Travelog for: Kalea

This old wooden arch bridge was built in 17th century.

Kintai Bridge

Bento - Japanese boxed lunch
hanachan made omusubi bento for us.
What's packed in the box?
mmm... Teriyaki Chicken, Spicy-grilled eggplant and Cucumber Salad

This train is running on the Bridge across the Seto Inland Sea.

Dear Stinker,
our train ran across the Seto Ohashi Bridge over the Inland Sea. And we came to Kurashiki-city, Okayama prefecture.
This area is kept the old city view of Tokugawa Shogunate period.(17th-19th century)
There are many historical houses beside the canal. These were once used as warehouse of cotton. "Kura" of the city's name means warehouse in Japanese.
Look! The tour boat is going
Stinker, did you enjoy my story of Japan? I thought many times if you could be here with me.
love,
Kalea

At night we came back to Takamatsu.

Dear Stinker

Takamatsu-city faces the Seto Inland Sea which contains more than 2000 islands.
It's very calm water.
Stinker, next time I will see you from the new place.
You have something to look forward to

Love,
Kalea

Labas!
I said "hello" in Lithuanian! Today I finally reached my new home - Vilnius! I was so happy to see new friends waiting for me - it's Diddl-Maus and Nocino. They gave a big friendly hug:



As I have just finished my journey in Japan, I came with a lot of surprises - cookies with interesting flavors! Karolina, my new host mum, said a big thank you to my previous host hanachan



Nocino decided to play guitar and we had a great evening with interesting conversations, snacks and good music!





Love you,
Kalea

Hi there!
Today is the last day of summer and a great day in the Old Town - it's "Sostinės dienos 2012"! This weekend is dedicated to Lithuania's capital city Vilnius (in Lithuanian it's "sostinė"). You can see a big fair, many free concerts and other cool stuff going on!

We left our car near the mall and went to the Old Town. Here you can see me on the White Bridge, posing next to the "New Town" buildings:



There are many games that people can play on the street:



And funny pictures where you can insert your face, haha!



We also listened to one band, the music was really nice:



Here I am near the Lithuania's National Drama Theatre. You can see three ladies (sculpture) near the entrance:



Look! It's The Cathedral and The Bell Tower - one of the most famous buidings in Vilnius, the heart of the Old Town. It's soo beautiful!!



We also saw a great expo of pictures from all over the world:



A nice surprise was waiting for us when we went back to our car after we saw the fair - in Lukiškės square we saw a sculpture of John Lennon! It was made of sand. What a beautiful piece of art! I even started singing the song "Imagine"...



What a great day! Ahh, autumn is almost here... I hope September will be amazing
I miss you, mum! I wish you could see all of the places I've been to, Stinker...

Hugs,
Kalea

Hello!
Today our host mum Karolina came back from... school! Starting September she had to go back to studying. She says that it's quite hard to get up early again, but everything will be okay after some time!

Let's see what books and notebooks do we have...



Literature book! Interesting!



And a small gift from United Kingdom (via postcrossing) arrived today - a "teapot" for tea bags! Cool, isn't it?



I don't like that it's so dark outside. I miss summer!

Hugs,
Kalea

Hey, mum!
Guess what we did on Sunday? We watched Vilnius Marathon 2012! A lot of people were running in the Old Town - some of them even made the whole distance of 42 km 195 metres! It was really cool to watch this beautiful traditional event (First Marathon in Vilnius was 8 years ago!)



Sadly, we didn't register in the running, so we decided to take a small tour in the Old Town centre. First stop - The Royal Palace of Lithuania (Valdovų rūmai). It was built in the 15th century for the rulers of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Here you can see a new palace on the site of the original building, it was opened a few years ago. Beautiful, isn't it?



Look, what an interesting wall with teapots!



Here you can see Signatarų namai, a place where the Act of Independence of Lithuania was signed:



And, for the end, a big fountain near the Town Hall:



It was a great and sunny Sunday!


Kisses,
Kalea

Hey, mum!
I'm really sorry for not uploading anything new. My host mum was feeling quite ill, so we didn't have a chance to go somewhere. But this Saturday we went to Pabrade forest again to pick some mushrooms! Look what we brought back home:



And this is a huge ceps, the king of the mushrooms! It's called baravykas in Lithuania. Karolina said that it's really tasty when it's in a soup:



Later that day we decided to go for a walk in the Old Town. There was an exhibition of interesting sculptures, made of hay:



Oh, I feel ill, too. Maybe it's because of the bad weather? It's cold in the morning and warm after some hours... I guess I'll take a nap now...

Hugs (and a kiss for Stinker),
Kalea

Hey, mummy!
Today we spent a lot of time at home. Host mum has received many letters from her penpals, so we helped her to write the answers to the letters:



We decided to look for some recipes in OBUOLIŲ PYRAGAI (Apple pies) book. Who knows, maybe we will bake something nice soon?...



I tried some home made apple jam and it was really delicious! It tastes way better than it looks!



I hope you're well, mum. Maybe you're making something sweet with apples, too?

Kisses,
Kalea

If I lay here
If I just lay here
Would you lie with me and just forget the world?
(Snow Patrol "Chasing Cars")

Dear Stinker,
sometimes I just want to lie somewhere and watch the clouds. Isn't that relaxing?...
This Saturday we went to a shopping mall "OZAS" and then we decided to go upstairs, to the roof. What an amazing view we saw there!



Me, Nocino and Diddl-Maus became great friends. Here is another picture of our short trip to the sky:



I hope you're doing well.  Mummy told me that you send me kisses. I send you a big kiss, too! And two more kisses to my mum, dad, also many many hugs to my friends

Have a relaxing and cosy day,
kisses,
Kalea

Hello!
Today we visited Varėna, a nice town in Lithuania, where we had a lot of fun in GRYBŲ ŠVENTĖ 2012 (MUSHROOM FESTIVAL 2012)! Varėna's forests are full of goodies like berries and mushrooms, that's why each year people of this town are having a big celebration with fairs, contests, concerts and so on.

Here we are next to the statue - a boy with a basket full of mushrooms:



And this is the parade!



After that, we saw a lot of cars - some of them were very old and vintage, some of them were interesting because of the size. This white one looks cool!



Here you can see a small park - place with farm animals like chickens, rabbits and other small creatures:



Let's take a closer look...



Whoa, what a big car! Wait... it's not a car... it's a tractor!



It was a very lovely day. I hope to see Varėna one more time someday!

Love,
Kalea

Hey!

This Sunday was a bit sad because we had to say goodbye to our lovely friend Diddl-Maus. He's coming back home to GERMANY after his big journey, so we wished him all the best and gave him a big hug:



How are you doing, Stinker?
Lots of love,
Kalea