Targets

Once upon a time i had great plans for myself. I wanted to grow up doing lots of stuff and learning new things, but somehow i got stuck there. Now i am at the good time and place but sometimes don't have courage. That's how i learned importance of having friends. Once a lone in foreign country people around me became important.
Now i'm in hard place. I decided to move out my apartment as i'm ridiculously overpaying compared to living conditions (old house, smoking inside - my flatmate does it, small). Thankfully one of my friends offered temporary place to stay. I decided that this time i would be more careful looking for place.
First time i had to move because of landlord. He was living in the flat and had no boundaries - knocking at door when i was sleeping, doing repairs in early mornings. Everything person who is not used to live with other people would do. I was creeped out actually. Especially that instead of telling me something directly used to send text messages. After being tired (couldn't sleep with all the doors banging and drilling early morning or late at night) for couple of months i got enough and started looking for new place. He actually asked me to move out before i told him, so it was easier. I found my current place quite quickly then.
Now main issue is my mentally not stable flatmate. She was hiding it quite well. But the fact that she's freeloader get out pretty fast. She used stuff i bought and never even contributed on cleaning stuff or toilet paper and even used my dishes. Later banging at evenings began. When new flatmate moved in i started to stuffer She forbid him to use balcony we all are paying for so he smokes in a room and i cannot use kitchen as i don't react to smell of smoke well. She even never took trash out, but put bag next to my door with note that i should do it. And kept attacking me on facebook but never had shame to tell me in the eye anything. So now i'm almost homeless as i gave my notice to move out till the end of the month. So i'm on a brink of change now.
I hope new year will bring great things to my life. I know what i want and where i want to be so now i just need courage and strength to achieve it.

Where's your home?

So, after one year abroad i came to visit my homeland and after one week i can sincerely say i miss my second home, Brno.
Somehow i had hopes that stuff improved up there, but it's what it was - just hopes.
To start with - public transport, ugh!.. User not friendly, rarely going and ages old. Two years ago they started so called 'reforms' there and then it went downhill. First names of stations were changed to longer, not pronounceable for foreigners ones which people strongly disapproved (old names are still unofficially used, nobody still says 'Karoliniškių poliklinika', they say 'Kometa' (name still used by taxi) and so on, especially on one which goes '... seniūnija'. Even language commission informed me (i actually wrote email) and said that their recommendation was to use short names, which our 'beloved' parish just didn't care about. Then e-ticket which didn't work at all for first few months and still not working properly and considered as swear word by locals. And instead of improving existing system, mayor still dreams about bikes and metro. Also Vilnius is not for active / young people. Not only zero night transport (after 23:00 basically impossible to get home if one doesn't live in old town), but also zero thoughts about most popular routes - overcrowded all the time and goes very rarely. And yet, 'only buses' lines were introduced. Damn, if i see Vilnius mayor or some parish officials one day, i will tell them they are stupid. Because they are, no matter how politically incorrect it is.
There's slight improvements in streets as Lithuania is leading ES parliament this year and politicians wanted to look good in international arena. But well, politicians don't live among people or use public transport so improvements is mostly in public buildings. Otherwise not much changes. Some places closed, some opened. I was really dissapointed that instead of one of my favorite places, 'Visų šventųjų baras' now there's quite awful place called ''Taverna diaspora' with overpriced beer and awful seating (trying to put 100 people in place for 30). 'Coffee hill' is also sadly closed...

Impossible is nothing

Finally after more than one year (one year and two months to be precise) I decided to use my vacation to go home. After all, my cousin had a baby daughter during that time, I miss my grandmother and her cooking, I miss my lovely guinea pigs and surprisingly, even my annoying little sister and of course my mom.

I decided to avoid 22 hours on a bus through Poland and have mixed train – bus journey instead. I am doubting my decision now, once i'm in Warsaw. Train Brno – Bohumin was just fine, calm, smooth ride. I was actually knitting whole way (trying to get my scarf done till cold comes). Way Bohumin – Warsaw was another story though. I got the seat and started watching series (my old laptop works only on cable and that train had sockets) and knitting when some lady with kid comes in coupe. I wasn't happy about light being turned on so lady called train officers and then they called me dangerous (for asking to turn off the light) and asked to move to other seat. I did but i'm still kinda shocked about being declared dangerous. Maybe it's just polish way of dealing with things.

On the way to Bohumin I saw some snow on the fields. And read in the news that Christmas tree was lit in Vilnius today. Sadly I had to move my holidays due to my challenged flatmate and won't spend that period with my family, but will be back in Brno instead. And working.

So I will try to get most of these two weeks in my homeland. Spend time with family, see places, do stuff. Relax from all the craziness at home (my flatmate went to the level where she leaves her trash by my door).

Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened

Today is my birthday and more than one year since i last saw my family. Going home in one week and trying to sort out everything going in my life right now.
My biggest concern right now is place to live. One of my flatmates went completely crazy and i even had to ask for legal help. She didn't clean after herself, cut us off from internet, hidden the contract and took the rooter and  continue to freeload (didn't buy anything for the flat for months). I learned lesson hard way - never live in place where you don't meet the landlord (ours communicates only with crazy flatmates as she was first to move in) and live without contract.
On more positive side, there's beautiful autumn in this corner of Europe.

This was one of first caught my eye when i first moved to Brno - beautiful autumn. While in Lithuania autumn is also very colorful and pretty, there it is just different due to various hills around the town and much bigger trees (i think it has something to do with climate as same trees are bigger there than i'm used to see).
I recently joined pleasure walkers community in Brno and now try to enjoy weekends walking around Brno.
Also i recently enjoyed my first (!) opera there in Narodni Divadlo. It was Nabucco.

Since i had no expectations, i enjoyed it a lot. While subtitles (i actually didn't expect opera to have subtitles) were only in Czech, it was relatively easy to understand what's going one - two girls loves one guys, some occupation, some killing and so on. Although i probably should have read script before going there to understand performance better. Since one lady of our group knew one guys who was singing, we were invited to backstage which was really cool.
Recently was first time to try raw food in Kiwi. While i really enjoyed it (had mix of champignons, had no idea how it was prepared without cooking), i realized that it requires lots of time to prepare food like that. And creativity. While i could switch to vegetarianism quite easily as i don't like or need meat tthat much, being vegan or raw food eater is just not for me.

Addiction

I think I have addiction to internet. After my flatmates refused to go and pay for it it was cut off today (after two months not paying) and I felt so lost that I even ordered prepaid internet from O2 even though my experience with them says that that company just takes off money from your prepaid card without providing any service. Just in case i might need want to check facebook before head hitting the pillow. I cannot wait for awaiting change - changing the flat soon. We are now 3 and my flatmates goes over all my tolerance limits :

• one of them smokes in the room, so corridor and  kitchen stinks and i cannot cook
• other expects me to buy everything for the flat (like cleaning supplies, toilet paper, pay internet bill) and constantly lies about having no money
• we pay by person, no room size, so i financially support these two without actually wanting it
• we are not allowed to use balcony
• one of flatmates keeps wifi router to herself and expect us all to pay same price for internet

 ... and so on. So after i come back from my hometown i hopefully will have new place to live.
I didn't saw my family for a year, so cannot actually wait for that. I keep checking news about my lovely hometown and even checked SBL page, even most of the time recommendations there are not really for my liking. But it's nice to see how much new places are opened and plan to check some of them. Even my salary is way too low i'm still ritch compared to Lithuanian salaries (when foreigners says 'it's cheap' there my initial answer is 'try to live with 200 euros, standard local salary per month then') . I like to check this page as well just to see if my memories is close to current state of things. Checked prices , but looks a bit off as current price for transport ticket is 3.5, not 2.5 Lt. And average monthly salary is around 1000 Lt smaller.

Weeekend getaway to wine cellars

Since i've been having issues with flatmate - he's constantly smoking cigarettes and weed in his room so whole kitchen and corridor stinks most of the time - i decided to take and offer and escape beauty of Brno for a while.

So i spend really beautiful weekend in small village of Modrice. It simply couldn't have been better. Weather was beautiful and sunny. My host, Marie, who was born there, invited me to beautiful village of Sidleny which consist of wine cellars only. People don't live there. Small, beautifully decorated houses consist only cellar and wine tasting room.

Wine i tasted was really great (it was mix of two brands of red wine, sadly i don't really remember names) and i was surprised a bit as i usually don't really like red wine (for me most of the time it's too bitter), but the one after tasting several brands of white and red wines i chose, was so rich and tasty i was amazed. Food we tried was exceptionally great as well - it was sausages from pork and rabbit meat (home made) and some spicy pickled paprika's. I want marry some Czech guy, get cellar, live in the village and have simple orgasm for taste buds and life overall all the time.

 I don't think i can really describe in words beauty of that little village. It has really nice and not very bid zamek with garden and park simply gorgeous in this time. Later we went to hody in Vracov. Unforgettable. I didn't realize how funny czech national costumes are until i saw it. Also it's really great experience to see and live through something purely local there.

Life goes on

With summer gone i think about home much i have done and how much is still left to do.
It was intense. I got in very toxic relationship and was treated like crap and insulted all the time. I met lots of great people, traveled, continued missing my family. My cousin's little girl was born. And a lot of great other stuff.
I miss going mushroom picking. Now, when first frost came they are not so good for eating. Although they still might pop up. I guess people in Brno, at least ones i know are more interested in partying and just going out with friends, not mushrooms. Somehow it's what i miss around there - more day trips.