Come travel light....................................................................


So, having last heard I was heading to Lithuania, you're not exactly in the know as a diligent travel blog reader. This is my fault for infrequent postings. To be fair, though, I have been adventuring more and interneting less. There's more to write and less time to write it. I did actually write some pretty breif posts in Berlin and Amsterdam, but for whatever reason, the internet refused to work as expected. Oh well.

So we flew into Kaunas, Lithuania around the 17th of April. We were picked up by our soon to be Lithuanian friends, Erika and Mintaute. We stayed in a sweet apartment Erika set up for us and partied heartily Lithuanian style. They showed us around the town and outside (for a notable night at Mindogas' (sp?) Cottage in the sauna). I can't just say that was the highlight, as this while trip has been fantastic, but that was certainly an awesome chapter.
After Vilnius we bused across Poland, unfortunately unable to stop. We made it to Berlin some 19 hours later. That was fun.
Berlin rocked ou collective socks with good times and bad. It was a cool town that we walked all over. Unfortunately I lost my money belt and the 200 € therein (I may have had some help in losing it). We had a great day at the Embassy.
We trained straight from Berlin to Amsterdam, which was also a sock rocking good time. The hostel we had had roof access off the balcony, providing us with a unique view of the town. The last night there we got screwed for trains and hostels (as it was Queens day in holland), so our trip took a drastic change southward. Instead of catching a night train to Paris, or making a stop in Brussels, we slept in a park and took the morning train to Luzern, Switzerland. Luckily, Luzern was a beautiful city that could have played host to any number of fairy tales. Here, we encountered a local marathon festival. Also, the Swiss are wonderful people.
Thinking ahead this time, we were able to book some cheap accomodations in Venice for our next two nights stay. Venice is always a reliably awesome ton to lose yourself in. I highly recommend.
Next to bat was Rome, where we only were able to stay one night and two days. The first night we found a free May-day concert happening near our hostel. We spent the next day well and saw the Roman Forum, picnicked in circus massimo, and got blessed by the Pope within a 4 hour time period. Much of Rome was explored.
So the plan had been to go from Rome to Barcelona, and last you heard that's where we were headed.
Well. Let me tell you....
As it turns out, and we discovered this in mont Pellier in Southern France on our way through, that trains into Barcelona were ok, but trains out were mostly full. The only way out of Barcelona by rail involved us paying 60+ €. We opted to spend more time in Paris.
Paris was good to us and we made some good finds-the best of which, in my opinion, was a visored Vespa Motorcycle helmet in a garbage pile that is in phenomenal condition. It's a bit annoying to pack, but it saves me a bunch of money. :)
We were in Paris long enough to do all the tourist stuff, from the Louvre to the Eiffel tower. We walked Paris 3 times over and just explored everywhere we could think of. We hooked ourselves up with some cheap reservations for a train to the coast, and one thing lead to another-you know how french wine can accelerate these things....anyway, now we're in Dublin.
We've just done the Guinnes tour today, and we're off to cook real potatoes in a hostel Kitchen for supper. I'm giddy with spud anticipation.
From here the plan is to head back to England tomorrow night and land in Bournemouth the next morning. We'll spend a few days with the Warrens, chillin in good company and head back to London, where we fly out.

I'll land in Halifax and hang with more good company before returning to PEI- where I'm sure to encounter even more good company. Things are looking up for sure.

I'll be seeing ya,
Mitch

PS Sorry again for the infrequent contact with everyone. I really haven't had much internet access. I'll catch up on all emailing and updating ASAP. Pictures will be posted too. :)