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.

Couchsurfing reunion

Interesting thing about the couchsurfing. Some guests do come back. And they come back bearing gifts. I enjoy the part of seeing someone again more, but the part where they show that they remember something about my interests and hobbies is also nice. Now I have a book how to learn play guitar in Russian. That will be challenging a bit, but challenges are more fun. I got super spicy hungarian sauce and peppers as well!

Day 4 - reaching Nida and the end of the bike trip

With a limited access to internet, firstly I'm writing this post in my paper notebook while sitting on the Parnidis Dune. It's strange to be so atop and to feel such serenity. I was expecting much more wind. You get to see a strange landscape from here: sand, pines, and some plain grass. Yet all of them combine their layers of color into a landscape, that breathe the tranquility.
600 meters from here is my tent parked for tonight. But I cannot see it. I can see a totally different world down below, as if I was sitting on a cloud.
It's really hard to talk about these 114 kilometers I made today. I really managed to get up earlier today, and even leave the camp. But I spent half an hour at Ventės Ragas - saying my good-bye to the mall and to the lighthouse.
The weather was perfect, there were very few times when I had to ride against the wind. I refilled my rations at the local village shop, where I was serviced in soviet style: no smile, no eye contact and no "good bye". I could choose from two roads to reach Klaipėda: a shorter and a longer (but supposedly better). I didn't want to make extra kilometers today, for that reason I turned to the road that lead to forest. There I experienced real offroad riding: the path was so undulated, that I could feel my arms tissues dangling. Despite all that extreme experience, I got to see "Nidos Nafta" oil well, Svencelė kite and wake spot. From there the offroad turned into a proper one, but route markings in reality started to differ from those in the map. Not wanting to end up on offroad again, I chose a longer route through Priekulė. For the extra kilometers I had to make, I found a local bakery and bought some buns: I ate one on my way to Nida, and another as soon as I got there. In Priekulė bike route markings suggested not to take the car route for getting out of the town, and I followed them. And there again I felt sorry for my decision - I ended up on another offroad which was going in parallel with the normal road. There I easily got tired of following sandy up and down paths, and I returned closer to the civilization (that is to the cars) - Šilutės Road. The roadside was not impressive, but there were two lanes going the same direction, so, I bravely took my position on the road next to far far cousins of my bike - cars. On the fourth day, I was more comfortable in riding next to them, than doing it alone on some unknown village road.
My initial plan was to arrive to camping site next to Klaipėda. But yesterday's achievement inspired me to go for Nida on the same day. So, as soon as I was in Klaipėda, I turned straight to ferry site, and when I arrived there, the ferry was about to leave. I made it on time to avoid waiting another half an hour. So, there was no time to think whether to stay in Klaipėda or to go to Nida, I just had to go.
I got across to the Curonian Spit with seagulls gliding next to ferry, the birds was the most impressive part - though they were paying attention to people only because they expected to get something in return.
The road path there first seemed rather disappointing - it was sort of two(for each direction) very narrow lanes of concrete with a rather deep gap between. The gap was not like abyss, but still going at a great speed I wouldn't have wanted my bike wheel to slip there. Luckily, maybe the first kilometer was like that, soon the situation with the quality of the paths improved. Only the pine cones and some sand were making the ride a little bit more dangerous. Most of the time, the path was going through the pine woods, so, at the speed of 25 km/h the lungs were airing rather well. I was doing breaks, but tried to limit those - it is illegal to camp anywhere in the Curonian Spit. And I realized there would be rather a lot of those wanting to stay at the Nida's camping site (for a rather decent price compared to other accommodation options there). The later I get, the worse place I get to tent(and I was right, the area for those coming just with tent (and bike) was quite small, and it felt rather already crowded - no sign of luxury for privacy I got at Šilinė's "Medaus Slėnis" - my first camping site in this trip.
Hey, but who cares where your tent is placed, and whether there is a neighbor 1 meter or 30 meters away? If you get to see places like this, all the details doesn't matter that much:

a view from Parnidis Dune

As I saved one day of travelling, I could stay in Nida for one more day. But the whether forecast was not merciful. After doing an early (7 AM) morning tour around the town, I decided to pack. It was a good decision - I borded the boat with the first heavy drops of rain leaving the town with a threatening cloud over it.

Pushing my limits with Lithuanian Summer - or Bike trip Day 3rd

I made a progress by getting up earlier, but no progress on getting out on the road is seen. Leaving home is always difficult, whether it's your own or your parents home. But today the time was wasted effectively: by eating pancakes with raspberry jam and doing technical service on my bike. I got my tires properly inflated, the seat was raised to the correct position, and all my baggage re-arranged, so, it would be easier for me to keep balance. Can you believe it, I had everything set up wrongly until today? And all this time wasted there really paid off  - I was riding more effectively, although I set out at 11 am only.
There is a nice bike lane from Tauragė towards Mikytai (and Russian Border), that lasts about 10 kilometers, but the landscape is awful: all ups and downs, like in a roller-coaster, but if you ride a bike there, there is no fun in that! Especially with the wind blowing in front of you and 5 percent steepness hills. No wonder, there are so many wind power plants there.
At the beginning of the road, I got few drops of the rain, but I outran them. 28 kilometers to Mikytai was like constantly fighting either the wind or the hills.
But once I turned to Pagėgiai, the situation got a lot better. There were a lot more woods, the wind was blowing from the side, and there were no more hills. But as some things improved, some got worse. Remember that cloud, I thought I ran away from? Well, it caught me up(or its brother). And really badly. 8 kilometers before I reached Šilutė, I had to hide under the tree. I had only one rain coat, so, I chose to rescue my sleeping bag and tent instead of myself (now you probably laugh from my decision to leave my waterproof clothes at home).
Šilutė was my initial goal for today, but this town is not as close to the water, as I wanted it to be (it's not the rain I'm talking about!), and I didn't knew of any good camping sites there. And although my back was aching, I decided to go further: maybe to Mingė, or Kintai. That's roughly 16 additional kilometers in pouring rain. But by that time I got another yellow rain coat while in Šilutė, so, it was not so bad. And eventually the rain stopped, only the wind got worse (because I was riding next to Nemunas delta all the time).
As I kept approaching my undecided resting place, I kept thinking, that I should go to Ventės Ragas, I was sure there was a camping site there, and because the rain has stopped, it was really easy to convince myself in doing that:)

view from my tent

Here I am sitting in my tent 100 meters away from the Curonian Lagoon with a view to a beautiful sunset. After eating at expensive restaurant (hey, today I deserve it!) and visiting the bird ringing station, and lighthouse, ant the mall, I feel proud of myself - because of those 99 kilometers I made today.

Bike trip - day 2

I almost forgot that today that today is  Saturday - all alarm clock's on my phone were switched off. I overslept. Well getting up at a quarter to 9 on normal weekend mode wouldn't be considered as oversleeping. But I wanted to get up and start on the road early.
Half of the night I felt something wet or cold at the end of the sleeping bag. I didn't hear it raining, so, it felt a little bit strange. It turned out to be a dew from trees, as I parked my tent under them. But mostly I was disapointed with a quality the tent - what if a heavy rain stumbled upon me, would I have drowned in my tent? At least it didn't weigh too much, so, if the weather stays that sunny and warm, I should survive.
Morning packing, breakfast, small talk with fellow travellers, refilling water supplies - and I was on the road a little bit after 10 (sense a pattern there?). Same old road, same old mates to share it with, that is cars and trucks. I didn't meet any tractor or horse on the road.
First few kilometers and I'm in Skirsnemunė. I've heard it had a beautfiul neo-gothic church of St. George (as it turned out, it has a website as well!). I wasn't too much tired yet, so, I decided to take a look at it. And it didn't seem very up the hill. Riding through the small town of Skirsnemunė, I counted one school, two churches and two graveyards. It still turned out that the church of St. George stand on a small hill - I lost my courage to ride that hill, so, I walked my bike there.

After few kilometers behind Skirsnemunė I saw a sign of bike road towards Jurbarkas. That was the best bike road so far in this trip. A river on the left, I could have swimmed in it, if I wanted, I forest on the right. The quality of road - excellent, and it stayed that way right up to Jurbarkas. There I had my lunch of crepe wtih curd and bananas and vanilla milkshake - all prepared freshly in a food truck just in front of coach station while sitting on a bean bag. To get out of Jurbarkas wasn't hard, I drove many times through there with a car. At the end I found a bike lane, which to my disapointment stopped with a town sign. You just can't get out of town with a bike!

At the bus stop of crossroad which takes me to my hometown - another break: some excercises. From there I could keep a better speed, Even with rests at the bus stops and eating some wild berries! I noticed that I wasn't getting tired that much by treading more intensivelly, as I was getting tired from sitting on bike, so, if I could ride faster, my back could suffer less and would have more time to rerst. Once a saw a sign saying that it's only 12km left to Tauragė, I was like on the wings of wind, sometimes reaching 33km/h speed, and keeping it always above 20 km/h. I was highly motivated to reach it as soon as possible - I knew of royal conditions camping site there - my parents house: with bubble bath, home food, real bed and my niece. I was there by 3 o'clock completing 58 kilometers of todays route.

Bike trip to the sea - day 1

Me and my bike are doing fine. So far.
I'll start from yesterday. A week ago while sleeping for two nights in a tent, I got an idea that I could spend  my holiday by going somewhere with a bike. My vacation time was only 7 days, so, not very far I could go within that time. With limited options I turned my eyes to the west of the Lithuania. Why not to go there? Yes, I can go there with a car in 3 hours most. But that's not very interesting, and not challenging at all. A little bit inspired by my couchsurfing guests, that travel around the world or around the Baltic Sea by hitch-hiking or by bike, I wanted to do a little odyssey of my own. After last weekend I knew I could sleep in a tent, survive without shower for two days in a row. What if it was more? Or what if it was challenging in other ways? Shared my initial thoughts with the friends  I spent my last weekend, I was encouraged to do this. It seemed doable, at least until I didn't dig into details of this vacation. First I was planning it in my head, then some serious planning had to be done - pimping the bike to survive the amount of kilometers it never has done in it's life!
On a day I had to leave - Friday (that is yesterday), I thought I had everything planned and packed. Guess what, the journey started by getting rid of some stuff. The bike with all the things I thought I needed was standing. But once I tried to ride it, it started to wobble dangerously to the sides. At that point I decided I didn't need a tripod for my camera. I could take pictures without it, and it weighed more than my tent! The bike was still wobbling... With an aching heart I took off my camera bag - I could still take pictures with my phone! That way many more things stayed at home - tourist mat(it was warm outside1!) and waterproof clothing set (I was hoping for no rain and knocking the tree at the same time), a thermos with hot water. The back of the bike was still heavy, still wobbling, but it  was definitelly more stable.
I wanted to leave as early as possible, but my unconsciousness, knowing for the uncertainty that was awaiting, always found something to postpone that moment. So, I left my home a little bit after 10 o'clock. I met my neighbour on my way, he just shaked his head and wished me good luck.
First obstacle - to descend a steep hill that was next to my home. It was not only steep, the road was turning very sharply. I always walked my bicycle down the hill, I never rode it. I didn't dear to do that with a heay bike back this time too.
To get out of Kaunas was not hard. There is a bicycle route that starts 1 kilometer from my house. In theory it should have taken me straight me to Kulautuva. But in reality, I lost some part of it, so, I just followed the normal route I would have taken if I went by car. But only staying the most right side of the road.
The bike trembles from the passing by trucks, I just hold on to my steering wheel more tightly. The first challenge - Raudondvaris. I do not even try to ride that  hill up. I walk my bike with dignity up the hill. I meet few locals with bottles of beer, but it's not even 12 o'clock!
Lot's of trucks! Those who are passing me in my direction, just tremble my bike. Those which are coming from opposite direction, they give me an extra wind gust, that I can barely tread the bike.
At the gas station just before Vilkija. I find a chai latte drink. What a sweet reward! I drink it devouringly and again on the road. And right there is another descend from the hill. It's steep, it's curving, but not so badly. I keep my hands on the break handles all the time. And the view is stunning, too bad I have to keep my eyes on the road. And I reach Vilkija - there I eat my lunch watching the ferry in action. The park there is really nice, but small.
After leaving Vilkija, I find a bike lane, but it doesn't last for two long - I have to get back on the road and pretend I have the same rights as cars and trucks. And it works, they outstrip me by riding in the opposite traffic lane, though I try to stay to the right side as close as possible. At least there are a lot less trucks. And it would be quite a good road: beautyfull green landscape, good quality of asphalt, but the front wind is very stark. I barely can keep 10 kilometers per hour. I stop at bus stops, do excercises there(my back hurts really badly), I wish I could put my legs on the steering wheel, but how to tread then?
There aren't a lot of gas stations on this route. I enjoy every one I find. At Seredžius I find a new one and express my joy I eat a burger and drink a cup of cocoa. Drinking a cup of cocoa was a mistake, it's so hot outside, it's even hotter inside gas station. But I do like cocoa, and it gives me an extra buff of power to tread.
Here I start to notice one thing I haven't thought about - sun burn. Summers in Lithuania aren't usually of the kind that will make you worry about that thing if you are not lying on a beach. I didn't think that riding a bike is like lying on a beach. Well, only certain parts of your body are exposed to sun. In my case, my both hands and left leg.
10 kilometers to Raudonė. I start to see interesting objects on the right side, but all of them are on a steep hills. No thanks, I'll do my cultural trip next time. But now only short stops give me some strength. I see few bike roads on the way, but they are very short and usually not as smooth as the road, I try to stay away from them.
About 6 o'clock I reach Panemunė castle. The goal of the trip is not far way, I decide to look at the castle, at least to ride by it. Of course to get back the same way I went to the castle wouldn't be cool, so, I keep on riding through the village called Pilis (in English it means Castle, very original, I should say). After the village I almost took the wrong direction, but my sixth sense suggested me, I should turn back. And the end of the 6% slope I see a reference to my camping site. After paying 6 euros, I get a place for my tent, toilet, hot water shower and a socket to charge my phone.After a short fight with a chinese tent, I get my shower, I eat my dinner - I can say I have settled down with dignity. And I don't need anything more after such a long day - 77.5 kilometers with an average speed of 12 kilometers per hour (very slow:( ). Yesterday's distance was the longest of all the planned ones. It was hardest in a sense, that I didn't know what was waiting for me ahead. But when you know what is waiting for you, it doesn't  always get easier.

Northern Lithuanian skies, there is something about them

The north of Lithuania, district of Biržai, has greeted us with amazingly looking clouds and skies. After tenting our tent at the edge of the rye field, we dove into discussion about actualities and nuances of online writers society. Funny stories were replaced by stargazing at the clear sky without any light pollution. As we had enough of black and white sky-scapes, the evening itself didn't end up then. A last minute idea to visit the longest pedestrian bridge(500m!) in Lithuania and Astravas manor turned into reality. They are interesting objects by itself, but if you do sightseeing at 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning - you'll see things in totally different shade.

a local shop

It's the same shop at night

 It was a little bit chill to walk over the bridge and take photographs, but our patience has rewarded us with some nice pictures. As we decided to head back to our tents, we met local fishermen going to their favorite fishing spots. All this time it never got totally dark, you could always see an edge of the sky, colored by sun.
But a late night walk didn't give us an excuse to sleep longer, so, we were up at 10 am. And we went for the same excursion, but this time in was in totally different light and we had a local guide.
At noon, more people came to this fantasy writers gathering, the food for the evening has been taken care of, and we could start with the activity everyone came there for - RPG game.  A game master was cruel, but a good storyteller at the same time. Therefore everyone was immersed into that other world very quickly and nothing could make us leave it. Of course, the rain has interrupted the game a few times - we had to patch a roof of a tent, then to relocate all the stuff to the terrace (as the tent couldn't hold the water anymore), then to go back to tent (as the rain stopped). Armed with laughter, raspberry and mint teas, or beer, we continued our journey in our fantasy world which turned out to be a good mass "hallucination". Oh, and in the end every character died - a mass hallucination turned into a mass grave.
But  what I liked most out of this weekend, was the fantastic sky. Whether it was clear, or cloudy, menacing us with heavy rain or beautifully fading into the night - I was a little bit hypnotized by it's beauty - all I could do is hold my camera and keep taking pictures.

Sunday in Sigulda

Travelling feels good. Even if you go away for one day.
I sure didn't get enough sleep last weekend. After sleeping just for 4 hours I woke up at 5 o'clock and started to get ready for the upcoming day - I with two of my colleagues decided to go to Sigulda for one day. And though it's just around 320 kilometers away from Kaunas, we wanted to make the most out of our day. So, leaving the home around 6 am was a must.
The idea for this trip wasn't very random. I hosted a girl from Daugavpils, which told me about vertical wind tunnel she took in Sigulda. I was fascinated by her story. I knew someone at work, who would be fascinated too by this experience. All I had to do - just to retell the same story with the same passion. Talking someone into it was easier than executing the idea. Vertical wind tunnel is extremely expensive sport, so, the limit of the time you get to fly there is the your bank account. Just to go there for few minutes and return back - didn't make much sense. Good for us, Sigulda is known for other attractions, such as bobsleigh track, Tarzan park, Gauja's river national park, and castles. Well, I wanted to add even more extreme to this trip and go there by hitch-hiking, but this idea, which seemed to be in motion for a some time, had to be stopped, and another one - to go there by car just for one day - was born.
We reached Aerodium - vertical wind tunnel sight just before noon to be lucky enough to make into the first group. Sigulda is much more farther away than 320 kilometers - there are a lot of road construction on the way, so, the trip extends a lot. And you have to make coffee/cacao breaks, have pick-nicks on the grass behind gas station.
We were there, got talked into taking 4 minutes of flight(which was the best decision for that day!), attended instruction workshops, put on the gear, made warm-ups, plugged our ears and ... nobody wanted to be first to start(or didn't show much initiative in starting), so I got to be the test rabbit. Not seeing how others were doing before me, made me nervous a little bit and it wasn't helping me to relax. So, yes, after first two minutes, I wasn't thrilled that much. But then the last two minutes totally paid off. I got to fly a lot higher, do the turn really fast. All right, it was with a help of instructor, but it really felt good anyway.

Behind this sign is a wind turbine which lifts you in the air

Next stop - bobsleigh track. A little bit disappointing - a one minute ride for 10 euros for each person. I guess we were comparing the this excitement with the one we had before, and it just didn't feel that good. Maybe, in winter it's different, but it's a lot more expensive in winter.
After this unimpressive ride it was time to get more strength - by eating sandwiches and drinking tea on a beautiful lawn near Gauja's river. We were expecting for a lot worse weather, but it just was windy and the rain stayed away from us. I guess, three mean people coming from a land of rain is a scary thing:)

We had a lunch looking at this nice view. Almost a pick-nick in the sky! 

Gauja river

We descended the hill by chair lift or by toboggan track and took a catapult challenge. Actually, I was the first to try it out (you notice the pattern?:) ) and others followed by me. I guess, not all of them felt so exciting, as I did - it's like a demo version of bungee jumping, with few changes: you don't have to make a decision when to step of, you are not going head down(ok, some managed to do a salto, or something similar), and you get a few swings only(4 or so). But it's enough to get a daily adrenaline dose. All this and many more outdoor activities can found at the Tarzans rope/climbing park.
I guess, that adrenaline made us decide to go up the hill by foot. Some party members were not happy about that (but only realized their mistake halfway the hill)!
From the things we wanted to experience only one was left - cable cart over the Gauja river. It's slow. It opens picturesque panoramas, but 5 euros is too much. Well, it saves you half an hour of walking: descending the hill to the river and then ascending it again to get to the other side - Krimulda. So, doing it one way is recommended, but going backwards - only if you are saving your time.
Krimulda is a manor with lots of old houses, dating back from XIX century and a XIII century castle ruins. We didn't do our homework about it, but walking around with too little time left on our schedule was quite nice (and the path we got to take to get to the other side is going through this estate).

Krimulda's castle ruins. Strategically it's a very good location for a castle, I still can't understand why it is ruined.

Desceding from Krigulda is quite an extreme experience - at least the path and stairs we found were quite broken, wet and all kinds of not suitable for old ladies. Dodging snails resting peacefully on the path we experienced the Latvian jungle. Beware! Тhere is a teddy bear living in one of the trees(which you can observe from cable cart), hopefully, he is afraid to get down from the tree:)

People do bungee jumping from this cable cart sometimes

While waiting for a cable cart to arrive we observed a castle from far away

Crossing the Gauja's river bridge and facing few hundreds of stairs(I didn't count, but there was a lot of them), our group split into two groups: those who still had energy left, and those who were practicing daily smoking hobby. Cigarette lover went to Tarzans park to get a car lift, and the rest two of us - swearing and sighing took the wooden stairs up the hill (the swearing part came later, halfway). At least the steps were in a lot better condition. And we were so happy to reach the top!

We left Sigulda quite on time, but the journey home was really long - road construction, lots of Latvians returning from country side to Riga after weekend, doing photo shoot at the sign of "Code"(I'm not gonna explain it!), heavy rain at Lithuania side of the trip - I reached my doorstep at about 12.30 am.

P.S. at our last coffee stop, just before stepping out of the car, it was surrounded by crazy playing/dancing/singing people, which happen to be Lithuanians coming with a bus from some folklore dance festival in Estonia. It was unexpected, but added a nice touch  to the whole day.

Coding or Comedy Conference?

By writing this review about Build Stuff 2014, I promise to be totally subjective based on my rich career of attending software development conferences - reaching a total of  2 if you count a local Agile conference. And yes, I was skeptical about them before - doubting what one can learn in such a short period of time.
Everyone knows that it's best to learn from mistakes. The ones of your own - well, you grasp them easier (if ever), but to learn from mistakes of others - is cheaper. So, that's the first "why" you should go to the software development conference.
And I prefer listening to the stories of others, shedding few tears... from laugh. No, there are no clowns there. Just good speakers with a good sense of humor talking about serious stuff. And if you say, it is not professional and that's not how we should talk about it - I dare to challenge you. Unsuccessful projects, big mistakes leave scars in our hearts and egos, but finding a strength to step back and look at them in a different light and angle, finding comic moments in them and sharing with others - is one step forward towards healing. I admit, that last sentence sounded like from a meeting of anonymous developers: hello, my name is John and I'm a developer. It's almost a year I can't find that bug... But that's not only it. Laugh is an emotion, and everything we experience with emotion (that applies for both positive and negative ones) tends to stay longer in our memory. You may believe me or not - I have no degree in psychology, but if I had to choose from laugh or sadness, I'd choose the first one.
Many brilliant speakers at this conference know this fact and try to spice up their speaks with funny perspectives at their miserable situations or just inside jokes from programmer's context. And they don't have to make us "rofling" like Mathias Brandewinder, Kevlin Henney or Mark Rendle did. It's perfectly enough to make us smile and inspire with talks like Luc de Brabandere, Mark Seemann or Garrett Smith (and if I didn't mention you there, it doesn't mean you weren't funny, it just means, I couldn't attend your speak).
Third reason to be there next year - party. If you attended only the daily part, then you attended only the half of the conference. And who says that programmer's don't know how to party? More humor from Mark Rendle and energetic music from Jurgis Didžiulis, but the party didn't stop when they stepped off the stage.
Finally, there is no sarcasm in a title of this blog post. My question is why can't it be both?

Do not anchor here

You never know when You can bump into unusual things just right near you. For example this road sign.

Not quite road sign, more like river one.

Christmas spirit

Yesterday in the morning when I came to office - I realized that there was something wrong. No, the office was still in the place. Yes, I could use my key to get in. But it was in shinny Christmas outfit - pine tree ornaments,garlands and other decorations, Christmas tree with large shiny toys, Santa clauses hanging from the stairs (there is no chimney in our office) - I didn't realized they are getting in or out. Of course, it was not that sudden - only after weekend - but my workplace was filled with synthetic (the one You can find in shopping centers) Christmas mood. Of course it's nice to look at. And shinny. But all the decorations are not Lithuanian style - I wonder what is it Lithuanian Christmas style - but really it's not that flashy and colorful.
And of course, as not expected from IT company - the decorations are totally not IT style. The next year will be the year of the mouse. And I remember, that in my last working place, we used cd's to decorate our Christmas tree. It was not because we decided to go cheap - it was a design decision, as much as I recall.
Our room at office decided to follow the whole Christmas madness and to decorate our space too - our key accent will be - Candy Christmas Tree - everyone is welcome to join it.

Totally incomplete guide to Dublin (and Ireland)

First thing You notice when You come to Ireland - that's crazy traffic. Besides that they are driving totally wrong side of the road (yeah, yeah, historical reasons) from the rest of the world, pedestrians don't recognize traffic lights. It's green - they are crossing the street, it's yellow - they are crossing the street, even on red light (surprise surprise) - that "just" about to turn green or "just" turned red - they are crossing the street. I can't imagine how patient and skillful drivers must be not to go mad and not to hit anyone who is crossing the street on the wrong traffic light.
If on first day this phenomenon makes you wonder, then on second you are one of those crossing the street not on the best time. And You start to understand them - people seem to hurry somewhere, I just couldn't imagine where. There are too many people on the street in Dublin. If they would mind traffic lights, only 1/3 of all wanting to cross the street would be able to do so. Could you imagine to stand in a queue to cross the street? From that, the second thing you notice in Dublin - that is loads of people. You could hear any language of the world here. The third thing is that it is really hard to understand Irish English. They are speaking very quickly and it seems that half they want to say, they are keeping for themselves - letters or even words. But that's only my impression. On my flight to Dublin, I could understand only a few words of what the flight attendant was saying. That was: "Thank you" and "have a nice flight". Everything else, which had more meaning than those few words, was somehow sunken in the mess of words.
Probably, it's about a time to start telling what one can see in Dublin. Depending on your trip goal (which may be sightseeing, shopping or visiting relatives or friends) there are different alternatives. If you are visiting someone - is the relatives and friends that You will see. But luckily You can combine this option with other two. If Your goal is sightseeing and cultural experience - NEVER go with people whose' goal is shopping or be ready to split into groups or even prepare for the worst - to do the cultural part alone. There are so many shops in Dublin center, that there won't be time for historical monuments, even if people who like shopping will promise You that they will go with You.
So, how a foreigner who has no friends in Ireland can explore the historical inheritance? I'd recommend to take a city tour for about 14 Eur's. For that price You get a ticket which is valid all day and a map with tour stops. Full tour is about 1h 30 minutes and includes over 20 stop points. But You can get off whenever you like, do the photo-taking, museum-church-other-stuff visiting and hop on whenever you are ready to continue. Tour buses passes the stops every 10 minutes, so this is very convenient. With this tour You get quite an interesting story about each of stop points, jokes and even singing part if You are lucky. Unfortunately I didn't had a chance to compare how those tours differs on every bus, but I hope they are somehow unique. Stops include quite different historical and cultural places of Dublin and I believe it covers the wide range of tastes - from churches, monuments, museums to jails, pubs, whiskey distillery, Guinness beer factory, parks, zoo or places where famous Irish writers lived.
Unfortunately I didn't had that much time to do the deeper research on each of places, but I hope I'll be able to do so next time. And it's worth visiting not because of cheap Ryanair flights - it's really a city that is very friendly and has many stories to tell.

Three open boxes of pellets and an air gun left for drying - a cup of tea in my hands - it was a wet shooting - splashing drops of water (no, not blood) from almost everything that became our target. Paper shooting targets, cds, floppy disks, pc mouse and monitor. I'm pretty sure there was something else more to "die" that day. Not quite a weather for shooting, but quite an occasion to try out my walter telescopic sight for my gamo cfx. Well, my hands still are shaking, but not because I'm holding a gun in my hands, but because it's a bit too heavy for my arms. And it was quite a whether to drink tea after whole action. Good old tradition.
P.S. I like rain, but I hate when my car windows become misty during it. No, my car is not sick, but why everyone is so concerned as it was so?:)

The law of bugs no. 1

Fixing memory leaks can cause bugs and big head ache. No wonder, that at the end of the week it's a bit harder to find a solution quickly for problems, but the most important thing is to keep trying. Easy to share the bits(or bytes) of wisdom, one may say. Of course, at least after I fixed one problem.

A perfect day for autumn

Golden leafs dancing with a wind on a pavement in a rhythm of mum's "blessed brambles". The sky. The trees shaking off worthless gold. The sky. And random white clouds. Changing frames in my eyes still in the tempo of the same song. Then I listened to the whole album of this fabulous Icelandic band. And again. There was still some kilometers till Vilnius, so I switched to energetic The Killers' "Sam's town" album.
A perfect day for a random trip to anywhere. It was not very random this time. I decided to take a look how other people are performing their poetry ( very ambitious word here too:) ). Well, I'm not sure if word "performing" is the best here, but the meaning is that, you have to be good not only at writing stuff but also at expressing it verbally. About 100 "weird" people in one place, mumbling something for themselves or trying to get attention loudly expressing themselves. Few I know, a lot has changed in this community. It's natural process. First thought: so many females and about 20% males. I guessed right, that the favorite ones in the contest will be males. At least they really did better. Another thing I noticed, to win in such contest, the perfect way to perform is by creating drama, pretending to be mad, angry, crazy. Of course, that way you show more emotions, but on the other hand - is this the only way? Isn't there possibility to draw attention by being calm and reserved? Well, probably writing people are a bit crazy then:)
And again the sky. Just in different shade. And getting darker. Changing with small villages and forests by a music of "Draumar um kalt sommer" till I get home.
A perfect day for autumn.

orange ball religion

Basketball is a religion in Lithuania. And missing religion's rituals is not the best behavior. But what to do if you can't take part because of more serious reasons???
I got 32" tv set, 3 lcds, 1 laptop and super slow internet. I can watch 3 tv channels, but none of them airs basketball matches. Best thing I can do is "watch" basketball match on internet in written form and observe the score. But this is even worse than reading about the fact in the newspaper - here you can skip all the details and just read the result. While "watching" the match on internet is as reading a very long article where you can't skip to the end and find out the result. No drama, no emotions.
Just like sitting behind the arena door and waiting while someone comes out and tells the score.

a fine, an excursion and music

One can learn about road signs by paying fines. But it's expensive way. On the other hand is it easier to notice a sign forbidding do something or only allowing to do some actions?

Finally I took my camera and went for a walk to old town. Keeping in mind that it's only 1 step away, I should have found time earlier. Shame on me. I know how beautiful it is there but still. It's true that it's harder to do something when it requires less
effort. Mostly.(a small part of old town is here)

And it always pleasant to hear live music coming through the window. Later one can listen to the same songs on mp3 player. Quite a good feeling.

Summary for this week

I had 2 Mondays and 2 Fridays this week. Also, there was 2 weekends. One was Saturday and Sunday type, other one was Wednesday type. (For those who can't figure out what I'm talking about, there was a national holiday in the middle of the week).

Summer heat is killing everyone for sure.

Friends have been finally invited to take a look at our "new" living place.

Today is my boyfriend's birthday ranging from family-type celebration to strategy-board-gaming with friends. Quite ok birthday. But what to give as a present for a gamer, who has just upgraded his computer?

Current soundtrack: GITS (Ghost in the shell) soundtrack.

Promise: start to reading books I borrowed.

low tech weekend (when nature calls)

Finally. We made our long planned trip by kayaks. Of course, nothing can go exactly as planned, but at the end you have almost the same result.
Weather forecast was not good. Actually it was pretty frightening, but as it was our last chance to do something like that, we decided to take risk. Indeed, on Friday, when we had to arrive at starting point, it was raining like hell, almost impossible to watch the road while driving. But we somehow managed to arrive at place.
It was dark pitch when we started to "build" our tents, but of course, it's not a very difficult task, even if you had never constructed that tent before.
We had to start swimming on Saturday in the morning. But of course, nothing went as planned again. First, the kayaks were a bit damaged and it would have been quite extreme to try to swim with such one. It's strange (or not) that the person renting them could not understand our complaints. But diplomatics makes miracles. We got 1 canoe for 2 kayaks. I should say, 4 people in the boat - it's more fun and more oars.
Swimming in the lakes it's a bit boring but very delightful after swimming in the river. Usually there are lots of mosquitoes in the river. I got myself bitten by them almost everywhere, and it's very hard when it gets itchy. In the river it's harder also, because it has many turns and it takes some skill or time to maneuver there.
Another difference besides the person count between canoe and kayak is that, that usually the seats in canoe are not very comfortable. Now, when I'm writing this, it's very hard to sit:) But still it was very fun. I haven't seen computer for 2 days and I'm very glad about that. I was breathing very clear air, enjoying beautiful views, sleeping on the ground (in the tent), grilling kebab and enjoying great company. Can't wait to get to my bed. Hopefully I'll make it. Good night.

the Dune 2007

Saturday was a busy day. Long ago planned trip to somewhere was finally made real. From lots of places to go, we picked up the seaside, but not the noisy Palanga or port Klaipeda. It was decided to go to Kuršių Nerija: a piece of land surrounded by Baltic Sea from west shore and Kurshes' sea:
(a thin place surrounded by water).
The landscape there is really unique. And even if you have seen many images, coming there is really worth it - because none photo can express the beauty of nature there.
Still some snapshots from the trip:

kursiu_nerija