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]

---

---

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]

---

---

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]

---

---

These days I met some old travel companions of mine and we talked about our expedition in Eastern Europe from some while back. There were many beautiful things that we saw, the people were wonderful, even if we could barely understand them, the language was melodious but who knows what they were actually saying, right? And I also remember well the Castle of Kaunas in Lithuania, because I met someone special there and well… you know how it goes. Anyway, the castle is really an impressive sight, it’s really old, from the 13th century or so and some crusaders happened around [View Full Entry]

---

---

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]

---

---

We woke at nine and went straight down to breakfast. It was yummy. There was an array of food available, even the obligatory curd tart. We spent most of breakfast debating whether we'd be asked to pay, but we weren't. Yesterday we'd seen pictures of "The Lithuanian Sahara" so we decided to go on one of the set walks around that. By set walk it was more of a walk in the general direction of a set walk that probably existed. Once we were at the top of the hill the view was amazing; the dunes stretched out below and the [View Full Entry]

---

---

We were the last to rise at half nine. A guy in our dorm told me that i'd been talking in my sleep, something about being lost and alone on an island, quite embarrassing, but I have heard other people talking in their sleep before. We packed and left early and walked the 2km to the ferry port. We got there just in time to catch a ferry over to the Curonian spit. The Curonian Spit is described in Lonely planet guide as heaven, well with the sun shining and the bus route we took, it seemed pretty heavenly. We pretty [View Full Entry]

---

---

After spending a night sleeping on the worlds hardest bed, we woke the entire room with our alarm. By nine we were on our way to Siauliai (pronounced sh- ow- lay) on a rather rickety old bus. The journey was three and a half hours, so we amused ourselves by making up new rules to card games. We'd met an American guy on the bus who was also heading for the hill of crosses, so we went in search of the tourist information together. He wanted to get a taxi that cost 40lts but we wanted the bus at 4lts, so [View Full Entry]

---

---

This weekend we faced the Black Vikings in a 3-game series that would decide who would finish first place in the Lithuanian Regular Season Championship. The games were played in front of a record sell-out crowd—I would say that including the younger players watching, parents, friends, and a few spectators who had happened upon the field somehow, there was somewhere between 20 and 30 spectators (closer to 20). As silly as it sounds, I think the crowd heightened the pressure on our guys to play well. And I have to say that I even felt some of this extra pressure to [View Full Entry]

---

---

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]

---

---