green, green and more green

We went for the day to eastern Lithuania with Dima's family and just drove around.  There's cool churches,  Aukstaitija National Park, and green fields and trees for days.  

This was a little memorial for those who were forced to leave to Siberia during communist days that never returned back to Lithuania. 

I love that they actually plant the flowers for the grave sites rather than just bringing some on certain days of the year. They're planted earlier in the year and are there until Oct. 31st.  There's just so much care put into burial spots. 

Then on November 1st, candles are lit there instead of flowers.....can't wait for that creepy goodness! 

A not so uplifting version of Jesus.  There's lots of those around.

Me and Sophia, Dima's daughter and one of the students.  

The National Park was incredibly green and thick with trees.  It felt a little bit like home so I was loving it.  We just drove through the roads, surrounded by trees, windows down and it couldn't have been better. 

Pretty Twilight-ish.

Dima, the school coordinator and his family.  They're so good to us.  Like really good.  He'll be getting some good karma for everything that he does for us.  Such a sweet family. 

The park is packed full of Mario big world sized mushrooms and berries and there were lots of people picking em. When we first got here Dima told me not to buy mushrooms from people who pick them in the forest and sell them because some of them could accidentally be poisonous and people have died so you just gotta be careful.  Good advice yeah?  No mushrooms for me.

Ok this looks disgusting but seriously....pastry sort of thing filled with Nutella and vanilla ice cream.  Food is gooooooood up in here.

So to sum it up...I live in a gorgeous place!  Dima was saying he's lived here for something like more than 10 years and he had never been to this National Park which is just an hour or 2 away. Its so easy to take for granted what is close to us and just want to explore when we're in a new place and traveling.  But chances are that there are amazing places close to you, you just gotta get out and find them.