LET'S TAKE A WALK : AMSTERDAM

I haven't done one of these posts for a while (here's the last one about Santorini) and lately I've been feeling the biggest urge to go back to Amsterdam, so I think this is a very good reason to take a little walk around this beautiful city. 

I've been there several years ago when we were going to see Paris. Back then, Paris was the main thing for me to see, because you know, Paris, what else could you ask for, and Amsterdam was only the stop on the way back home. I remember I liked it then, but it was nothing compared to Paris I'd seen only couple of days ago. We arrived there early, so city was very foggy and quite empty and I was very tired after a couple of non- sleeping days. But it really had this special something about it, some kind of vibe that I definitely enjoyed. After a couple of hours, the sun started to shine and it became even more beautiful and more really beautiful people went to the streets.

Now that I just got this strange urge to come back there, I've started browsing through these pictures and just look at this city, it's gorgeous! Now that I'm writing it, I think that maybe it was The Fault In Our Stars and how beautifully the city looked there, that inspired my urge to get back to that city. All I know is that this very day I'd hop on the plane and just go there to walk these streets once again.

Have you ever been in Amsterdam? Did you like this city?

ROME CITY GUIDE / THREE DAYS IN ROME

Last October me and my friend went to visit the beautiful city of Rome all by ourselves and since no one planned the trip for us, we had to do all the things ourselves, it was a very interesting experience, so I decided to share my tips about visiting Rome, maybe it will be interesting to people who decide to visit this gorgeous city in the heart of Italy.

WHERE TO STAY.

Hotels are pretty expensive there, hostels sadly as well, differently like in other cities. We decided to go with Airbnb which is a very good thing I've recently discovered. There are locals renting their apartments in many parts of the city, so you can choose to rent the whole apartment, the single room or a shared room, it depends on your choice and the money you can spend. You pay directly through the site after you've talked with the person you've decided to rent the property from. The rooms or apartments mostly come with everything you need - kitchen utensils, toiletries and sometimes even food. It's all listed as well when you're choosing your apartment.

You have to communicate directly with the renter of the place, so if something is not going smooth, better choose a different one. Also, I strongly advice choosing one which has more comments written about them, this way you can make sure a person is a good choice.

One big, important tip: write down the address of the place you're staying at. Phones can stop working, the renters can forget to pick up the phone (a real story) and you can find yourself standing in the middle of the world you've never been to without any idea what to do anymore. So it's better to have address, this way you can find the place on your own. 

PUBLIC TRANSPORT

Public transportation in Rome is pretty good. There are tramways, buses, metro, night buses and loads and loads of cars. It's very crazy there, so beware of the cars when you are out and about the city because these drivers drive by their own rules.

You can see the numbers of the buses that drive there on the bus stops in the streets. If you see a little letter N by the number of the bus, that means it's a night bus. Night buses are free there, but that means everyone and anyone car be found in there, so save yourself and your things when you're in them.

Buses are mostly very crowded, so I would recommend the metro as it's incredibly easy to navigate. There are two different lines the (blue and red one) that go beneath the city center. Where metro doesn't reach the city, you can take the tram which is also a good way to travel.

Standard ticket is valid for 75 minutes on all buses or for one Metro ride and costs €1,5, daily one costs €6 and three days one costs €16,50. 

ROME CITY PASS. 

BUY THIS THING. It is not cheap, but it's very convenient. You can buy this online, in the airport and at some places in the city once you arrive. You can choose between two different ones – one is valid for 3 full days (€ 36 ), the other is for 48 hours (€ 28 ). With the city card, you get a city map and a booklet about the city and map is a very convenient thing when you're wandering around the city on your own. With the card, you can travel with every possible public transport for the amount of hours you paid for from the moment you check it. Cabs and shuttle buses to the airports are not included into this.

Also, with the card you are allowed to two sights like Colosseum, Roman Forum or museums of your choice, so you save a bit of money this way. And also, people with the pass in most places have a different queue, so you save loads of time this way.

Don't ever jump into the car thinking it is a cab if it is not the white one with the taxi sign on top and a the Rome crest on the doors. Everything that is not this, it's not a cab, so you shouldn't really board it for your safety.

WHAT TO SEE

Coloseum – Roman Forum / Palatino Hill – Altar of the Fatherland – Spanish Steps

Take the Blue line at Termini (the main station of the city) and hop off at the Colosseo station. You will be greeted with the view of the Colosseum once you step out off the Metro and you can take a little tour around it or even better go visit it from the inside. It is really worth it, even if there are a lot of tourists, it's just one of these things you have to visit once you're in Rome.

After that you can walk towards Roman Forum / Palatino Hill. It is really close nearby and you will probably start your tour from the Palatino Hill if you walk directly from the Coloseum. This is a beautiful and serene place in the middle of the city without the noise, without crowds of people and it just breathes history. Be sure to visit Roman Forum as well while you're there, we almost missed this part and left without seeing this beauty. It is a place with all the monuments from the ancient times and it is gorgeous if you're a history geek like I am. Even if you're not, the fact that these things have been built so many years ago and they are still standing there with the city buzzing just right there to them should amaze you. 

From there you can take a short walk until you see the big white building which is seen pretty much from every higher point of the city. Altare della Patria or The Altar of the Fatherland. I found this part of the city to be very busy, with many many cars, buses and people there, but since the place is just right there where you're walking, it's worth visiting it as well.

From there, you can take a walk on the tiny streets of Rome which are just gorgeous, remember to buy some Gelato and after a little while you will find yourself in the Spanish square with the famous Spanish Steps. I think this place would feel even nicer if visited at evening or night time when there are not THAT many people there. But it is a beautiful place to sit for a while and chill out while looking at gorgeous Italian people. 

From there you can go to Metro stop called Spagna (the red line) and go back where you're staying. 

Vatican City – Piazza Nevona – Pantheon – Trevi Fountain

Vatican City is very worth visiting as it is really really beautiful and if you're a Christian, that is probably one place on your bucket list. 

Metro stop is called Ottaviano "San Pietro" and it is not directly by the Basilica, but the way towards it is very nice. The Basilica is free to enter, you just have to stand in a line which is pretty long but moves quickly and you will get inside that amazingly beautiful place. I think this was the most breathtaking Church I have ever been to, it is definitely worth to wait that line. 

If you want to get to the very top in the cupola of this gorgeous place, this costs €5 or €7, it depends if you want to take the elevator or not. But even if you take the elevator, the most difficult part has to be walked by your own feet. There are many steps until you reach the very top but it is oh so worth doing it, I'm pretty sure you won't regret that once you see the view from up there. And getting down is way easier!

After that you could go to the same Metro stop and take it where you want. You can hop off at Barberini stop and you'll quickly find your way to the famous Trevi fountain. It was closed when we were visiting, so we sadly didn't get to see this beauty, but maybe you will have more luck! After visiting Trevi, you could wander the streets for a while and you will reach the Pantheon which is really really beautiful and free to get inside. After seeing the Basilica San Pietro it might not seem that impressive, but it actually is very beautiful! 

It is also worth to see Villa Borghese Gardens, Trastavere (this is a very nice neighbourhood), Campo De Fiori. 

RANDOM TIPS. 

• Save your things. There are so many people who are very willing to steal from you and they do it with some magic, so you could not even see it after it happens.

• If people don't speak English in a restaurant, food is going to be amazing there. There is also a rule in Italy that if the table is with a white table cloth on it, the food is going to be very expensive, because it's a restaurant. Look before you go in.

• Bring comfortable shoes. You can do loads of walking in Rome because all the sights are very close each to the other, so you don't have to take public transport so much, rely on your feet and save them from the trouble by bringing comfortable shoes with you.

• Don't take pictures with gladiators standing by the Colosseum, don't try something that someone is proposing you whether that's a selfie stick (you will see loads of them there) or some food, it will definitely cost money.

• When you ask "do you speak English?" in the street, the majority of people will answer with a very confident "no", just try to ask you question also in English, some people will try their hardest to explain you what you need. Sometimes in Italian or with their hands, but it can also help you.

• Coffee is good everywhere in that city.

P.S. You might like to check my post about my trip to Rome. 

 

MANCHESTER THROUGH MY PHONE

I just love how random ideas that come up in the conversations unexpectedly can turn out to be the things that really happen. The real, great things which make you smile from ear to ear. 

Last Summer, on a very hot day at the end of the Summer me and two amazing girls who I know from the age we all were 7 years old were walking through the woods and had a conversation and Manchester, where one of the girls is studying, came up into our conversation. After that one thing led to another and we bough the tickets to go and see her in the city far away from home. 

Even though we bought the tickets a long time ago, the waiting wasn't really difficult, there were times I honestly forgot about this trip, other times I was so busy that my head was filled with completely different things than the plane I would have to board in couple of months to go to a different country.

I was in Rome just couple of months ago, but I was already pretty excited to fly on the plane. I love planes, they have always fascinated me even long before I got to be on one and every time I get to fly, I am very excited. I don't particularly love the turbulence because I am an anxious person anyway and being on a plane which is shaking quite a bit is not the thing I enjoy the most. But I can spend hours just looking through the window and imagining myself walking on these clouds which look like candyfloss. Wouldn't that be cool?

We didn't stay there for long but it was a very very nice trip. Spending time with two amazing friends was amazing and Manchester was also city that I didn't expect to be that beautiful. We visited amazing, gorgeous and ancient libraries, walked the big and small streets, ate the best burgers I have ever tried, laughed very loudly, took a crazy amount of selfies, ate a lot of not so healthy food, talked for hours, admired English men and their accents and just enjoyed as much as we could. 

My little inner architect was very very happy seeing these buildings and almost all of the pictures I have are from the buildings as you can see here. It's mostly always the case when I travel, to be perfectly honest.

 

WHAT I'VE LEARNED WHEN I LEFT MY COMFORT ZONE

"Do one thing that scares you every day"

I'm pretty sure you've heard this famous quote about two million times in your life. I did too, but I never truly realized the meaning of it up until recently.

My trip to Italy last May changed quite a lot in my life not only in a way that I got to see some truly amazingly beautiful places, but more in the way that I grew up a bit in a way I didn't expected before going on this road trip. How, you may ask, and this would be a very good question. It took some time for me to figure this out as well, to be honest. In fact, I am not entirely sure that the trip itself was the one thing that inspired the change, but I like to think so after all, that‘s quite a beautiful mark to remember. 

The thing was that on this road trip I went with my family and two of family friends and so it happened to be that I was the only one who could speak proper English so I had plenty of responsibilities to make sure everything went smoothly with our trip. I got to find hotels while speaking on the phone, talk with policemen in the middle of the road, make our reservations, check in, check out, buy things and honestly I was mainly the one that did all the talking on that trip and it was very strange when 4 adults were confident enough in me to do this.

It probably doesn't really sound clear enough, so let me back you up a little bit. Before this trip I was the person who disliked speaking to people I don‘t know, meaning in the street, in the bank, hospital, post office and don't even get me started on talking on the phone. For some (or most) it probably sounds very very strange, because why on earth would you be scared of that, really? Why would you be afraid of speaking with someone you won‘t ever see ever again? Well, I don‘t really know the answer to this myself but I was very shy about doing this. You would never tell that I'm shy in any way with people I know at least a little bit, not even close but for some reason people I don't actually know didn't seem inviting at all to me.
 So when I was on that trip and I saw how well things went on and that people were actually able to understand me and it wasn't all that scary and moreover it was in a foreign language (!), I suddenly became much more confident to do this and I was very proud of myself for doing these things. So while I was there I decided that I don‘t want to ever let go of this and I want to keep doing this thing even when I get back home, even if that would be scary.Because they definitely were going to be scary to me. So I made myself a promise and up until know I am keeping it to myself.

We have this program in my Uni were older students get to help and guide freshmans into the university life, it‘s like they become their mentors. I wanted to do this for a long time but never though I could actually be able to do this. But even though I was terrified, I applied for it and thankfully, I got the position of being the mentor for freshmans. And this has honestly been one of the best decisions of my life. Everyone likes to be needed and I honestly really enjoy helping people whenever I can, so this was quite an amazing place for me to be at. I have been doing this from the middle of July up until now. But honestly not the part of helping them was [and still is] the best part, the thing is that I got to meet a lot of other mentors and many many freshmans which is very exciting, indeed, but for me was also very challenging at times. It‘s really hard to explain how much it means to me that I actually met all these people and some of them really became my friends and I needed to talk to them, so day after day my fear kept on getting smaller and smaller. I also had to talk to authorities, to professors, to many people I have never even met and you know what? I did perfectly fine.

 I can't say that I am not scared of talking to people anymore, there are some moments when I would rather run away than approach someone but it‘s so so much easier to me than before. Now I can speak on the phone, talk to baristas in coffee shops, come up to someone and ask whatever that is that I need. And man, it feels amazing. Absolutely amazing. It's so freeing to know that you don't need anyone else to do something for you, that you are perfectly capable to approach a person you don't know and ask what you need. Now I'm actually enjoying when people come up to me on the street and ask for the road because that's one more accomplishment to me in this learning process.

And you know, I believe that we grow up this way, by doing even the smallest things, by changing something about ourselves which is no longer serving us. I realized I didn't want to be that person anymore who is afraid of speaking up, of speaking with someone I don't know and I am very glad to say that I learned so much. And I also learned that if you come up to someone smiling and talk politely and nicely, people mostly are really nice to you as well. And if they aren't, well, that's probably the lesson they still haven't learned themselves and it is not your problem to deal with. But one thing you can do is to let yourself grow day after day and surprise yourself every by accomplishing even the smallest goals. 

TOP 5 CHRISTMAS DESTINATIONS / BLOGMAS ❅ DAY 20

Whenever Christmas time rolls around and I see my city becoming all sparkly and ready for Christmas time, I start to imagine how other cities look on the Christmas time, how does it feel to be somewhere in a completely different environment from this here at home. Even though I absolutely love how Vilnius looks at this time of year, I think it would be so nice to spend Christmas time in a completely different location. So here are my top 5 destinations I would adore having a chance to come in the Christmas time. 

1. New York, USA

All of the pictures are from my Tumblr

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I'm just throwing this one at the top of the list, because lately I have been having a very big urge to go and visit New York, this is the feeling I can't fully explain to myself, but something is really attracting me there and I've been dreaming about this city a lot. I imagine that Christmas at the Big Apple is quite the experience because pretty much every place is magical at Christmas but in my head New York is the place to be on Christmas time. I imagine strolling through the snowy Central Park as the sun is setting down, going to see the enormous Christmas tree at the Rockefeller Center Plaza, going on a window shopping trip... I have probably watcher too many Christmas films which are set in New York to be honest, but I totally think this would be an amazing thing to experience.

2.  Lapland, Finland

Can you image a better place to go on Christmas than the homeland of Santa Claus itself? I surely can't, if you ask me. With loads of snow, houses in the middle of the forest with crackling fires, meet and greets with Santa himself, enrolling in the Elf School (!!!) and making gingerbread cookies with the Mrs. Claus is really the picture perfect image!

3. Paris, France

Sources : 2/ 4

I can only imagine how gorgeous Paris looks at night with all the Christmas lights shining around. You can go watch Christmas lights at Champs - Elysées, go ice skating under the roof of Grand Palais (I'm pretty sure this one would cost a fortune), go for a spin on the famous carousels, wander around Christmas markets and just in general experience this city in the magical Christmas time. 

4. Prague, Czech Republic 

Prague's Christmas markets are know to be one of the bests in Europe and they really create the festive spirit around the city, there are also a lot of ballet and opera performances which, I believe, should be very very good in Prague and the city is full of Christmas lights. 

I have never been to Prague but this city looks exceptionally beautiful with its architecture, so I can only imagine how beautiful all these Christmas lights look among these ancient buildings. 

5. Chicago, USA

T here is one huge Christmas market called Christkindlmarket and is inspired by Nuremberg in Germany, you can also go ice skating in the Lincoln Zoo Park and the Joffrey Ballet has an annual performance of the Nutcracker and I adore The Nutcracker, so this would be a dream!

But honestly, one of the main reasons why I would love to go to Chicago is that my God father lives there and I would do anything to spend Christmas there with him and his family.

Where would You love to go the most in the Christmas time?

I'm falling to pieces

Kaip aš norėčiau vėl važiuoti šia kryptimi, kai namais trumpam tampa Barselona, kai viską palieki toli toli nuo savęs ir trumpam apsigyveni pasakoje. Bet, žinoma, pasaka negali trukti amžinai, deja. Taip norėčiau bent trumpam ištrūkti kažkur, kur atrodo, kad gėris truks amžinai ir trumpam numalšinti kažkur tyliai galvoje šnekantį sveiko proto balsą, sakantį, kad tai tik sapnas, kuris ilgai nesitęs, nes ir vėl reikės sugrįžti namo, kur viskas dažniausiai neprimena pasakos. Aš taip pavargau nuo visko, kas nuolat mane persekioja ir niekaip nepalieka - nuo visų minčių apie egzaminus, apie bandomuosius, kurie jau po poros savaičių, nuo žmonių nesupratingumo, nuo neišsipildžiusių vilčių, nuo šito pragariško šalčio, nuo naktų, kuriose jau nebebūna sapnų, nuo galybės datų, faktų ir formulių  ir nuo visų minčių apie tai, kas bus toliau.. O juk tiesiog norėčiau dabar sėdėti kur nors viduryje Barselonos, gerti velniškai skanią kavą velniškai jaukioje kavinėje, būti ten, kur tiek daug laisvės, jokių įsipareigojimų ir nerimo, ir galvoti tik apie tai, kiek daug dar turiu pamatyti, kur turiu nuvažiuoti ir daug patirti.