Pay dirt...Lithuania!

I didn't expect not writing for such long time but after Lithuania I had plenty of things to do once back in Italy..

First of all..how was Lithuania?! Beautiful! Amazing! I knew I would have liked it cuz I knew it was characterized by long and huge green fields, lots of trees and forests and I love mountainous landscapes but.. it was definitely even better than my expectations!

As soon as I landed in Kaunas I was surprised by the light! It was later then 10pm and it was still so light!!! I couldn't believe that! Of course I had studied that in the Northern countries during Summer the day lasts for more hours than in the South because of latitude but when you can see it with your own eyes it's amazing!!!

The reason why I went to Lithuania, to Vilnius mainly, was cuz MoE asked me to visit one of its new partner organizations. We got to know this organization at our last training in Macedonia, its name is Babilonas and it deals both with children and adults.

I went to Babilonas, I saw the rooms they use for their workshops and some of those they had already done in the past..

It was really intersting as they are very well-organized, with plenty of ideas and workshops.

For example they have been leading an initiative for kids in order to make them more motivated in going to school, so they invited some classes to have school lessons in their organization..and the kids loved it!!!

Well, but let's talk about this great experience my dear Max gave me! It was him to suggest me to go to Lithuania before I went back to Italy to collect my visa for Croatia..and I must say he offered me a very special present ;-)

As soon as I arrived, a friend of mine, actually the boy we got to know from Babilonas in Stip (whose name is Domas), came with a friend of his to pick me up at the airport and we strictly went to the forest where they were having a party. It was saturday night and it was very nice to participate to a typical party in the countryside with typical food and drinks! It was very similar to other parties I had in Croatia, but of course food and drinks were different and also people's humour..Lithuanians have a strange sense of humour..it took me a couple of days to understand it!! and actually there are still some people I don't completely understand..but never mind! this is part of intercultural learning! :-)

During the next days I visited Vilnius and another beautiful place called Trakai where we rent out a little rowboat to enjoy the lake and the nature all around!

I was positively impressed by the green! Vilnius is really very green even though it boasts a lot of history and monumental buildings.

I have been so lucky with the weather as I was told it had been horrible during the whole spring, raining almost everyday..but those days I have been there it was summer, around 25-27 C, sunny and windy enough not to be hot! so really really great! I also sunbathed!!

As always I cannot avoid mentioning what I have eaten!!!

As everybody knows this is one of the things I really appreciate a lot when I travel!!! hihihi! so here we go with some tasting homemade pancakes with creme and jam! It was Audrius, Domas' friend, who kindly hosted me in his house, who cooked those delicious pancakes for all of us for breakfast!!

Unfortunately, after 4 beautiful days I had to leave, to fly back to London in order to take another flight for Italy..as usual I spent the night around Europe!

This time I was at Stansted Airport..very busy in repacking my luggages in order to fit with the 15Kg Ryanair allows for check-in luggage and 10Kg for hand luggage..it was such a tough task but..I won!!! My luggage was 15.50 Kg and my hand-luggage was 9.90Kg!!!

Maybe you need me to make a premise: I was travelling with lots of stuff as I had gone to England directly from Croatia with winter clothes too, as I had been staying in Croatia since the end of January!!

Do not ask where my stuff has gone..most of it was on me!!! I was wearing something like 4 jumpers, 2 jackets, heavy earings and necklesses!! I think I looked quite ridiculous but..at least I didn't overpay!!

So here I am, updating my blog in my brother's room..

I was supposed to go back to Osijek, where Madara and Magdalena have already arrived, last Thursday but I had some problems with some documents for University..what a news!!! I am so lucky with bureaucracy I realized!!!

Anyhow, next week I ll be back for sure, so other a few days to fix these pin-pricks and I will finally see again my dear house-mates and colleagues and of course everybody over there!