Andrew’s Blog

A photo taken from a cafe in Užupis. Oli is doing everything possible to climb up onto the railing and look at the river below. Audrone, Oli, Albertas. June 2009.

A few photos of Oli’s Lithuanian christening, June 2009.

Oli grabbing the priests book, it was either that or the candle he was trying to take, the whole event was quite interesting for him. The priest was good natured about it and mentioned that Oli might one day become a priest himself. Simonas pictured holding Oli and Jurgita are now his Godparents.

Oli holding his christening certificate.

Outside the church.

Some photos taken in the garden, this one was snapped from the top of the swings. In the background is the house built by Albertas and Audrone which we stayed at for the month.

Enjoying the lunch in Simonas and Jurgitas house.

Adomas, Oli & Simona.

King Oli in the garden waving his shoe for his subjects. He also had a special christening spoon he particularly liked.

Can’t wait to get his hand stuck into the cake, and he did soon after… Yum!

Just a link to my coppermine photo gallery

It’s been largely inactive for long periods of time but adding to it now and then has seen the photo number increase to over 350 now.

A theme park based on the statues recovered from the Soviet era.

You can walk around this open air park wondering at how many statues of Lenin were actually made, quite a high number I’m guessing. Also there is a restaraunt where you can order traditional soviet era cuisine and a few museums where you can view classroom settings and the like.

A family picture from in front of Trakai castle June 2009. The first visit to Lithuania for Oli, Mum & Belinda.

We had lunch at the excellent Kybynlar restaraunt and then walked around the castle pushing a pram. Trakai at one point was the capital of Lithuania and was obviously a strong defensive location for a castle being in the middle of a lake, though I’m not sure what they did in winter when the frozen lake was easy to walk on? Now Trakai is a popular tourist destination with bus loads of Polish and German tourists visiting to browse the souvenir stands which are a good place to collect trinkets made out of amber. The walk to the castle takes you over two bridges where you can rent a boat, buy wild strawberries or donate to the various buskers.

Later on we visited Gruto Parkas and got back to Vilnius for a late dinner.

My online friend Sim Hampel is presently compiling an excellent travel journal about Colombia and his families adventures with adopting a child.

Colombia 2009