Autumn in Birmingham

It's that time of year again, feels all too soon after having my last fall just 6 months ago in New Zealand, but there you go. However, unlike last year I will actually see it transition to winter, hopefully, this will put my season confusion to rest.

Waking up to this view I should have known
 how my day would be spent...

Time for cosy sweaters, pumpkin food, tea (as if there aren't enough reasons for tea, but I'll take them all), crafty evenings at home and staying in university purely for a warmer environment than our chilly student houses...

Took the time to enjoy the beauty of nature during this transition period walking around campus, parks and went hiking on a day trip with the hiking club (yes, I joined the one at my uni!).

Started on those crafts again, expanding my collection of DIY canvas-bag pillows. Also, brought back a pile of leaves for crafting, hopefully I will come up with something to use them for...

Oslo and Liverpool

On our way back to Birmingham for our final year at university, we made a couple of stops (naturally) to Oslo and Liverpool to visit friends and see the sites making full use of our last week of summer holidays.

We got off to a great start in Oslo by accidentally getting a free train ride into the city. As we didn't have any local currency and they didn't accept any of the 5 debit cards we had between us and the train was running late ruling out the option of getting off and getting cash out at any of the stops, they let us off from paying for our tickets. So that's one way to survive in one of the most expensive cities in Europe- just don't pay for stuff.

After that little experience, we spent the day walking around the city, taking in the sites and noticing the little things like how everyone looked amazing and how tidy and well planned out the whole place was in general. Also, how much Norwegians love their sculptures with one every 20 metres and that for an unknown reason pedestrians have two red traffic lights  at their crossings (guess they just really want you to stop)... 

We managed somehow to get in touch with our friend by stealing wifi from a cafe (seeing a pattern here...) Why we didn't set up a meeting point in advance is beyond me, but there you go, sometimes it's more fun not having everything planned out ahead of time ;)

Met up with our friend in a lively square filled with musicians, people blowing soap bubbles and others who had just left their offices and went outside to enjoy the beautiful day. Our day continued with more lovely places, even ended up passing our beloved cafe :P

'Perfect bridge'

The second day was spent visiting the small islands of Oslo which we got to by ferry escaping the craziness caused by the Danske bank marathon. It was a nice contrast to the mainland, tiny summer houses, rocky shorelines and historical ruins painted the city in entirely new colours. We finished off the evening with a salmon dinner, a must while in Norway.

Sneaky sock stealing seagull 

We spent the final day walking around the castle and because I couldn't miss the peoples climate march, I just had to join Oslo's one. Only joined in the last few minutes of the walk and really tried to stay for the speeches, but there's only a certain amount of trying to pick up what they were saying in Norwegian before I headed back to the flat. Despite not being to understand most of what was said I was still glad to be part of the huge global event. 

Back at the flat we decided to stay in and have a girly night in with movies, popcorn and talking, which was nice after an active couple of days of travelling. We regained our strength and got ready to continue to our journey to destination number two- Liverpool.

Liverpool was great, we received a warm welcome and were shown around by some wonderful friends. Hit all the scenic places and got to see the city from an architectural perspective since both of our 'tour guides' happen to study just that.

Superlambanana :D

One of the reasons for visiting Liverpool now was due to Wicked- one of my favourite musicals was on tour there for which we had bought tickets months before. I was so happy to share the experience with my friends as they saw it for the first time (unlike musical obsessed me, who has now seen  Wicked 3 times...)

Defy gravity

Murrr Cafe

Recently had the pleasure to visit the cat cafe, 'Murrr cafe' in Vilnius. For those of you who don't know it's a cafe where you can go have a drink with the added bonus of having cats wondering about the room that you can pet and play with if they're in the mood. If you find yourself falling in love with one of the felines you can even adopt him/her and they will rescue more to fill the empty place. Therefore, it's a great way to help cats in need of a home as well.

We were invited by the owners to come over and draw a nice sign outside of the establishment to get them noticed more by passers by. I believe it went quite well as we saw tourists become quite interested and come in for a drink.

After our work of art was completed, we were treated to some lovely tea and had some time to relax with the cats. Unfortunately, they were all sleeping, but we kept ourselves entertained with the many books and games they have for customer use.

All in all, it was time well spent in a cosy and welcoming place, if you haven't already I recomend checking it out. :) 

Sostinės dienos (Capital days)

Every year around the start of fall a three-day festival takes place in Vilnius with free concerts, a market stretching as far as the eye can see and other random events. This year, I really made the most of it by going to there every day. 

My super cool cousin, who just got accepted into the Art academy and is on her way to becoming an awesome artist who, as she puts it, will own a lot of pretty dresses  and be famous was visiting me for a few days. She couldn't have picked a better time to come, as the city was bustling, the streets were full of people and there was so much to do.

On Friday - the first day, we strode down the market admiring all the crafts (couldn't resist buying an adorable pair of hand crafted earrings) and artwork on sale, chatting with artists and buskers making the most of the crowds. One guy was actually playing Voltaire as I walked by causing me to jump up and down in excitement and stop for small talk, hope to see him busk more often.

We then went on to listen to a few bands and artists including Žalvarinis - a folk rock/metal band that performs Lithuanian and other Baltic folk songs in their own style and G.Storpirštis - a bard who plays such beautiful pieces that basically brought me o tears. My cousin was super excited about another band - Kūjeliai, but sadly I missed that show, will have to check them out next time.

Saturday evening we  went to one of my newly favorite Lithuanian bands - Colors of Bubbles concert followed by a bit of a night out in town since that day happened to be a day of gathering with friends to celebrate my birthday :) Had a blast, the concert was awesome, was amazing to spend time with friends and discover a cool new bar in the process

Sunday started off with a trip to the corn maze where a business bbq networking event was taking place. It was so much fun! We competed in 12 mini competitions including walking through the corn maze, milking a fake cow, collecting tiny flags from haystacks by jumping from one to the next as fast as possible and many others. On top of having a great time, we made some new contacts for the youth healthcare project we're working on and the G.G. art project I am helping out with (more on that in a future post).

In the evening we drove to cathedral square for the last concerts, the first being Liūdni Slibinai- a quirky LT band that uses classical Lithuanian literature snippets among the lyrics of their songs and then a band I had been super excited to hear live- Ewert and the two dragons. Before this week, I hadn't known they were an Estonian band despite absolutely loving 2 of their songs, one of which - Good Man Down was the one they closed with. The concert ended when halfway through the last song a firework display started, literally finishing off the day and the whole festival with a bang.

Until next time, Sostinės dienos, I expect great things from you in the future ;)