Hello!

I just arrived in Riga after hitch-hiking from Lithuania. So far I love this city!!

But I wanted to talk to you about the wonderful stay I’ve just had in an ‘Ecofarm’ and camper’s place in Pajiesmeniai, in the north of Lithuania, very close to the Latvian border, where I’ve had my first ‘HelpX’ experience (for those who don’t know what Helpx, Woofing or Workaway are, it consists in working a few hours a day in a farm or a hostel, for instance, in exchange for free food and accommodation, although it’s more about getting to know a country in another way than the touristic one, rather than not spending any money).

In that place lives a very special couple, Daiva and Kees.

Kees is from Holland and Daiva is Lithuanian. They both met on the internet almost ten years ago (they are the pioneers of internet dating!! 🙂 ). I’ve rarely met such kind and generous people. The moment I arrived in their home, they made me feel like a member of the family. They host quite a lot of helpers so they have plenty of cool stories to tell, and both have lived very interesting lives; you can never get bored with them! Kees is very open-minded and warm-hearted and has a special ability to read people. He told me the words I needed to hear at that moment and I am really grateful for that. And Daiva… Daiva is a really strong woman with an amazing spirit. She knows so many things about, for instance, which plants to use for which illnesses instead of medicine, and I learned a lot with her. She is also hard-working and incredibly generous. I could write hundreds of other of their qualities, but let’s just say they both inspired me a lot. 🙂

Here’s how their house looks like:

My bedroom 🙂

Some Finnish guests having a party :p

The living room

Their garden where the campers can park their vans

The reception (with some homemade tea on sale and cool old stuff)

 

They had a very cute (but noisy) dog named ‘Mieta’ (which means mint in Lithuanian). Whenever she was told: “Mieta, the Russians are coming!”, she would freak out and bark like mad at the door… 😛

 

I wasn’t the only helper, my Kiwi friend Harry was there with me 🙂

It was also his first experience of that type. We got on very well, had a lot of interesting talks and laughs, which made my experience even better!

Every morning (except on the week-end) we went to the farm (a very old one!) to work:

 

We planted cucumbers, weeded, picked cherries, and painted the walls of an old barn that they want to turn into a hostel:

We always had a coffee break which we took there:

Or inside this old sauna when it got very cold 🙂

And then we would go home and have a very nice meal that Daiva prepared for us, like this local speciality:

On our free time, we sometimes went for walks in the village.

 

 

Or swam in the lake 🙂

And one afternoon, Daiva took us for a guided tour of the region, it was so nice!

You can find this kind of statues everywhere in the country

 

 

 

This region is famous for it sinkholes (the ground just randomly collapses and make these more or less deep holes, it’s quite creepy!):

 

Our week-ends were free, so we decided to go to the coast of Lithuania. We slept the first night in the house of Daiva’s brother-in-law and his family, it was great! On the way we saw one of the oldest pharmacies in the country, it was really interesting:

And we visited some other nice places…

The next day, Harry and me went to Klaipeda:

A parc full of hundreds of statues…

 

 

 We spent the night there in a hostel, and met some very cool people in it. On Sunday we got to swim in the Baltic Sea 😀

We hitch hiked back and continued our hard work….

😀

Time went by so fast, and after a few days I already had to leave… But I am now full of beautiful memories and very, very good vibes! Daiva, Kees, Harry: Aciu!!! <3