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.

Missing

New year finally arrived and started pretty well, except some things at work. I met them in main square of Brno and when i had to cross it, felt like in one of those war movies - lights, fireworks and shouting. But all my body parts are luckily still there.
I'm honestly afraid of my boss and think that he hates me, so i feel pretty stressed and exposed at work. I try to learn as much as i can, so i won't get fired, but thing i don't really feel comfortable around is that i'm not expected to have questions and every time i ask something people get annoyed.

I hope in this year everything will turn for better.
My sister stopped in Brno for few hours on the way from her trip to italian mountains and was tired and hungry, so i decided to lead her and her friends to restaurant close in Hotel Pegas. After that i wrote in their facebook page "horrible service at bar most of the time. if you go with locals it's o.k., but if you try to order in english waiters turns very rude (it happened 3 times already, with different waiters) and still speak in czech. my friends had same experience several times as well. last time waiter named Petr went full mental and made faces behind my friends backs, was so rude we had to choose bravest person to ask for bill. also included some stuff we didn't order. he served other tables around us where people spoke german and czech and behaved almost normally around them. i apologized for his behavior but decided better to avoid this place and recommend others to do so as well.". Never in my life i was at the place where foreigners are sincerely hated, but Pegas is exactly that.

Bureaucracy sucks

Week was quite stressfull as i had to deal with parliament and other freeloaders. I sent one request about month ago and gave them few simple questions. Instead of getting aswers, my request was redirected to one committee which gave my opinion, not answers so i had to write again. And again got answer that my request is redirected to committee again. Ugh....

On thursday evening i went kayaking in Neris. While during daytime is pretty much boring, in the evening and later at night view is really stunning, especially while sun is setting down.

Later me and my companion went to have some beers at Route 66 which is really amiable place with tasty and cheap beer, nice interior and without "Švyturio extra" made from powder. While it's most popular beer, it's certainly one off less tasty. In Route 66 they have on thing which sounds almost creepy for me - beer with tomato juice. 

On saturday i decided to check "Live camp" event.Description said "Camp principle is simple - guitar, friends, and Fire. Everything else - details, but everybody who has been there  - knows that it is most cozy and mysterious guitar camp in Lithuania."

Thought about going to stay overnight, but came back after five hours as event was really boring. Maybe my opinion would have been different if i arrived in the evening but since i arrived around noon there were nothing really going on. Some people playing, some singing and thats it.

Eveing was much better though - i went to listen some music in Vienuolyno kiemas and later some acquitances joined. That place always leaves mixed impression for me - it's expensive and they don't have local beer, just Švyturio extra from powder and even if there are two persons inside they always have three face control guys whose main task is taking people's water. But they always have really nice concerts.

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 :)

Connection

I’m still surprised why people carry two cell phones when it’s possible to get one for the same price. I got my MyPhone 8890 for just 390 lt and it has all the functions I need – sms, calling, wi-fi, and all stuff other, more expensive dual sim phones has. Totally recommend.

http://www.my-phone.lt/myphone_8890.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6akiFpSy040

for few years already I was using MyPhone, because it’s good, not expensive and staff at main office is very helpful (never uses ‘your phone is wet, now pay’ tactic).
I bought my phone at Viltanika shop and my experiences with staff was extremely positive, probably best service i ever experienced. Also gave good recommendations.

Sadly after arrival to Czech republic my phone died. So i get new one, MyPhone again. 8855 Diggy.

I'm really satisfied with it, just service sucks there (provider is called CPA). I was forced to contact lawyer as they refused to send me manual in english or at least word document in any language.

Vilnius

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
Facebook page

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
Facebook page

Enjoying nature

Somehow it’s suprising for me that I, the one who has allergy for big cities and loads of people, lives in capital. It’s comfortable here, because Vilnius is considered ‘small’ and always mistaken with Riga as Lithuania is ‘part of Russia, capital Riga, people speak only Russian/polish’ and my favorite places is non touristic ones.

I always enjoyed hiking and nature so one of my favorite ways to rest is hiking in regional parks. Around Vilnius there are few and most of them are easily reachable with public transport. Probably my favorite hiking tracks is near Dūkštos, name Karmazinai.

Recommend!

http://www.neriesparkas.lt/?id=87&l=2

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
Facebook page

B Haus

Since I’m sweets addict, I’m always looking for new places where I would be able to satisfy that addiction. My newest find – small bakery/cafeteria “B haus”, situated in the middle of Totorių street. Chocolate  croissants are simply unforgettable!

B haus offers variety of home made bakery goods and also coffee. Really worth coming if you find yourself in the city centre J

B Haus

B Haus webpage and another one

Totorių str. 7

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

Church of St. Johns (lt. Jonų bažnyčia)

One of most interesting churches in Vilnius  (in tourist map i counted 31 church ) as it belongs not to the church as it is understood in Christianity, but to Vilnius university. Built in 1426 m, after baptism of Lithuania.

After Vilnius university’s beginning as Jesuit academy church was used mainly by proffesors, students, also as space for debates, defending theses, place to meet visiting kings. Nowadays all Vilnius university students gets their diplomas there, church also used as a place for some concerts.

In September 5^th of 1993 church was visited by then pope Jonas Paulius II.

Vilnius bishopric once wanted St. Johns church to belong to them, but didn’t succeed . Almost all the time during it’s history church belonged to university and after regaining independence it was returned to Vilnius university. Nowadays church’s events are organized by Vilnius university and rectors of church.

In summer of 2011 church tower was opened for tourists and now it’s possible to climb to 45 meters height and get wonderful view of all old town.  Inside tower you will also see Foucault's Pendulum, a device to demonstrate the rotation of the Earth (it’s the only one such device in Lithuania).

St John the Evangelista and St John the Baptist church (Jonų bažnyčia)

Šv. Jono st. 12

Open 10 – 17 every day

map

view from top

Cukatos

Like coffee and homemade sweets? There’s a perfect place just for you (and me J ). Cukatos is small cozy coffee in the city center that offers variety of pies and coffees. Maybe lack of space and piles of pillows gives the sense that you are at home, sitting on soft couch, reading good book and enjoying warm pie and cup of coffee.

Cafeteria “Cukatos “ also offers free wireless internet, some books to read and possibility to order sweets. Don’t forget to try carrot pie – taste is unforgettable J

P.S. Just next door to “Cukatos” is second hand shop “Humana” which is the only second-hand shop in the city which has basement dedicated to original vintage clothes. Definitely worth sticking nose if you like that.


webpage