Kata-illustration: Lithuania: Country-side, Nida, Vilnius.

Holidays. Finally!!!

Long story told short, it all started with me traveling from Moscow to my home-country Lithuania, re-packing a bag for a weekend in the country-side, then re-packing a bag for a short 2-days trip to the Lithuanian seaside, Nida in particular, and then coming bag, walking in Vilnius old-town during my birthday and later that day going to the historical capital of Lithuania, Trakai, losing my bag there (with keys, debit cards, cash, pretty new cell phone, etc.) and finding it at six o'clock in the morning the next day.

Happy birthday, me.

Country-side weekend

reading Anna Karenina and drinking tea in the terrace, walking to the lake, cooking mushrooms, eating berries, sleeping in the hammock, breathing fresh air, taking a Russian-hot-steam-bath, and just resting my mind without a laptop, e-mails and anything like that.

Taking the long way

Traveling from Vilnius to the seaside on the long way (by the Nemunas river-side, not by the highway) and looking to my home-country as a tourist, visiting old historical places such as Veliuona church , Raudone castle and others and stopping to eat in Sturmai restaurant, great great place to eat fish-soup cooked by a local witch who brings it to you, puts on the table, takes her hot coal-stick, asks you to think of a wish, and then puts that burning stick into the soup for a second and leaves you to eat it. Food was great by the way.

Sea-side: NIDA

Nida Nida Nida.. what a great place to rest your mind, to be lazy, take a walking or cycling tour and get inspired. A place where Thomas Mann came to rest and write too, as well as tons of German seniors do now. This is not a place to go for clubbing or any other nigh-life, but it has clean and pretty empty beaches, amazing view from really high dunes, where it feels like being on the moon, also it has a pretty original cultural details that you wouldn't sea anywhere else, such as wooden colorful weathercocks that used to work as a code for what a family earned (how many houses, ships, etc they had). Not a cheap place, I should say, but it worth every penny spent there because after few days it feels like taking a month-long holiday. Switch your internet off, rent a lounge in the beach, buy some ice-cream or local smoked-fish, close your eyes and let Nida take care of you. At least that was what I did.

On a way home

Again, taking a long way home from Nida, visiting Joudkrante and its Witch-Hill full of wooden sculptures, and then taking a trip to the Hill of Crosses near Siauliai - magical place even for those as me, who has almost nothing in common with the actual religion. I found it inspirational and uncanny at the same time, but it worth visiting and at least taking a glance to it as to the historic place related not only with Christianity but with freedom and independence of Lithuania, a symbol of resistance against Soviet Empire. (for more about it, read here)

Vilnius-Trakai

So after long trips all across Lithuania, it was time to stop and think, take a cup of coffee in Vilnius' old-town, visit a Contemporary Art Center (and see some painted/graphic art by one of my favorite artists Laisvyde Salciute), then go to historic town of Trakai, eat local meet-pies there for dinner and say: happy birthday, me.