Snowboarding in Austria and two more days in Czech Republic

Hey.
It's been several weeks since I'm back from my holiday, but it took me some time to gather all the pictures from the trip. And since I'm sick and don't have to go to work I decided to put some memories into my blog.
So as you already know four of us planned our trip to Austria since last October. Last month it finally happened. We packed up tons of stuff and hit the road with '94 BMW 316 touring :)
About 25 hours later we were there - a nice and quiet place in the mountains near Hart im Zillertal. Every morning we stepped out the sight was incredible - snowy mountains all around.
We got our not-so-cheap skipasses and snowboarded for 6 days in 4 different resorts. All the infrastructure is simply amazing there. Since you have your superskipass you're good to use all trains, busses and elevators in every resort in Zillertal. And that's what we actially did.
The mountains there are great, not to many people from "eastern Europe", snowparks etc. We even tried out the Harakiri ski run. On the map near it was a sign stating 78%. Don't know what it means :D
We also wisited hintertux. The highest point was something like 3250m above sea level.
After all the fun in teh mountains we visited Swarowski crystall museum near the factory they're made. Pretty impressive since the museum is inside the hill and most of the exhibitions are dynamic. Loved it.
Then the same day we took a walk in Innsbruck.
Next day we went to Prague. We stayed with one nice family (thank you) not far away from the oldtown. We spent twi days in Czech, visisted many bars, restaurants (including fast food of course), nightclubs. We enjoyed once again every step taken in Prague, saw a lot of churches (and the bone church not too far as well), bridges, monuments.
And then - back home to Lithuania.
Didn't want to write too much so better take a look at several pictures in random order:

Tina pulling a wooden stick out of a huge snowball

Hey. Here's a short video I took yesterday of my girlfriends lab trying to pull a wooden stick out of a huge snowball which as it seems used to be a snowman. This dog's crazy about forests, nature, sticks and wood. It's not the first video clip this dog acts as a beaverdog :) Enjoy

And here's Tina in her personal limo seat:


And finally to who it may concern:
People, please stop leaving all kinds of thrash behind you. It's horrible view in every forest around the city after the snow has melted. Don't you really care enough about what will it all become?! There are garbage containers in every single yard and thrash bags in every gas station. It doesn't cost you a thing. Just take all of your stuff with you and throw it out where it belongs. This way it might be possible to spend many more great evenings in the spot you visited. Thank you.

Lemon Joy and winter retreat

Hi.
Last week the wetter let me completely down. Everything started melting, dirty water flowing down the streets. I had to forget the plans for the weekend. I'm talking about snowboarding of course.
So me and my girl were sitting sadly at home and trying to figure out what can one do when the rain's not stopping. On Saturday we visited several stores, Ieva got herself a nice pair of shoes and I wasn't so lucky. I couldn't find any helmets that would fit my huge head and wouldn't cost too much. Well...I'm gonna have to find it before the trip to Austria anyways.
Later that day we got 4 tickets to Champagne bar where Lemon Joy performed. I've never seen them live except for several times in festivals and similar events with more artists performing.
I gotta say it was nice to hear all those old and many times heard songs, but it wasn't too impressive. Igor's voice sounded great whatsoever and the crowd wasn't too young so it was a great opportunity to feel young again :)
A couple of low-quality pics from the concert:


On Sunday despite the rain we went out to spend some time in the nature, to play "bring back the stick" with our lovely dog. She was running and crapping all around the field. But the weather made us turn back soon. Several pictures from the coast of Vilnelė:

Sigur Rós - Flugufrelsarinn

Hey.
I randomly listened to my music playlist, as i usually do, and heard this wonderful song by one of the most famous Icelandic bands - Sigur Rós. It matched my mood perfectly and I decided to see what does it's video clip look like. After loading youtube I entered the title and found a wonderful piece of animation made by some guy from Jerusalem. Liron Damir studied broadcast design and animation, as I see it, and this was his some kind of final project. It's not the official video for the song whatsoever, but the details, the animation itself and the connection between music background and events in the video is stunning.
I simply counldn't miss an opportunity to share this experience with all of you. As Matt Stone and Trey Parker from South Park Studios usually say: "sit down, relax and enjoy"

On the edge of 2009

Hi.
Happy new year everyone. I wish you all happiness, success, creativity and meaning in everything you're about to do this year.
Once again I welcomed new year free of alcohol, but the night was very impressive. We decided not to drink so we'd feel good next day (I'll come back to it later). So first we went closer to where it all took place, left out car and walked quite a bit. Here on the wall of the Vilnius Palace of Concerts and Sports and all around if E.T.A. Hoffman's fairy-tale and P. Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker simply blew us all away. I've never seen anything like it before and it all was very impressive and great way to spend last evening of 2008. It was wonderful show with lot's of musicians, dancers, stuntmen, lights, colors, fireforks etc.

Later that night we tried to go to the Cathedral square together with thousands of other people to check out the Gert Hof's lights and fireworks performance. Sadly because of the amount of people there we had to watch it through the branches of trees and listen to the shouts of many drunk teenagers, but it still was worth to see.
Aftre that we went back home, had a glass of wine and fell asleep.
1st January 2009. We woke up at 11A.M., found out that Eglukalns skiing tracks are still closed, but Sauleskalns a little bit more far away are already opened, packed our stuff and went to visit my parents. After great breakfast we jumped into our snowboarding clothes, set the destination point in my phones navigation program ant went all the way to sauleskalns near Kraslava, Latvia. There were only a few people skiing so we had unbelieveble time on our snowboards first time this winter.
Probably the best tracks I've tried so far not to mention the reak mountains, great english-speaking personell, inventory for rent, good elevators, nice people, lights, music and stuff like that.
The next day was something like that except that three more friend joined us and there were many people skiing and boarding already. If you're interested in this resort check out their website at www.skalns.lv.
On saturday we called Eglukalns again. And this time they were open. So we only had to go for 20 kilometers and didn't have to use navigation since we've been here before.
Except for too many people everything else was great. (more info on Eglukalns at www.sventesegles.lv)After snowboarding for three hours we visited my parents once again and then went back to Vilnius feeling tired but happy.
Here we found tons of snow and it gave us the idea for Sunday. We put on warm clothes, hats, shoes and gloves and went out to the forest with our dog. The weather felt klean and cool, we ran around in the snow, kicked the pines waiting for the snow from the branches to fall on us, throwed sticks for the dog to bring them back and so on.
So, after such a great 4 days weekend I'm back to regular routine waiting impatietly for next such opportunities.
I hope to get some photofootage next time.
Now go, enjoy the snow!
Bye