When not having any real holiday, we had to make the most of it within one weekend and 3 days I had been able to get away from work because I had been on-call a LOT. Luckily, we are very compact travelers :-D
My (travel and life) companion A had no idea where we were heading to when my cousin Pirkko drove us to Tampere-Pirkkala airport. When in there, I gave A an envelope which contained the plane ticketsto Kaunas, Lithuania. I had been overwhelmingly excited about going on vacation for weeks ahead, and A's face was like, "What the heck, is this all you've been fussing about for three months??!!??", so I felt I HAD to give her the 2nd envelope - plane tickets to PARIS! She was so excited! Which is good, as it sucks to be excited all alone :-D
So, we arrived to Kaunas, Lithuania a bit before midnight. I had pre-booked a hostel in Karmelava,on the outskirts of Kaunas, near the airport. It was called Anele's Bed and Breakfast, and it was advertised as the newest B'n'B in Kaunas. I had no idea HOW new exactly - the kitchen wasn't even done and we were obviously the very first guests there! The rooms were HUGE (we got to pick :-D), the common area was so beautiful! The building itself was a brand-new huge two-storey house by "the only road in Kaunas which doesn't have street lights", as our VERY eccentric hostess Anele was telling in Russian the Russian couple she picked up with us from the airport - at this point, we didn't reveal we speak a bit of Russian too :-D Anele asked us what our plans are for the following day, and as I told her we'll be going to Paris, she was genuinely surprised: "Why?? We have everything you want right here in Kaunas!" Well, there haven't been many times when I couldn't think of anything to say, but seriously, how can you respond to that???
Anele's B'n'B at dawn
As the kitchen wasn't done, we agreed to come to the street the next morning at 9am for breakfast.She asked us what we would like to have for breakfast, which I thought wa a little peculiar, but so was she and I am a big fan of peculiar, so we said fried eggs and toast. I thought she was going to take us somewhere, but A said she understood (from Russian) that we have to go to the house across the street. Stubborn as I am, I insisted she (Anele) said to meet her in the front of the house. I was still standing there at 9.15 am, when an old fat man without a shirt drove by in a miniature catepillar thing and gestured and shouted in Russian to go to the house across the street. We take a look at the house, and there was Anele, waving at us :-) It turned out she lived there (and the half-naked guy was her husband). She had made us an enormous and extremely delicious breakfast with omelettes, tea, coffee, toast with butter and/or jam, pechenye (Russian-style cookies)...
After breakfast, she made us to watch an introduction film of Lithuania (3 minutes, she said - try more like 15!!). We had a flight to catch, so she offered to take us to the airport (Kauno Oro Uostas in Lithuanian language :-) ), but it was a good weather and the airport was not very far away, so we decided to walk instead.
The flight to Paris was about 2-and-a-half hours so I took a nap. I had pre-booked a hotel in my beloved Montmartre area. The hotel was a 2-star place, not fancy in any manner, but it had a shower with hot water, 2 beds and a toilet, and the location was beyond excellent - really close to Sacre Coeur basilica - so we were happy <3
Sacre Coeur at night
We had a mission in Paris: my friend Katerina (Kata) and I have started this our own version of "Amazing Race" (the tv-show, sans the tv but plenty of the show!!): when abroad, we give each others some chores to do. Kata's chore to us: take a picture in which the following can be seen: the most popular sight in Paris,, a baquette, a barrette hat, a striped shirt and a smelly cheese.We almost pulled it through, but it's amazing how difficult it is to find a striped shirt in Paris!
We knew Kata and her husband were coming to Paris for Easter, so we hid a little cylinder containing a piece of smelly cheese and a letter behind this:
The tomb of Alexander Dumas's (fils) courtisan lover,
Alphonsine Plessis, Cimetáire de Montmartre
(Later, Kata did find the place based on a very shady clue, but the cylinder was not there anymore - I blame the cats on the cemetary. Stupid of me to put cheese in it..)
We saw all the "musts" in Paris: Eiffel, Notre Dame, Arc de Triumh, Champs-Elysees... We both have been to Paris previously, so we had already seen all the main attractions. A is not a big fan (not even a little fan..) of museums, so I skipped Louvre this time :-/ ( could spend DAYS exploring it!!).
Jim Morrison sounds a lot more cooler than
James Douglas Morrison, but it's the same dude
Asta by the tomb of the Sparrow of Paris, Edith Piaf
Place de Concorde
Notre Dame isn't that small in real life, it's just the angle...
A view in our room at the Old-time-glamour-oozing hotel Metropol
in Kaunas. This old photo thing is actually the wall aroud the bathroom
Kaunas church in it's Christmas glory (the green decorations
were actually made of plastic bottle bottoms joined together with
bundle ties, but the result was pretty groovy!)
"Honey, did you get the chips and the pretzels and the nachos and the
cheese puffs and the breadsticks and the dried fish??"
Wait, WHAAAAAT??
by Kaunas Castle
My (travel and life) companion A had no idea where we were heading to when my cousin Pirkko drove us to Tampere-Pirkkala airport. When in there, I gave A an envelope which contained the plane ticketsto Kaunas, Lithuania. I had been overwhelmingly excited about going on vacation for weeks ahead, and A's face was like, "What the heck, is this all you've been fussing about for three months??!!??", so I felt I HAD to give her the 2nd envelope - plane tickets to PARIS! She was so excited! Which is good, as it sucks to be excited all alone :-D
So, we arrived to Kaunas, Lithuania a bit before midnight. I had pre-booked a hostel in Karmelava,on the outskirts of Kaunas, near the airport. It was called Anele's Bed and Breakfast, and it was advertised as the newest B'n'B in Kaunas. I had no idea HOW new exactly - the kitchen wasn't even done and we were obviously the very first guests there! The rooms were HUGE (we got to pick :-D), the common area was so beautiful! The building itself was a brand-new huge two-storey house by "the only road in Kaunas which doesn't have street lights", as our VERY eccentric hostess Anele was telling in Russian the Russian couple she picked up with us from the airport - at this point, we didn't reveal we speak a bit of Russian too :-D Anele asked us what our plans are for the following day, and as I told her we'll be going to Paris, she was genuinely surprised: "Why?? We have everything you want right here in Kaunas!" Well, there haven't been many times when I couldn't think of anything to say, but seriously, how can you respond to that???
As the kitchen wasn't done, we agreed to come to the street the next morning at 9am for breakfast.She asked us what we would like to have for breakfast, which I thought wa a little peculiar, but so was she and I am a big fan of peculiar, so we said fried eggs and toast. I thought she was going to take us somewhere, but A said she understood (from Russian) that we have to go to the house across the street. Stubborn as I am, I insisted she (Anele) said to meet her in the front of the house. I was still standing there at 9.15 am, when an old fat man without a shirt drove by in a miniature catepillar thing and gestured and shouted in Russian to go to the house across the street. We take a look at the house, and there was Anele, waving at us :-) It turned out she lived there (and the half-naked guy was her husband). She had made us an enormous and extremely delicious breakfast with omelettes, tea, coffee, toast with butter and/or jam, pechenye (Russian-style cookies)...
After breakfast, she made us to watch an introduction film of Lithuania (3 minutes, she said - try more like 15!!). We had a flight to catch, so she offered to take us to the airport (Kauno Oro Uostas in Lithuanian language :-) ), but it was a good weather and the airport was not very far away, so we decided to walk instead.
The flight to Paris was about 2-and-a-half hours so I took a nap. I had pre-booked a hotel in my beloved Montmartre area. The hotel was a 2-star place, not fancy in any manner, but it had a shower with hot water, 2 beds and a toilet, and the location was beyond excellent - really close to Sacre Coeur basilica - so we were happy <3
We had a mission in Paris: my friend Katerina (Kata) and I have started this our own version of "Amazing Race" (the tv-show, sans the tv but plenty of the show!!): when abroad, we give each others some chores to do. Kata's chore to us: take a picture in which the following can be seen: the most popular sight in Paris,, a baquette, a barrette hat, a striped shirt and a smelly cheese.We almost pulled it through, but it's amazing how difficult it is to find a striped shirt in Paris!
We knew Kata and her husband were coming to Paris for Easter, so we hid a little cylinder containing a piece of smelly cheese and a letter behind this:
Alphonsine Plessis, Cimetáire de Montmartre
(Later, Kata did find the place based on a very shady clue, but the cylinder was not there anymore - I blame the cats on the cemetary. Stupid of me to put cheese in it..)
We saw all the "musts" in Paris: Eiffel, Notre Dame, Arc de Triumh, Champs-Elysees... We both have been to Paris previously, so we had already seen all the main attractions. A is not a big fan (not even a little fan..) of museums, so I skipped Louvre this time :-/ ( could spend DAYS exploring it!!).
Jim Morrison sounds a lot more cooler than
James Douglas Morrison, but it's the same dude
From Paris, we flew back to Kaunas. This time we had a day and a half to explore the city, but it was a Sunday, so everything was closed, and it was a tad too cold so it wasn't that enjoyable to stay outside either. Kaunas itself was ok, but if you really want to enjoy Kaunas you shouldn't have breakfast in Paris first... After Paris everything else feels like blaaaaahhh...
The staircase in Hotel Metropol in Kaunas
in Kaunas. This old photo thing is actually the wall aroud the bathroom
were actually made of plastic bottle bottoms joined together with
bundle ties, but the result was pretty groovy!)
cheese puffs and the breadsticks and the dried fish??"
Wait, WHAAAAAT??
