What I've Been Up To..

Life has been great here in Lithuania. Especially this last weekend!
Saffron & I got up early on Saturday to catch a 10AM bus to Kaunas, the second largest city in Lithuania (which is also the city I will be teaching in this coming January!) We went to go visit the current teachers there. They invited us to come spend the day with them ice skating, shopping and going to the cinema. The ride there was very misty and serene and I listened to Elton John & John Denver the entire way and it felt very peaceful. They met us at the Akropolis mall and we started off with some Kronuts & coffee!

Okay. These things are unreal. And may have confirmed for me that yes, I am definitely supposed to come to Kaunas this Spring. But also might be trouble because I may have to eat one of these each day. They were literally out of this world. I have never tasted a better donut. Forget the Fractured Prune. The first one I had was creamy chocolate icing with chopped hazelnuts on top. The second one was a very creamy strawberry icing with little rice krispie beads on top. Wowwwwwie!

After we stuffed ourselves on Kronuts, we went to purchase our return bus tickets. We planned to leave back to Vilnius that evening, but the receptionist told us "No night bus, next bus is morning." My eyes widened and I began to flip a little bit. Not that it would be that big of a deal, but I didn't prepare to spend the night and I didn't have my Thyroid medicine or anything so it caused a little panic inside of me. We asked again, and she definitely rolled her eyes. I asked if there was a bus that leaves a little earlier maybe around 17:00 tonight. And she said yes.

Okay? So then I asked if there was a bus that left around 19:30 or 19:45. She said "yes."

Ummm....what? Clearly you said there was No night bus but okay, I'll take it. Anyway, it all turned out fine but I was super annoyed that it had to be so difficult. Language barriers, man.

We went ice skating next! We paid 3 euros for an hour of ice skating, including skates! Killer deal!

Me, Emily, Saffron, Morgan, Klarissa & Cynthia! Such fun girls. I had such a blast hanging out with them :) It was especially nice talking with Cynthia because she is the Head Teacher of Kaunas, so we just discussed Head Teacher business for a looong time and it was very helpful for me. 

I had a super funny video of me ice skating and falling but it got erased somehow :( It was a lot of fun. They wanted to shop around a bit, so we shopped for a little while (I don't have like any extra money for shopping so I choose not to browse too much or else I will buy something compulsively.) We stopped at a candy shop before the movie and stocked up on goodies. I was really feeling the sour gummy candies and the jelly beans. Nom. We went to the cinema at 3:20 to see the movie "Everest." The cinemas here are exquisite! The seats were like wooowww so comfortable and this stadium was humongous! The film was in 3D and it cost 7 euros to see it. A 3D film in America is like, $11-$13, isn't it? This one was under $10! Awesome. The film was incredible. I really loved it. It's terrifying and very emotional, but it was very visually stimulating and it is based on John Krakauer's expedition to Mount Everest and the guides that took him there. I wouldn't mind seeing it again.

After the film, we went to Soya to eat Asian food. I had some really great chicken Pad Thai, but it definitely made me miss eating Pad Thai with Tim at Benja's & Royal Thai Cuisine!! 

I genuinely enjoyed hanging out with the Kaunas girls. They are all very bright and sweet and I really enjoyed getting to know each of them. I can't wait to hang out with them again! 

On the bus ride home Saffron & I chatted straight the whole way home about life and religion and all kinds of things. I love Saffron. I have definitely grown the closest with her during my time here, and consider her a very dear friend. 

The next morning, Saffron really wanted to attend a Japanese Anime convention that was being held here in Vilnius. Now comic/Anime conventions are totally not my thing but I'm not really supposed to allow anyone to go out into town alone, so I offered to accompany her. She dressed up and looked darling, and she was so excited to see some of her favourite characters dressed up! It was interesting. There was a nice showing though where people who dressed up could go onto the stage and do a little skit or dance to show off their character. I enjoyed that part the most. There were a lot of booths set up where people were selling their own Anime art and there were places to play Guitar Hero, Just Dance, and there was a karaoke booth! But it was super awkward. It was set up in a little corner and the lady had me sit down and put some head phones on and she stood like right in front of me and filmed me. Only thing was, no one outside of the headphones could hear the music. Only I could. So that was strange. I have no idea where the video will end up, but it was an interesting experience. 

Drinking Bubble Tea! 

After the convention, Saffron wanted to throw a Japanese Curry night. She had some curry that she had brought home from Japan when she went. So she had us each buy some vegetables and she came over to the apartment to cook it. It was DAMN delicious. I am still dreaming about it. We put peppers, zucchini, potatoes, and onions in it. Then she added the curry mix and we had it with rice. I had never had Curry before this, but I absolutely loved it. I wish she brought an endless supply so we could make it more often! :) 

It was a lovely evening! 

Today is Wednesday and I went to the doctor with Dima. I had to get my blood tested for my Thyroid, to determine if I'd be okay to go to Kaunas in the Spring. The process went so smoothly (thankfully) and now I am just awaiting my results! I'll need to send them home and have my doctor check them and decide if she needs to modify my medicine or not. I basically stressed for no reason because, so far, the process has been completely painless and simple. I am really grateful for that. Tonight I get so skype with Amy and tomorrow I'm going to skype Trevor! I am so excited :) And next weekend KIRI & MIKE ARE COMING TO VILNIUS! AHHH!! I cannot wait to see them. I have a fun weekend planned for them. 

Life is great here in the Baltics :) 

To Poland We Go.

Last weekend, I had the wonderful opportunity to visit Poland! Here is how my weekend went:
On Thursday evening, we packed up and caught the 10:30PM bus to Warsaw. Warsaw is not very nice, so we completely skipped out on it this time. Our bus was a Simple Express, but this one wins because it had screens! I started to watch 21 jump Street, but then decided to take a ZQuil and get some sleep. Last time I came to Lithuania, I had a hellish time trying to sleep on buses. But this time around, it is like Heaven. I silently get excited when I realize we will be taking over-night buses because it means I can knock out and curl up with my blanket and sleep, while we are making our way to a new country. It's awesome! After we arrived in Warsaw around 5:30AM, we hopped onto a Lux Express bus to head to Krakow. This one was about 5 hours, so not too bad. I watched 'The Maze Runner' which was so intense, and had 2 cups of hot cocoa (complimentary, hell yeah!) The Polish country side is lovely. It was very green, with many rolling hills and small cottages. We arrived in Krakow around 11AM. We stopped for lunch in the bus station at a Mexicano place. It was okay. A little too Tomato-ey for my liking. Yikes, I forgot to mention that I lost my debit card! :( I lost it before we left to Poland (pretty positive it slipped out of my wallet because the card slots aren't very snug.) So all I have is my credit card until I get my new debit card in the mail. Since you can't withdraw money out of an ATM with a credit card, I was stressing out because I don't like making charges on my cards here because of the foreign transaction fees. So I'll usually withdraw 50 euros at a time and use that until I run out. So I had the brilliant idea of using my credit card to purchase all of my group's Auschwitz tours on my credit card, and having them all pay me in cash! I had one gal pay me in Polish Zlotys and the other girls pay me in Euros. It worked out perfect because I had just enough Zlotys for my whole Poland trip, and will have plenty of Euros to hold me over in the mean time.

Anyway.

We got to our hostel and luckily we were able to check in a little early. As we were checking in, a dude from across the street opened his window and yelled to the world "I just wanted to let everybody know that tomorrow me and my boyfriend are getting married!" So everyone clapped and it was just really great. He was also American?! LOLZ. Our hostel was nice, but there was no social atmosphere. I slept amazing both nights though. We headed out to the town and explored. We visited the Wawel Castle which is so lovely. In the courtyard, there is a gorgeous Cathedral and rolling hills with a pond. There was a little Archery set up that was offering 12 arrows for 20 zlotys ($6 or so) I've always wanted to try archery, so I gave it my best shot and....I wasn't very good. But McCall challenged me by the last arrow that if I made it into the yellow part of the target, she would buy me a treat. Well I totally made it but completely forgot about the treat until now, LOLZ :p

After that, we split up our group and Saffron, Katie, Rebecca & I visited St. Peter & Paul's Cathedral, The Church of St. Anne, and a few other churches that I don't know the names of. They were breathtaking. We met up with the other 3 girls and went to have dinner at Chimera, which is a nice salad bar restaurant, that also offers traditional Polish dishes. Everything I got was EXCELLENT! You could pay 13 Zlotys (about $3.75 USD) and choose 4 items from the salad bar. I chose Pumpkin soup, Pasta salad with herbs and peanuts, Fruit salad and herbed potatoes with Dijon mustard for dipping. It was so so good, especially the potatoes with mustard.

St. Peter & Paul's Cathedral

Church of St. Anne

After dinner, we headed back to the hostel because we were all exhausted. It's funny because no matter how much sleep you may get on a bus, it's still not as satisfying as sleeping in a bed obviously, so no matter what, I always seem to be so exhausted after bus rides. I slept soundly (only with my ear plugs in because the streets outside were obnoxious.) The next morning, my group headed off to Auschwitz early. I decided to stay behind this time because I have visited it once, and that is enough. It's not the kind of place I ever desire to return to. And if I did, it would probably be alone. I don't know. I just didn't really want to go in a group....

The hostel offered a major deal, though. When I went to Auschwitz two years ago, we found a package on Viator which was about $40 for transport, a tour guide, and all that. But the hostel offered a package for $30 that included all of that PLUS insurance PLUS a free lunch at a local restaurant in Krakow. Talk about a steal! While my group went out to Auschwitz, I had the morning to myself, which was great! I went and got a Cappuccino and walked the rainy streets of Krakow and did some filming. I bought a post card for Tim's family and sat on the river side and filled it out :) Then I went to another cafe and got a muffin and lemonade. I could have drank that lemonade straight for days. It was so refreshing. I met back up with my group and we went and got lunch at the place included in their Auschwitz tour. It was really great. I got a delicious, huge plate of Pierogis with a mix of meat filled and cheese filled ones smothered in sauce and smoky Pancetta. To die for, really.

After lunch we headed over to the Jewish quarter of Krakow. Their architecture is a little different than the main center of Krakow. I don't know much about it, but it was really quaint, with a lot of cool street art. We had some bagels at Bagel Mama (Nutella and Banana NOM) I was really tired and wanted to get back to the hostel, so some of us went back while the rest went to get more treats. We had some traditional Zurek soup in the hostel (Polish sour soup with sausages) It was way good! Katie & Saffron both wanted to sketch, so I offered to be their sketching models! They both have very different drawing styles and are both freaking incredible. I loved seeing how different their sketches were. It was still pretty early so we went back out and headed to the castle to see the view at night. It was really lovely.

Katie's drawing.

Saffron's drawing.

The next morning we had to catch a bus at 12:05PM to Zakopane. We had to check out at 10 and some of the girls headed straight to the bus station (I wasn't about to carry my backpack aimlessly for 2 hours) so Saffron, Katie, Rebecca & I kept our backpacks in the luggage storage and went to Costa Coffee to get something to drink. I had a huge chai tea, but it was quite expensive for Polish standards. After that we went and bought some post cards and then headed to the station. This bus to Zakopane was only two hours, and the drive was beautiful. It was misty and rainy and the Polish mountains were unreal. Zakopane is apparently very similar looking to Park City or Estes Park in Colorado. That can give you an idea of what it was like. We stayed in a darling little cabin style hostel and it had a piano! But it was horribly out of tune so I was very upset.

It was already almost 3pm by the time we were settled in and the sun was supposed to set at 6:30 and I really wanted to go on a hike in the nearby National Park. I found a nice, easy hike called "The Strazyska valley" hike which apparently offered nice views of the city and waterfalls at the end. Well, duh, we had to pay to get in. It was really cheap but some of us didn't have any cash, so I felt screwed for a minute. But then I noticed some steps that lead up this little hill that wasn't inside the park, so I decided to see where they lead. They ended up taking us onto this trail that was probably the most breathtaking scenery I have ever seen. It was a very simple trail through the forest and we ended up passing by the sheep herders and it was fun to hear all of the sheep's bells ringing and see all of the sheep dogs. We weren't sure how long the trail was or where it would lead us, so we just kept on going! There were a lot of open spaces where we could see the misty mountains off in the distance and the green rolling hills. I have never really seen anything like it before. We made it to a sign that advertised a little side trail that was supposed to be really beautiful. Some of the girls in our group turned around and headed back, while a few of us went on to this trail. There was a sign to watch out for bears.....awesome. But I wasn't too worried about it. This trail though.....I want to cry because I didn't bring my camera due to the rain (Yes it was raining the entire hike which made the experience that much more magical.) IT WAS EXTRAORDINARY. Seeing the huge trees, the river and the mountains just made me feel so at home and at peace. Tarci: If you're reading this, just think of 'Wild' when she is walking through the forest in Oregon and runs into the Llama. It looked just like THAT! Misty and green. I couldn't get enough of it. I kept turning to my girls and asking "is this place actually real?" We stopped on a bridge and took some photos and continued on a little longer. We weren't sure where it was supposed to end, and it would be night fall soon. We ended up trekking through a little waterfall and then turned around. We got back into town and searched for food. I don't really know why we did this but out of all of the nice traditional restaurants we settled on an awful kebab stop. We all kind of felt like crap afterward. Katie and I purchased some Oscypek cheese (Zakopane's locally made cheese!) It was really good! But almost a little too smoky to handle. But it had really cool carvings on it. We headed back to the hostel to sleep and I think a few of us couldn't get to sleep too well because our beds were so hard. Ugh.

I was dreading for Monday to come along during the whole trip because I knew it would be our full travel day. It would be quite a ways to get back to Vilnius, so we had to use almost the whole day. That morning, we had the hostel's free breakfast (but really, everything tasted like pickles {the jam and the juice, even} because they didn't enclose their tupperwares in the fridge) so it was a little unappetizing. We made our way to Krupowki Street, which is the main tourist street in Zakopane. We stopped at the wooden ZAKOPANE sign to take some photos along the way. I tried a Gofry (waffle) with fresh whipped cream on top HOLY hell it was good. Saffron, Katie, Rebecca & I went to Adamo Trattoria to eat pizza while Annie, Madi & McCall went to get Kebabs. The idea of eating another Kebab made my stomach churn so I had to pass on that. The pizza we had was exquisite, though. We found a nice grocery store that offered a lot of healthy and vegan snacks. I got some fig bars, apple chips, crackers, and honey waffle things and was ready. to. go.

Our first bus was to Warsaw and it was on the Polski Bus. Ugh. Polski bus needs to figure it out. They have hardly any leg room so you feel squashed the whole time and their seats hardly recline at all. It was a 7 hour ride and I may have slept for 30 minutes only. Luckily I had a movie on my iPod that I could watch and listened to plenty of music (Like Lady Gaga's live version of "The edge of glory" a million times.)

We got into Warsaw around 9, got something to eat and had plenty of trouble finding our bus stop. Our bus was literally 5 minutes away from arriving and we still couldn't find the stop. I was having a panic attack. Luckily, we saw it driving on the main road so we followed it and ran to the stop. Got on right in time. Phew!

I took another ZQuil and watched a little bit of 'Interstellar.' Such a great film. This time I knocked out for five hours straight. That has never happened before. I'm lucky if I can sleep for 2 hours straight. It felt amazing.

I hope you enjoyed reading this mega long post!

Click here to watch my Poland video.