Ciao Bella Italia!

Remember my post, my first post in South East Asia? I arrived in Bangkok, the capital of Thailand and was fascinated about everything, especially about food. I do remember thinking that I will not be able to come back to Europe...

Well, time passed and we ended up looking for a ticket to go back to Europe.

And we chose Italy. There were two main reasons. Dom has a family living there;grandfather, uncles, aunts, cousins and so on that he wanted to see and my friends were organizing a volunteers reunion in Sicily for couple of days. And to be honest Italy sounded like a great country to land in after 6 months of summer in South East Asia :)

So we got here. The feeling that I got in Bangkok came back to me. Oh my God, the food, the glorious italian food welcomed us back. There is something about it. What am I talking about? Italians are magicians when it comes to food :)

Ricotta, parmesano, ravioli, spaghetti, lasagna, pasta, pesto, nutella, gelato, pizza, mascarpone, olive oil, wine... Oh my God, all the tasty food that we missed.

Dom's family made sure that I will taste everything. Our shrank asian stomachs became the stretched european ones.

And then it was time for the nature. We drove from North to South enjoying beautiful landscape of snowy mountains, green hills, hot plains, sandy beaches and cute Italian houses.

The time spent with my friends reunited in Sicily was full of great memories and of course amazing Sicilian food.

I feel like Italy is treating me well. But very soon I will be packing my old backpack and coming to see my homeland-Lithuania. And this time I am bringing Dom so he can finally see where I grew up.

I hope you are all well,

Much love,

Ligita

our first accommodation (very cold) in Venice

cookies...mmm

happy in Venice

Oh Venezia...

Aliah the cat

oh, so beautiful :D

Ferrara's cathedral

the view from Dom's parents house

Adriatic shells

Corinaldo

we didn't even need to go out to get the view :)

Catania, Sicily

Catania

Marianna and Leyla in front of Etna

mmmm, Cannolo

great breakfast with beautiful ladies

ruins in Syrracusa

amazing tree!

Gargano

amazing coast

Saepinum ruins

Abruzzo province

Cake and happy Dom

our personal sunset

the view from San Marino

after ACE granite

San Leo

rasta cat with one dreadlock :)

food food more food!!!! :)

Reflection Time

Hello everybody,

It was the last night. Last night in South East Asia. Wow. It does sound dramatic. I always like to add a bit of dramatism in my posts :)

I was sitting in the restaurant drinking my amazing watermelon smoothie and just observing. Poor Dom got really sick on the last night and had to spend his last evening hugging the toilet :(

I was sitting in this little local restaurant and reflecting. I saw the guy selling fruits: fresh papayas, pineapples, mango, watermelon and so on and I thought "Gosh, I gonna miss those amazing fruits". And then I thought again "Well, to be honest in Europe we have our amazing fruits and berries". So it is not the fruits that I gonna miss. Fruits are everywhere. Then I thought "Hm I gonna miss this heat". Well, if I want I can find the heat in Europe. Then I thought about the people, smells, the atmopshere. And again, all of this I can find back at home.

And then I did realize. It is the moments. The moments spent on my 6 months travel around South East Asia that I gonna miss. How ironical. The things that can not be brought back.

I am and addict of moments. And this trip was filled of amazing ones. I will not list here my favourite countries, food or anything like that. The reflection will be done in my head.

The great part is that moments gonna continue. Maybe it will not be in Asia but it will be still the moments. And that is great. There is no sadness tonight. Only happy memories, joy and a little bit of curiosity; where the life gonna bring me next? What is my next adventure?

I wish you all inner travels and beautiful moments,

Ligita

our green room in Kuala Lumpur

Chiang Mai

some cool art shop in Chiang Mai. A hobbit house!

Pai! Towards Circus school

our view in Pai, Thailand

new tattoo

beautiful Pai

great rocks!

chatting with locals

Canyon in Pai, Thailand

Last train journey to Bangkok

In a sleeper train!

Happy with my new bed

In Russia

First sunset in Europe (Moscow airport!)

Everything Is Constantly Changing

Hello,

Recently I've been interested in yoga, I have tried some chanting and meditation before but there was always this secret magical word in my head- Vipassana.

I've heard about this meditation from few people who did it but all I knew is that you are not allowed to talk for 10 days. That was all. Then I started keep meeting people and over the years I got a little bit more information. However, I was never ready for it. 

When we started our South East Asia trip I knew I want to do it and I met quite few people who did this meditation course so I thought it is a sign for me to do it.

Few days ago me and Dom finished our Vipassana meditation course and came back from it with a beautiful life philosophy.

The fact that you can't speak or keep an eye contact with people is really easy. The fact that you get up at 4 am every day, can't read or write or your last meal is at 11 am is pretty easy as well. The fact that you need to meditate 10 hours a day, that's what is hard. In the beginning it is your body. Everything aches, your legs, your back, your neck, your ass. You feel like a real granpa. And then you are taught to ignore the pain and work on your concentration. Concentrate on your breathing and then concentrate on your body sensations. Seems really easy, yeah? Well, the concentration is gone after one minute, you keep thinking about everything. Your mind is controling you, you don't control anything. After you work out with concentration is the sensation part. Our bodies are constantly changing, if you have sharp mind you must feel every single part of your body because there are always different chemical reactions, vibrations happening in your body. Then they teach you not to react to those sensations. So when you feel pain you are not allowed to dislike the feeling, the idea is to observe. When you feel some good sensations that you really like you are not allowed to crave for them. The pain will come and go, the good sensations come and go, life is impermanent, it is true nature of reality.

However, our mind is always reacting which creates negative energy inside and then it stays there forever. We become more miserable, more unhappy or unsatisfied. Human beings always suffer. And this tecnique teach you how to purify your mind and how to escape from suffering.

After 10 days of course I didn't become enlightened but I felt that I learnt something really useful. I learnt more about myself and most importantly I learn the tecnique which can let me to live altruistic life, with no ego or selfishness, to live morally happy in a real harmony.

I recommend to try this meditation to everybody, it is a beautiful life philosophy and it is so logical and true. Let's purify ourselves, let's all find real happiness, real love and real harmony.

Anicca, anicca, anicca