My Brothers Paper Wedding: Šarūnas & Viktorija // Vilnius, LT

Congratulations to my big brother and his beautiful wife today - it's been one year since both replied "I do" and agreed on binding their paths together into one. Now - it's their first, the Paper Wedding Anniversary. A year ago I was there to dance and drink, laugh and eat, and also grab upon my camera once in a while, this way preparing my very personal gift for them. Weddings within a family circle are something different than friends weddings. Other thoughts cross your mind when you see a groom-brother waiting for his wife to be at the altar - families get connected, blood merges and the in-love-smile of your brother means so much more to you than anyone else's, you kind of feel in your molecules and start imagining what your little nieces and nephews are going to look alike.. But everything on that topic has to wait for its own given time. But for now - here comes a dash of a sweet sunny summer memory, with bright lunchtime sun and two people so in love under it. Chin chin to the paper-weds!

Quick note over here: Love is... is THE ultimate chewing gum of every post-soviet child in Lithuania. You could get it in every kiosk, some kids were collecting and exchanging the papers with little comics within, which broadly explained, what Love actually IS.

Gentlemen attributes..

..and the Ladies attributes.

I remember this little cabrio ride through the weekend city, with the newlyweds drive-dancing in the front and us two photographers Egidijus and I in the back, listening to this song of the incredible ODESZA out LOUD.. seriously, the ultimate summer time Vilnius ride with ultimate summer time soundtrack. Maybe you should listen to it while observing the rest of this post I strongly recommend, just to catch the awesome vibe.

It was a neat modern Lithuanian style wedding, including the parents greeting the newlyweds with black bread, rough salt and a shot of home made vodka for each - has something to do with good luck in their lives, of course; Lithuanian live music - good old pop and some folk; a whole lot of funny games involving the guests; and a present from the couple for their guests - fireworks at midnight. Singing dancing clapping - there was plenty of all. I wish every few years we could celebrate a wedding like that! so THANK YOU!

PS: You can read more about the beautiful late baroque style St. Johns church over here. Or even better - go over and visit, Vilnius is overall blooming with culture!

Camp in Germany // Beach Time Sweethearts

Recently, my BFF Jurga, her boyfriend and I decided to go camping for a weekend - wherever, doesn't matter, as long as it's in the nature, it's green, close to the water, kind of calm yet giving a summer holiday feeling. Last minute, just the day before leaving, we heard about this awesome place on the Baltic Sea coast called Prerow - a fisherman village on a peninsula, combining a lagoon-like calm sea on the east, yet rough waves on the west side of the peninsula, a forest in between, soft sand and our campsite on the edge of the dunes. For us, two Lithuanian girls, this place was giving a very rare sense of a Baltic homeland site, it was mind blowing to recognise something we grew up with on another countries shoreside like the preserved architecture of little wooden houses, the landscape of the shore, a pine tree forest just along it.  

We stayed at the Regenbogen Prerow Campsite. As we checked in very late, for some magical reasons we got the very spot we actually were wishing for - at the very corner on the last bit of the campsite, where our two of the four neighbours were a dune (with the sea 100m behind it) and a young growing pine forest. Moreover - we got located next to the nudist beach :-) So I could finally get one of those pictures out of my tent that I was always dreaming about when diving into Pinterest scrolling too much. However, absolutely everything was perfect about that weekend - coffee in the sand, rain in the night time, sun all day long, braless suntanning, campsite cooking, hot water showers and, of course, a lot of amazing scenery filled with love and kisses for my photographic delight.

It wasn't my first time at the German part of the Baltic Sea. But all these years we've been fast to book flights to anywhere in Europe for hikes, roadtrips, beaches and longing for distant corners with high peaks, hot springs or long sandy stripes of beach. But I had to realise how little I actually know Germany and how much it has to offer nature wise if you know where to look for it. If you have any advice, top 5 must experience nature locations - share it with me, please. I'll mark them up in my map and save my weekends for them.

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Walk - Eat - Sleep - Get Up before Dawn - Repeat

The recent weeks of my life up in the clouds of the Polopos village has been full of little pleasures. I've been out on morning hikes around the village, found a group of hikers who meet up for a days hike around the Sierra Nevada every week (age average: 65 years - can't stop admiring their motivation for the outdoors and movement), (successfully) dragged my english dad Alex to join the hikes, too, went on a spontaneous Easter road trip around Andalusia, was even photographing and working creatively on an assignment, was learning Spanish, attended even two village wine fiestas, met many new lovely people and convinced Alex to let me drive his new car (and started looking for a future dream car (current status: Citroen c15d - because it's a simple, practical van and you can sleep in it! #vanlife!)). And in between the list of events time is filled with thoughts. Sometimes a few of the negative ones. Even thought I'm having a blessed relaxing time of my life at the moment, worry about future and it's caused mood swings don't give me a break. I start questioning too much, open rooms in my head which should not be opened. Thats nothing new to me nor anyone - we all have it. But the good news is that with years you learn strategies how to overcome your biggest enemy at times - yourself.

As I feel like standing on a thick fog crossroad with the unexplainable urge to quickly choose one out of a dosen ways, first time I simply don't know which way to go. 'Following my heart' or 'going with the gut' doesn't give me the right impulse just right now. Being very afraid to fail, one amongst many reasons. For sure some might say - this girl is an ultimately spoiled Generation Y child. But it's not necessarily a bad thing!

So, instead of crying around I'm doing one thing - getting a bus ride throughout Spain from the very South to the very North, to the city of Oviedo and starting the Camino Primitivo, one of the St. James Way trails that leads to Santiago de Compostela. Length -  approx. 300 km. It's one way to go - straight on to the West, always following the yellow arrows. Walk, eat, sleep, get up before dawn, repeat. And that for a couple of weeks, hopefully with least possible crossroads ahead.

You gotta break the circle of your own habits and routine, through a stone in a vacuum full of thoughts, to roil the water and bring in some good vibration. By walking. This keeps my mind clean. And I'm looking forward to discover and report.

Here's a little collection of life recently in and around the life in the cloud.

A few things I came across during the last few weeks:

new old music even better in a concert

great new blog to follow along

a podcast for my preparation for the Camino - will be following this one for sure

Thru-Hiking Will Break Your Heart - a very personal and inspiring book I'm on right now

And just before you close this tab - my Instagram - will be documenting my trail over over there, if I don't decide to disconnect completelly

Leaving Helgoland

Maren came to visit me back in October last year. We explored the autumn sun of Helgoland, checked if the seals were still chilling on the beach. I kept on testing out my new Fuji x-t1, trying to catch the rays before they settle down for the winter, much photographing against the sun. Back at home, between tea sessions, a little cold that I caught, veggie english breakfasts and birdy visitors we also made some photos of Maren which I published already few posts back. Also, I sat down for a few self portraits with my slightly sick face.

Now, every day the sun stays up for a few more minutes. Yet I will be leaving Helgoland by the end of this January for good. On the day I leave I will have spent sixteen months of my life living on a 1,8 square kilometres piece of land, 50 km away from the next mainland shore. Building up new friendships, diving into daily office work life, changing my personality a bit, fulfilling one of my fundamental dreams - to live at the seaside, to live in the middle of the North sea - a few of the things I’ve done at the time of my stay.

Truth is - this island actually is a magical place. Here, I understood a lot not only about myself, but the dear old Universe, you call it. I was raising questions and I got a few answers, very simply while doing every day things, walking from A to B and observing some amazing everyday 6 am sunrises. Then I forgot the answers. In good moods I remembered them again. Helgoland comes from ‘holy land’ and you start feeling different once set foot over here. The longer you stay, the stronger the impact.

Will I miss the constantly fresh healthy air? Yes. Will I miss the quiet mornings with seagulls calling to begin the day? Also, the evenings with the noise of strong wind blowing along my windows as the biggest noise that the street here can offer? Yes. The lighthouse beams scanning my bedroom from one corner to another at night time? So romantic - yes. Will I miss short ways from house to work to beach to shop to anywhere? And everyone saying hello to you all the time because it’s just those 1300 people living on the island and you sort of know two thirds of them? Yes. Will I miss tax free internet shopping? Hell yeah! Sauna spa with a view to the stormy waves while you’re sitting all sweaty salty in all lavender mint orange pine tree - you name it - scent in the air? Well, guess the answer.. The ocean view everywhere? Oh, my ocean, my daily moon arisings over the ocean. Yes. My dear friend Nadja, her I will miss a lot, too.

Even though, I’m not sad to leave. The reasons are more complex and private then the need to write them down over here. There are things I won’t be missing at all, nonetheless I leave the option wide open to come back here again and spend some later years of my life over here.

Even though I’m risking much by leaving, much needed stability, regular income, this safety feeling on this island in general, even though - I’m embracing all new whats there to come and encounter me soon. Or rather even - I am going to take and hug nicely all what’s been calling and waiting for some time already.