Paskutinis Savaitgalis Lietuvoje

After having exhausting all options that I could think of and having some exhausting and frustrating days running around town trying to get a working visa, I admitted defeat. So the choice was to either stay illegally or to leave. I really wanted to be there for when my parents and aunt and uncle would come later on, but a week before my visa expired (I fought to the very end), I bought tickets to Croatia, which is not apart of the EU and thus I would be able to stay there legally. You see, since Lithuania is apart of the EU and in the Schengen Zone, tourists from the US are given 90 days to stay. For every 90 days there though, you have to leave for 90 days. This is why I had to leave since I did not get my working visa. So I bought the tickets to Croatia and hurriedly did some things I had been saving for the summer when I would not be working. This post is of my last weekend in Lithuania.

On the way to another cousin's house on the coast, the fields were filled with purple lupines.

We had a huge lunch and dinner at her house. This is wild boar hunted nearby.

And these pieces are what is left of the rabbit we ate.

Here is Justinas, the cousin's son, who just graduated from the US Naval Academy. He is with his girlfriend serving us the fish, seen below.

Here are just a few of the rabbits in the pen. I think they had at least 20. And yes, that is where our rabbit from the meal came from.
My cousin's house is only about 9km from the shore. This was taken at about 10:30pm close to when the sun was finally going done.
Justinas's captain's bell.
The family dog.
The table was littered with all kinds of different Russian and Lithuanian liquors, some which you mixed with tea, others which you drank outright like a shot. They were definitely very intersting.
Traditional Lithuania cake already broken apart.

Traditional cheese with caroway seeds. This is so good with honey.

Cartons of Juice. I thought the names were funny. I think I will miss the fact that most food labels are in a variety of different languages. Every meal you learn a little bit more about another language. For instance, now you know that pfirsich probably means peach or nectarine in German.

The following day, we went to mass at the same church I visited before where my cousin, the monk, was living. It was special because it was the day after St. Anthony's day and many people had come the day earlier as well as for this following day. As I said in an earlier post, behind Padua, this is the place with the most visitors to St. Anthony and has the most miracles attributed to St. Anthony documented.
The entrance of the church had this banner.
The picture of St. Anthony with his relic. Anthony in Lithuanian is Antanas.
At the end of mass, the monks distributed a special bread to the congregation which was shared with everyone by breaking off a piece and passing it along.
Many people were also lighting candles.
As you can see, the church was decorated for the occasion. The garlands are strands of evergreen tree branches.

After mass, we ate a little, and then went to some parks, where the main attractions at both were the wooden sculptures.


Birute got a little scared on the teeter-totter.
By my calculations, it weighed about 1000 lbs.

Ignas, Karolis, and I.

This was the first of 2 times when I tried to make Karolis barf on the merry-go-round.

I was unsuccessful both times.
I think this is a punk-rock breed. The meat is a bit stringy (like a guitar) :)
There was also a small zip-line.
Ignas loved all the animals, even the goats.
Ignas, Karolis, Birute, and I
Karolis and the windmill.
Plants which will sprout summer wild blueberries. Yumm. I had been eating blueberries all winter long in my oatmeal in the mornings.
This was a bunker made in the forest where rebels during the Soviet occupation lived. It was very small and probably could only fit 5 people only a little bit comfortably if they needed to live in there.
Some of the wooden carvings were just huge.

Bonzai plants. We went to a place that is just starting to construct what will be the largest Japanese garden in Lithuania. We did not stay long though since the weather, at 10 C with wind (50 F), was so balmy.
An old Russian car. Stop in Lithuanian means, yes, go on behind the yellow and red tape.
Joseph beer. Karolis is contemplating which one he will try, the dark one, or the lighter beer. They both have to be good, though, because I mean, hey, it's Joseph beer.
If you look close enough at the mug, you will see it says Juozo or Joseph's beer. Also, the pitcher pouring the beer looks like it is floating.
Ignas also loves the water. This was another visit to the local park. I had to hold him over the water to play with it. The only bad part was that we had to leave, which made him rather unhappy.

Tevo Diena Lietuvoje

Father's Day is celebrated in Lithuania on the first Sunday of June. Here are some pictures from that day.

But first, I had to include this strange sign. It seems to suggest that coming up, traffic crashes into each other. That obviously was not the case though since no wreckages were seen, unless of course everyone knows to avoid this street. :)
On father's Day, just like for Mother's Day, it is customary to go the cementary to spruce things up and to light a candle. I went with Ricardas whose father has already passed away.
After going to the cementary, we went to the small garden community where his mother works a lot and where they own a small piece of land specifically for growing some vegetables. These communities are especially important since the majority of people live in apartments without access to land. In this picture, you can see some of the potatoes I planted.
Here are some onions and in the background is the garden house. It even has a small cellar where canned items are as well as anything used outside.
The well at the garden.... There is no running water so this is a necessity.
A flowering vine or bush. It might be honey suckle by the way it filled the air with it's fragrance.
This was not done on Father's day, though I think Richardas would have enjoyed it. Some friends invited me along to a paintball fight in the forest. Even with the massive amount of mosquitoes, it was a lot of fun. We played in the middle of the forest (not a course) with teams of 5 people. Our team was made of only inexperienced peoples and we were the only one with girls (3). We lost almost every time, but I still had a so much fun. It was a good thing they gave us the uniforms because we were all shot and had paint all over us. This picture was take before. Afterward, we were exhausted and hungry so we made a campfire to roast some beef and chicken.
OK. Back to Father's Day. This was the Father's day dinner: sauer kraut, lots of fish with vegetables, potatoes of course, and some cooked chicken.
Sorry, now away from Father's Day again. This is a small lake that I went to a few times in a nearby park. One time, I rode a bike there taking about 1 hour to get there. The clothes-changing stall is on the left.
In Spanish, this plant is called ruda. It is a strong smelling plant that we used in Guatemala for keeping bugs out of gardens and getting rid of parasites in chickens. I know we have it back home but I don't know its name. This was growing right outside the apartment.
These also were growing outside the apartment. These lupines also grow wild all over Lithuania.