klaipeda, planga, and nida

wow what a crazy weekend. i had so much fun and so much to write. its so much easier to write about what we did through pictures so here we go.....

this was jaclyn, megan and i on our cap ride to klaideda. it was about 2.5- 3 hour drive there so not bad at all. klaipeda is northwest of vilnuis. its on the coast of the blatic sea and is a beautiful town!

main street here in klaipeda. so busy and so much fun. we walked through old town klaipeda and saw cute streets, alleyways, shoppes, vendors and more. it was so much fun to just walk through and see what there was to see. 

little river going through old town. 

party coffee. the cutest coffee shoppe ever. it was so delicious. they had natural smoothie things and it was made fresh... ahhh so refreshing! 

typical stevie! i love chinese food, everyone knows that so of course i would find a chinese restaurant and go to it the first chance that i got! it was such a good choice and was a little bit of home i felt like i was indulging in. who thought chinese food, from america would be something i missed... hm... 

jaclyn and i watching the ferry's 

the hotel we stayed at. it was sooo nice! 

..... oh dear. so after we had checked in we went to the car to get all of our stuff up to our rooms. this was the reception/check in area and so we were walking up the stairs and i dropped something that was in my hand as i got to the top so i set my suitcase on the ground and reached to pick it up and my suitcase must have lost its balance cause it fell down the stairs. better yet, not down... through the railing thing under the wire..... we were the only people in there other then the receptionist lady. oh my heck i was dying of laughing. i couldnt stop. mostly cause it was hilarious and i was embarrassed cause i didnt want to go down and pick it up. i did after i got composure of myself and the lady just stared at me. im sure she thought we were the typical american girls.... so hilarious but good grief. 

breakfast the next morning. i was in heaven. they had it all ready for us right when we woke up. started with ham, cheese, cucumbers and tomatos. rye, wheat and white bread with jam. the BEST jam ever might i add. and then for the main dealio....

crepes with cheese and ham. sour cream with pesto... to die for!

after breakfast we went to palanga. they have a cute street funn of food, vendors, and parks to see on your way to the main pier. it was here that i had my first (of many) vafliai. waffles on a stick, dipped in delicious european chocolate, and mine had peanuts on it and jaclyns had sprinkles.... so good!!!

THE BALTIC SEA! so beautiful and breathtaking. theres something so..... awesome about the ocean. it just makes you think about things when you see it. i enjoyed being able to walk up and down it and think about "it all" and release all my thoughts into a HUGE body of water. it felt so good and relaxing. 

jaclyn, jen and i just enjoying each other

of course, i just had to! 

for lunch we walked back down the main street and found this little vendor that was selling these weird foldy crepe things. they looked interesting and smelled really good so we figured we would give them a try. they were soooo good. they had like ham, mushrooms, cheese, garlic sauce and other stuff in them and they were sooooooo delicious! best 5 lt. (2$) i ever spent!

 

and now for the funnest part! we went horseback riding. we had talked about maybe doing it but we didnt know for sure if we could find someone to take us because summer is over for them so its hardly busy at all.... so we went into half thinking it wasnt going to happen.... and then it totally fell into out laps. we were so happy about it and especially me. i have been on a horse before, but not an actual ride. we went for an hour and it was only 60lt. (about 28$) crazy huh? we got to go through the forest and then on the beach! it was so much fun!

mine loved the water...it kept going in deeper and deeper and i was semi nervous but laughing to hard to pull him out so i just let it happen. our guide told me to hurry and get him out cause he would try and lay in the ocean to cool off, and that grabbed my attention, and made me semi worried so i pulled him out.

it was such a good time!

on our way back to the car we decided to walk back onto the pier and watch the sunset. i was so glad we did because it was absolutely breathtaking. none of the pictures i got do it justice. it was so beautiful. we had to wait about 30 minutes in 17.5c (about 50 degrees fahrenheit) but it was so worth it. 

megan, jaclyn, myself, holly and jen

on our way back a bachelor party stopped us and had a bunch of stuff  on a list of things that this husband-to-be had to do that night to before he got married. one of the things they had on the list was kiss him was to have two strangers kiss him on the cheek (one of the less risqué thing on the list) so jen and i did it. hahahahahaha they offered us a free bottle of champagne as a token of their "thank you" i almost took it as a remembrance but figured that might cause a problem with my parents and i when i got home so we said "thanks but no thanks" and were on our merry way....

little did we know it was not the last bachelor party we would run into... the second group stopped us and wanted us to write things on the husband-to-be's shirt..... so we said things like congrats, good luck etc. after they gave us flowers so nice!

the next day we went on a ferry and road across the curonian lagoon and drove to a little town called nida. so cute. it was a little touristy, fisherman town. we rented bikes and road through the town and on the piers and such. super fun!

We drove our bikes on these paths and found these SWEET sand dunes. we parked our bikes and walked up five million hundred steps and got to over look all of them. we also got to see the baltic sea on the right, and the curonian lagoon on the left. it was sooo cool 

this ADORABLE lady. she was seriously the cutest person in the entire world. sooo nice and hilarious! i bought some sweet earrings she made herself cause i never want to forget her. she had a cute jewelry and amber shop. she was the best!!!!!! we loved her!

on our ride back to the ferry we stopped at raganų kalnas. (The Hill of Witches) it is a hike and you go through all these creepy trees and fields and there are weird witch carvings everywhere. they are wayy cool!!!!! i took pictures of my favorite ones.. you cant see them very well so if you want, you can click on the picture and it will make it a little bit bigger so you can see some of the statues...

our very own awkward family photo

the pretty view after the hike. 

jumping for joy! i love it here, i love my life! i am so grateful for all i have been given in my life in america and i am even more grateful for the experiences i have been able to have end enjoy here in europe. the people i have met, the things i have seen... i wouldn't take it back for a thousand dollars. i learn more about myself ever single day and i feel like i have grown in ways i never would have if i hadn't came here. by learning about myself, i feel like i am finally growing up slowly but surely.... and its only the beginning!