Dublin Day 2, August 21

We've started the day at the lovely The Loving Spoon. Great food, fantastic decor with the little fairies coming out of the odd spots here and there.

The daily tour started at  St Patrick Cathedral. I guess we are a bit out-cathedraled, after the lifetime off. We found Swift's grave inside the church and the associated memorabilia including several death masks and a cast of this skull the most fascinating.

Next onto the Christ's church. There the kids enjoyed the mummy's of a cat & a rat. We continued walking stopping at the interesting spots. The agenda was no agenda. Just make most of the day and stay out as much as possible while it does not rain.

Tried to make it to Kilmaiham Gaol but they were sold out. Bought the tickets for tomorrow and made our way back to the center for Murphy's.

Finished the day at Fitzsimmons, at the Temple Bar, accompanied by the uplifting live music. Speaking of food, we've also made stops through the day at the Powercourt for a snack & at the Farm for lunch. We did not remember the city having so many awesome food options and there will surely be consequences. Speaking of the spirits, we've been lucky so far with only about 1/2 or 1/4 of the day raining so the spirits are up :)

Today was the day of the eclipse in the US. We enjoy the many pictures we see online and sent by the friends. It seems so far away - almost unreal. Trying to disengage a bit from the work a bit too while we are getting our final break prior to the fall season.

Dublin Day 1, August 20

Flew into Dublin early on Sunday morning. The plane was full of elders gathering up for their tours. I was sitting next to a husband and wife couple probably in their seventies. He had hearing aids in both ears, she had a medical bracelet with a medical highlights presumably on the skin facing portion of it.

As the night set it during our flight they remained alert, curious, asking those around them questions.

Hearing them talk about their lives was incredible. She was trained as a teacher but never really got the chance to practice due to a really bad case of vertigo. She did say that learning about history was more fun than teaching it. He was a programmer who too did not get to spend too many years (programming the paper cards?). They never had any kids. As disability & unemployment turned into retirement, they've continued to work on their bucket travel list and traveled extensively around the world. Two months a year they live in Florida where they love going to the Disney parks. Interesting angle on the live well-lived. Food for thought on the choices we are making. I've got to say though we really love what we had chosen to do and that includes travel.

Arriving to Dublin I had several tasks to accomplish before meeting up with Romiks whose flight was arriving in an hour after mine landed. I had to get some money from the ATM, buy sim cards for all, find out what terminal they were landing at and stand there with the sign. Several ATMs spit out my card indicating that there was something wrong with it. The three stores I went to ran out of sim card stock. Not a good start. Fortunately Romiks were landing at the same terminal. The bad news is that they had already landed and should have been coming out any minute. So I wrote up the sign and positioned myself in front of the doors and started waiting.

Connected w. Dan in Vilnius - he & kids were leaving to meet up with us in 4 hours. The magic of the free internet wifi! He reassured me that he had some cash in euro but could not get the ATM to work either. As I waited I stayed on the line waiting (without results) for someone from the bank to pick up. The magic on non-24-hour service and downtimes. Romik skyped me that they are waiting for their luggage. Soon they all came out as well and we went to look for the cab.

 Cab dispatcher outside sized us up and suggested to wait for a few minutes for a van to come up. To our feeble proposal to take two cabs he replied that we don't want to be paying twice. And pointed to the waiting area. :)

After we checked in, we located the nearest breakfast place, Ann's Bakery with fantastic looking pastries, got nourished, and walked around all day. During our walks we were able to get the cash from the ATM machine, and get the sim cards so the day went on really well.

Dan and the kids flew in in the evening and joined us for more walks and dinner.

Palanga

I'm so very sorry that I didn't write for the past few days. The thing is, we were in Palanga. If any of you don't know what Palanga is, then let me tell you. Palanga is a huge beach town, almost four hours away from Vilnius. Palanga is known most for it's bountiful amount of amber and beautiful sunsets. Anyhow, we stayed for three days in Palanga. There grandma rented out an apartment, right near the beach. The apartment was wonderful. It was on the third floor with two large windows. It had a tiny, cozy kitchen, an even tinier, bathroom. There were two floors, so Isabella and I took the two beds upstairs, while grandma and grandpa took the master bed downstairs. Grandma's friends, Oleg and Lena, rented out an apartment in the house right across from ours. We could wave to them from our apartment. One the first day in Palanga, well, more like on the first half day in Palanga, we went to beach and walked 4 miles from our house to the city center. There was so many people on main street, thus, grandma hated it the moment she stepped onto it.  We ate dinner in a really bad restaurant, outside. our table had no umbrella, so a bird pooped on our table and into grandma's coffee. I ordered a pizza called "Rome," which was a pizza topped with minced meat, onions, salami, and tomatoes. Isabella order the usual: cheese pizza. Grandma accidentally ordered an extra pizza, which we took home. After we ate the exceptionally funny dinner, we went to an illusion house. No, correction,, grandpa bough tickets for Isabella and I and we went in. There was a bunch of really fun stuff and a bunch of really scary stuff. For example, there was a mirror labyrinth were we got stuck. After the ever so fun illusion house, we met with grandpa's old friend. Skipping the very boring details ... I didn't have time for my blog.

On the next day, we met with Oleg and Lena on the beach and basically spent the whole morning there. The water was 18 degrees Celsius For lunch, Oleg bought two kinds of fish and we ate them on their terrace. After lunch, We went home, where, okay, I give in. I did watch movies for a little while. For dinner, Oleg, Lena and grandpa's friend joined us at a fancy restaurant. I ordered a so-called extraordinary snail soup. It was extraordinary, I tell you. Extraordinarily horrible. The one part I did like was the frog-leg. So crunchy! To walk off dinner, we went to a nearby park. The thing with all of our guests was that they walk excruciatingly slow. What we walked in that hour, we could walk in a half hour at most with Dad and Mom. Anyhow, I was too tried again, so I couldn't write.

On our second to last day, we again spent half of the day on the beach. Lena and Oleg were leaving so for lunch we went to one of their favorite places called "Ararat ." The food was really good and after lunch, I caught a lizard. When we were finished, we went home and I tried to write my blog, but alas, there was no internet connection, so I couldn't. I ended up watching movies again. For dinner grandpa took us to a restaurant with real bunnies on the roof. Can you believe it? Real bunnies. On. The. Roof. Anyway, I ordered roast bunny and then I felt really bad about it, so I fed the cockatoo that was there, all of my potatoes. After dinner, we went to a small town nearby where we watched, mesmerized, as the sun set into the ocean. We came home at eleven o'clock, so I didn't have time for blog.

This was the last day. We packed up in the morning and then went to the beach with grandma. She said that she was going to collect amber, but I didn't hear her. When she wasn't there in 10 minutes, I started to panic. I maybe, kinda, sorta, called grandpa and dad, a gazillion times. Anyway, for lunch, we had left-overs.Then, we set out on the long journey.

Anyway, a few more things had happened and sometime I will write about them. The important thing is that we are flying out to Dublin to meet up with Mom and Romik, Polinka, Anya & Maya for our vacation. Hurray!

Georgia

A Very Good Day in Vilnius

New Shoes

Today I had the last of my rabies shots. Before, though, we dropped off grandma and Isabella at my great-grandma's house. The nurse that usually did my shots wasn't there, but there was a very mean nurse. The way she did the shots was so painful! It even had blood! Anyhow, when we finished, we picked up my grandma and Isabella and drove to a shoe store called "Batu Kalnas". There I got a very cool pair of sneaker/sandals that were neon turquoise, neon orange, neon pink and white. Sneaker/sandals are lightweight sneakers with no shoelaces. We wanted to find new shoes for Isabella, but couldn't. After that, we went to a market near my great-grandma's house and bought cherries, blueberries, golden apples and a sweet surprise for Mom. Because it got so, so hot after 11:00, so we went home and spent the whole day there. For lunch, I had home-cooked chanterelles with onions and a sausage. Later, in made a treat for everyone. Frappuccino for grandma, and frosted peaches with lemon dip for everyone else. Isabella and I watched movies and played games after I cleaned up. For dinner, grandma, grandpa, Dad, Isabella and I went to a bar near our house. I don't know about the rest of the family, but my food was bad! The Kiev cutlet was too peppery and too dry. After dinner, Dad took Isabella and me to "Crustum." Isabella had a chocolate potato, while both Dad and I had poppy seed pastries. To walk off the million calorie dessert, we walked over to my great-grandma's house and back. Now I am writing this and trying not to fall asleep. Good night.

Chanterelles with onions

P.S. Tomorrow, I'm going to fly on a hot air balloon! Whoo-hoo! 

A Day to Remember

Hello, I am no other that Georgia Fishteyn, the host of Georgia News. Today we have a slight, 100% chance of rain. Now to the real news. Today was a day worth remembering. For breakfast, we had bread with meat paste and chicken dumplings. We were at home until 10:00, and Isabella and I were bouncing with energy when we finally left the house. Grandma chose a place called Suderve, a rock park. There was a beach and lots of poorly crafted "modern art" rock sculptures, with weird names. We played at the beach 'til lunch.

Senoji Trobele

For lunch, we drove to a new cafe in Vilnius. While I had borscht, Isabella had chicken broth and both grandma and grandpa had цеппелинs. The restaurant we ate at was called Senoji Trobele. It was a cute little restaurant.

We took grandma to see her three friends, Лида, Лида, and Лида, after we finished eating. Then we all went home. We watched movies for a couple of hours, and then Dad came home.

For dinner, we had roast carp, that grandpa roasted. It was exceptionally good. For dessert, we went to Sugamour, a sweet shop. The cakes tasted OK, though they were beautifully decorated. After dessert, we went down Prospect of Gediminas and to the river. We were caught in a horrible rain. Unfortunately, we didn't have our umbrellas with us, so when the sky cleared up, we were all soaking wet. P.S., the rain lasted like 15 minutes. Then all (not so) sore and wet, we went home. Now on to the weather channel. Tomorrow it'll be 82 degrees, party cloudy and with a 10% chance of rain. Hope you like the pictures!

Venimus, Vidimus, Emimus (We came, We saw, We ate)

Today was a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious day. Grandma, grandpa, and Isabella woke up really late, so when I got up it was peace and quiet. I decided to spend the time wisely; write my blog from the past 5 days. I was finishing my fourth entry when finally everyone, except for Isabella, woke up. We had breakfast and read while we waited. Finally when Isabella woke up, two hours later, we were all getting restless. Isabella had breakfast and had to write her blog, Ha ha! All of that time, I was watching movies and horribly wasting my time,rather that doing the hard, summer homework which is extremely stupid.When Isabella was done, we drove one and a half hours straight to Kaunas. We had a lot of problems with parking, but then we settled them and everything was OK. At that time, it was already 12:30. We spent all of the time in Kaunas by walking around souvenir shops and looking at toys and eating, thus the title. 

Dad's Favorite Dessert

In the end, Isabella had gotten herself another toy, Dad had gotten his favorite dessert, even though he was at home, and I had gotten a lot of facts to write about. When we came home, Isabella had dinner. After that, Dad and I went out to dinner together, with Isabella. I had mushroom soup and Dad had some sort of meat. Anyhow, it wasn't very delicious. Then, to stop Isabella from bugging us, we got dessert. I had Black Vanilla ice-cream and Isabella had banana ice-cream. Later grandma and grandpa came out to join us. I'm too tired to write any further and I still have summer homework to do so good night!

The Explorations of Riga 8/3 - 8/7

Hello, I'm very sorry that I didn't write these past few days. We had an extremely busy schedule which I will try to cover. I will write about all of the key events of every day. Thank you for waiting so long for the blogs. Here we go:

8/3/2017:
This Thursday started out normal, but had a very bad twist. We went to my great-grandma's house at noon to eat lunch, almost a daily routine now. Isabella and I were petting one of her cats, and the cat bit me. I put on some anti-bacterial and decided to wait until dinner to tell Dad. I couldn't tell him at dinner, and then, when I did, Dad started panicking and then everyone started panicking and then I started panicking so much. I was screaming and rolling on the bed because everyone was yelling about rabies and vaccinations and cats and teeth and it was crazy. Finally, everyone sort of settled down and we decided to go to the hospital the very next day.

8/4/2017:
In the morning, Dad, grandpa and I woke up at 6:00 and went to a hospital. They didn't take us, so we went to another and another and another. Finally, after 5 hospitals, We came to one that took us in and I got my rabies shots. At four o'clock, everyone, except for Dad, went to one of grandma's friends summer house. They had puppies and we made a lot of friends. We came back home at 22:00.

8/5/2017:
On Saturday, Dad, Isabella and I drove to Riga. There, we met our mom who came to join us for a couple of days. We went to an amazing restaurant where the appetizers where a work of art. After that, we combed Riga top to bottom. We had so much fun; walking into different shops, getting souvenirs, etc. We dropped our bags off at our apartment and then went out to dinner. We ate in a really crummy restaurant where the prices were off the top. Later, we walked home and fell asleep once we hit the beds.

8/6/2017:
On Sunday, all four of us drove one and a half hours to a castle. It was one of the best castles that we've ever been to, and we've been to a lot of castles! We got lit medieval lanterns that we took down to the dungeon. We got a tour of a medieval garden. We played medieval games. It was extraordinary! After we were done, we had a piece of poppy pie together. We went to a few more castles and then to a cave filled with graffiti from the 16th century. Can you believe it? No? Well neither did I until I saw it! Later we tried to go swimming in the Baltic Sea, but it started raining. That's why we hid in a coffee shop where we played "Jenga". Bizarre, right? Then we went back to Riga and had dinner there


Now, I must leave you because I'm off to breakfast!

8/7/2017:
Yesterday, Dad, Isabella and I drove home from Riga. On the way, we dropped Mom of at the airport, to go home. When we came to Vilnius, we immediately went to the hospital to get my rabbis vaccines. After that, we came home and had a half hour of free time. Then, grandma, Isabella and I walked over to the playground, then to the mountain of the Three Crosses, and then to a church. There, grandpa picked us up and we went to my great-grandma's house. From there, all of us drove to Belmontas, the restaurant, where we were met by Dad. We had dinner and then dessert in town. Now I must do homework. Bye!!!

A New Twist

I am writing this very differently, so please tell me if you like it is the suggestion box below.

Seventy Three
"'Jacin.' Cinder's tone was full of warning. 'Iko did not sacrifice herself so you crash us into a crater and kill us both'
'Calm down. I know what I'm doing' he responded, pretending to be calm while his heart was a hammer pounding in his chest. ....."

Oh! I'm so sorry. I didn't know that you had starting filming me. Look, my hair is a mess! Uh, never mind, let's just film this thing.

Today was so much fun, well, in between the rainy hours. First, in the morning, we did what every normal person does in the morning; we ate breakfast,  brushed our hair, well most of us. After that, we had an hour of our own time, you know, reading, watching movies, the usual. Then we went to a lake. I'm not sure which lake it was, but it was in a beautiful, green forest and it was extremely fun there.The water was the color of dark sap and tree bark mixed together. It was wonderful! I tried to teach Isabella how to dive, but that didn't quite work out.

After we were done, we went to a little town nearby and had lunch there. While we were eating, it started raining, no not raining, um pouring. Yes that's the word, pouring. Soon, when the rain was gone and it felt like it didn't even happen. When we finished our lunches, we drove to our friends' house. We had a lot of fun there, for a few hours at least.

Then we suddenly became really tired, so we went beck home. Dad was already there, so first we had dinner and then we walked over to my great-grandma's house to say goodbye to my aunt who is leaving tomorrow. Now I must bid you all a goodnight.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand CUT!

Oh, that was hard. Wait are you still filming? CUT! CUT! I said CUT!

3... 2... 1... Blog!

Hello there again today my readers of all ages, I don't know how much you like my blog but know that I will try to write it every day from now on. One more thing before I start, would you mind to start writing comments please? OK thank you for your cooperation. I am going to start write now in:

 3... 2... 1... Today when we woke up, we had a really quick breakfast and then we went to the great botanical garden right near um, um .. lets just say, right near some other place. It was really fun there. We fought, caught frogs, fought looked at the interesting flora and fauna, fought and then we had lunch. I had a chicken cutlet, grandma had a salad, grandpa had chips, and Isabella had a few pancakes. After that we all drove to the store again and this time we brought another fan and a few more things.

When we got home, we all started reading our books except for Isabella who was watching another movie. After that we went to the museums again, and again found them closed. Something about reconstruction. Then we went home, had dinner, again, all together. Soon Isabella, grandma and I went for a walk. Then we went for dessert. This time both Isabella and I had ice-cream. After that we went for another walk, then dad joined us and he and grandma had desert. Now I am writing this blog today. The second blog today, how unfair! Now, I must bid you goodnight.

Trampoline Trouble and other stories of 7/31/2017

I'm so sorry that I didn't write this yesterday. The truth is, I was too tired to write anything, giving that I had a full, hard day, or, um, half a full hard day. Plus I came home at 20:00, and that didn't help matters either. More on all of that later. So anyway, in the morning, Isabella woke up "earlier" than me, (So not true!!!) and was rejoicing when I finally dressed up for breakfast. It was like, 85 degrees outside, and it was still 8:00. Grandpa wanted to go and buy a fan with Isabella and me, but grandma strictly forbade it. So, instead grandpa took us to a park he loved when he was younger. Turns out that over the years, the park had changed quite a lot. Surprise, Surprise! Still, grandpa found a playground and let us play. We played for about one hour at most. When we were done playing, grandpa secretly took us to buy the fan. After that, when we got home, we had lunch and started doing the normal things, cleaning, reading, building fans, you know, the usual.

We spent another couple hours doing this, until grandma came home. That's when she took us for a walk around that few museums around the house. little did we know that it was Monday. On every Monday in Vilnius, all of the museums are closed. Because of that, we just want on a very long walk.

When we came back, dad was already home. It was about 6:00 (Time flies when you having fun!)We had dinner all together, and then Dada, Isabella and I went down the road for dessert. I had a chocolate potato, and Isabella had a lemon sorbet. Isabella didn't like her ice-cream that much, so we ended up sharing our desserts.

dad had something fun planned for us with our friends, so he took us on a 40 minute long trek through the town to a bounce house. They had so many trampolines and a few cool new attachments too (We went there last year). Our friend and his two pals came too. One of his friends was another girl, named Isabella, age 8. Though she was eight, she was as mature as any girl in my class and that was really cool about her. The two boys, on the other hand, where really mean. They hit us and called us names etc. When we came home two hours later, we were tired, sore and yeah, just really, really tired. Now I go of to do great things (cough, write blog, cough). Goodbye to you all!