BIRTHDAY TRIP TO ROME

 Visiting Rome was a dream of mine for the longest time because Italy is definitely one of my favorite countries ever, I love the food, the culture, people there, the language, so visiting the heart of it was essential to me. Oh, and I am a huge lover of history and architecture, so this was also a place for me to go. This was a very special trip not only because I went there on my 21st birthday but also because this was the first trip where I and my friend had to do everything ourselves, there were no guides, nothing was really planned for us and we were the only ones who decided everything. This freedom to do anything you want and go anywhere you want was very liberating, it was really cool to think that in the middle of the school year you ran away to a beautiful city far away from home and you can wander the streets for hours without any plans at all. It also adds a little bit more stress but when everything turns out fine, you feel this sense of accomplishment which is great.
We had to use our map skills and that turned out quite interesting. I was pretty sure I don't understand maps at all and my friend though she understands maps very well but turns out we both are not that good at it. Thankfully people there are really friendly so we didn't get lost and it was even more fun trying to speak with people who don't speak any languages we do.
We got to see the main sights, we ate amazing food (seriously, I could eat Italian food every day of my life) and stared at the gorgeous Italian men in the streets and they are seriously gooooorgeous there, I think every girl would agree with me. This is definitely a city I would come back to if I'll ever have a chance and I would recommend to everyone hop on a plane and go experience Italy to the fullest.

THE BEST BIRTHDAY SO FAR

You know, I am not the biggest fan of my birthdays, not only because I've already reached the age when it's pretty scary to see how quick you're getting older and older but mainly because it is a day in a year which you expect to be amazing and most of the time it really doesn't live up to your expectations. And since I am the biggest crier ever, there hasn't been a birthday in many years that I didn't cry at. I don't even know why exactly do I cry, but I always shed a tear and not necessarily a happy one, to me there is always something.. sad about it, even though I can't really explain it. So that is why this year I decided it would be an amazing idea to get away for my birthday, to leave all behind and just go to a very nice place. I am very happy that my dream actually came true and I got to celebrate my 21st birthday in the gorgeous city of Rome. If you know me, you know just how much I love Italy and visiting the heart of it has been a dream of mine for the longest time.
It was a gorgeous and windy day on October 7th, just like the day I was born 21 years ago and in the morning I met my Mom to have a very nice birthday breakfast and it was so nice to have couple of hours with her while eating cake and drinking coffee. After that, I met my best friend and we got straight to the airport where our adventure began. It really was an adventure in every possible way. It was the first trip for both of us when we were only two of us and there was no one else to count on in that city far away from home. The adventure started the moment when we got off in the neighbourhood where we were staying at and our host didn't pick up the phone. Thankfully, we managed to find the place somehow but it was just the beginning. We did get lost a bit, we've met some people that weren't that nice but everything worked out just fine and these little things just showed us that we can actually be independent and can handle the situation pretty good.
But despite everything that went wrong, there were so so many things which went just fine. We spent amazing time there, really. Rome is the city where every corner of it is worth a shot, it's so gorgeous and mind blowing at the same time. It's crowded, sometimes a little too noisy but so full of history that you fall in love with it immediately. I really did have the best birthday there and it was like no other I've had before. There we were only two of us in the city far away from home and everyone we know where we got to do everything ourselves, from figuring out the transport system, to discovering everything this city has to offer. So that is how I celebrated the age where I don't have any more limits, in a nice apartment, with a glass of wine and a cupcake with some candles. And it was awesome, to say the least!

WHEN IN ITALY / PESCHIERA

 A month has passed since I was standing on Italian ground and this is my last post about my trip. These are the pictures from the loveliest city we were staying in and I'm going to end this by telling you why this trip has been truly one of the best trips I've ever had in my life so far.

✿ People in Italy are so so lovely. They are smiling pretty much all the time, they try to help you even if they don't speak English at all but somehow everyone understands everyone.

✿ Italian is a very beautiful language and due to the fact that I can speak French pretty good, I was able to understand Italian even if I had never studied this language. Now, of course, I'm planning to start learning Italian one day. 

✿ Italian food is the best kind of food in the world. Italian pizza is one of a kind and I enjoyed every single bite of it!

✿ Everything on this trip went surprisingly well considering the fact we drove more than 4000 km from our home with our own car. We only had a little accident with the petrol which was quite scary but everything worked out fine in the end.

✿ I got to eat a lot of Gelato and man, these are good.

✿ I've got to experience an amazing moment when I was standing on the roof of the Duomo Cathedral in Milan. I was the only one that went up there from the people I was with, so I was alone there and yet I felt so calm, so relaxed and so happy to be up there. I wasn't feeling anxious or anything like that, I just was in that moment with all my heart. That doesn't happen too often but it for sure was amazing.

✿ I realized once again that I am the happiest version of myself when I travel and that I truly love Italy with all my heart.

Sometimes this whole trip seems like a dream to me, we all came back straight to work or studies and exams so that amazing holiday atmosphere didn't had the chance to stay a bit longer with us. When I look through these pictures, I feel very lucky that I got to see these amazing places and Italy has even more special place in my heart than before.

You can find other posts about Italy here : Milan, Venice, Sirmione and my gratitude post.

WHEN IN ITALY / MILAN

 This is going to be a post fully expressing my love for architecture. I love taking pictures of buildings and details of buildings a lot, most of the pictures I take when I'm traveling are of buildings and some people would find this pointless but I just find it fascinating really. Maybe I was supposed to become architect? Let's just forget the fact that I'm absolutely useless at drawing. But really, seeing something as mind blowing as the Duomo in Milan is amazing.
As we were standing there in awe, a guy came up to us and made us take some seeds and pigeons just started flying to us from everywhere. You can see in the picture how impressed (not really) I was. It was really scary, I felt like the woman from the Home Alone in the park, remember her?
After that I climbed on the top of the Cathedral by myself and just kept on walking around there and took around 100 pictures. It was exactly as I've expected, even better actually, the view from up there is amazing and I felt so calm there. If you ever in Milan, the only thing you must do is to climb up there, you won't regret it!
It always is so surreal when you step out of the metro station and there you see a building you've been seeing for your whole life and it's just standing there casually. I've had the same experience when we stepped out of the metro in Barcelona and Sagrada Familia was just standing there.

WHEN IN ITALY / VENICE

 This was my second time visiting Venice and I fell in love with this city even more. It's such an extraordinary city, it actually blows my mind. There are many incredible cities in the world but this one has a special place in my heart and I really wouldn't mind to come back there many times more.

I have a strange habit of thinking whether I could live in the cities I visit or not. I will probably never live in the majority of these cities ( hope at least not all of them) but it just happens to me without thinking too much. If I really like a city, I immediately think "Man, this is a very nice place, I could totally live here someday"
If we talk about Venice, I probably couldn't live there, despite the fact that I really really like this city. Both times I've been there, it was crowded so much that there are places you actually have to stand in the line to move around. I am not the biggest fan of this but at the same time, this city looks somewhat daunting to me even when it's crowded, I imagine the empty Venice is quite a scary Venice. No wonder thriller movies have been filmed there. I can't pinpoint what exactly scares me there but I can totally imagine this city at night, without lights in these tiny streets, without people around and scary creatures coming to life. This is absolutely not true but my imagination is a powerful thing. Maybe that's the water that this city is surrounded by (I'm not a fan of deep waters), maybe the thought that this city is sinking every day, maybe all these masks around which are beautiful yet really frightening, maybe those tiny streets that I wouldn't really like to walk alone but there is definitely something really special about this place in the world.
When you are in the main square which is full of noise, people and is just simply crowded, you would never understand what I mean, only those tiny empty streets near the water could show you the real Venice. This is a very beautiful city and I feel really grateful that I've got to see it twice already and I'm really hoping to spend a night there sometime in my life because I'm pretty sure it would be an amazing experience.
This time it was again a very boiling hot day there, so these tiny streets have helped a lot when we needed to cool down a bit and find some shadow. One thing that is a must in Italy is to get pizza of course and we had the best pizzas in the nicest little restaurant. Can I also talk about the Italian people? They are so beautiful! Men of course are gorgeous but ladies are also so pretty and so stylish, it was really nice to watch them walking around.

MY ENDLESS LIST OF GRATITUDE #13

   Long time no see with this tag on my blog. I haven't forgotten to be grateful, I'm still trying every day to write something in my gratitude journal or to put a tiny piece of paper in my gratitude jar. This time there are some random things from my trip to Italy in between my picture filled posts from Italy.

 ♥ Palm trees clear skies and Italian warmth. I swear, the hotness in Italy is different than here at home, last couple of days have been so hot, it's nearly impossible to do anything so I would love to come back to Italy and lay by that huge pool.

 ♥ I loved laying by the pool. I don't like sunbathing because I'm extremely pale, so the umbrellas helped me a lot but I loved laying there, reading a book and just chilling for hours.

♥ Me loving life in Italy. Happy, cheerful and enjoying the warmest Spring!

 ♥ One of the best things about going to a foreign country is seeing the mountains. Lithuania is a very beautiful country, so mountains are probably the one thing it is really lacking. This is a random place in the middle of Austria, it was so breathtaking, the mountains were so huge and so close to use, it was seriously amazing!

♥ Spring in Italy is just as pretty as in my country and it also has even more amazing flowers than we have here. Magnolias were in full bloom and aren't they gorgeous? These blooms were huge, they smelled amazing and they were just incredibly pretty to look at.