskas agreed to sign with the Pirates only after considering proposals from several MLB Clubs. The 6-3, 170-pound [View Full Entry]

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Lithuania: 20th - 25th July 2009 In order to keep up with our travels, this blog will be short and sweet. After the "72 Hours" we were happy to arrive in Vilnius, Lithuania's capital. We had a very comfortable apartment that was extremely close to the "old town". Once again, bikes are a fantastic way to see this city. This is where we also started off with the Baltic cuisine, which was a pleasant surprise. Armed with maps and books of the city, off we went. Vilnius was in brilliant renovated status, to the point it seemed almost too brilliant, with [View Full Entry]

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Lithuania was the only country on this trip that we were passing through and not spending the night. Lithuania was also the only country that I had trouble saying. Daddy wanted to spend some time at the Hill of Crosses as he thought it looked pretty cool. When we arrived, I couldnt believe my eyes, it was a hill that was covered with SOOOOOOOOOOO many crosses. He told me I needed to count them, but I didn't even try. I had daddy buy me a cross so I could leave it there. On the way from there to Poland, I fell [View Full Entry]

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This trip was because of the 1000th birthday of the old country. we went and my brother was involved in the dancing. i enjoyed the sightseeing but being part of this celebration was like nothing else ive experienced. im proud to be Lithuanian. Day 1 We arrived to Lithuania and woke up. We were tired but managed to go to the mall. We ate at cili (a Lithuanian chain owned by a Hamilton Lithuanian). We then went to old town. In old town we climbed up the hill and went up to the top of the castle. At the top we [View Full Entry]

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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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And we reached our last full day in Vilnius. We thoroughly enjoyed our Old Town Vilnius experiences. Lauren and I had never seen such a collection of churches within such close proximity. But it was time to see something different … away from Old Town. We had seen numerous postcards of this red-brick castle during our walking tour of Vilnius. We consulted our trusted guidebook and found a reference to Trakai Castle. So after breakfast, we walked up to the Front Desk and inquired about this castle. The gentleman at the Front Desk pointed us to a brochure, showing a daily [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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Sveiki!!! Life and baseball in Kaunas, Lithuania, rolls on. Kaunas is still undefeated in both Lithuanian and Interleague games, but all of this might change as our US Tour approaches and the competition stiffens. Not to forget also that we have two tough games to close close out the first half of the season against Vilnius Logipolija. It has been two busy weeks of hosting MLB Envoy Coaches and CFS End of Year Trips!!! So here are a few updates!!! *********************************** 3 LITHUANIANS INVITED TO MLB EUROPEAN ACADEMY, TIRENNIA, ITALY, AUGUST 11TH-29TH!! For the seco [View Full Entry]

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