Spring travels: Portugal

This uni year I was lucky enough to be able to chose a place to go for a residential field course and when I learnt that Portugal was an option, the decision was quite easy to make. We left for it on the last week of our spring holiday by which time we had expected it to be nice hot weather in Portugal. We got lucky as the weather had just become nice when we arrived, sunny days and temperatures above 20 degrees (finally!). This was just what I needed after -4 in Lithuania, -2 in Tallinn, 10 in Dublin and 12 in Birmingham. 

Midnight tourism

The first thing that got me excited about going was the fact that we were to fly with normal airlines which was quite something. No stupid small limits on luggage, no people trying to sell me everything under the sun. It was nice. The sandwiches we got on the plane were so nice that I actually now make ones jut like them. Also, this little drink desert - 7 strawberries which is just what it is called - a little smoothie from strawberries.

The actual field work turned out to be pretty hard work and kind of intense. We did loads from identifying land uses and mapping put 100m by 100m areas around the city to conducting our own experiment. But.. we spent most time outside, had time to walk around and got taken around the areas surrounding Evora - the city we stayed in. We took a trip to this huge dam which when built created many new land-use opportunities for the region, but also caused many issues. Then we were pleasantly surprised by being taken to another historic town where we had a nice walk around, climbing over fences like the rebels we are and finally going to a vineyard where we received a tour and even got a chance to taste and buy some wine, an offer I did not refuse.

Dam...

Cosy restaurant we found where guests leave greetings

Leaving Portugal, the warmth, the flowers and sun to go back to rainy UK and revision that was waiting for me was not easy, but I guess I had to go back to reality... Just need to say, Portugal is a country I will definitely make an effort to visit again, after all Lisbon has yet to be explored. :D

Dance show

I have wanted to make a post about this for a while now, but was hoping that more pictures would be uploaded from it... Oh well, have a few which is better than last year anyway. Therefore, I shall proceed with the scheduled blogging. 

At the end of March together with a few friends (whose coming to dance class I take credit for :P ) I was in the dance society dance show whose theme was 'The Big Event' and so each dance represented some historical event. I did it last year as well, but this time was more fun as I had company and also did 4 classes in total, 2 more than last year (I'll be doing 6 or 8 at this rate in my final year). Anyway, the show was amazing, the dances all wonderful and I genuinely miss all of it so much now that I haven't been to a dance class in 2 months (darn you exams!). So, as I mentioned earlier I was in 4 dances these were 1) Modern 2) Street Jazz 3) Musical Theatre and 4) Contemporary. All were good, fun and full of emotion and so I'd like to write about each one a bit more.

1. Modern. 

The event for this dance was: The French Revolution. And boy were we revolutionary! The dance was full of turns, jumps and aggregation (hopefully we were able to project that, still have yet to see the video :P ) We danced to the song Children of the Revolution by T Rex:

2. Street Jazz

Miners Strike was the event we were to portray in this dance. I might even say this was my favourite to learn, it was energetic, filled with many moves with not so beginner level choreography for a beginner dance class. Again aggressive and fierce, but also very powerful. Had a love-hate relationship with the costume for this because even though I loved making the shirt and liked how it looked, my braces tended to pop off while on stage which was not something I wanted to happen. Anyway, we danced this to Antidote by Swedish House Mafia & Knife Party and I quite enjoyed it, would get stuck in my head after practice every time :P

3. Musical Theatre

Had a lovely dance to Hairspray for this one with the civil rights movement as our event. Was fun, up beat therefore had a great contrast with my other dances. Sometimes I would sing along when dancing it, just so much fun :)

4. Contemporary

This one would almost lead me to tears as it was a very emotional dance the event being the Iraq war and us acting as the soldiers leaving their loved ones. There was only 8 of us in the dance so the pressure was on not to mess up as everyone could notice pretty easily. We were also in partners, which made practising at home a bit tricky, but I think we pulled it of quite well. We danced to the song This is not goodbye by Sidewalk Prophets:

Now that it's over I miss it so much. The putting on make up rituals, the quick changes between dances, waiting on the stage for that moment when the music comes on and a different audience each night, the group warm ups and the bows. All these little things you remember along with the show are memories I'd like to hold on to and hopefully I'll be able to do the show in my final year again :)

Spring travels: Dublin and Galway

After our 1 day stay in Tallinn we were off to Dublin to meet up with more friends and enjoy another few days of freedom before having to go back to revision.

Of course, when in Ireland you have to try all the typical Irish activities, such as going to Temple bar for a pint of Guinness, listening to live Irish music, trying Irish  coffee and so on. So we did. That and so much more. 

After arriving and finally finding our hostel which I should call ultra mega hostel, which was really something different, differing completely from the cosy little one we stayed in in Tallinn, complete with it's own cafe, bar,   shower complex and multiple floors, we started to plan our trip (not like we had plenty of time to plan stuff before actually arriving in this country...). We decided to take a day trip to see the Cliffs of Moher and then stay the night in Galway, which was a good call. The cliffs were magnificent and Galway completely charming. Took a 'free' walking tour (they say free, but ask for a donation casually mentioning the amount it would cost to take a paid tour and slightly guilt tripping you into paying that amount) and learnt quite a lot about Ireland's history as well as Claddagh rings. These are cool as their position on your finger and depending on which hand you wear them on, lets others know if you are single, in a relationship, engaged or married. Two of my friends even bought ones for themselves, which I have to say are pretty cool souvenirs. The hostel we stayed in while there was... interesting... even had another LT guy staying there (told ya we're taking over the world) who had taught the other guests a bit of Lithuanian.

On the edge of the world

Back in Dublin we moved onto doing all those things on our 'must be dine in Ireland' list. Went on another walking tour and were practically brought to tears by the guide when she spoke of the famine in such an emotional way you'd think she was an actress. Had our Guinness on multiple occasions to the point that I didn't even want the free one they give you when you take the tour of the brewery. We also went on a pub-crawl where we were treated with an Irish dance by one of the bartenders, I tried an appletini (was delicious, J.D. was so right!) for the first time and had a great time (even with a bit of drama).

Irish coffee: nice to look at, not so much to drink...

The normal people and the crazies

One night we decided to just stay in and this predicted quite night turned out to be quite exciting, with long talks in the halls of the hostel in the early ours of the night and new acquaintances forming.

All in all, Ireland was complete with a mixture of experiences and time well spent with good friends. 

Photos by I. Cesnulaiyte

Spring travels: Tallinn

The journey back to the UK was a pretty exciting one. Unlike normal people, instead of going directly back we decided to make the most out of our holidays and take the long way round visiting Tallinn and then flying to Ireland for 4 days. 

To save some time we took the night bus to Tallinn meaning we were there at 6 am cold (still -2 there ant this point) and hungry (not to worry, we had enough food packed for a small feast). As we were in money saving mode, walking to old town seemed to be the only option so we did, passing through what could only be described as a ghost city with its inhabitants still sleeping. We finally made it to the old town walls and as we passed though what used to be one of the gates to the city, we were there- a calm, cozy old town of Estonia's capital city.

Happy little penguins

We made our way to the hostel and were pleasantly surprised that a Lithuanian girl was working there (what are the chances!), Lithuanians are clearly taking over the world. Leaving our stuff behind we left to explore the town. As we walked around the smell of freshly baked cinnamon buns caught our attention and so surely we had no choice but to follow it to a small bakery/cafe - 'Matilda', where we ordered those delectable pastries and tea.

Fresh cinnamon buns and tea, the perfect... well... end to our morning :P 

We spent the rest of the day wondering around, going to museums, galleries, the basic touristy things and finished our night at an Estonian bar, where we sat at a table in what was made to be a giant beer glass while having a beer (beerception right there) and watched traditional dancing + live music which was quite a traditional end to our day.

Photography museum

Beerception

The next morning we were treated to pancakes, an excellent feature the Knight house hostel offers. We took a final stroll around town, climbing a defensive wall tower which seemed to be invaded with pigeons (like sneaky chameleons, pretty hard to spot if you're not looking for them) and finished our stay in Tallinn as we started, with a lovely walk (you know, for consistency) all the way to the airport this time. Had never walked to an airport so some experience points right there! :P

Made it to the sea!

All in all, enjoyed Tallinn, would recommend to visit for a couple of days as you do your Baltic tour ;)

Photos by Ieva Cesnulaityte.

Flashbacks: Glass slippers and pumpkins

What girl doesn't love dressing up and going to a fancy dinner, dance or in my case both combined into a lovely ball. I haven't been to many and each experience till date has been very different, fun and exciting. But I guess it all goes down to the people you're with and because I was there with a wonderful guy who made me feel like the belle of the ball that night is one I will never forget. 

After the somewhat strange experience of being served dinner the way I had been serving people all of first term at my part time job, the evening was pretty eventful. From trying to get an After Eight from my forehead to my mouth without using hands in a game, to attempting a few ballroom dances and somehow surviving extreme Macarena in heels. What's more, the DJ played a mix of songs from practically every stage of my life from kindergarten to this date which really took me down memory lane. So I think it goes without saying that I had an amazing time. The ball ended in a very Cinderella fashion, finishing just after midnight, luckily my carriage didn't turn into a pumpkin and I got home as quick as one can when you are trying to get a taxi on the last day of term.

Green xp

When being vegetarian and even vegan isn't enough, the next step is a raw food diet. This is when everything you eat has been made without using a higher temperature than 40 deg. Celsius. So basically, fruit, veg, nuts, seeds and anything you can muster up from those products. 

While I wouldn't have the will power to live on it even for only one week most probably, I have been very interested in trying something from that kind of menu (and no, not just a salad :P). And so opportunity came knocking when my mum suggested we go try out this raw food cafe 'Raw42' in old town the other day. And so we went, taking my Grandmother who apparently has been aching to try this interesting cuisine for a while now. 

I was anxious to try everything, the green cocktails, the peculiar salads, soups and main dishes. The benefit of not going alone was that I had that opportunity as we tried each of the dishes we ordered along with our special drinks. All in all, it was a good experience, is something I would recommend to try if you're looking for new and interesting meals. Would not recommend if you're a complete carnivore and can't survive without meat as there won't be any for m... eters? It's old town, probably a cafe next door has all those usual LT meat dishes if that's your thing ;)

Green cocktails. I chose to go for a berry almond milk (centre)

White salad

Carrot soup

Sushi! no rice though :P

'Lasagna'- letuce, tomatoe, seed spread, courgettes, tomatoe spread and seedlings

Getting hungry from looking at these photos, lunch break it is! :)

Home for Easter

Being at home for the holidays is always nice, the traditions, the atmosphere, the food...

Preparations started the night before with egg painting using wax. As this is the first time I've hosted such an event and didn't have any necessary equipment, we had to be quite inventive. The biggest challenge we had to face was improvising a container in which we would melt the wax and keep it from becoming solid. But with the ingenuity of my cousin we succeeded in our mission. Spending a quiet evening with close friends preparing for Easter is just one of those things that really put you in a holiday mood. 

Our amazing contraption

On the day we must have spent over 3 hours at the table trying all the various dishes, competing for the best egg and chatting. As it was the first time my brother couldn't join us, we made an effort to have a skype conference with him before we sat down to eat. The day ended with a family viewing of The Hobbit, an Easter classic :P

I'm glad I decided to come home for Easter, being with the family on this day is just one of those little things that can put things into perspective.