Every summer has a story

After long and quite boring spring it's so great to finally have something to do all the time and just relax at home or outside.

Basically whole end of may was spend hanging out with friend and watching fireworks on every occasion. I'm glad that i get to know about Ignis Brunensis. Now for me it's related with great time, perfect weather and some funny and eventful stories :) And this, which i declared as 'orgasm for the eyes'. Only Czech ones were kinda horrible and cheap - just random shoots without any coordination with music or no music at all.

Finally, after quite some time in the beautiful city of Brno i can say that i truly love it and people i met there. There's much less concentration  of grumpy ones that in my home country. The only creepy one i met is my former flatmate/landlord who had no social skills and felt okay only with russian speakers, so escaping from his creepy behavior was huge relief and now i feel like i can finally live again - no psycho making loud noises in night or early weekend morning (i really thing he simply has mental issues), i can sleep, make food and feel comfortable again :)

Happiness comes in various forms. For one it's money, for others health, luck, love or other constants of life, but I just recently realized that's it's never the same for various people. It's little things which makes difference. For me now it's my target – to get experience and be best at my work so I will stop be so seriously underpaid. And learn the language somehow. For that I guess I just need to be so lazy. Thing is I cannot force myself into thinking of spending money for courses while being seriously underpaid. So I listen. A lot. Which resulted my Czech into bar/technical but not every day life Czech. Either way when I spent my very very very deserved holidays in Budapest, for me it took several days to switch to English. And yeah, when I did, I heard about my non existent 'Russian accent' from quite a lot idiots.

However, the week in Budapest was simply awesome. Of course, that impression was partially caused by the fact that I was extremely tired after eight months non stop working. I couchsurfed on first few days. I was lucky enough not only to get emergency host but also one living in perfect location of  Heroes square but also was very hospitable, helpful and had few cute cats. For me it took few days and several walking tours to get nice sun tan and properly relax. I cannot even say what i liked the most - weather, city, people or just general atmosphere, but god dammit, after several days i missed good beer terribly even not being hardcore beer drinker. Hungarian beer is so horrible that probably only Finnish one can beat it. Bear Grylls might actually like it.

Crossing days

Well, it seems that summer started only few days ago, but it's already finishing. Sice i had so much to do and did so little, tried to rest a bit and experience as much as i can.
On 8th of august i participated in greetng of Rūta Meilutytė, first gold medal winner for Lithuania in these Olympics.

Concert was rather boring but since this win was escalated so much, it didn't surprise me. Now her first trainer wants money and basically all tabloids and newspapers wrote about Rūta's childhood and family.
Somebody it still suprises me how much fuss tabloids makes if some lithuanian achieves something or if some world wide known person is lithuanian. Like Hannibal. Or Anthony Kiedis. Laura Asadauskaitė won last medal in olympics and it was gold but nobody made such big fuss as about Rūta. But i believe it was also because Laura's medal was expected and her main competitor was eliminated by Lithuanian olympic commitee.
Last weekend i decided to go to ecofestival "Valley of winds".

It was nice and also intense experience as there were so many people and things to do. Directly after arrival i participated in workshop 'renew your clothes' and decorated white dress with ribbons, buttons and other stuff. Workshop was run by latvians and one of them took photo of every movement. Food was super awesome, although it was one of those events for vegans/vegetarians. What i really liked is that program was till midnight and people were respectful so it was possible to sleep during the night.
I even managed to win board game 'Citadel' even playing it for first time and with french cards. I believe i was underestimated as 'fist timer' and noone tried to kill me of steal from me during the game. Ha!

Lake nearby was very nice, situated in the forest so not overused, although in Trakai region, very popular among tourists and local wanting to go near water, but in most cases ending up getting drunk and leaving trash after themselves. Thank whoever that this lake and area was not like that...
Water was worm, there were basically no mosquitos so weeked was close to perfect. I didn't pay for food as one of organisers behaved like having PMS - being rude, snaping at people for asking questions and so on and so on. I have principle on not leaving donations for free events if organiser behave that way. The same with not leaving tips if waitress/waiter is rude/slow.

Thursday was one of these rare ocasions when i decided to check something new and found out new bar called Pietų parkas when i went to check raggae concert with fellow traveller from Russia. It was really nice evening, because concert was really good and later we went to another one in Šauni vietelė. Singer there was   quite impressive. Later that evening we went to check if there's still meeting going on in my disapproved Pianoman and since there were none, i had to excuse myself for last trolleybus home. I'm still waiting for out "genius" mayor's answer about public transport timetables.
Now when there big mess because of electronic system and Vilnius cards i actually highly doubt that anyone will answer me soon.

This weekend was dedicated to Weeday . Last year it was mixed impression as in sunday morning i was awaked by very very loud music starting at six in the morning so i left about seven. I decided to give this eveng another go and it was good decision. I met some nice people, had great time and even was too lazy and relaxed to go sauna (that's extremely rare for me, sauna addict :) ).

What music thinks

So, this saturday was spent in festival "Ką galvoja muzika" (What music thinks) in Kazliškiai. Since in this blog i can avoid lying, organizing (more specific - communication and providing information) sucks big time. Or maybe organisers are just incapable understand lithuanian. While asked if there will be drinkable water they answered about beer. While asked about if there will be water (lake, river) nearby and how to get there without car they didn't answer at all.

Organisers also lied about several activities. It was written that there will be workshops with possibility to make something from clay, wool and wood, natural herbal tea and natural handmade cosmetics - nothing of it didn't happen. There were only smalll cafe, few shops (pottery, bijouterie, wooden stuff, silver accesories) and that's it.

I actually wouldn't really mind all of that, but thing is i really hate being lied to. Later on the table where we were sitting small green worm appeared.

I'm actually afraid of worms and if i go fishing i always scream throwing rod (after somebody puts worm on the hook for me), but this one was fun to watch. Moving fast, climbing on hair like acrobat and othe stuff. Later he was let go on the grass.

Concert was really great - participants all good, just some very boring - only gitar and singing quite simple lyrics. Music not too loud, which i really liked. Crowd really supportve. Seemed like everybody really enjoyed themselves.
Nature around was also really beautiful, i managed to find some raspberries in the forest, although i wanted to find some mushrooms. And it seems we were lucky - weather was good all day long and we heard that friday was rainy. One of the guys thought it may be the reason why there were not so many participants as he told that previous there were much more.
Coming back were stopped at cafe Skardis.

It's restaurant/bar/cafe in the way Kaunas-Vilnius whis has not only really beautiful surroundings and mini golf in preparations but also awesome collection of old american cars. I found one i would love to have - blue Chevrolet. I love blue and green cars (exept Opel Astra) and this one was really nice - long and wide so nobody would dare to beep (exept maybe if jealous), although i think it might be a problem to park it.

Wandering

So this Saturday was once again spent in Trakai as there was medieval festival there. It was really great and lucky me and fellow travellers day was sunny (after few hours in the sun, i already have some red skin, what happens when i don't use sunblock on my fair skin). One thing organizers should know - come on, if you organize 'medieval' festival, only beer you have should be "Švyturys" made from powder and drinkable only to foreigners and desperate locals. We have so many great local breweries! Sice i had only coffee in the morning i took oportunity to try caramel apple

i never tried it before and i really like it. Apple itself was delicious and big (probably polish) and caramel coating made it even better. I also got myself ring depicting selpent. I liked it so much, i gave him name - Juozukas and now i can stroke his head if i'm nervous or just for luck. 

Medieval dances were also quite enjoyable, althouh one looked quite funny for me

- it looked like girl couldn't choose between two guys and guy can't choose betweek two girls so they made some exchange in their triangles. Knowing that all Lithuanian folk songs are either about drinking beer or guy going to war and expecting that girl would wait for him it looked quite modern.

What was really awesome was jocker. 

He was straightforward, funny, making jokes and was really good with kids. Me and my acquitance from Scotland really enjoyed it. We even appeared in gallery in news and "news" blog 15min.lt . He was even able to make jokes about Kaunas, Poland and Estonia without insulting anybody. Everybody was laughing all the tim :) when i was in Kaunas last time after telling where i'm from i was asked 'So... you hate us" and literally didn't know how to react to that statement.

The perfomance by Doll theatre "Lėlė"  "Trys paršiukai" based on fairytale about three little pigs was also really nice, although programme said it's for kids,

it was clear that grown ups enjoyed it as well. I especially liked perfomance of the wolf, who was funny, good with kids and enjoyable to watch. My fellow traveller enjoyed it was well, although didn't understand language. She also made some paper and later we took off. We went to Kybynlar for kibins and real local beer. I never got why for kibins main streem goes to "Senoji kibininė" which is always noisy and kibins are much much better in "Kybynlar", but it's nice that you can always find some place and space there. After trying kibins on way to bus station we found some local value "knaipė" which worked ridicuously slow, but everything was twice as much cheaper than in most of places in Vilnius. Later took of to Vilnius, went to herbs market and then parted as it was time for me to volunteer at Let there be the night event. My place was at event called "Varpų šešėlyje" and my job was to look that were wouln't be any underage youngsters and kids.Time went quite quickly but when i was free there were basically no intersting events going on apart from concerts so i basically didn't experience that "cultural night" what was more cultural evening. Concerts were rather good though, especially Victor Diawara.

Good thing was that there were night buses because our stupid "heads" meras Zuokas and Gintas Bliuvas who don't use public transport and has money for taxi believe that after 23:00 or even 22:45 there's no need for public transport. I can't understand if it because they are stupid,don't use logic and don't care about people's needs, they expect people to spend free time at home or they expect everybody to be party animals going all night long. I wrote email asking that and kinda expect stupid answer...

Today i'm having strawberries with sugar. Tastes really yummy :)

Sunday hike

I realize more and more how much I don’t like parties. Mostly it’s because I don’t feel comfortable around drunks and don’t find it the way to find ‘friends’. Last time I run away from such activity it turned to be perfect Sunday for me. I went to hike in Aukštadvaris region, which is really beautiful during winter. Although it took more time than everybody expected as instead of 10.30 it started at 12 something because of frozen bus and ended around six, day was truly enjoyable. In the end I was even scared I got lost, because it was already dark and I was alone in the woods (my leg started hurting, so I was somewhere in the end), but it felt surprisingly warm, considering it was about 14 minus. So yep, there’s no bad weather, only bad clothes. And company is everything :)

New Year - back in Tartu

To celebrate New year’s eve I went to my beloved city of Tartu. This week has been really awesome – I spent my time walking through the city, visiting places I’ve missed or simply never been to. One of the best was astronomy museum in old observatory, which is totally estonianised – with possibility to watch all the exhibits in computer screens, play games and other cool stuff. Another place I really liked was Ahhaa science center where I spent three hours and even that didn’t feel enough because there was possibility to play with music instruments, see live exhibits, participate in workshops and so on. What I really hated in Estonia was that everytime I spoke English I got answer in Russian although I don’t speak Russian and I’m not Russian. After some time I just got tired from these insults and started speak Lithuanian. That helped. And coming home felt awesome as I really missed my language and not being insulted with Russian language. Because of bus change in Riga my wallet is not very happy as for bus ticked only I had to pay fifty lt. it’s so bloody expensive because it’s Lux express with coffee and internet but I wasn’t lucky because in front of me sitting was Russian mother and daughter trying to push  seats backwards all the time so I had no room for legs. That was annoying but stopped after a while.

Coffee hill

Recently opened new coffee place with simply awesome chai tea, good prices and very friendly baristas. Wi-Fi and journals also available. While coffee bars a la Coffee inn, Vero café and so on recently become quite popular in Vilnius as people are running all the time and coffee-to-go become new trend, this is one place I simply adore because it’s nice just to sit there and enjoy cup of tea with journal without rushing anywhere and it’s not like Coffee inn, always full of loud teenagers sitting there basically all day., and once again – best chai tea in whole city!
I'm just really surprised that they opened cafe at Mykolas Romeris universty. Strange because MRU has best machine coffee i ever tasted and they have really good coffee at canteen. I fail to imagine how douche person should be to pay seven times more for the same coffee.

Vokiečių 18a, 01130 Vilnius, Lithuania
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Alaus namai

Alaus namai (Beer house) is one of the nicest places to do traditional Lithuanian sport – glass lifting. It’s located in city center – close to white bridge (going there you can enjoy view of city lights and ridiculous glass architecture of other riverside of Neris) on which there’s plate saying ‘don’t jump off the bridge, there’s people who cares about you’ or something like that, recently alternated as ‘don’t stay in Lithuania, there are countries which cares about you’. While glass lifting in bars can be hard to average Lithuanian with average income, this place is rather cheap and there you can find lots of different beer tastes, not same boring three kinds as in most of the bars where mostly only Švyturys, Kalnapilis and Greenbergen is known. And staff is always cool. Food there is very tasty too :)

http://www.alausnamai.lt/
A. Goštauto 8, Vilnius

Visų šventųjų baras

While all old town of Vilnius is full of nice cozy pubs and bars, this one is something special. Maybe it’s about it’s location (close to bus station, in the  heart of Vilnius’ old town), maybe atmosphere, but it’s always nice to come back here. Friendly staff, cheap and tasty beer – that’s just what you need :)
This bar is one of the small number of places i recommend if somebody asks my opinion as there are not so many places where you can get good lithunian beer for good price as most of the old town pubs are nowadays adapted for foreigners and lacks variety of local beer. Also most of them are overpriced, so finding place with good beer and good prices can be considered luck. Thanks whoever works with luck, VŠB is also not popular amongst tourists.

Visų šventųjų str. 7
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Plum bum bar

Plum bum become one of my favorite places to hang out at instant. It is located in non touristic place, so it is not like one of many bars in main streets full of foreigners and slow staff. Plum bum is cosy, little bar with friendly staff, tasty food and nice parties from time to time. Definitely worth coming back :)
Especially for estonian cider. Plum bum somehow still is only place in Vilnius where is possible to get tasty real cider as most of bars sells cheap very not tasty liquid from Poland ( "Kiss" or "Fizz") whic they overprices till about 8 lt. 
Also they have very tasty meal for good prices.

A.Smetonos g. 2

I-II: 10:00 - 22:00 III-IV: 10:00 - 24:00 V: 10:00 - 4:00 VI: 18:00 - 4:00
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Bambalynė

If you are in Lithuania you already heard that phrase at least one time  - „in Lithuania there are two religions – bear and basketball – everybody drinks beer and everybody knos how to play basketball“, so where to look for good local beer? While in most pubs you can find only most popular beer brands like Švyturys, Kalnapilis, Utenos, there are few places you can try small breweries’ beer (in Lithuania beer is probably most popular drink and there’s about 70 small breweries and abou 10 bigger ones ) and one of them is situated just few steps from town hall. Bambalynė is beer basement which offers some snacks and also variety of local beers – about 50 different kinds of beer (it was counted that in Lithuania there are about 300 kinds of local beer). Cozy atmosphere, friendly staff and no mobile connection gives perfect chance to enjoy that. Also it is possible to buy some bottles – perfect gift for friends or family members at home.

Bambalynė also offers degustations – price is 40 lt (about 13 euro) for person. Degustation contains stories about chosen beer, snacks – fried bread, smoked Lithuanian meat, cheese and so.

Bambalynė (name is not fully translatable to english, but bambalis is russ-ianian phrase for plasti bottle containing alcoholic bewerages, usually 1 liter and alus means beer, so Bambalynė – plane where you can fiind beer in bigger than usual 0,33 liter bottle)

Stiklių str. 7

http://www.bambalyne.lt/?page_id=11