Travelog for: Húlí hútú

Huli here, hanging out with my mentor family here in Orem, Utah!  There are three kids in this house, so there is always someone to play with.  Hide and seek is a favorite game with the boys- I think I found a great place in the houseplants, don't you?  They also have an awesome banister that's just the right size for me to slide down!  The oldest loves to carry me to the top and watch me zip to the bottom, over and over again.  I like to pretend that I am one of the ski jumpers who come to Utah to train in nearby Park City!  Look out below!

crashtestrider showed me one of her favorite hobbies, geocaching!  We used her GPS to track down a few of the special containers called caches that are hidden all over the world! When you find one, you sign the log inside, and sometimes there are fun things to trade for inside!  I have to admit, tracking things is right up my alley, as a fox, of course.  Geocaching was an adventure that took us to some really great places that we wouldn't otherwise know about.  One of the last places was a park where I got to play some more with the kids- peekaboo!  We got pretty dirty.

Today was a beautiful, warm day, and so crashtestrider and her children decided to take me to visit nearby Bridal Veil Falls up in Provo Canyon.  This part of Utah has such amazing mountains and rivers.  Since I am so lightweight and my legs are so short, I got the special privilege of riding on top of the stroller- I think I got the best view of all!  Believe me, the waterfall is actually much, MUCH bigger than it looks in this photo. Awesome!!

What great weather we're having!  I went with the kids today to Nielsen's Grove Park, where they not only have playgrounds, but a duck pond and tulip field, as well!  I LOVED watching the ducks  (they looked mighty tasty!).  You can see me staring one down in the photo.  Of course, I would never eat one, but it was fun to hone my natural fox instincts.  Romping in the tulip fields was a BLAST!  They weren't in full bloom yet, but there were still so many of them!

Today we visited Brigham Young University, or BYU.  It is one of the largest private universities in the United States, owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or "Mormons".  crashtestrider found out on Facebook that the school was giving away bricks from the old dormitories where she used to live as a student, and she wanted to keep one to remember it, since it was recently torn down.  So we went to visit!  Our first stop was an interesting visitor's center at the Hinckley Alumni Building. 



Here I had my photo taken with an actual Olympic torch from the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, which is just 45 mins to the north.  (Since my legs are so short, I had crashtestrider pick me up for the photo). 



We visited the carillon next, otherwise known as the bell tower.  We arrived right before 3pm, when the bells rung, and they were SO loud!! 



While we were up there, I also had my photo taken in front of "Y Mountain".  Can you see the "Y" that stands for BYU?  It is tradition for students to hike up the side of the mountain to visit this giant concrete marking.  crashtestrider says that it is common for towns or high schools in Utah and Idaho to make letters like this to mark where they are.  She says you can even see them from an airplane!  It was a busy morning.  There were alot of visitors today, and parking was crowded, so crashtestrider said we would come back to look at the football stadium another day.

Hooray!!!  I am finally off to see new places!  Today I'm leaving to meet new friends and do fun things in Lithuania.  Boy, my accommodations are a little tight- I guess it's not only the airlines that are cutting back on legroom- ha!  Oh, well.  I'm so excited!  Look out, here I come!

Heyy!!
I finally arrived to my new home - Lithuania! (And finally came out of that little "death box" envelope ). I arrived here with two candies, nice magnet and sticker, which are showing my hometown. My host mum is very nice!



I also met three nice ladies from Germany - Kit-Kat, Dottie Mouse and Porridge. They all gave me a big friendly hug:



We decided to go for a walk near the house. There was Neris river near us (2nd biggest river in Lithuania), so we went there for refreshment. We found a small bench on the beach and enjoyed the sun. The water wasn't very warm, but some people already swam in it!



Foood!! Haha, just kidding, only a few ducks and pigeons in the background...



Meet the new hippie!





This day was awesome, but I felt tired after travelling such a long way. So I think I'm going to take a nap. Nighty night, mum! It's only the begining of my journey and I already like Vilnius



Hugs,
Húlí hútú

Hey!

Too bad I didn't have a chance to know Kit-Kat and Dottie Mouse a bit more - today they had to leave and travel to other countries. Me and Porridge gave a big hug and wished all the best. Travel safe, ladies!



After that we went to a mall called "Ozas". There was an expo of "Interesting Physics" things. We had to look at it!



Don't look at this magical thing! It can hypnotise you and...well... I don't remember anything after I looked at it



I guess I have to sleep a bit.
Hugs,
Húlí hútú

Hiii!
Today I've visited Trakai. It's a historic city and lake resort in Lithuania, which lies 28 km west of Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. This town was built and preserved by people of different nationalities. Historically, communities of Karaims, Tatars, Lithuanians, Russians, Jews and Poles lived here. Interesting, right?



We went to the Trakai castle, but before that I've seen some souvenirs in here. Look at those kittens!



And here is "Lithuanian gold" - amber:



Another thing lithuanians are proud of is linen (flax). Here is a linen bag (where I'm sitting at):



And here is a beautiful porcelain plate with Vilnius:



This is it! The Trakai Castle! It's on an island in Lake Galve. Looks amazing!



The castle is sometimes referred to as "Little Marienburg". The construction of the stone castle was begun in the 14th century by Kęstutis, and around 1409 major works were completed by his son Vytautas the Great, who died in this castle in 1430. We are inside it:



After all that trip to the castle I felt hungry, so we went to the "Kibininė" to eat some kibinai. Don't know this word? Neither did I, but then Karolina explained me, that it's a traditional Karaite dish with meat inside. You can see it on the plate - I couldn't wait to try it! Very delicious!



And I also drank kvass - it's a fermented beverage made from black or regular rye bread. Mmm... yummy!



The first part of the day was great, but then Mr. Rain appeared and we had to go home. I want to go to Trakai again! Maybe... one day...

Kisses,
Húlí hútú

Hi!
It's SUMMER! Great! Too bad we couldn't go to the city and celebrate it, because it was raining all day (yeah, a great start... ).
Me and Porridge with our host mum decided to have a little nice party in our house and we ate... STRAWBERRIES! Those tiny red things were very delicious, it was my first time eating them!



We wanted to see Lithuania closer, so Karolina showed us this photography book with almost all the cities in there!



I liked Vilnius Bell Tower a lot. I hope to see it in real life soon!



Porridge said that eating vegetables is good. Well... they're not so bad... Maybe I could be a vegetarian one day, who knows 



Photo shoot time! I found this tiny red camera and we took one photo with Porridge. It looks nice!





What we did next? We helped Karolina to write postcards and send them through postcrossing. I chose this one with a mailbox:





I guess that's all for now. Hope tomorrow will be a sunny day!


Love ya!
Húlí hútú

Hi!
Today me and Porridge went for a walk because Karolina had to do some important stuff near the city centre. We were sitting sunbathing and reading a magazine in Lithuanian (well, at least tried to.. ):



We were right next to the Palace of Concerts and Sports! It was built in 1971, now it's closed. It's quite a huge building and I had to take a picture with it!



And one landscape photo. Do you see Gediminas' castle behind me? It's so small!



When we came home, we found a nice surprise - a new voyager Finfin! She came from Finland, she brought a letter, a postcard and a candy bar with her. I gave her a big hug and we became great friends



That was a cool day
Love,
Húlí hútú

Labas, mamyte!
I said 'hello, mummy" in Lithuanian! I know some words now and Karolina said that I could learn more today. Can't wait! But at first, here is what I did yesterday:

Me, Porridge and Finfin went to the mall "Panorama". It was quite early, so not many people walked around.



Then we went to another mall VCUP where we saw a poster with a first toy musieum in Lithuania! You can read more about it here. We've seen an exhibition of some of the toys from the museum's collection. I've seen what games and toys children used to play in the last decades of the 20th century!



With already vintage teddy bears:



I found a funny poster, too



VCUP is in the New Vilnius, so when we went outside and walked on the White Bridge, this is what I saw:



We went to the park and then had a walk in the Old Town. I finally saw two famous buildings in Vilnius - The Cathedral and The Bell Tower! A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!



We decided to rest for a while in a small park near The Presidential Palace. It is located in Vilnius Old Town, is the official office and eventual official residence of the President of Lithuania. The palace dates back to the 14th century and during its history it has undergone various reconstructions, supervised by prominent architects, including Laurynas Gucevičius and Vasily Stasov.



After this journey we went back home

Bye,
Húlí hútú

Heyyy!
Today our host mum showed us this chocolate in the shape of Lithuania. How cool is that? We started to explore it right away!



Then Karolina told us some lithuanian words. Did you know that AČIŪ means THANK YOU and ŽAISLAS means TOY? I wrote something:



Yep, a FOX is LAPĖ in Lithuania! Other friends did the same game with their names. While they were finishing our first lithuanian words lesson, I thought that I could make a prank and scare those little girls! Shh, they don't see me yet...



Almost there to scare Finfin and Porridge...



BOO! Hahaha, they didn't expect this!



I, of course, said sorry for my joke, because girls at first seemed to be very frightened, but we started laughing right after this. We also made a funny photo with mustaches:



That's all for today. I guess I'm going to watch a movie or chat with my friends. I feel a bit lazy now

Love,
Húlí hútú

Heyyy!
Today Karolina showed us a bit of Zirmunai (in lithuanian it's Žirmūnai). It's the most populous administrative division in Vilnius. It is also a neighbourhood in the Lithuanian capital city Vilnius, encompassing the city district of the same name, built in the 1960s.



And you know what? We are living in Zirmunai! The house where I'm staying right now is in this administrative division Here I'm next to the fountain:



This poster which we saw at the bus stop is about a great poetry writer Maironis:



And this is a very old fountain which was built in Soviet times. It's not working now. Can you see us?



Here, take a closer look!



It was a short journey, but I enjoyed it. We had to go to the Old Town because our host mum had to meet her friend there, and before that we stopped to take a picture near the Pranciškonų monastery:



And that's all for today!


Love,
Húlí hútú

Hi there!
This Sunday we had a nice picnic outside because my host mum aunt had her birthday. We wanted to go to Swedbank terrace at first...



...but then we decided to be in Zirmunai, near the Neris river. We helped with the food...



...then we were sunbathing...



...even eating sushi! It was a new experience for me!



After that we came back home where we ate the cake. Mmm, delicious!



Karolina told us that we might travel to another country this week. Woo hoo, can't wait!

Hugs,
Húlí hútú