Salos Trakai

... and we were on an island, near the castle. There was a sandy strip and we sat down for a picnic. The kids wriggled into their costumes and waded out into the water.

Within a few minutes all of them had cut their feet on something in the water, whether it was mussel shells or broken glass, I don't know, but Saskia's was particularly deep. I pressed the towel onto it and made her lie with her foot in the air, but it bled for a good 15 minutes, quite messily ...

... Park, some 45 minutes drive from Grigiskes, where we were staying. It is one of the many places that claims to be the centre of Europe, and it celebrates this dubious fact by exhibiting a collection of sculptures from all over the world. These sculptures are not small little things - some are big enough to walk in - and they are dotted about in the forested park, for you to find and enjoy.

Grigiškės, Lithuania rachelkw

... get away place for most people in Vilnuis. It also has a pictursque landscape and the legendary Castle of Trakai. Trakai is also known for the Karaimes (a people speaking the Turkic Language), who have lived here since the 14th Century. I took a bus that close 6LT, but the bus was more like a van that people would have about 12 people in it. But there was 4 more people just standing up!! It was crazy. After ...

... three lakes and sits on a peninsula, which means it was basically built on water. I guess, wherever in the town you are, there is always some water surface in sight. We parked between suvenyrai and kavinė, i.e. a souvenir shop and a coffee shop, right by the pavement of the main street, Vytauto gatve, winding along that afore-mentioned peninsula and lined on either side with a row of wooden houses. Everything indicated that we were by no means the only ones who had come to an idea ...

... the cemetery. In Christian world few people ever deem death as welcome, regardless of the season. But I would say that in this case, due to the winter chill, many of them were additionally less than enthusiastic about the whole thing. We circled around the church and inspected the statues of which there were several rather interesting. One, right in front of the gate, was Moses with Ten Commandments slabs. The other was an Iron ...

... oh thats not so much", but for every hour of teaching you need about 30 minutes of solid preparing and planning. On top of teaching, I had to try to decipher the new organisation and the random notes on previous lessons left by the old teacher, Berneen. She was from South Africa and had come to Lithuanian to become a pop singer (?!?!?!). So some of my classes are with adults one-on-one who are paid by their companies and some are ...

... had dinner. However, past 9pm the "old town" seemed an altogether different place - quaint, warm and friendly. The following day when we went back for a better look around and some photos, it still had the charm of the evening before, but now we were also able to appreciate some of the grandeur and potential of the place, which seemed to have completely eluded us in the early evening the day before. In 2009, Vilnius will become one of the ...

... the Amber bracelet!! After that was settled, I set out smiling for Uzupio. It is an area within Vilnius that has declared itself a republic and even has its own constitution which includes "a dogs right to be a dog". That is an important right. Walked around the area a bit more and got some final photos. Another quiet night at the hostel with just a few cans of local brew. Interesting fact for the day, Lithuanian supermarkets are called hypermarkets. It brought a smile to my face.

Our LAL (Lithuanian Airlines) flight takes one and a half hours from Kiev to the capital city of Vilnuus. Our flight is basically over the nation of Belarus. Americans cannot easily travel into or even transit through Belorus because of the current president Lukashenko's dislike for the USA. In 2003 we needed to travel a short six mile section of Belarus to get from ...

... to see the trains from the kitchen window! - made it as far as tourist information centre to get a guide for today. vilnius is totally lovely. its smaller than you would think for a capital city and is very pretty but not in a too perfect to be true way. there's crumbling buildings and run down parts but that seems to add to the charm. lotsa churches - the hostel i'm staying in is right by a famous one with a miraculous virgin mary in it according to ...