Girls!

Girls - to do the dishes
Girls - to clean up my room
Girls - to do the laundry
Girls - and in the bathroom

..Remember the Beastie Boys?
This could be the official anthem for Frank's backpackers hostel where i'm staying at in Riga! Mr Frank came from Australia to open this cool hostel in Riga and hired a whole crew of very pretty girls to run the hostel! Sounds a bit like Charlie's angels i kn0w.. but i'm not sure he had much choice; gorgeous girls is all you'll find here anyways!..
As cliche as it may sound, i must say that these baltic countries are out of control! I'm just about to overdose! if i see one more top model looking girl i think i'm gonna puke!.. oh, hi Dana, hi Liva! :-)

Some o the hostel staff..

and in the streets..

I was pretty beat when i made it to Riga last.. a couple of.. sometime ago!! But Riga is about as open at night as Vilnius was closed so the second night i didn't sleep at all and it took me straight into may 4th which i must mention to keep high the cultural information level of this blog, as the Latvian national holiday for independance in.. was it 1919? i forgot already, never mind.. i just meant to say it was pretty hectic again last night... with concerts and fireworks and what have yous.. but it was nothing compared to what's coming up tonight! Riga is hosting the hockey world championship this year and it's starting tonight, so the city is just packed with drunken hockey fans!
If there was a time to be in Riga i guess aimed pretty well (eventhough i didn't aim at all)

The national independance day..

And while i'm here i might as well hand you the traditional dictionary:
ja = yes
ne = no
sveiki = hello
labdien = good day
ludzu = please
paldies = thanks
te = here
kur astrodas..? = where is..?
cik tas maksa? = how much is it?
alus = beer
rekinu ludzu = the check please
prieka = cheers

1 viens
2 divi
3 tris
4 cetri
5 pieci
6 sesi
7 septini
8 astoni
9 devini
10 desmit
100 simts
1000 tukstotis

Allright, learn this quick cause i'm out of here tomorrow already!.. I'll try to check out the beach in Jurmala and then head to Tallin..

Trakai.. and stuff!

Just about a half hour off Vinius, I went to check out the Trakai castle.. to get me out of the city..
I don't think the castle itself is all that special (but what do i know?) but the location is great!.. it's build on an island in the middle of a big lake; it's gorgeous!

..
I've been waiting for a decent connection to post a couple of pics but it's not happening for now so you'll have to wait as well!

In the meantime you can start learning some usefull lithuanian vocabulary:
taip = yes
ne = no
labas rytas = good morning
labas = hello
viso gero / ate / iki = good bye
ieshkau = i'm looking for..
aciu = thank you
atsiprashau = sorry
ash tave mylih = i love you
esi grazi = you're pretty!

Enough for now, that's all i've got anyway!
But alltogether, Vilnius seemed a very pleasant city with cool and funny people, many students.. only the bars close at 12 so it makes the night life a little... let's say hard to find!

Anyway by the time i'm catching up with this post i already made my way to Riga.. so it's about time to move on to the next post!
see you in a bit!

Vilnius, Lithuania

Allright, after 13 hours sitting in a bus, i made it to Vilnius.. it's just impossible to sleep on these bus seats, but it's allright cause i was smart enough to carefully pack my mp3 player in my backpack, down in the luggage compartment! Around 2am i finally collapsed... only to be awaken at 4 by the customs officers.. At least i enjoyed a beautiful sunrise over Lithuania!

no, that was on leaving gdansk in the night.. here's the sun rise..

and that's a cool one: entrance to the Independant Republic of Uzupio! A part of the town declared itself an independant republic and is supposedly "ruled" by artists.. cool place anyway!

there, amongst nice art work and other funny things, you'll find.. the prehistoric dishwasher!

And here is the famous constitution..

then i walked up the hill, to get a nice overlook of the city.. and, if you can read between the lines, what these pictures tell you is: "this is a morning spot!" don't go there mid-afternoon or you'll be counter light and the view will suck!

on the way down i found a group of "lindyhop" swing dance students practicing in the street, it was really nice..

er.. and that is a church!

Enough for today folks.. it just takes too long to upload these pictures!