Febuary 7 - Vilnius Old Town
Wakey, wakey !
Ouch - I had to get up at 4:45 to catch the 5:30 bus from my house to the airport bus. GOSH. Thats sooo early. I showered for 15 minutes but still looked like a zombie when I got out of the shower. I did make it to the airport in good time though and I even signed up for the Star Alliance membership to gain mileage points on my travel as AirBaltic is a part of the Star Alliance.
After security check I went for breakfast. Witch one more time reminded me to WHY we should never buy food at Oslo airport - 75 incredible NOKs for a tiny pasta salad???????? This is theft !!!!
The flight in to Vilnius was good, quite a bit of turbulence during the flight, but no other main issues :D I spent the time reading tourist information about Vilnius and Lithuania. Quite exited about going there. The landing was more interesting though. Everything seemed fine for a while until the wheels touched the ground and the plane almost started going up again - ALMOST crashing the tail in the landing lane. Ok. I might be exaggerating here. hehe. We landed nicely anyhow. A whole lot of Military people was on my plane and they were escorted away from the plane to avoid the normal check in.
Jenn and Angie picked me up at airport. They were running late due to a lot of security in traffic due to a NATO meeting in Vilnius. All the big NATO people was in the city. The girls escorted me home, Jenn introduced me to the flat and her flatmate, Peter, and gave me her keys.
Jenn and Peter lives in the middle of the old town. Right next to the Presidential Palace. Its a great location in walking distance to everywhere.
Peter took me for lunch at Briusly where I had a delicious chicken spinach plate with rice. Fantastic dish !
Peter had a meeting at UNI so after lunch we split and I walked around in the Old Town (that is considered to be a World Heritage Site by UNESCO) of Vilnius for 3 hours and enjoyed the views. Temperatures were great and it was fantastic to be out and enjoy the nice weather instead of sitting indoors all day at work. I payed a visit to the bank to get local money and I found my way around the city and watched beautiful churches and buildings such as the All Saints Church, the Gate of Dawn,
The beautiful red-brick church - St. Annes Church (Sv. Onos baznycia) is a Roman Catholic church in Vilnius' Old Town, on the right bank of the Vilnia River. It is a prominent example of both Flamboyant Gothic and Brick Gothic styles. St. Anne's is among the features of Vilnius Old Town that enabled the district to be included in the list of UNESCO World Heritage sites.
A novel approach to bricks as a construction material was employed in the church's construction The main facade, designed in the Flamboyant Gothic style, is its most striking feature. Traditional Gothic elements and shapes were used in unique ways; Gothic arches are framed by rectangular elements dominating a symmetrical and proportionate facade, creating an impression of dynamism. The church has one nave and two towers. It was built using 33 different kinds of clay bricks and painted in red. The interior is decorated in the Baroque style, as is its altar. The imitative neo-Gothic bell tower, constructed in the 1870s, stands nearby.
Walking around in old town I made it to more central places where I also climbed the hill to the Gediminas tower that is an important state and historic symbol of Vilnius and Lithuania: it is depicted on national currency litas and mentioned in numerous Lithuanian patriotic poems and folk songs. It is virtually all that remains of the once-mighty Upper castle. This tower used to be an aristocratic prison back in 1610, before everything around it was destroyed by the russians between 1655 and 1661. The restoration work began in 1939 and today the tower houses an exhibition explaining the history of Vilnius castles. From the top you can see the great panoramic views of Vilnius city the Three Crosses on the Bleak Hill (Plikasis kalnas).
I also had to take a closer look to the Cathedral of Vilnius (Vilniaus Sv. Stanislovo ir Sv. Vladislovo arkikatedra bazilika), located just off the Cathedral Square. Its a beautiful church and also the main Roman catholic cathedral of Lithuania. Inside, there are more than forty works of art dating from the 16th through 19th centuries; both frescoes and small and large paintings.
It is believed that in pre-Christian times, the Baltic pagan god Perkunas was worshiped at this location. The Lithuanian King Mindaugas built the original cathedral in 1251 after his conversion to Christianity.
There were souvenir stores everywhere and I found Amber to be one of the big things of the Baltics. Beautiful pieces of amber made into the nicest jewelery.
At 4 I met up with Peter again at the Cathedral and we went to sit down and relax at one of his favourite cafes; ...................... where we had tea and cake and sat down till Jenn got home from work. We had quite some interesting discussions there.
In the night Jenn and I went to Zoes restaurant to meet with Angie for dinner. We had already ordered when Angie came. We had a dish of Filet mignon served on a wood plate. Fantastic dish !! Just perfectly cooked and tasted wonderful.
Febuary 8 - Mamma Mia
I woke up around 10:30ish and both Jenn and Peter had left for their daily activities with Uni and work. I prepared for a long day walking around Vilnius. The sun was up as I went out and I got some band-aid for my blisters from yesterday :D That helped immediately. Then I got myself breakfast at MacDonalds. Wooohoo. Culinaric exclusivity - hahahaha.
After walking all the way up the main street, Gedimino street, and half way back again, I found the KGB museum - the museum of genocide victims (See also here) where lots of uniforms and things were shown from the days of the occupation by the Soviets. The tour gave us information about the period of occupation, the KGB prison and the tiny cells they prisoners had to share. They also had an execution chamber down there. In the 3rd floor they had information about the deportation and museum articles from the deported lithuanians.
Out in the sun again I walked up a street I had not been to and tried getting lost without loosing track. I made it back to the presidential palace and I found the market street (Pilies street) where I bought a few souvenirs and post cards. I met Jenn at 3pm and we went to Vingio Parkas to hand over a football and some cones to the ski team Jenn is teaching. She is one of the coaches for the National Lithuanian Alpine team. They are still kids and juniors and one is 21 years old but thats about it. So hopefully she helps creating future gold medal winners!!!!
We had cake and hot chocolate at a cafe nearby before we went back home to shower and dress to go out for the night.
Jenn and Angie took me for dinner at the very traditional Lithuanian restaurant, Zemaiciai in Vilnius Old Town.
It was amazingly kozy and had this cool ancient atmosphere.
Seemingly buried inside an ancient catacomb. Zemaiciai has more ambiance and trappings than you'll be able to enjoy in one visit. Each one of its labyrinthine appendages is exquisitely adorned with medieval ornaments and decor to the point where you'd expect gents in tights and feathered caps to saunter in and draw their swords on you. Though on the pricey side for Vilnius to be, Zemaiciai pulls out all the stops to convince you you've gone back in time.
Even if you're not eating, 
a wander around the interior is worthwhile.
I ordered something I had never eaten before. A Wild Bore Goulash dish. It tasted really good !! And we shared a bottle of Santa Helena white wine. Great as well :D
After dinner we went to the Siemens Arena, where we had tickets for the musical Mamma mia, in Taxi. 
A thing to know about Lithuania, ALWAYS pre-order taxi. If right from the street without pre-ordering the prices for the service will cost you double than what the taxameter will show.
Our Taxidriver was of the funny kind and he left us safely at the entrance.
Jenn showed tickets, our purses were searched for cameras. Sometimes its smart to have so much stuff in the purse that they dont bother to search through all :D
The show was spectacular and since it was my first time to actually see it I was more than pleased. My two friends had a great time too and we were all thrilled about the show. The lead singers had great voices and it was great colors and everything was great.
When the show was over we took another cab back to the old town where we shared a bottle of Suave classico at In Vino bar. At this time of night it was PACKED. Hardly no place to stand in the main room of the bar so we got a table in the back room. After the first bottle of wine we decided for one more but they were closing the room we sat in so we brought home a bottle instead and watched a scary movie !!! YEAH
Identity with John Cusack. Great movie. I guessed the plot too quick though :D, but I didnt get it all. Movie was great. Hehehe. We followed up with an episode of Sex in the city before Angie left to go home in PJ :D
Jenn went up with Snayga and I fell asleep downstairs on my couch.
Febuary 9 - Trakai
First time I woke up this morning, was when Peter came home at 6am. Next time was when Jenn left at 8am. Jenn went with the national alpine team to train them (as she is one of the coaches) for a day trip to xxxxx (Ignalina). I fell asleep immediately after again and suffered no severe consequenses for waking up :D (Ok, I know. Bad humour - hehe)
I finally woke up at 11 and showered before I headed to the Hansa Bankas to exchange some more money. As it was a saturday, the line was long and I had to wait for more than 30 minutes for my turn. I got my Litas and took off to find an internet cafe. As I was starving I looked all around for a food store and Rimi appeared as a salvation where I entered to find something to have for breakfast.
I bought some stuff I knew what was and decided to try something new. Out of the try something new decition. It was a split result. I found something I really liked a lot and something that was waaaay sweet and not exactly something i was too happy about.
It didnt satisfy my hunger :D But it was fun and that was the important part !! I continued walking around in Vilnius old town and found back to Pilies street where I found an Internet cafe to check my mail and a few other things.
Anze sent me a message about 12:45 to meet at 13:00 by the cathedral so I left the internet cafe and we drove her sister home before we drove towards Trakai, that is located 28 kms from Vilnius, and to a restaurant called The fishermens place (In Lithuanian: Zveju Namai) where we had plans to have our lunch !
At this restaurant / resort they are lots of ponds where you can fish your own fish and then they will cook it for you while you wait for your dish. It was soo cool.
The fishing was fun. It took me some time to catch mine, and it was freezing outside with a cold wind on top, but finally I got one and it was big as well :D !!!
Anze had done this a few times before and catched hers in just a few minutes. They were both huge fishes, over 1 kg each !
After fishing we delivered our catch to the men in the hut under the restaurant where they bbqed them while we waited upstairs in the restaurant. We had chosen to BBQ them with 4 different kind of spices and they tasted fantastic !!!
They were split in 4 and cooked with open. We had only fish and local lithuanian beer.
Due to the size of the fish we had no chance finishing it all up, but that was no problem. They just packed up the rest for us to take home :D
After lunch we went to the city of Trakai. The main attraction of this little city is a beautiful castle on an island, the Trakai Island Castle, in the middle of the Galve lake.
This castle dates back to the 14th century and was begun by the monarch of medieval Lithuania, Kestutis. Trakai was one of the main centres of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the castle held great strategic importance.
We went for a walk along the shores of Galve, watching some beautiful swans sitting on the ice covered lake, crossed the bridge to the island and walked around the beautiful castle.
There was a lot of tourists, but also locals that enjoyed the saturday outside Vilnius. As day passed and it got later we went back to Vilnius again, where I met up with Jenn that just arrived home exactly at the same time as Anze went home. Jenn had had a beautiful day skiing with the kids of the skiing team. 
Jenn and I watched several episodes of Sex in the City and had some vodka to relax and get ready for the night.
At 8:30pm we left the house for dinner. Jenn took me to a traditional Lithuanian restaurant, ........, where we had some fantastic food !!
The menu was the traditional (bread fried with garlic and cheese sauce), porc with mashed potato, sour crout, vegetables and the best mushroom sauce ever.
For dessert: chocolate cheesecake!!! Can it get better?
We had white wine with the meal and after we had a shot of ............ (75% alcohol).
After dinner we went to the movies. The film we watched is one of the best films I have seen lately. We both agreed on that.
PS, I love you ! is the name of it with Gerard Butler and Hillary Swank.
See links to movie here:
http://psiloveyoumovie.warnerbros.com/
http://www.psiloveyoumovie.co.uk/
There is one thing to say about this movie. It is beautiful, romantic, fantastic and we lasted 5 minutes before we started crying. From all the snifs around us, we were not the only ones. We cried throughout the movie...
... I wish I had someone that cared that much about me ...
We also decided after watching this movie, that next time we meet it will be in Ireland ! Hehehe.
It doesnt arrive to Norway until march 28 so I think Ill gather a group and go see it again :D When its time for that, It will be in my DVD collection.
Febuary 10 - Going home :(
For most of the night some drunk street singers had been howling outside a nearby bar. Police had been called in a few times and not managed to quiet them.
I woke up around 10ish. Jenn a bit later. As she came down from her room she told me that the street singers from the bar last night had started again at 4:45 (I had slept through all that).
We relaxed a bit while we prepared for meeting Anze for a breakfast together.
Jenn and I walked past the presidential palace to XXXXXXX cafe in Pilies street, right next to the souvenir shop where I got the knitted hat yesterday. We ordered fresh juice and Anze came just before we were ready to order.
Jenn and I had crepes (she with ham and cheese and mine with banana and chocolate) and Angie had Potato pancakes (Bulviniai Blynai) with salmon and sour cream sauce. That was sooooo good Jenn and I ordered a plate of that dish too! (We did not order dessert though).
Breakfast was great. Company of Jenn and Anze was great and we had an awesome time. Anze had to go to work a few hours after breakfast and Jenn took me walking in the city and we picked up a few souvenirs and stuff. We went to two malls: xxxx and Europa.
Europa was a nice mall, but prices were kind of stiff.
We took the bus home since we had walked through half the city and were lazy. On the bus we had 2 russian Metallica fans drinking vodka and discussing the english nemes of the Metallica songs. Then came in a Lithuanian guy, that obviously was on his way home from a party, that started speaking to us. Or - US, mostly Jenn since my skills of Lithuanian stops at Hello and thank you! We started speaking Norwegian among us and the dude started speaking to us in french :D We decided it was time to get off the bus :D
We stopped for a drink at MacDonalds and continued down the main street Gedimino towards the cathedral where I took some more pictures before we headed home. It was already 4:30 pm and Peter was awake and making breakfast/lunch when we got home. Jenn copied all the pictures I had taken into a CD to bring home while we relaxed a bit in front of the TV.
THANK YOU SO MUCH JENN FOR LETTING A STUPID NORWEGIAN, THAT FORGOT TO CHARGE HER CAMERA BEFORE A TRAVEL, BORROW YOUR CAMERA !!!
Angie came to pick us up at 5:15 to take me to the airport. We had no traffic problems and it was sad saying good bye to these two girls that has offered me so much hospitality and made my visit to Lithuania so awesome !!!! THANK YOU GIRLS !!!!
At the airport I went right to check in and control zone. Its one of the smallest airports I have been at. 4 tax free stores only and a few gates. But it had what it needed and I didnt have to wait for long until we could board the plane. I spent almost the full time of the flight to read the Alchemist (in english this time - the 16 other times was in norwegian) that is one of my favourite books.
Only problem we had during the flight was a little turbulence, but apart from that a great flight. I got the emergency exit seat and could enjoy lots of space for my long legs !!! Weeeee.
As we arrived Gardermoen I called my mom to let her know we landed safe and to congratulate her with mothers day :D
I also called a few friends and my sister. My luggage came quick and the airport shuttle was ready to go so everything just turned out perfectly for the connections.
Tor and Margaret came over with Saffi and all was back to normal. I logged on to my computer and kitty and I sat down to solve a few MD CUQs :D
Nite folks :D
