Arrived in Vilnius, Lithuania.

Going out for dinner with Indre in Vilnius after my 34 hour flight.

The view of Finland from my plane window- the 2nd leg of flight time on the way to Lithuania.

Off on my morning snow jog around the village where Indre lives. It was really nice to see how many lit up Christmas trees are outside peoples houses.

Not too many kiddies on the playground near Indre's house.

For some reason when I travel, I am amazed with how different  the rubbish bins look. These ones remind me of Daleks.

Off on my morning snow jog in the country town in Vilnius where Indre lives. It is so nice and quiet here, all I can here are the tiny, colourful birds chirping and flying across the branches.

Out to dinner with Indre in Vilnius after my 34 hour's worth of travel. This is my first time using the Digital SLR camera that Dad gave me for Chrissie, Aciu Tete!

Getting upgraded to business class on Finn Air from Tokyo, Japan to Helsinki, Finland. When boarding, my ticket was scanned as 'seating error' and they gave me a business class ticket straight away. I hope I have more seats with errors in the future, that flight was fantastic.
 

So, I have arrived after about 34 hours of travel.Very happy to be off the plane, but was also very lucky to have been upgraded to business class from Tokyo to Helsinki on the way in! I watched many a good movie on the plane surrounded by Asian business men, drank a variety of beer and champagne (and water of course :P). I am happy that I will be visiting Helsinki and Tokyo on the way home, to break up the jet lag and and also because,even at the airports they look like beautiful places. 

It was really nice to have my relative Indre meet me at the airport. After such a long journey, it is nice to have someone there to meet you who knows you. We went out for dinner when we arrived at a gorgeous restaurant (picture posted here). After that long flight, I looked and felt way too grotty to be anywhere fancy. I tried to pay for us both but Indre wouldn't let me!

It was interesting on the drive through to have my memory triggered, remembering the 'Maxima' supermarkets back from our trip to Lithuania in the year 2000 where I also met Indre.

Indre has been very hospitable and she is incredibly intelligent. Indre was trained as a Doctor, as was her husband, but she works in Medicine Clinical trial marketing, she has two kids. Her English is perfect; which is a a good demonstration of how Europeans have learned English in their schooling, as it is advantageous, as English is a language being used all over the world. But in Australia, as we already know English, there is not a big incentive to learn other languages.

Muso giminaiciai: Indre, Algimas ir Augustus. As Manau, kad Augustas atrodo mažai panasus jaunam muso brolis; Vytautus Kabaila.

Muso giminaiciai: Algimas, Indre ir mane.

Indre and I have had some great discussions about the cultural  between Australia and Lithuania; how Australian's have learned to smile at each other and Lithuania's do not. I said to Indre, that sometimes Australian's smile at each other, even if they don't like or care about the other person. Indre still feels as though it is  a nicer culture to smile, as it gives more of a positive light. We talked about how Lithuanians overall have experienced a much a harder past than Australians which may contribute to the culture of smiling and not smiling. We talked about drinking cultures.We also talked about how Lithuanians focus everything on working hard and providing for their family, where as Australian's tend to always be on holidays. We talked about the high suicide rate in Lithuania (one of the highest in the world) and how not enough community support programs for mental health are available in Lithuania. I noticed these cultural aspects back in 2000 when I was in Lithuania. I am happy to see that the economic aspect in Lithuania has improved for them, since 2000. However, people still have a harder life here, as is the way for many countries that were under Soviet occupation in the 2nd World War.

I went for a run in the snow around Indre's village today, which was lovely. It is not as cold as I thought it would be, its only minus 2 degrees.

I'm off to the shops this afternoon to buy some winter gear, and other than that, will just take it easy as I am a bit jet lagged.

I'll be off on the bus tomorrow to Klaipeda University to begin my language and cultural studies course and will be sharing an apartment with a Columbian woman of Lihuanian decent.

I'm sorry if some of the photos and the format of this blog are all over the place, IT is not my specialty!

Sending love to you all.

Xo

Iki,
Rasa