Travelog for: S

Dear Mummy,

  I'm happy to write you and tell you that I happily came back to Lithuania. We have just unpacked our stuff (we have been having so many of them and now I'm feeling so tired) so  after all work I was allowed to write you.
  Egn have just noticed that one of my life missions is to visit 5 different countries. You won't believe me, but I really did! Lets count: Austria, Germany, Lithuania, Czech Republik and France. I'm so happy about it  I believe we can count it as completed.
  Unfortunately, egn had so little time for taking photos that she made just a few. But she did 
So, here I am on Charles bridge. Egn visited Prague third time so she knew almost everything there. This bridge is her favourite place in all Czech Republik. This time it was on reconstruction works and egn hates the way how they change this bridge. Later you will see why.


Nice view from one side of the bridge.

From another side.

Not reconstructed statues. I liked them so much! Theyr smell like all humanitys history.

And here is what it was done to these statues during reconstruction. The whole history was erased.

I'll upload more photos later, Mum.
Hugs, S

Dear Mummy,

  here are some photos from Strasbourg. I really liked there. I felt the warm and inteligence of this city.
  Here I am comming from EU Parliament.

This is how it looks.

I liked the famous Strasbourg church the most. It looked so unusual but cute.




There were so many nice buildings. I felt like in a history movie, which is shown in Discovery channel.



Good night, Strasbourg, I'll miss you.

Hugs, S

Dear Mummy,

  I have been to Paris as well. This city is so charming! I felt love and freedom in every corner of this city. Eng promised herself that this time next summer she will know French as well as she does German.






We came to Eiffel Tower. It looked so beautiful.



I saw a beautiful garden near this tower.

We decided to got on to Eiffel Tower. We had to wait a long time... Very long time.

But the view was just marvellous!


We even saw some information about Lithuania there! That was so strange...

Hugs, S

Dear Mummy,

  I want to introduce you someone. This is a Lietuvaite (Lithuanian girl), she wears a traditional Lithuanian dress. She is an individual traveler. We met her in the begining of our trip. By the way, she had her trip paid by Europarliament member L.Andrikiene. She organized our trip as well, so we are very thankfull. You can see memories about our trip and find Lietuvaite in this website www.laimaandrikiene.lt
And here we are.

Reichstag-Parliament.


The gates of Branderburg.




I think this is a cathedral or something but I hope someone can say me what it is in real.



I think it is a Rothouse.

I just loved Berlin when I saw how many teddies they have! Egn just loved them and took hundrends of photos of them.

A famous Berlin TV tower.

Rothaus and a statue.


Good night, Berlin. I'll miss you.

Hugs, S

Dear Mummy,

  today is the Mummy's Day in Lithuania, so congratulations, Mummy.
  Egn told me that this holiday usualy takes place in the first sunday of May in Lithuania, but in the second sunday of May in other countries.
  Egn is extremely sick (she cought a cold in the end of Spring! Isn't that strange...?) so the only thing we can do is to bake a cake for you.
At first I found a recipe. This cake is called "Viennese cottage cheese pie".


So I showed it to others.


This is what we need to make the best cottage cheese pie ever:
0,5 kilo cottage cheese
6 eggs
6 spoons of butter
1 glass of sugar
1-2 handful of raisins
a bit baking powder
a spoon of starch


There were so many things to do, so we distributed our work.
Bella de Koe put cottage cheese in a bowl.

I mixed egg white with sugar.

MrCoolHH put 6 spoons of butter in oven, where butter melted.

This is how it should look when you put everything together.


Put this mass in forms.


It should be baked in 200C about 45 minutes.
Lets look.

It looks marvellous and smells lovely.

We are great team.

Bye, Mum. I have already missed you.

Dear Mummy,

  I have a surprise for you...

Each year your birthday reminds me
That I really want to say
I’m very glad I know you;
I think of you each day.

I hope you enjoy your birthday,
All the pleasures it has in store,
And because I appreciate you,
I hope you have many more!
I hope you will enjoy this tasty chocolate cake.


Hugs, S

Dear Mummy,
 
  today we got a nice trip. We went to Poland! I have to say-I was so surprised when egn told that she will take us all to the nearest town of Poland. It was about 20 km from Lazdijai, Lithuania, but it was beautiful and cosy.
Here we are-all ready to travel.

In the centre of Sejny and near a map of this district.

I saw a nice statue in this city.

And the church was so beautiful. You may know how religion Polands are.




We saw a little chapel near church.

Sejny are very related to Lithuania. There live so many Lithuanians and there lived a famous Lithuanian writer Antanas Baranauskas. He was born in Anyksciai, a marvellous city where egns grandmother lives. But only in this city you can see sculpture of A.Baranauskas.



Wooden statues are very popular in either Lithuania and Poland.



I saw that there is an Ambasy/Konsulat of Lithuania.

Hugs, S

Dear Mummy,

  egn was full of surprises today! You won't believe me, but our trip didn't end with Sejny! We went to Druskininkai!
  A nice church of Druskininkai. You can see differences of style and architecture of church of Sejny and of church of Druskininkai.

We saw pre-historical lizard there. We lied near him, with our eyes turned to sky.


Mummy, egn told that you wanted to see some festivals in Lithuania. In Druskininkai took place a nice festival "Europ day". It isn't traditional here, but it was very beautiful and joyful. His main title was "If I were you" and the main purpose-tolerance.
I saw Lithuanian flag there.

This is how the entrance looked.

Walking there.


The wall of good works.


I was surprised how beautiful people with disabilities can play. They played even better than most of Lithuanian artists!


We saw Russian church there.


Druskininkai are famous with their unusual architecture. Take a look.


And the end of the evening we spent playing bowling! Here I am trying to lift a heavy ball.

Here we are-trying to choose the best ball.



But unfortunatelly, I didn't win...


Hugs, S

Dear Mummy,

  I have a nice evening, walking in Lazdijai. It was pretty cold evening so we didn't walked much. I liked this little beautiful city, where both country side and city found place in.
  Here is St. Ana's church.

A nice stage where mostly teenagers gather to spend their Friday evenings.

Lazdijai was called after a little river, which name is Lazdija. Here she is in a Lazdijai city park.


Hugs, S

Dear Mummy,

  I had a nice trip today to a border between Lithuania and Belarus. I enjoyed it so much! Take a look at pictures I have done.
  I visited a nice homestead.


  In the other side of this river you can actually see Belarus!

Hugs, S

Brangi Mamyte/Dear Mummy,

  living in Lithuania means experiencing rain every day. They even have an expression: "Cia Lietuva, cia lietus lija" in English it is "Here is  Lithuania ( a rain land), here rains are raining". That means that everything can happen here. However, this phrase isn't used when good things happens. It looks more suitable for describing bad things.
 
  Neverthless, Lithuania is beautiful and rain gives to it a bit charm. Here is what we have because of rain.


A beautiful apple trees.


And our cute flowers, which I and MrCoolHH have planted before our trip to Europ, grow so beautifully.

We met egn's favourited animal in Lithuania - a snail! This one looks so friendly.


  Another apple tree. This one smells so lovely!

  And we even saw some chickens!

  A beautiful olive bush, which is going to bloom in the end of this month.
 
  Cherry tree. It looks very different to sakura.


  I met an old snail. You can see that she is old on her shelf. I said "hello" to her.


  Hugs, S

  Brangi Mamyte/Dear Mummy,
 
  today we headed to egn's favourite shopping place.She needed a dress but she bought 4 pairs of shoes insteed! That's crazy... Now she has 15 pairs of shoes for summer.
  Here we are, all ready to travel.

  Egn just loves these paintings on walls. I find them beautiful too.


  An interesting statue-clock in centre of shopping street.

  Egn's dad with MrCoolHH trying to eat this huge cube of ice-cream. It looks delicious 

  We got to another shopping centre. Here what I have seen in streets from there.


  Hey, there is a strange lady. What is she doing there?

  Our last stop in  Suwalki was garden shop. Egn bought a beautiful bush for her garden there.


Hugs, S

Brangi Mamyte/ Dear Mummy,

  I saw an intersting water source today. It isn't well known in Lithuania or Europ, but it is said that this water source is the cleanest in area.
  Here is a strange sign, showing where the water source is.

Going to it.


  Steps to it were very slippery so we didn't go any further.

Hugs, S

Dear Mummy/Brangi Mamyte,

  you may heard about a flood in Europ. It reached Lithuania as well! However, it isn't the worst case.
This is how it looked egn's garden after just 5 minutes of rain! However, it isn't the worst case...

Egn promised me to have a little walk today so I was checking weather every 5 minutes in egns balcony.
(Here you can see a water tower)


Here is wirtten year when egns house was built.

Rain stopped for a while so we headed straight to park... However, rain started again and we had no time to make photos...just to take an umbrella and run 

I hope to head to Kaunas on Saturday, Mum. Weather should be better then. What is more, I'm planning to leave egn on Sunday.
Hugs, S

  Dear Mummy,

  I visited the second biggest town in Lithuania today. I think egn had already told you about our plans to delay my yourney to the next host for a day and head to explore Lithuania a bit more. So, all in all, tommorow I will leave this beautiful rainy country.
  Here I am, going to Kaunas and enjoying Lithuania's countryside.



    Despite the fact, that this trip is short, we made a stop to have a rest.




  I had a nice chat with MrCoolHH and Bella de Koe.


  Egn suggested having a short walking in Kaunas. Here is what we saw there. 


I found some information about this building. However, it was only in Lithuanian, so i translated it with google translate. Sorry, if there will be any mistakes. This building is Military Club of Lithuania.

    A nice festival take place in Kaunas this weekend. It is Kaunas city birthday and this festival is called "Days of Kaunas". Here is poster, who shows that and wishes good day for everyone, who lives and are in Kaunas.


  Here is a very famous alley, called "The Alley of Liberty". We were walking along it.


    Because of the festival there were many markets. I found a perfect hat for me. The words on it means "I drink and I drive". This hat is used in bathhouses.

    So, we were walking when suddenly it started to rain!

  Egn was furious as she wanted to do me my perfect good-bye trip. So, the only thing we could do was to go to restaurant. We went to a nice Chinese restaurant "Mr. Chan". We got place in terace and I had my own clean place as well. From my place I was able to see women selling nice paintings.


  Here I am, waiting for the waitress.

    I got my own bowl of rice with eggs and vegetables as well.

  And egn ordered a big plate of crispy fish to all my friends and me.

  When it stopped to rain, we continued our trip around Kaunas. I saw an interesting statue.

    In the centre of "The Alley of Liberty" the statue of Lithuania hero-Vytautas is built.

Quote:

Vytautas (Lithuanian:  Vytautas Didysis; styled "the Great" from the 15th century onwards; c. 1350  – October 27, 1430) was one of the most famous rulers of medieval Lithuania. Vytautas was the ruler (1392–1430) of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania which chiefly encompassed the Lithuanians and Ruthenians. He was also the Prince of Hrodna (1370–1382) and the Prince of Lutsk (1387–1389), postulated king of Hussites.   In modern Lithuania, Vytautas is revered as a national hero and was an important figure in the national rebirth in the 19th century. Vytautas is a popular male given name in Lithuania. Vytautas Magnus University was named after him. Monuments in his honour were built in many towns in the independent Republic of Lithuania during the interwar period, 1918–1939.

  People with traditional Lithuanian clothes were walking by.

  Here is the second biggest post office in Lithuania.

  "The Liberty Boulevard" is very long so we spent there whole day.

Quote:

Laisvės Alėja (literary Liberty Boulevard or Liberty Avenue) is a prominent pedestrian street in the city of Kaunas, Lithuania. It stretches between the St. Michael the Archangel's Byzantine style church to the Central Post Office and Tadas Ivanauskas Zoological Museum around the Kaunas Old Town, the oldest section of Kaunas. For a long time it was main commercial district of Kaunas. Stretching for 1,6 km, Laisvės Alėja is still the longest pedestrian street in Eastern Europe [1]. Motor vehicles cannot travel lengthwise up or down Laisvės Alėja, but can cross this pedestrian street at intersections with other streets where vehicle traffic is allowed. This boulevard is separated into two walkways by a median strip lined with linden trees. Construction around Laisvės Alėja originally took place during the latter half of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century, however some construction continued even afterwards. Because of at the time built Kaunas Fortress all the buildings were limited to 2-3 floor size, with a few exceptions like St. Michael the Archangel's church built in 1895 in a place of a fountain. In 1982, Laisvės Alėja was reconstructed according to plans of architects V. Palauskas and V. Paleckienė, and completely transformed into pedestrian area (as it was planned as early as in 1953). Both Kaunas State Musical Theatre and Kaunas State Drama Theatre are located along the street, as well as the Kaunas Red Cross Hospital.

  I saw people dancing on the stage. They were wearing traditional Lithuanian clothes and dancing traditional Lithuanian dances.

  I saw a very interesting fountain as well.


  I liked this place the most. It looks like the alley in Berlin "Unter den Linden"


    Egn bought for me a present-sweet candy.


Hugs, S