Having a Ball in the Baltics

Well, we survived. The train trip was actually really smooth and passed in no time at all, really. Vilnius, Lithuania, was a definite highlight of this region. We had managed to find a great hotel only about 10 minutes walk from the rail station. It had a great view across the old town and dozens of church spires, provided a large, varied, breakfast, and was only another 10 minutes walk to a lot of the main sights. On the first evening there, we walked through the town to the Cathedral square and climbed the hill up to the upper castle to watch a beautiful sun setting and get great views of the entire city. On Sunday, we visited the National Museum - very interesting with a really cool special exhibit on cross craft in Lithuania. At lunch time, we headed to the town of Trakai in the countrys smallest national park of the same name. We felt so blessed to have such great weather and be surrounded by such awesome natural beauty. We then followed the rest of the people to the parts which weren´t quite so "natural" and walked past dozens of souvenir stores en route to the castle and museum. This was alright but not fantastic.

We returned in the evening to Vilnius by bus and had a lovely relaxed evening. Next day brought some rain but still quite warm - perfect weather for exploring some of the many local churches. We enjoyed the extravagant Rococco decor of St Thereses, some cool photos at St Casimirs and the simple space of the Cathedral.

Then, our first bus trip (!!) on to Riga, Latvia.....

War-Saw

It was really a flying visit as we only had one full day there but it was still great. Warsaw is a cool city - quite cosmopolitan, feels really buzzing, and alive. Such a deep sense of history too - the old walls of the Jewish ghetto from WWII were clearly demarcated on the cobbled pavement of the old town. The old town was nice to meander through but we mostly loved the parks and gardens and open spaces.

We arrived some 8 hours before check in at our hostel so we spent another day in already pretty grotty clothes wandering around the city in 25 degree plus heat taking in the sights. We were so relieved though to check in later in the afternoon and shower!

Next day though was the first test of our long journey train survival skills with a 8.5 hour train trip to Vilnius, capital of Lithuania....

Farming in the Czech Republic

After a couple of train delays and faffing about with left luggage, we safely arrived in Prague, Czech Republic on 10th May. We spent a couple of blissful warm days exploring there before heading South East to a tiny village of Kotoun-Oselce, where we spent a week working on a farm that belonged to a Czech-English couple. We had a great trip out there and were amazed by the beauty of the area - wild deer, beautiful fields of wild flowers and a lot of forest! There was a French couple, Agnes and Regis, working there also who were very nice - they had a very cool converted van that they were travelling round Europe in. Agnes and Regis will also be doing the Trans-Siberian rail trip later in their travels but we will not be seeing them on that leg as they are going later in the year.

The work on the farm was good - our hosts were generally quite laid back and flexible. We spent the majority of our time putting in fence posts, clearing the section of half buried scrap, moving rocks, clearing animal areas and feeding the animals. We learned a lot from our hosts about keeping animals and what it means to run a small holding. Their knowledge of birds as well as local flora and fauna also really inspired us to learn more about these things in New Zealand.

When our week was over, we returned to Prague for a day before heading off to Warsaw by overnight train...watch this space... we promise more blogs and pics to come.