First season on two wheels!

If we were living in the older times..

After playing a bit at yearbookyourself.com, we have some more clearly vision on how we could look like 50, 20 or 10 years ago :)


Enjoy more photos here!

Some photos

As I am being too lazy and Ernesta is being to non-comfortable with blogger space, photos of some latest trips are now located here: PHOTOS.

Cheers!

P.S. Riding somewhere?

300 km for the weekend

Three days, three trips, each becoming longer and more interesting than previous one.
Friday - main target was to get technical approval from official institutions. We got it! I must say that if have motorcycle, give it to the girl to go through this procedure. Service guys become so pleasant and helpful... :) Anyway, we passed this and this let us to make some trips this weekend already!

Sunday:

Deima joined us and we rode approximately 100km.
Probably the tost beautiful parts was - leaving Rasos cemetery and turning into Kena side. The road is small and green.

And what is more, next day we chose more challenging route:

This was already a bit more than 150km. We drove to Trakai, got some lunch there. Experienced rain on the way around Aukstadvaris. Enjoyed probably one of the most beautiful roads in Lithuania - section of the road when going from Aukstadvaris to Vievis. Even if Ernesta almost ran out of petrol, gas station was reached successfully and we continued on our route back home. Among all the beauties of our countries nature we got one more challenge - road repair works, that means - gravel road. Passed this as well and now..

Sitting next to the map and planning more and more trips!

Season's opened!

And finally we opened motorcycle season! It's already been couple of weeks when we were riding our bikes, but those trips were way to small.. Yesterday we did approx 75km. I know this is not much, but for us it is a victory already :) (there is one plan to do more than 300km on this weekend..)



A bit more photos may be found in Facebook.

After all this I just have to mention that couple of weeks ago we spent great weekend in one Baltic pagan war music festival - Kilkim Žaibu! It was rainy, it wasn't warm, but hey - music was great. Performances by estonian bands Loits and Metsatoll were superb! It was interesting to see Roots and Skyforger as well. But the best thing was performance by one of my favorite bands - Amon Amarth! These vikings absolutely rocked the scene and somehow the rain stopped then they started to play. If I will have another chance to see this band performing live - I will totally go for it!

Tromsø

Tromso! This is the name of the town up there in the north of Norway. The story of how we decided to go there is pretty short: one colleague told me that there is such an offer from AirBaltic side for EuroBonus points owners. In some several minutes we together with Ernesta decided to go there and got tickets at the same time. Only then we found out there we are going to fly :)



Anyway, shortly on it: we spent one night in Riga on thursday evening. We booked a room in hotel called something like Best Hotel Riga.. Quite ambitious I would say... Or - far away from the truth :) But forget it, next morning we went to Riga oldtown and even if I'm here for maybe fourth or fifth time already, but I still must admit that the oldtown is really great!



But as some boredom found us, we took a ride to the seaside - Jurmala. I'm still wondering of why the sea is that special for people. But those couple of hour walking on the shore was totally relaxed and perfect.



And finally we flew to the Tromso after this. Just need to mention that russian tourists are the worst ones which I've seen in my flights experience.. Drunk, loud and with absolutely no respect to others.. I don't want to make this long... so..

In Tromso we spent to days. First one was surprisingly warm - that's pretty insane feeling to walk on the snow and to be wear only t-shirts. However, as Tromso is nice, but quite small town, we wanted to spend as much time as possible being in the mountains. And as there is one close to the town and it has a cable car going up.. Here's what we did found there:


Wonderful, beautiful, glorious!

I also have to mention that our CS hosts Brynjulv and Ellen were just perfect and we are totally thankful for sharing their weekend with us. Food was good, we have our fridge full of brown norvegian cheese now. Reindeer and catfish was worth of trying as well.

Next day it was a bit rainy and quite cold, so museums was our choice of what to do. If you'll ever go to this place, visit Polar museum for sure! Even if we couldn't understand all what should be told there (norvegian has some similar words to Lithuanian, but anyway).. :)



P.S. You know, it is said that traveling is one of the best way to test your partner and yourself. I think me and Ernesta passed such test once again. And if was asked for a mark, I would give - excellent!



P.P.S. A bit more photos may be found in my profile @facebook

Please go voting!

We have presidential elections next month here in Lithuania. I'm usually quite unpolitical and do not know and do not read that much about candidates, but sometimes it is pretty impossible to overlook what a circus is that. From those really not much of interviews and articles I have read I already have a view of what is going on here. Seven candidates:
1. Government is good, government is not that good, I am good, government is good, I am good, government is not that good. Anyway, everyone knows that I will win.
2. I am God and all what I was doing in my lifetime is just the best you can get, but the first candidate done nothing and she is really bad.. KGB and me? Emm... Who told you that? By the way, did I mentioned that first candidate is bad?
3. I'm a good soldier and I know how to manage crisis! And it's just a coincidence that my friends became mafia...
4. I didn't wanted to participate in presidential elections, but my party said I'm going to.. Anyway, this is a good chance to show people that I'm a solid and good guy.
5. What do I think of politics in my country? Wait a second I have to ask some russian guy, he wants to become prime minister..
6. Dzień dobry, Wilno jest nasze
7. I can't be a second man in a party anymore! I'm the best president and I will fire all government, my party will rule the world as I know the best way out of crisis!

This is just my humble opinion on these elections. Sorry, if this is not true :) Just I do understand some of those politicians if only I am looking with a bit of irony... After such understanding of who wants to become a president I do understand why it is already clear who will win. Just I'm still wondering, is it really worth to go to elections just because someone wants to use it as commercial for themselves?

And PLEASE GO VOTING! I don't know if the first candidate is really the best we can get, but all the others would be simply a disaster.


P.S. As I told this is just my opinion and my understanding of who is participating as saying what..
P.P.S. Only three days left till our short trip to Latvia and north of Norway! Yey!

New trip and new helmet

Aloha! Spring is back again, huh? :)

Yesterday one friend of mine told about some hot deal for traveling. Riga - Tromso.. For free :) If using Eurobonus points. I was flying to Stockholm and Copenhagen millions of times in last several years, so there are quite a lot points in my account. And this means - me and Ernesta may fly to the very north of Norway almost for free. Suggested it to my lovely darling and after several minutes we already have flight tickets.

Tromso is called to be the gateway to the Arctics. The city is located right next to the Arctic circle. Those two things are pretty enough for me to decide that I want to go there. And two weeks later we'll be able to share some experience from that already ;)

Here's a panoramical view of the city. Isn't it just perfect???


Along to this great stuff - I finally bought the helmet! Shark RSi fusion tec! It took me more than month of trying and wearing almost all XL size helmets around Vilnius moto-shops (and there are at least 6 of them). This one fits my long oval head just fine and the D-ring attachment system is just what I need as all modern and so said to be "comfortable and easy-to-use" attachment systems totally kills my neck. The only missing thing is integrated sun glasses, but this is not the most important thing if comparing to feeling the helmet in place when wearing it :) It's a helmet with no additional cool stuff, but that's exactly why it is good helmet with a good quality.

Concerts and bike news

Apocalyptica!! Finally, finally I saw them! They visited Lithuania for the fourth time, but all other times I was either abroad, either had no money :) And now, we saw it! I must say, that I love all those changes in the band when they started experimenting with drums and vocals. It's so good to hear all those old songs played only by cellos, but new power and energy comes hearing Mettalica or Iron Maiden covers played with drums.. and ability to sing together is also quite a good feature, I would say..




Next - we also got invitations to Blaze Bayley (ex Iron Maiden singer) concerts two days later. There were three bands playing. First one is said to be one of most promising Lithuanian metal bands Kielwater. The voice is good, the music is quite good as well. Just for my taste of music, they're experimenting too much and sometimes the sound is way to light for they image. Anyway, some years should pass by and I believe that they will become a very strong metal band.


After that some italian metal band took the scene.. As we joked about this band - guess, how many boobs has the only good thing in this band? SO, no more words on it :)


And then this legendary Blaze comes into the scene. I was quite not much expecting, but hey! This guy totally rocks! OK, singer/star has to be a good actor, but he looked so happy and excited by all the public. We had hurting necks next day and this says quite a lot about them. It was heavy, it was metal, it was heavy metal as it should be!


OK, one more memorable event is that I passed driving license theory exam and on sunday I already had my first practice lesson. The motorcycle was small, but it was exactly that such a newbie as I needs. Some more lessons and I should be passed practice as well. Beginning of the May - this will be one big start point for summer adventures :) Just need to mention that for the moment Ernesta's and my bikes are still under some fixing.. So, season opening for us is still something to be awaited for. Can't wait!


Talking about bikes I just can't not to mention this: on 2nd of May there's opening of bikers season. How do you imagine such an event? As for me, it should be lots of bikes, lots of leather, lots of metalheads, good heavy metal and so on.. Guess what, here in Lithuania bikers want to hear some girly pop bands for one of most important event of a year :D At least those girls could show some stripping stuff.. But I really doubt.

P.s. Photos from concerts are taken from here.

P.P.S. I still do enjoy family life!!! :)))))

Independence canoying

As I mention in the post below, we made some canoeing on 11th of March. One historical sentence to those who aren't from this country: Lithuania got it's independence back on 11th of March, 1990.
Anyway, back to the action - camera is still dead, but one expert is working on that :)
However, memory card is alive again! And here goes some photos.. remembering the snow, water and opening the swimming season :)

Some rest in Birstonas

Here it goes! Two latest adventures:
wonderful rest time in Birstonas and..
wonderful canoying activity in small river Vilnele when it is 0 degrees by Celsius :)

Starting from the begining:
- There is one great hotel in Birstonas.. - this is good!
- It is quite empty in winter time - this is very good :)
- As there are no much of activities in the town, we took some table games.. However, there was no need for that - two days just went by so fast - as you may guess that means it was good..
- I'm still wondering if such a beautiful town as Birstonas is better in winter or summer time.. OK, it's warmer and greener on summer but there are so many people around you then.. Winter is calmer.. - anyway, winter here is good :)
- Guys, make surprises to your friends, family and relatives. After resting in Birstonas, we visited and surprised my mother and some relatives. Reaction was.. guess!? GOOD ;)





And the second adventure - as we opened swiming season as well (who told that it is cold to swim in water which is a bit warmer than 0 degrees by celsius?)!!! However, opening swiming season when canoying means one thing - no more photos until my camera will get back from the death.. Will it become Lazarus? Or will it not? Let's place some betting here, huh?

Latest news on bike and stuff related to it

Hail! Last month was absolutely in motorcycle searching. And now, I may proudly represent you my new toy :) Here it goes (sorry for pure photo quality, on the summer time there will be much more better pictures, I guess) - Suzuki C50 Boulevard (year 2005, displacement 819ccm, other info goes here)


Next steps - fixing all small things on the bike and getting the driving license. That means - no riding till mid of May in the best case..

One more thing to say - who's joining for the festival "Kilkim žaibu" (folk, pagan, black metal)? Amon Amarth are coming to Lithuania, and as I simply can't miss them, I'm surely going there (Loits, Atalyja, Root, Argharus, Skyforger are other participants). And I'm almost sure that the trip will be made by riding our own bikes together with Ernesta. You may check official website of Kilkim Žaibu!

Can't wait till the summer!!!!

VL? VT? VN?

These combinations of letters are the most important for me now :)
And I like VL the most. Here is a picture of how it looks :)
Dreams do become true! And for getting such bike I need to try one and to get expert's opinion..
However, I'm pretty sure that in next couple of months I will own one of these beauties:
Suzuki VL 800 Intruder Volusia
Honda VT 750 C2 Shadow
Kawasaki VN 800 Classic

Recommendations, ideas, suggestions and other good stuff are more than welcome!

Some more of new year stuff?

Give me some beer - that's the only way when I start talking about New Years celebration. Celebration was good, actually. Shortly on it:
- spending a night in Riga. We rent some beds in hostel and had most untidy roommate from India. But it was fun to move his clothes with the foots as all what he had was simply on the ground :)
- Coming to Sweden after too less of sleep and starting sightseeing the city, but understanding that the only thing we really want is ... sleeping :) That was one of my most silent new years celebration :D
- however, next day we made a party! Wee-haa!!! all drinks, people from lot of countries and great atmosphere. By the way, couple of years ago when I was living in Sweden there was one strange building in my way to metro station. That is students dormitory. And yeah, you are right - we spent our night there this time :)
- I am sentimental.. no more words for that :)
- coming back to Lithuania and seeing a real winter was great.. 15 hours of sleeping and lunching at 3:00 at night was great as well :D
In more short - I loved all what we did, tried and saw! Want to travel more. Next stop - Frankfurt :)

Velniu Malunas again!

Sadily... for the last time. Each year, right after christmas there is one of my favorite shows in Vilnius - Velniu Malunas. Concert dedicated to lithuanian alternative scene. As this was the last show, mainly young bands were on the scene. And after seeing all performances I might say - f*#@ you all who say that there is nothing interesting in Lithuania :)
Here is my top of the evening:

3. Days of Eclipse - young band from Vilnius, which became the main surprise for me. I didn't heard live industrial rock for a long time and here it goes!


2. Vilkduja - one of strongest industrial (?) bands in Lithuania. Once again, they proved that with no doubts. How was the last song called? It made all the atmosphere completely crazy!


1. Comedia d'el Arte - the best of the best :) I was checking this gothic, post punk band for couple of years already and it always showed something new, some theatralic cabaretical performance. And in my opinion, this time they finally reached their point. Masks, clothes, guitars, violin, acting, screaming, emotions - all this was one of my favorite performances.


P.S. Photos "stolen" from here.