last day in Vilnius/Vilne

Baleboste is literally just down the street. We've been there three times, the first when we first met our friends there for the first time in person, the second and third for breakfast and not one disappointment was had...ok I was a little sad there was no compot the last two times but the coffee made up for it because it somehow reminded me of Mom mom's.

we next stopped at the market to buy a little acacia honey from the herb lady we talked to in an earlier post.  also we were looking for some kybynis (empanada-like pastries) to take on the million hour bus ride to Poznan tomorrow. we will have to buy fresh ones tomorrow morning, which is probably a better idea anyway. After that, we headed to a store our friends told us about because i have been in search of sea buckthorn berries to make tea. but it's just as i feared, they are sold either fresh or frozen so we continued on our way... but here are some of the handmade things sold at this store:

we had planned to go to the botanical garden in the woods near the university but reality conspired against us or rather should i say traffic. as a plan B, i really wanted to take another walk in the woods that surround this city so we hopped on a bus and got off at the first park entrance called Balmount I believe. The street was so busy that people walking on the sidewalk literally were going faster than the bus was crawling. Also it was insanely hot today, maybe 80 and we really didn't bring clothes for warm weather and so far haven't needed them. As soon as we jumped off the bus and started up the park trail, the city and road noises faded further away and the temperature cooled the deeper we went into the little woods.

the top video shows a path that must be part of an old road connecting villages through the forest and eventually the city must have sprawled around it. you can see the old stone road has fallen into disrepair and is missing big chunks. we walked down here in search of a "wc" and came upon some sort of equestrian center you see in the second video.

along the path were so many plants, some i recognized and some i didn't. this is a Hepatica or liverwort:

and here's mothetwort growing all around the horse corrals and training areas:

there were so many just sprouting plants, too many to include but here's A near a little meadow of Hepaticas:

I probably should have taken a pic of the soil. it's really sandy and when you walk on it you sink down a little and it has such a fantastic smell like fresh, clean earth, very hard to describe but somehow i think you know what i mean.

we're back at the apartment and i have to pack because we have to get up early to buy a few food and drink items and then catch the bus by 8:30ish for the long haul to Poznan. I'll try to take some pics along the way.