Roadtrip: Svolvær - Å - Svolvær

In the end I did get some sleep after listening to a conversation of the crazy classical music lovers. One hour.  Then I stepped out into a cold dark night of Bodø, which seemed more livelier than 6pm that same evening. I had to walk to airport. First it was fun - love to of lights on the streets, even pavements were glittering from ice. But then at some point they ran out of light poles or later they bulbs, and I had to walk in total dark only using my smartphone as a light source.
Probably I was the first one to arrive at the airport - there was not a single soul there. But I could go in, and it was warm there, and they had wifi.
Me and another Norwegian lady were the only passengers at that time. But we still had to listen to security instructions. In both languages! The plane was small and we were forced to sit in the back. So, we talked. She asked me where I'm going, what I will be doing. After hearing my unplanned trip story she said, that aLost everything is closed in Lofoten on these days and that I will have trouble going from airport to Svolvaer. I didn't have any concrete plan, but just an idea that I could rent a car and drive around. Well, she pointed out the cheapest company I could use for service. But there was still a problem. I haven't booked a car in advance and it was 5.30 in the morning. So, I had to wait until 7am. So, I sitted and browsed Internet and smiled to airport employees. Svolvær airport is not big, so, there isn't many employees.
Then about 8 o'clock I was sitting in a white Hiunday with a mileage of 10000 kilometers and figuring how the stuff works. After it was light enough(or not too dark), I set out by the route E10 making little detours I knew of. It was dawn(sort of, because I didn't see the actual sun), and it was magnificent. Add all this colorful beauty to breath-taking landscapes of Lofoten Islands and you get the address for paradise. Yes, it exists. Yes it is accessible to living people. No, it's not on some tropical island. It's up in the north and it's called the Lofoten Islands. After each magnificent landscape opening before my eyes, I knew why everyone acted surprised finding out that I was going there for one day. It's not exactly true. I'm going there back next year in the summer.

I was driving and stopping to take pictures( there is one of smartphonish quality). And the dusk I arrived to a village with magical name Å, walked around a bit, found everything closed. The village was engulfed by peacefulness. And then drove back as the darkness was approaching me. It was somewhen around 2:30pm. Describing the beauty I found on the road requires a separate post, so, I will write it someday with semi-decent pictures I took.

Now I'm sitting in the airport and sort of everyone knows me: greeting a wishing happy new year. Kind of cool.

Arriving at abodø

What Excel I could probably have for not writting a post yesterday? Well, the day literally pasėdėti though my eyes. It was a train ride day from Trondheim to Bodø and it took almost ten hours. 3 cups of cacao and other eatable stuff. I arrived here before 6 and no surprise - it was already dark. This place called Bodø is a little bit above arctic circle, so, that explains a lot. Once I stepped out the the train that after making two steps forward I was making one backwards - the wind was so strong. And it was all ice on the pavements and roads - my biggest nightmare. But somehow I dragged my luggage with broken handle to a hostel next to train station up to the third floor and received a room on the 2nd - oh, well lots of luggag dragging. Then I was told that it's actually a nice weather, but it doesn't change the fact that there is nothing to do in Bodø(not exactly the truth).  I met other guests at the living room and they were talking about going there tomorrow, that is today.  At 1am. OK. That's not normal, but there is no other reasonable options. Well, there is, but they aren't reasonably priced. But the earliest(and cheapest) plane was leaving just before 5am. Well, I thought - that's way much better. At least I would have more time to sleep before flight. So, I thought. And I bought tickets - I tried once on iPad, once on my smartphone, but I succeeded only normal pc. Any normal person having an early morning flight would go to sleep earlier, I went to hunt for Northern Lights with another guest and hostel employee - so, having almost personal guide and expert on all the slippery roads and paths in Bodø, I acted on impuls. We couldn't see any northern lights, but at we least had a good exercise in refreshing((re)freezing, I mean) weather.

Monday in Trondheim

A night train ride wasn't that exciting, but tiresome it was. Ok, except for the part where I noticed that there was -14 degrees outside somewhere between Oslo and Trondheim. Oh, boy! I thought, but the temperature ended up a bit milder than that - "only" minus 8. I couldn't survive with jeans and warming underpants layer, but when I switched to skiing pants, it got a lot better. Then I bought a scarf and one more layer of gloves. Having sorted out the cold fighting armour, I was ready for sightseeing. I knew about the Trondheim's Nidaro Cathedral:

It's not only very beautiful, elegant, but it is being warmed from inside. But the ticket is quite expensive as for entrance to cathedral(80 NOK). There are few museums as well, but because it's holidays and because it's Monday, most of them were closed.
As my time in Trondheim and daylight were very limited, I did the walking tours that were suggested in tourist map. I happened to be there when the sun decided to go up, so, the buildings were in really beautiful shades. They are beautiful by themselves, but with a light touch of sun, they were like from fairy tale. The old wooden houses in the old town seem like ordinary ones. But they aren't. Hugging the canal, beautifully decorated for Christmas that just passed - they are perfect. Same perfect picture was reflecting in canal water.

Then I strolled along the fjord coast and headed for the Kristiantens fortress(there you can find many canons, as well). It was the right time - the sun started setting down. Oh, I did sweat a lot, but the view of the city was rewarding. I sweat even more when I had to descend the hill - the snow was pressed so much, that the protector of my shoes had no effect.

Trondheim is one of those cities, that makes you want come back at different seasons - to find out what colours and shades it will wear then. But tomorrow morning I'm leaving for Bodø.

Snow, trains, Oslo and other things

But you should actually reserve a train ticket in Norway. Jumping from one seat to another is no fun at all. The up side is that you may talk to different people if they are not sleeping, and the downside is that you may be politely asked out to free the seat. So, today I experienced both things. The old lady that I got a chance to sit next to was very kind and talked English pretty well. So, we talked a lot and shared our thoughts about Christmas in Lithuania and Norway. She even explained me the meaning and purpose of colors of Norwegian houses.
Have I told that we finally have some snow there, haven't I? Well, we do. And when it snows, it snow we differently than in Lithuania. In Lithuania most of the snow melts right away. In Åmli and surrounding locations it stays a bit longer. And as always it has it's upsides and downsides. The beauty of the nature becomes even more stunningly beautiful. The downside - well, if it snows too much - you might stay at home even if you have a planned trip. Especially, if your is no good for winter conditions - just like my friend's. So, we didn't go to Arendal as planned. But then I got to go to Oslo earlier. That means more time in Oslo! Yeah, right... The wind is so cold there sometimes, that I have to stop breathing. And six hours is way too much to spend just in train station. I had to run an errand - retrieve my cards that I so unexpectedly forgot under my bed in hostel(don't ask how I manage to do this, but it's way better than losing them somewhere else).
Then I walked on a slippery roof of Opera and Ballet theater, went out for a cup of spicy chai latte in Starbucks and ended up in a really interesting place In Brenneriveien street - with graffitis on the wall and really huge chandelier hanging just in the street. Funny thing, that I was lured there by blue light under the bridge.
Two and a half hours till night train to Trondheim leaves. I was planning to go there tomorrow morning, but then I would have had very little time in Trondheim. I guess, the snow changing my plans turned out to be a good thing.

Snowy Nelaug's train station

A picknick in Tvedestrand and Borøya island

It's the second day of Christmas and the streets of Åmli are pretty empty. It was colder than usual at night - the grass and moss around the house were covered in silverfish frost. No sitting at home for us! Exploring ghostish towns is quite fun. Today's destination - Tvedestrand - an almost two hundred year old small town with white wooden houses climbing the shores the fjord of Oksefjorden. It is called a town of books and indeed we could see new and old books shops on every corner. Technically, all of the were closed, but one of them had an outdoors book shelf - there you could leave a certain amount of money in the hole and take the book you like.
There is a tern( a seagull) in the coats of arm of Tvedestrand, but we did see very little of those. But there were plenty of ducks in the harbor - they weren't afraid of us at all, and even started following us when we walked on the pier. I guess they are used to tourists feeding them, and we were almost the only ones at that time.
Cats there are very friendly too. One, the ginger one, was making sure that there aren't too many ducks on the pier. The grey one just came to us and started snuggling to our legs as if we were his owners. It was a pretty nice cat and didn't look homeless at all.
After having a small picknick at the harbor it was time to move forward. Me and my friend's boyfriend were secretely hoping to see a sea. Not a  fjord, but a real open sea. That could happen if we would go to one of the many islands there. But the drive to any of them is really crazy. Well, the views through the car window is amazing, but the drivers have to be really careful. Some roads were fit only for one car in any direction. On one side there would be a steep rock, on the other - either lake or river and that's only few meters away. Anyway, we talked her into driving us to Borøya island without telling all the difficulties that will be waiting for us ahead. And although the trip was stressful, the view from the beach into the sea paid off. There were some people already there, but not too much. The shore was covered with tiny brownish summer houses - so typical to Norway. Almost all of them were empty now. One can really run away from people in Norway.
Having seen the see we called it a day and we were back home before sunset. According to weather forecast, it should be snowing tonight in Åmli. Finally!

A Christmas Day walk in Åmli

As the time was approaching the noon, the sky was becoming more and more clear. The nature was giving us the present of sunny day. And really, the rock in front of the house on the other side of river was painted by the sunny gold. It seemed like the colors had returned to the nature - no more black and white movie shades.
Having learned the lesson that one can't hesitate when it comes to weather in Norway, we were ready for a walk in no time. We borrowed a dog of friend's neighbor - a white Samoyed, called Kela. A walk to the town's center took half hour, we crossed the same bridge and headed to the beach. Funny, as we were approaching it, we could see parts of road covered with ice. It seems that every tiny ray of sun matters there. But the weather wasn't very nice to us - while the sun was shining, it was raining at the same time. Add a stark wind, and the only wish is to go hide somewhere - but we had to come back home first.
Christmas in Norway is different - all the shops are closed, there are barely any people on the streets. It looks like a ghost town. Combine it with a stunning beauty of nature - and you get the moments of such calmness and peacefulness.

An attempt on Trogsfjell

The view from the house of my friend overlooks the river called Nidelva (as wide as our longest one Nemunas), a layer of high fir trees  and a steep  and bare wall of rock - about five hundred meters in height. The water in river is calm, reflecting the always green trees and the mood of the sky. The view makes the viewer feel small instantly and gives that spine-shivering feeling of Twin-peaks like atmosphere.
There aren't much residents in the Åmli town, which spans alongside both shores of river. All houses white or brown, modestly decorated with Christmas lights. No sign of snow there yet, but the rain is a constant companion these days. We took off for the hike to the center first, hoping to continue our journey up the hill. Armed with a thermos of hot tea and a heavy bag of camera and lenses we started our journey. Soon we were greeted with a cloud of rain. It started raining lightly, our upper bodies were protected by proper skiing jackets(what works for snow, works for rain, right?). As we continued it started getting more wet and our jeans were totally wet by the time we reached town center. We went into the pharmacy our friend worked and asked for the keys of car to get back home.
The second round of conquering the hill started by carefully studying weather forecast and drinking the tea from the thermos we have prepared earlier. In two hours the rain almost stopped. Now we drove to the center, left the car there and went over the stone bridge (which was built in the 1918). The path to Trogsfjell peak was starting just few steps ahead. But the wasn't any real path - just bare steep black rock and the moss growing on the path sides. Firs and pines, blueberry bushes, fallen thorns on the wet stone. A walk up was long and slow, and nature tried to attack us with rain again. But at the height of mere 290 meter we gave up - the rock was too steep, too wet for us coming unprepared. The view, however, however was still breathtaking. We gulped our pride and descendent down even more carefully.
Because our friend was still working, we went to see the church - a white wooden one with a cemetery around it.

Åmli's church

And the evening comes early to this town - at 8 pm it feels like like a deep dark night. Everything is closed, and there is zero social life. A real small mystery town.

From Oslo by train

It turns out that even if you can't get a reservation for a train on specific time, there still might be a place for you on that train. And you won't need to sit on your luggage after all. I talked to three nsb (Norwegian rail) officers hoping at least one of them was a conductor of my train. None of them was. But one of them told me to go to wagon, choose a place from 13 to 20 and just wait for conductor. And so I did. The conductor didn't show until the train started moving. Technically they can ask you out, but humanly they won't. And if you have a rail pass(which means it's a ticket valid for specific dates), then in worst case there is some space in restaurant wagon. Standing there for three and a half hours would have been quite difficult, I think.
Once I got on a train and it left Oslo, I couldn't take my eyes off the window. And the weather was quite nice. Medium height mountains, bays, fjords, valleys painted with the warm shades of sun. White or brown wooden houses, following same design principles - similar and different at the same time. The railway was dangerously going across the lakes, rivers, tunnels. Sometimes it seemed like there was only a half meter between a rock wall and a train window. Good weather ended soon. The mountains hid their peeks in the pillows of clouds and cloaks of fog - but it still looked magical to me. Though there was no snow to be seen, the small lakes were frozen and looked like mirrors on the surface of earth. Only the reflection wasn't quite clear - as if it has been covered with hot water steam. The spring water on the rocks - tiny waterfalls - that was frozen too!
As the train moved towards my destination - Nelaug - everything became engulfed with a light rain, the sky was just gray and everything else was of that colour as well. The two-coloured houses of white and brown fitted into that landscape very well.
Nelaug was just the train station where we had to get off - we were going to far more disconnected place - Åmli - no trains, just local buses going there. Therefore, a friend had to pick me and her boyfriend from train station. As we got off, she was already waiting for us.

It's getting hot before Christmas

It's geting too warm these days in Lithuania. Synoptics promise 11 degrees by Celsius. Exactly the same as last year in Rome. So, I decided to head somewhere more cold - Norway! I did manage to win few degrees, but it's still 5 degrees above zero and no snow at all! Of course, this reason of my journey is a total bullshit and I'm going there to visit my friend for Christmas. And maybe few other things.
One thing I already learn is that Norwegians travel a lot by train and to reserve a ticket in advance even if it's not mandatory is a must. Especially in this period of festivals. The price of gaining this knowledge is not huge yet - I'm hoping to sit on my luggage for 3 and half hours on a journey to a small town of 600 people.

The final concert of Kaunas Jazz 2015

It was a not so early August Friday morning. I was still in my bed lazily snoozing my alarm clock and browsing the web on my smartphone. In these days the majority of us do it. But I could compare it to a morning newspaper reading - it's the only newspaper time I have, while still in bed.
The article that a famous pianist is coming to Lithuania for a jazz festival, made me jump out of bed, run to computer and order a ticket. I didn't read properly when it's going to happen, I just knew that the prices of the tickets will go up very quickly or there might be no tickets at all if I delay my purchase. Well, as it has turned out, the concert is going to happen in December and that famous pianist is Omar Sosa. The first piece of him that I listened to was Toridanzon and it made me fall in love with his music. The very first notes of it covered my skin in goose bumps and carried my imagination away to a sudden summer rain with thunder. And every time I listed to it it still does so. So, there is no surprise that I somehow jumped out of the bed and was in the process of buying an expensive ticket.
Yesterday, the 18th of December was a day of his concert for Kaunas Jazz festival final concert of the year. I left from work earlier, rode to Vilnius(even stuck at the traffic jam) and there I was sitting in the front rows waiting for the magic to start. Usually in concerts, a pianist would be dressed in a black suit and even if his hands would become crazy in some moments, all his posture posture would remain straight and the rest of the body would be calm. When you come to a concert of Omar Sosa, you have to leave your attitude at home.
He walked into scene wearing white robes and somewhat futuristic hat, carrying a candle and some sort of an amulet in his hands. Some little rituals he made at the keyboard section(I don't know how to call a set of grande piano with 2 more large electric piano keyboards and one smaller one) and then he touched the keys. There was the magic happening right in front of me ten meters away. Other musicians walked into the scene one after another bringing a new musical layer for the song they were playing. Note after note it made me believe that I'm sitting somewhere else but the concert hall in Lithuania. It could have been Cuba or other warm island, showered in a light rain interchanging with the rays of sun. Extremely long musical pieces combining latin rhythms(of cha cha cha, son montuno), wild jazz and nostalgic piano solos nailed the audience to their seats, while the musicians were going wild on the scene. I admit I wanted to jump and start dancing to those rhythms. But being jailed in the middle of the seat row made it impossible to do so. And while this was a perfect place for listening and observation it was the worst place in this concert for me.
In this two hour concert I forgot that it was the middle of December outside, just a week before Christmas, that there was no snow outside, it was windy and foggy with a light drizzle. The days were short and it was dark outside and our streets were lit with cheap Christmas decorations. No, my heart became warm not because of them, but because of the light I found in the music that evening.

Report on BuildStuffLT 2015

The BuildStuffLT'15 is over and it's time to wrote my impressions about it. Again. Last year I attended this conference for the first time and absolutely loved it. At the end of January I bought an early bird ticket and waited eagerly for it almost whole year.
Last year the organizers of the event gave a present of personalized t-shirt design to everyone. This year there were cartoonists waiting for everyone to take a seat in front of them. On the third day their outcome was a long wall of portraits of attendees. If your brain started melting, you could switch from listening to various topics to doing something more fun - playing an escape type game with oculus rift, riding a one wheel, test your skills in typing or gather a team for a space flight game and win a raspberry pi(which I did!), watch the magician perform the tricks on others or you, write an algorithm to optimize stocks buying/selling strategy - getting involved in each of the activity - made you eligible to compete for various and quite serious prizes. Of course, at any time there was plenty of pop corn, coffee, apples. Anywhere you could meet and talk to the famous(and not so) speakers, ask them questions. Yes, they are rock stars of our trade, but they don't behave like ones hiding in a VIP lounge. The organizers really try hard to make us feel really comfortable - like at home - buy providing us with slippers. And on the third day I did enjoy them so much.
Topics varied from testing to thorough guide on aeronautics history, but the top ones were about functional programming, micro services and Docker. Physically it's impossible to attend them all, as there are five announcements in parallel. But you can watch them later online.
So what are these rock stars that blessed us with their knowledge? To name a few, Uncle Bob Martin, Michael Feathers, Venkat Subramian, Oren Eini(aka Ayende), with Kelvin Henney, Mark Rendle, Dylan Beattie giving both valuable and entertaining announcements as always.
Truth is that 90 percent of our tasks at work are very mundane and similar, and we rarely get to feel like hackers, ninjas and knights there. This conference made us feel like ones, breath in the fresh air of new, complicated stuff. It made us feel important and special. And finally it inspired us - to not forget who we are, to learn new stuff, apply it and simply be better programmers.

A lesson on history

It's past middle of November and it's BuildStuffLT conference happening again. I'm in Vilnius again, but this time I'm there under different conditions. My friends I was staying with last year moved out to Norway and Kaunas, and now I am staying in a hotel. And it is good to pretend being a tourist in your own country. I found a following booklet in my hotel room, which made me think for a while:

Was I given incorrect information in my history lessons? Between the first and second World Wars when the district of Vilnius was occupied by Poland, the capital of Lithuania was Kaunas for twenty years, being the second biggest city of Lithuania now. Maybe those twenty years is not enough to earn the title of historical capital, who knows. Anyway, this post is not about the wars of two major cities in country, or maybe... Good news is that, this year Christmas tree in Kaunas will be the best Christmas tree of Lithuania. You may ask, how do I know? Well, a long track of records of winning this competition. Book your cheap flight/bus tickets to Kaunas for December. I hear rumors that this year the Christmas tree will be a smart one, that is, connected to internet and similar stuff.

Riga's circus miracle

Second and the last day in Riga. Neighbors in hostel were partying till 6am. They didn't bother me a lot, but made sure I woke up before alarm clock. The other sound I heard in the morning was the one of the pouring rain. Weather forecasters were not wrong this time and I started planning in my head where to hide, but not totally waste my time till 5pm - when my bus leaves. Yesterday evening I went to cinema, so, I didn't to go there second day in a row. And it's not because I didn't like it - the movie was good, as good as the movie about James Bond can be. They didn't warn me that ads before movie are half an hour long. And it's not only movie trailers. I saw very little of those. Shouldn't the ticket cost less if I'm watching their ads? But, no, it was more expensive than in Lithuania.
So, today I decided to try something different. And much more expensive than cinema! Guess what!? Riga's circus! Established in 1888 the posters were boasting about unique show in Europe "Gigantic Fountain Show". Can you imagine the circus floor transforming during the show and making incredible fountains synced with acrobats and clowns performances. Add lasers to this and you have a spectacular sight. Not all performances were water-themed, if I were a circus manager I would have pushed it to the limits. But still, it truly made me laugh, and awe and clench my knuckles for those acrobats on the rope with tied eyes. And the last thirty seconds of water and laser effects are the best - it's hard to describe what I have seen- but at that moment I knew I wasn't feeling sorry for those 20 euros I paid. Ok, I wasn't thinking about money in that moment at all.

Sounds of Riga

This is definitely the best title describing today. But first things first.
I woke up with a hungry stomach, slight headache and strange feeling in my abdominal muscle. The last one can be explained by a workout for abs I did yesterday. First two didn't have a reason, but could be easily fixed(and that can't be said about the third sensation).
The girl at the reception pointed me at the direction of pancakes when asked about breakfast place. Looking at the map, it seemed that I would have to do some leg work before my meal. But maps are deceiving, and I was at the food place in no time. Self-serviced I ate almost three pancakes, reasonably priced. You can find it around Škúnu street.
In November on weekend 10am Riga's old town is quite deserted. But that's just a perfect. Especially if you find a cello player next to Riga's Dome. He was playing there for at least few hours in a cold weather - respectful. I couldn't last for five minutes without my gloves. At 12pm there was a short organ concert at the Dome. Powerful, scary and that kind of organ music can be, but I liked the middle peace - the waltz. It was so unexpected to hear it being played with organ, and yet the sound seemed transparent, fragile and nothing scary at all.
You can find a lot of museums in Old Town with great exhibitions, but to fully enjoy them - one needs a lot of time - to read through descriptions. But mostly tourists are wasting their money by running through all the things in display. On the other hand there are not many people who can handle so much information at a short period of time.
At the foot of Bastejkalns I found a saxophone player. The hill was covered with maple leaves in perfect shade of yellow - it looked like a hill of gold. I found my cup of cocoa there too. I was going back and forth in the narrow streets of Old Riga, sometimes looking up at the sky, at the rooftops - it was cold, the wind from the Daugavas river was freezing - the wind proof jacket was helping, but my jeans - not. Finding a place where to sneak in - was it a bar, a shop or a gallery - that's how I can describe my walking around. But the old town is small. Cozy, beautiful, but small - you just end up on the same streets over and over again.
The final piece of music was Krishna chanting. All day I was hearing different solo instruments - and finally, an "orchestra" of human voices and drums.
It was getting dark, I was getting hungry - I headed toward my home - hostel. Suddenly there was a loud noise coming from the sky. The screams of crows Were chaotically filling the space between the rooftops. I looked up. The view was like from A.Hitchcocks movie "The birds" or second part of "Night Guard". One could barely call it music, but it definitely was a part of today's soundtrack.

Best bus ride ever

How far one can travel for 1 euro? On rear occasions this can take you as far as Riga if your starting point is a capital of Lithuania. Technically, you need a half of euro to get there. The other half is for getting back. But don't start jumping and clapping your hands out of joy - you need to have a special discount code too to get this price. I ran 10 kilometers to earn it and not really knowing whether I'll be going or not I bought this super cheap ticket on Lux Express bus. And when I made it to the Riga, I can say that I totally loved it. I got more leg space than on cheap airlines plane. I plugged in my earphones and watched two movies on the screen mounted on the back of the seat in front of me. I could even take my laptop, plug it in and do some work, if I needed. And the free wifi is there too.
My hostel I'm staying in gives welcome shots of Latvian national drink - Rigas Balsams. I made a friend from Denmark-China. We are staying in same room and my bed is named Quito. I had to look it up - the capital of Equador - definitely worth putting it on my travel destinations list.

Autumn in Raudonė

 We don't have Halloween tradition in Lithuania. Young people could argue, but all the parties they have on the 31th of October is no ancient history, it's been brought to us by television and emigrants. What we do have is All Saints day. I couldn't say that it is celebrated in Lithuania, but we do have traditions regarding this day. The tradition is to visit cemetery and take care of the graves of those who have left, to light up the candle. In deed in the evening of this day Lithuanian cemeteries become the seas of the candles. Spooky but heart-warming at the same time.
Coincidence but at the same time all the trees light up as candles as well. Red, orange, but mostly in yellow and they slowly fade into the brown. At this time of year I like to drive the car and observe all this magical beauty. And if I have to go to my parent's home I choose a road with a good scenery - it is slower, but way more beautiful than a highway. It's the same road I rode with  bicycle this summer. There are few castles along this road and I didn't visit Raudonė during my bike trip. It's not that I was intending to fix this from the beginning. When I saw whole hill covered in yellow leaves I just could not help, but stop there. Like a hill covered with gold. I wonder how it would look like if the leaves were all red.

Escaping from "Mafia" room

Nowadays so called "escape rooms" are on the wave. At least in my country. But it's hard to understand why if you haven't tried one before. Well today, I had to make up my mind in less than one minutes whether I want to participate in such experience. It came free, so, why not, I thought. I didn't know what to expect. But the basic idea is that you get into a room with a team, get locked there and have to get out. By going through the stuff that is not yours. You start to look at everything with a suspicion: "Is this a clue?", "Maybe, this thing is a clue?". In the end, when it's over, you realize that there is way too much stuff, that is not necessary that can get your lost. And you have only one hour there.
These rooms are themed and called accordingly. The one I went today was called "Mafia". It's hard to distinct whether it's just decorations, or all the tasks a driven in that style. Some really are, some are too far away from real mafioso style. Nevertheless I still had I great time there,

Villa Santa Croce mountain

The second and the third day in Villa Santa Croce was more calm compared to the first one.
On the second day - it was raining, rather badly and such weather stayed for the bigger part of the day. Going somewhere without getting wet - was impossible. But we still made it for a short walk to the local mountain and visited potato field of our hosts.

A short walk to the local mountain peak. Just in time before the big cloud started crying. See the pale gray mountain in the distance? It's Vesuvio. Although it was on my initial plan, this is as closest as I could get to it this time.

Mountain peak - a perfect place for a cemetery. Closest place to the heaven.

And though we used paths, it was no walk in a park. Because I wanted to take pictures, I always stayed behind. Walking and shooting - seemed rather reckless.

According to our hosts, it's not even a village - it's just one street! Impossible to get lost, but hard to get there.

If you die in Italy, everybody gets invited to your funeral with a similar posted, which I happened to see quite a lot during the trip.

La Cipresseta

On the same day of visiting Matese mountains our hosts took us to a place called La cipresseta(near Fontegrecca). It's hard to describe what it is, but I will try. Most accurate description would be - a cypress grove with small waterfalls, bridges, benches to sit down. Next to this grove there is a sort of stone house (for me it looks like castle) with a poem engraved onto wall. A poem for cypress queen, unfortunately in Italian

A fragment of stone sculpture/installation. These stones are actually installed on a iron wires.

Matese mountains and lake, Letino Town

Mmm... persimmons, figs picked straight from the trees for breakfast - this is how our first day in Villa Santa Croce started. Finally, we saw how narrow the streets and roads were - if two cars were coming from opposite directions - they would definitely have to slow down, in rare cases - one of them would have to go backwards until there is enough space for two cars to pass by.

This is actually good thing, when you slow down, you have enough time to great with anyone in the other car. And in most cases, in these small villages and towns, there would be someone you already know in the other car. And drivers seem to be polite to each other, they are not in a hurry, they just enjoy the fact that they met somebody on the road, that they already know.
This region of Italy - Campania is famous for mozzarella(real mozzarella di bufala!). So, that very morning we were taken by our hosts to a small  mozzarella factory. It is owned by the friends of our hosts. We were given blue caps and aprons and could see the process of making by ourselves. Afterwards we tasted fresh mozzarella. It couldn't be fresher!

Into Matese mountains! I wouldn't want to drive there. All this beauty is so distracting, I would probably end up of the road.

After the show and getting some cheese for that day's lunch, our trip continued to Matese mountains. Driving slowly through curvy mountain roads, stopping at small villages, by noon we reached the lake of Matese. The landscape was the meal for our eyes. And we had a pick-nick basket there, enjoyed the warmth  of the sun.

Matese lake in Matese mountains. Just few weeks before this place was full with migrating birds, or so I was told.

On our way to Letino town we met this shy beauty. Locals call it chucho!

After filling our stomachs we set off to Letino town - a place awarded the orange flag - an acknowledgment mark of life quality and sustainable tourism in small towns of Italy. Having local guides pays off - one of us got to sit next to the driver in an Italian Ape and experience the ride through narrow and steep streets.

Italian Ape. I call it claustrophobomobilis. This one is used for gathering waste and trash from the steep and narrow streets of the town.

Then we went to castle, which appeared to be closed, but the views from there were still gorgeous.

a view from the Letino castle

We came from the wrong side. We actually had to climb this stony hill.

The castle was closed. We tried calling, but nobody answered. One of us knew where the key was kept, but we didn't use it. But this photo is about beautiful mailbox, not about castle doorbell.

Letino town has a bar called "Che Guevara", where the locals meet for the cup of coffee and to discuss the local news.

Arriving at Caserta

On Tuesday, the 29th of September we took the train to Caserta. 3 hours of  sitting torture again. But I must admit, we are getting used to them and the time flies by a lot faster. Most of the people sleep, but I for some reason can't get any sleep. 
So, After arriving to Caserta train station we were taken to Villa Santa Croce, where my friend's friend lived. It was already late and, yes, dark, we could barely feel that our car was ascending a steep hill. We would see the beauty of the landscape only the next day. It was late, but we were treated a full Italian supper, almost five meals - after eating pasta, some fish-spinach burgers, salad and fruits, we passed on desert - ice cream at 11.30pm was too much. But we had some home made wine. We had our local guides for tomorrow, switching off the alarm clock before going to sleep - was the right thing to do.

In Florence

It's Thursday, and I'm late with my posts. So, much has happened since we left Cinque Terre. So, I'll try to remember as much as possible in this post.
The adventures started before we left the five lands. We missed our train from La Spezia to Pisa. How this happened. In Italy trains are late quite often, but if you are buying tea or coffee before boarding your train, the one who is late will be you.
So, we bought tickets for next train which was an hour later. And for the ride from Pisa to Florence we still could use our regional train ticket. On the other hand, when we arrived to Florence we didn't have too much time before we could head to our accommodation location. First place we went to was tourist information center and we found a Lithuanian girl working there - she gave us not only the tips what is worth to see in Florence in such a short time, but also told us how to get to our place.
We stayed at Clara's place, which we found on airbnb. Clara is a 60 -ish Italian woman or should I say mama. She doesn't speak English very well, but you can still figure things out somehow. She even let us leave our bags the next day, so we wouldn't carry them with ourselves while enjoying last hours in Florence.
The weather in Florence was not too friendly, it was not raining, but the sun was shy and hiding behind the clouds, the wind was strong and unexpected. We ended up walking here and there. It was Monday and most of the museums were not working anyway.
First thing we did - we went to eat - to the market near Piazza del Mercato Centrale - it looks like a huge cantine where you can taste different regional foods from all over Italy. We were just fine with spaghetti and gnocchi and a cannoli for dessert.
Lots of squares in Florence have street musicians playing one or another instrument. We listened to a guitarist from Poland performing Italian songs, a accordionist with a slavic name playing tangos and to the cellist at the Uffizi gallery piazza (he was performing classical music, I think it was the suites of Bach that he was playing). It was my birthday on Monday, so, finally we went to have dinner and drink some wine.
Next morning we decided to explore the other side of the river Arno and see the treasures hidden in the gardens of Boboli and Bardini. Those treasures appeared to be the spectacular panoramas of Florence.
Our train was about to leave right before 6pm, but was late as always. We were going to Caserta and had to switch trains in Rome. with 15 minutes delay and having only 20 minutes to switch the trains - we were not feeling at ease. We ran with our aching feet and heavy backpacks on the backs, and we made it to the train right before it left.
To conclude, Florence is a lot nicer in the evening when all the street merchants are already gone home. And if you add the street music concerts, it makes the city worth visiting. But maybe reserve more than 24 hours for it.

Exploring Cinque Terre

This is my second day of my vacation in Italy, but the first when I'm doing more vacation than transportation.  I'm travelling with my friend and a colleague - three girls in Italy for one week - sounds great!
Yesterday we flew to Milan and after two hours there we took a train to La Spezia. Three and a half hours of torture. The seats were great, but besides talking, eating nuts and candies we got nothing else to do. Just sit and watch the landscape which was not so bad. But we survived and our airbnb host took us from train station to the appartment we were renting. After doing so much sitting we wanted to stretch out our feet - two hours in La Spezia having no clue were to go - but it was Saturday and the city was live with music and few young people. It is not scary at all to walk in the dark - we are three and we are Lithuanians.
So, La Spezia - might not be familiar to most of you, but is a very convenient spot to stay when going to Cinque Terre - it offers a lot cheaper accommodation options. And it's a seven minutes ride with train from there to Riomaggiore.
It was a first village on our day trip. We spent a good hour wandering there in the narrow streets/stairs. One reason for this was because a road from there to Manarola was closed. Manarola is really similar to Riomaggiore, and a road to the next village - Corniglia - was closed too(or at least we were told so). It was getting rather crowded at the train station, so when we arrived to Corniglia, we decided to go to the very last village - Monterosso al mare and do a walking from there.
But after seeing Riomaggiore and Manarola, Monterosso was rather disappointing. Yes, it has a beach and lots of overpriced restaurants(we were not expecting anything to be cheap in any of those five villages). But it's beautiful to look at only from a far. So, we took the hiking route.
First, we were optimistic and affected by stunning landscapes. Then the stairs were getting steeper and steeper. They were resembling less stairs and more large pieces of stone. It was getting rather hot, because of the physical workout and because the sun decided to come out of the cloud. We felt our sweat dripping from our faces and backs. One moment girls wanted to go back and take a train....
But we didn't and we were climbing even more higher the paths where sometimes it was hard to pass for two persons, and most of the time there was no railing to hold on. No joke if someone has vertigo. But with every step we were getting closer to Vernazza - probably the most beautiful of the villages of Cinque Terre. We were feeling a little bit out of place - dusty and sweaty, and tired. But still, we had a pizza with tomatoes and pesto sauce.
So, Corniglia was our last stop. When you arrive there with a train(as we did), you can walk or take a bus up the hill to the village center. The ride is included in train pass. There if you get before sunset, you get to see really stunning views of the sea. So, we were lucky with that too. But while waiting for a bus to come pick us up to the train station, we missed one train and the next one was only after an hour. Then the bus came and the driver said that he won't be going down anymore, and we will have to walk.  It was rather dark, but the stairs to the train station were lit up first, but then we had to use mobile flashlight. This journey to the train station was quite adventurous - we missed the turn to the station and ended up on the dead-end seaside walk. But we had plenty of time before train. And we had our supper already prepared - sort of, we bought fruits and a bottle of Rosso wine in Corniglia and we got a focaccia with cheese for free (there is a tiny thought suggesting that while we were doing our shopping, we missed our bus). All we had to do is to get back to our appartment and have a feast there.

3 years job anniversary

Today is my 3 year anniversary of working in my current job. The company, that I went to work for, was 3 times smaller than it is now. The office in Kaunas occupied only one floor of two big rooms. Now it occupies 4 floors of entire building and there is a new office in Vilnius as well. Surely, the company has grown more than I did in those 3 years. I worked on bigger projects. I even learned totally new technologies that I never dreamed of (ok, they were there, but I couldn't imagine myself of using them someday). Many things, that I did experience, happened because I met new people in this company. It doesn't mean that I wouldn't have experienced them if I didn't come to work here - probably, I would have, only the path would have been different.
But I do feel a lot more confident at my work now than I did 3 years ago. Sometimes this confidence and comfort is frightening - we tend to become lazy and sleepy. I hope I have new challenges coming my way soon.

A walk not in the park

It should have been an easy walk of 40 kilometers. But only easy ones were first 10. By every ten more I was reaching certain psychological and physiological points of my body - wanting to talk to anybody, not wanting to talk to anybody, wanting to sing out loud. You can train your body to walk more, but psychologically it's hard every time. Once I walked for four days 40 kilometers every day and actually I forgot how hard it was.
Not getting into details why I agreed to do this hike, I was woken up by my alarm clock at 6am. Not too much of packing was needed, but I had to have breakfast to fill me with enough energy for the most part of the day. At 7am I left home to gather my ride mates to Alytus. These hikes in Lithuania mostly are organised by battalions and the starting points are at military bases. Therefore you get to listen to army orchestra, watch some army vehicles, taste soldier's porridge (at the end of the day, though), and can walk into areas where you are not usually allowed to. And you get to walk areas you usually won't be going to by yourself. And then you discover local landscapes, structures. Yesterday's discoveries are:

 A mound of Alytus

A light at the end of the tunnel

Entrance to tunnel

A very dark tunnel somewhere in the woods - it is somewhat 60 meters long, it was built in 1887 for a river(Motertis), which was endangering a railway. And it appears to be a geocaching spot! Passing it was really cool experience - you can see it's entrance and exit, but at some point you still feel in total dark and have to turn on your flashlight - there is a tiny river flowing there, so, it's wet, and there are 10 steps you need to mind.


Coca cola factory in the suburbs of Alytus, clouds of tiny annoying flies.

It's been a while I walked into such a small village shop. You could buy there all the things that one might need: batteries, jar lids, buttons for clothes and various kinds of beers. Besides the variety of the beer, I felt like stepping through time machine portal.













Luckily, I could step out of it too. A lot easier than walking those 40 (actually 42) kilometers. But besides the all kinds of pains in all kinds of parts of my body, it was an interesting journey.

First symptoms of autumn

You sense that it's autumn when you try out all the different teas at home and can find more than two lemons  there. Your suspicions become even more real, when you put on the second pair of socks and cover yourself with two sweaters. It's really there, because tissues are your best friends and you actually stay at home. If you would go outside, you couldn't tell that it's autumn - 26 degrees by Celsius in the evening(!) - but your nose tells you otherwise.

Celebrating programmer's day!

Today is the 256th day of the year and in the world of programmers, it's their day of the year. What makes me worry is that in google's home page there is a baguette picture and clicking on it points to the history of it. What the ... ? I have nothing against it, but as an IT giant, shouldn't google be celebrating programmer's day instead of baguette's 22nd anniversary of official recognition?
I must admit, I haven't written a single line of code today and there are two reasons for this. First - it's Sunday. Second - it's a Vilnius marathon day and I was running my modest 10K run. I haven't been doing proper training (except insanity workouts) and it reflects on my results (which even in my best condition is something so unimpressive, that I won't share it with you). Few years ago, even 5K run was a big challenge for me, but now 10K doesn't frighten me anymore. Sure, I want to up the ladder of the distance a little bit more and run a half-marathon. It's doable in my current condition, I think, but it's a huge physical impact on a body - so, I won't do it unless I feel totally prepared for it.
The main reason for this is not the fact that one of today's runners, being in healthy condition, has lost consciousness and died in the hospital. Although that kind of perspective doesn't fascinate me, ending up with less serious traumas and injuries will still affect how I move after that half-marathon. I think being prepared mentally isn't enough. Simple as that.
And finally... This picture below isn't a photoshop (you can tell that from the bad quality)! This was a real sight I was awarded after running 10K, walking 6K more and meeting with my friends at Vilnius old town after that. (And now I know a place where I can stuff myself with delicious doughnuts with cheese filling in Vilnius!)

Hot air balloons in Vilnius Old Town, no, Vilnius Old Town on hot air balloons!

Autumn is here

You notice that autumn has started when you put on the socks in the morning and find a mist on your car's windshield. And although it looks like a summer on the days when it's not raining, you know that it's not anymore. Soon the green trees will lit up with yellow, orange and red leaves - a final show before getting rid of them. This colorful fiesta is the main reason why autumn is my favorite season. Not because of all-soaking rains washing off the colors from the nature and freezing gusts of wind tearing off every little leaf. There is some poetry and beauty in this destructing(and depressing) process, but you wouldn't stand it for long.
This year autumn was very punctual! On the first days of September it switched off all the heat and turned on the curtains of rain (while the nature was begging for it all August!). And just like that I started looking for my long-sleeve clothes, sweaters, socks and scarfs. This week I even took out shoes which are more suitable for this kind of weather. But besides these small inconveniences, the sunsets are still spectacular, and you don't have to wait for them too long. And soon I'll manage to get up with a sunrise - let's admit, I won't start getting up earlier, only the sunrises will adjust to me.
As a kid, I had more reasons to hate autumn (because of the school), but I still didn't. And now tt just gives me more reasons to take out my camera.

Dark cabaret, Canadian coffee and 5K

Today while looking for music for milonga's cortina I stumbled upon an interesting genre - dark cabaret. And while the music itself sounds not very dark (rather cheerful), the lyrics are somewhat disturbing. For example: "... sitting in a stack of skulls" (from the song "Rattlesnake" of Caravan of Thieves). Combined such lyrics and rather ungloomy music - I can't picture a statistical person listening to this music... Who would it be? Goths, emos, morticians or funeral service owners... Someone who doesn't understand lyrics, but enjoys that style of music.

It's been talks and promises for years for Starbucks coming to Lithuania, but no, they aren't there yet. And I doubt they'll ever be, because local coffees would be a tough competition. So, no! No Starbucks! But today I found out, that there is Canadian coffee place opened in Kaunas - Second cup. I'm not sure about their coffee, because I quit on that habit - year and eight months ago, but the chai latte is as good as in Lithuanian coffee chains and they do have very nice paper cups.
I did want to try out the London mist flavored chai latte, but they didn't have one. When I asked what is the taste like, I learned they never received one yet! Ok, it takes a while to ship a London mist from Canada... I hope that they won't hurry - I don't want to see any London fog on the streets of Kaunas, it's sad enough that the autumn is already here. But on the other hand I still want to try out that taste...

Today I took part in a local running event for a short 5K run. Now that I look at my current result, I remember that my first attempts at this distance took me 8 minutes longer to complete! And I was afraid I'm not gonna make it to the finish line then:)

Last Sunday of summer

And what can be better than finishing summer with a 17 kilometer river trip! Ducks, herons, weird sculptures hanging from the bridges and unusually bright sun. All this you get to experience if you go kayaking in Neris river in Vilnius. If you have a good company, like I did, then you are even more lucky.
There was a very nice weather in August in Lithuania. There was very little rain, but for the same reason the autumn came earlier than it would have been, if it rained a lot more. The leaves of trees are already brownish, some are on the ground. I felt like paddling into the autumn - from the lush green woods to the brown city. And technically it's not autumn yet.

Two girls walk into a ...

Two girls walk into a fishing equipment store. The man at the counter doesn't laugh, he just smiles. He understands, why two girls taking part in the night run have walked into his store. His wife is also taking part in that run too.
The one that laugh is our colleague, that has spotted us walking out of that shop. But we don't care - running 8 kilometers in the dark is a dangerous thing and it needs extra lights (yeah, even luminescence fishing sticks or whatever they are called), especially if you compete for the most original costume prize.
Actually, it's not the prize, but the process that matters - brainstorming with like-minded people and having fun. And to win the prize - one has to have a plan like this one:

photo by:KaunoMaratonas

When it got really dark, all one could see - was a running stick-man. Cool!

It was a great event - almost 1000 people thought they can extend the summer by 8 kilometers or at least help less fortunate children prepare for the school.

August snow

I feel like I've fell dozen of times on my knees and palms, and my rear. And it's because I did while trying to tame the snowboard, and snow. No, you are wrong this post isn't a lost one from the winter season. It's a summer still at this moment. I just visited Druskininkai Snow Arena yesterday. Besides some skiing lessons at school long time ago, I had zero experience of skiing. Neither did I have any experience of snowboarding. And you know, 2 hours of skating with long board doesn't make it easier. The lack of my experience with winter sports is that snow and ice never was my favorite medium for doing sports.
But I rented a snowboard, and everything seemed easy until I had to stand at the middle of the hill in snow arena. Funny thing was, that after I fixed my boots to the board, I couldn't stand up on my own. A thought of going down - didn't seem so funny at all. So, after hearing some instructors from my experienced snowboarder colleague, I went to beginner's track - somehow got on the elevator (sort of moving floor), went down once - and was dragged back in(by my colleague) to the normal track. Once you fell down once, it get's easier, and again, and again. So, very slowly I evolved from a crawling skater to a somebody that resembles a human on a snowboard. Still moving at very slow speed, I could make it down the hill by falling down 3 or 4 times only. 4 hours is definitely not enough to say, that I would be confident to go snowboarding in the mountains (I wouldn't be confident, but I would go anyway:)) ). But I'm ready to give it a try few more times - it's good that the winter season is not there yet, and there are quite a few people you have to share the track with in the Druskininkai Snow Arena - making it a perfect place to practice first steps with a snowboard.

Atmostas Baltija, Bunda Jau Baltija, Ärgake Baltimaad

Today is the 26th anniversary of the Baltic Way - a chain of 2 million people holding hands from Tallinn to Riga from Riga to Vilnius. It was organized as a protest against Molotov-Ribbentrop pact which turned 50 in 1989 23rd of August. It was a peaceful protest which lead to my country's declaring of independence on the 11th of March in 1990 - just seven months after the Baltic Way. Of course, there was much more work involved in declaring it than gathering 2 million people to hold their hands for 15 minutes at 7pm. But it was a great moral boost to take further actions, to prepare for whatever sacrifice is necessary to gain our freedom. And freedom is a treasure, if you set out to look for it, that every participant gets a whole part of it. Way better than dividing a chest of gold.
I do recall some tv reports on this act, very hazily though. But every time I watch this clip and hear this song, I feel that freedom is one of the key elements of everyone's life.

Tree crown trail - attempt #2

Last Sunday - sitting on a railing of Rotunda in Taujėnai manor, listening to Vivaldi and letting the rain wash my feet - was an amazing evening. It was not far away from Anykščiai, but we didn't make it to tree crown trail. We tried it, but apparently it closes at 6pm (!) and guard at the entrance was very dutiful.
Today with a co-worker we gave another try to it. Coming early we hoped to avoid crowds and car lines, but other few hundred people thought so as well. Nothing reminded of a peaceful walk in the forest.

Visiting the trail is free, but the lady at the entrance doesn't want to let you pass through, unless you buy a regional park ticket.

The trail is 21 meters above the ground

And though walking the trail was still pretty easy, at the tower it got worse - more people were getting up than getting down, the tower was resonating - you could really get sea sick there.

Climbing the tower will take you 36 meters above the ground

Nothing reminded of peaceful walk in the park

What struck me - is how many people were trying to take pictures, selfies in spite of the crowd around them.

The tower in tree crown trail in Anyščiai is getting as much attention as couple thousand years old Palatino Hill ruins in Rome (see below)

Palatino Hill ruins in Rome. From there a nice view to Roman Forum is seen. But actually, most of tourists were taking picture of this seagull-like bird.

Yes, and this madness takes place at 11 am. But it's not the worst part. Anykščiai is a nice small town, with comparably a lot of museums and fun activities. To name a few: an angel museum, a horse museum, memorial museums for famous Lithuanian poets and writers or museum of a narrow train Siaurukas, an adventure park(with Tarzan kind of activities), skiing track in winter or summer sledge in summer. A summer sledge track is less exciting than bobsleigh in Sigulda, but it costs a lot less as well. Compare 10 euro to 1,45 euro! And the time you have to wait in line is different as well. No line in Sigulda, and 2 hour line in Anykščiai! I'm hoping it's not always like that, and that the majority of the visitors are going there after tree crown trail, And a music festival taking place in Anykščiai this weekend is as well to blame. But 2 hours! Best you can do, is buy a set of tickets, and at least take 5 rides in a row - that's how this line becomes 2 hours long, though physically it doesn't look long at all. But in any case, if you go to Anykščiai, don't go there on weekends.

What happens when you go paragliding on Saturday morning

6 am alarm clock rings, it's Saturday though. I get up to slowly get ready for the day. At 9 am we reach a field next to Birštonas. A huge wing of cloth is lying on the grass.
You guessed it right. Paragliding. Again. Only this time in a different location and with a different instructor. When the question who's going to fly first, arrives, my colleague is a gentleman - I receive a "ladies first" attitude, that makes me think, he is afraid of something. First to the sky! Why not?
Few seconds of running, we are pulled with a car, and the earth under the feet starts to disappear. It's not scary. Not yet. Objects below become smaller fast which makes me feel like a giant - trees, fields, roads, everything shrinks and stays below you. You cannot touch them though.
I know nothing about air streams and torrents, but the instructor starts to complain about the wind, that it suddenly has disappeared. This is important if you want to get higher. We definitely get higher than first time. It doesn't make me feel more afraid. If the instructor is not doing any turns and tricks, I can just enjoy the beautiful landscape of Nemunas river loops. But it's definitely very high - I cannot see everything clearly, the horizon becomes a little bit foggy. If we get higher, the height metering device starts to beep.
The instructor asks to wave for the go pro camera he's holding on a stick. After posing, he fixes it somewhere at the side and asks me not to close my eyes no matter what. I'll try, I think in my head. I know the turns and swings are coming next. Can somebody be afraid of something and like it at the same time? This is definitely the case. I am that somebody, and these turns and swings is that something I have double feelings for. Keeping your eyes open is important, if you don't want to get sick. Sure, facing earth without the need to turn my head is slightly frightening. I was not screaming, but I bet my face could tell the real feelings.
After these swings we lose some height and start to descend. I get handed over the camera with the selfie stick, so, I can turn it any way I want. When I ask the instructor whether it's possible to overcome the fear of height, he assures me, that - 1 hour of flight and it's gone. Of course, if you do not get sick.
We are already at the tops of the trees, few more seconds, but I do not hear the instructions to run we we are really close to the earth. I ask about that, and he says - no need, as we land in the field. Apparently, he is one of the most experienced paragliding instructors in Lithuania, with "only" over 4000 hours of flight. It's like spending half a year in the air!
10 am, and both me and my co-worker have completed our flights. No, the day is not over, it has just started! But we have plenty of time to explore the little town of Birštonas. It's an old health resort with sanatorium, longest river in Lithuania and central park full of tall pines. These trees make you feel like you are the seaside. There is a beach at the river, so we go for a tanning session(which I never do!). I do not believe I can fix my tan marks I get this year from a bike trip, but if I won't try, I definitely won't. The only problem is that even it's morning, it's damn hot outside. So, hot, that normal people stay at home - and they do - there a very few of those outside. The water is no good for swimming - it's warm, but not very clean.
Getting hungry and feeling bored sets us out to exploring the park nearby. It feels like a forest, but has lot's of paths for biking, walking, sculptures, training grounds, skate park, mini-golf field - lot's of possibilities to pass your time there, hidden in the shade. And in the shade the heat is not so unbearable!

That's the cutest sculpture I've ever seen. It's called Kitty and can be found in Birštonas Central Park. Looks like characters from some fairy tale or animation.

Other surprisingly pleasant place you can find in this park is hard to describe. It's not big, it's shaped in circle, it's made of branches, wood and it has a water constantly dripping from it. There is a little fountain in the center of it as well, and a dark cool corridor. Picture is worth a thousand words, so, here it is.

If you manage to end up there alone, when there is no strangers around there, besides the cool mist, you'll also get a pleasant sound of water drops dripping and splashing on a wooden surface. I don't know how it's called, but I would call it "Water Oasis".

Another good place to hide on such a hot day, is Birštonas Art and Culture Center - and you get to look at the pictures there as well. Or just to eat at the local cafeteria. But stepping outside of any cool place into the heat again - is so hard, so demoralizing, that we have to grab some ice-cream.

2 pm and we are the meeting point where other 15 co-workers of mine agreed to meet before the rowing regatta. 1 boat - 16 men, and 3 more other teams will try to sweat out their way into the victory. And there is only me and a wife and a 2 year old son of another co-worker, who will try to cheer for them. I should say, the boats they are sailing with are pretty impressive: a head of adder is decorating one end, 14 men are rowing, the drummer beats the drum and the steersman is responsible for the direction.

Viking boats decorated with a head of adder

Being dressed in company's t-shirts and red caps, as well as good team work helped them to win the first place in a one hour long competition. I can only be proud to work with such strong IT specialists.
And the day was not over yet - more smaller competitions took place: a rowing competition with concept machine, rope pulling and grass- skiing. In the last two, I joined the team for a small, but funny workout.

The tip of the grass skis, nine more skiers to go - behind the first one.

What can I say - staying outside, even on such a hot day - it paid off. With so much different and fun, and extreme experiences, air filled with pine smell, and a beautiful sunset when going back home.