So, yeah, it's been half a year..

Mood: Expectant. Mildly "pensive"

State: Bloated. Risking yet another onslaught of palpitations. I guess my thighs and my heart are ganging up on me to stop eating. 

If I'm not even half-arsed to write about being in New York City, I ain't arsed to write about the Happiest Day of My Life. There was a dress, a cake, a dog, a cat, a cup of 'cocoa' and, oh yeah, the sweetest 'Queen White' Audi Q7. Hiring the car (and the cute driver) was the only aspect of the wedding I truly had my foot down on and was prepared to get down to some Easter European ugliness in order to get it. Worked it out like a boss and enjoyed fighting my way out of its luxurious interior amidst a cloud of skirt on my way to the altar. Isn't it funny that altars were also sites of animal sacrifice to God and also how I just made that association? It might be funny to you but tell that to my youth. 

To be continued....

The Woman.

Paris 1st day

  First day in Paris was IMPRESSIVE. We saw the Mona Lisa, the Venus de Milo, paintings of Raphael, the master Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli and many other ones. 4 hours spent in the Luvre was breath-taking.
Took a ferris wheel at the garden of tulips to see all of Paris. The view was definitely more than we asked for.
  After, we set to find Notre Dame with a rough map of Paris which lead us wondering around for an hour until finding the location of the cathedral. The best thing is that we came to it at exactly 7pm and the bells of Notre Dame started playing. It felt like a personal greeting and congratulations for making all the way there.
  We were pretty dead of walking by that time so went to the first restaurant we saw. After the prices i called the place "The extortion near Notre Dame".

Night before the BIG DAY

So much organizing, stressful problems, meeting everyone's demands was done in the last few weeks that I am actually really waiting for tomorrow. All the effort will pay off. TBH I really think that tomorrow will be amazing no matter whether there will be a fight between the relatives which did not see each other for a long time (apparently some people actually want that  ? )  or a bit of bad weather. I am looking forward to this due to the simple fact the I will say to the world that i LOVE Ksu and I want to live with her for the rest of my life.
Stag night ? nah, just a few beers in the evening with my small brother while watching some discovery channel :) I still can't understand fully what is the point of getting your brains smashed so much with your "buddies" and a stripper ( as in a American scenario) so that the next day you would get married to the women you love. Hanging out with the people you want and a nice pint of beer is perfect enough as it is.
Biggest worry is now that everyone will be happy tomorrow as I know I will definitely be :) Too much planning was done in order for all of this to go wrong.
Hugh Laurie - Guess I'm a fool (ironic to some extend) is on the headphones, few beers down, making the alone bed for the last time as a bachelor. I can honestly say that life is great at this point. Even perfect!

PALANGA

What do I remember from my time at the Baltic?
Chasing the sun. Literally.
5 minutes of warmth, 5 hours of cold
cycling on searing cobblestones
cycling down a gravel path to the lake
cycling through trees and smells
cycling far away
the bruise breaking the surface of my shin like an oil spill
tasting good food and always going back for more
non-alcoholic strawberry mojitos and brain freeze
virtual reality
sand blowing in my hair and strawberry cider
live music to happy faces
each day ends with an episode or 2 of Desperate Housewives.
running to the wifi bar to buff Desperate Housewives
so much food.
Night of patriotism
hooking up with some serious ink, becoming tiger girl
almost missing out on the biggest amber rock in the world
tracing our footsteps of 2 summers ago to that place on the bridge
watching the sunset that wasn't really there
theme park in the rain, getting soaked and turning up at the trendy pizza place with defiant confidence
rage against defeat on the beach, and good ol' texas hold 'em revenge
showering in a basement
vaflai su grietinele ir sokoladu - kaip skanu... <3
inability to stomach cotton candy
shooting hoops like a boss
playing guess-the-song into the early hours
A-SS-HO-LE
trying to order in 3 different languages
staring at the little doggies; arguing over the little doggies
breakfast with a side of Science and a neighbouring hangover display
Mr. Kitty
not letting go of the amber bracelet subject
spending 2 hours getting a portrait just to go back home and 'edit' it
pissed off with the portrait
doing things over and over again in case you never come back
smiling goodbye from a bus...........

An exhausting but very productive day. Got my new passport in which i look like a convict pirate. Hopefully it will be good enough to convince USA government to let me in their "magnificent" country. Driving to Vilnius was unplanned either when Domas' stressful and rather fearful driving lead to me, Ksenia and Gvidas taking a bus. Afterwards, a perfect catch of another bus to Trakai and day got way better. We saw both places and left there being more than satisfied with them. Obviously some rearrangements were done by us but it does look like (if god of weather will be happy) the day should be perfect. Domas did take the trouble of taking us back from Trakai afterwards. A small redemption I assume. So as i've said, exhausting but a very productive day.

All I have to say is bikes were not made in caring consideration of one's private parts. Or ankles for that matter. Or maybe I just suck. Having said that, cycling down a quiet village road at sunset with the wind in my hair and no thoughts in my head was exactly what I'd been looking forward to for so long. After shopping of course. Picking up every sexy item of clothing, doing a mental conversion of the currency and hollering 'I fucking love this country!' was pretty much how it went down with the shopping today. Lugging 5 bags back home was so worth it (and totally not happening again in those shoes I got from Aldo).
I'm tired, I'm satisfied, I'm happy, I'm nervous and I'm reluctant to wake up to the massive day of getting down to wedding business ahead of me, but one could only procrastinate for so long. Arse into gear I think.
By the way, Vytas is currently sprawled across the bed in his boxers with the cat enjoying much of his attention (and my jealousy). I'm off to show who's boss.
Night

Back home. The beginning of vacation in Lithuania

First of all, more than happy to finally be in the home where i've spent half of my childhood. Even more overjoyed finding that my oldest brother, Gvidas, also decided to come home for a few days. Did not see him a long time.
The trip itself was not as smooth as hoped. After giving guinnea pigs to Giannis in the early afternoon, we drove to the Queen street train station. Arived early there, so decided to get some food after getting the tickets. That is where my paranoia messed things up. This years experience on the way back from Canterbury to Glasgow made me always be in the airport or train station way before we need to departure. SO, my constant nagging in the queue in The burger king lead to running to an overflown train to Edinburgh. When i say overflown, i mean "fish in a can" packed. Train was full with wasted, yelling, laughing like animals Glasgwegian people. It was like half of east side of Glasgow decided to board the same train with us. After an hour of mental torture arrived in the Edinburgh. Both of our starvation lead to almost running to the Burger King where our morale was restored.
Afterwards, just a smooth ride to airport and with the power of priority boarding got seats in first aisle. Just the guy in the check-in managed to mess up with our luggage. He put the same number for two different baggages so I have to have a talk with the "luggage lady" which promised that everything will be fine - just needed to double check.
Smooth flight. Very proud of Ksenia as she spent most of the flight watching Desperate Housewives and not worrying about all the turbulence. I've even managed to read a book for more than an hour (this never happened before). A very decent landing, fast luggage pick-up and after 30 mins were home where hot Cepelinai were waiting for me. This is the real ambrosia in this world.

That's all so far. Let the vacation BEGIN!