Matt, one of Loche's mates is married to Jurga who is Lithuanian and they live in Klaipeda. Matt, Jurga, Tomas (11) and Marija (7) put us up and showed us around for 10 days. There was enough room at their house for us to set the van up. It was so wonderful to talk to Jurga and learn about the culture, food and history of Lithuania.

Matt & Jurga work with Amber - Amber is fossilised tree resin that is about 50 million years old (give or take a few million years). They make a variety of different products out of Amber including sailing boats, lighthouses, horse shoes and jewellery. While we were there, they made Loche a sailing boat, me some earrings and both of us a necklace. Amber has a lot of health benefits and is becoming very popular in Australia for relief of teething in babies.

We arrived at Matt & Jurga's house at about 5pm on Saturday 22 June. We were quick to set up and sit down for a beer and a chat. Matt showed us around his veggie patch and Cara loved seeing the kittens that are about a month old and very cute! After a delicious dinner we cracked open some local Lithuanian Gold Vodka. It wasn't long after that I went to the caravan and lay down - I couldn't stand up any longer. I was in bed before Cara and woke up with a hell of a headache!

I don't think I drank that much - I had 3 beers and a couple of shots of vodka, but I was quite sick the next day. I was talking to Jurga and she explained to me that the beer we were drinking was 7.5% alcohol and beer in Lithuania can only have 5% alcohol so to make it stronger, they top it up with spirits. The beer, vodka, lack of sleep from the previous night and not much to eat through the day didn't make a good combination.

The following day was the longest day (or shortest night) of the year and it is celebrated here with a festival. We went along to the main celebrations on the waterfront in Klaipeda where they had a stage set up with a live band playing. The band was great, playing modern songs with a jazz feel. Nearby was a bar with a playground for the kids. We would have loved to stay longer but it all got too much for Cara - after a few days of not nearly enough sleep, she'd had enough.

The next day we went for a drive to see some of the local sights. Our first stop was a trip to the beach. We parked the car and had to walk through the forest to get to the beach. On the walk, Jurga found some grass that looked a bit like clover - the English name for it is Rabbit's Cabbage and you can eat it and put it in salads. It's good for your stomach if you are feeling a bit sick. Loche and I tried it and it had a distinct mulberry taste. Further along Jurga also spotted some wild strawberries - they are a lot smaller than normal strawberries and a bit more sour, but still delicious. The strawberries are full of vitamins and minerals and they say if you eat a cup of them in summer, you won't get sick in winter. The wild strawberries will grow for a few weeks and then after that there will be wild blueberries growing. There is a field across the road from Matt & Jurga's house and there are wild berries growing here as well, the kids often go over and pick them. Jurga has so much knowledge of different foods, plants and trees, how you use them, what you can use them for and health benefits etc.

On the floor of the forest was a moss like grass that they call green carpet - and that's just what it felt and looked like. We walked out through the forest onto the sand dunes and down to the water. It wasn't too cold and Cara and Marija went straight in for a swim. There weren't too many people on this beach and it was lovely and relaxing. What we did find interesting was a row of brown along the sand that, at first glance, looked like brown seaweed. On closer inspection we found it was layers of dead beetles - like Christmas beetles, thousands of them. Something I've never seen on a beach before!

On Tuesday, 25 June Jurga had organised a boat ride for us all. Kestutis owns a traditional fishing boat and is a friend of the family, he was very happy to take us out for the day. We arrived at his house, just across the road from the river and he showed us around. He has rooms you can stay in, saunas and a big outdoor room with a fireplace to cook on.

We hopped on the boat and were very pleased to see it had an outboard motor on it, though we did row for the first couple of kilometres of the 20km trip. Our first stop was at his mates' house down the river and we had a look around. Loche was very interested to see he had an outdoor spa with a wood-fired furnace to heat it during winter. We hopped back on the boat where we were greeted with a bottle of 'traditional' vodka and some food to have with it. When you drink in Lithuania it is customary that you eat as well. We all had shots, each person taking turns to make a toast and between each shot having a piece of bread with smoked pork and a choice of dill, mint or shallot - a lovely combination. After we did that, it was decided we'd best put the outboard on - we were too 'relaxed' to row!

We came out of the mouth of the river into the bay. It was very shallow at the mouth and we anchored up and went for a swim. Once we were on our way again Kestutis offered us a beer each - well, why not!! With the beer he brought out a packet of small smoked fish. Jurga was showing me the best way to eat them and I found they went really well with the beer.

We could hear the thunder rumbling in the distance and after a discussion about whether we should turn back to avoid it, we decided we would just keep going and take our chances. Not much further along the rain started coming down and we were all drenched but still laughing and having a great time! With the rain came the march flies - well they were a bit narrower in the body than march flies, but they still stung you just the same. We wondered why they were so suddenly appearing and biting us, and Jurga explained they only bite you when you are wet. A bit further along, I was starting to quite urgently need to go to the toilet. We were still a fair way from home, so Jurga explained to Kestutis the necessity of the situation (he couldn't speak English so Jurga translated for us all day). He quickly pulled the boat to the side of the river where there was some very long grass and bushes. You've never seen me move so fast as I did to get off that boat into the bushes. I found the nearest spot and after instant relief the stinging became apparent - yes, the spot I had chosen was right over some stinging nettles!! Everyone was having a good old laugh at me. I got back to the boat and splashed some water on myself and felt much better.

When we arrived back at the house we were nicely surprised to find a hot sauna and a delicious home cooked meal waiting for us! We had such a wonderful day!

The main shopping centre in Klaipeda is called Akropolis. It's a very large centre and has an ice skating rink in the centre of it. Surrounding the rink are restaurants, so you can sit and have something to eat and watch everyone fall over in the rink. This 'food court' area has so much more character than anything I've seen before in a shopping centre. There's a fairytale castle and giant windmill suspended in the ceiling and there is a stream running through all the restaurants - the lighting is dimmed as well, making it very relaxed. Matt showed us through one eatery where you can get soup, bread, meat and salad for 8 Lithuanian Lita's, which is about $3 AUD.

One day the boys decided that Jurga and I should go shopping and do girly things and they'd look after the kids. My main aim for the day was to get a haircut. We asked the price at a hairdresser in the first shopping centre we went to and they wanted 50 Litas ($20AUD). That's expensive, so we went down the road a bit where there are a lot of residential units and at the bottom of the units you can usually find a hairdresser. It didn't take us long to seek one out (it helps when you are with a local who knows what she's doing!) We got a price of 30 Litas ($12AUD). The lady did such a great job, spent longer on it than she expected and I was very happy with the result.

On Saturday 29 June, we went to the markets. We were hoping to pick up some cheap second hand bikes, but didn't have any luck. I managed to find a new handbag and Loche bought a fishing rod and some lures. After that we went for a drive to Palanga, which is a beach about 40km's from Klaipeda. It's a very touristy area and as we were driving into town we saw all these people on the sides of the road with signs. They were advertising rooms they had for rent. There's no 'wotif' here - everyone who has holiday rooms to let go to the highway, put signs up and if you are interested you stop and have a chat to them about it and they take you to it.

Palanga itself is very nice and has a beautiful, if very busy, beach. We walked through the main street that has cafes, shops and kids rides all the way along. At the end of the street is the beach and there are a couple of bars here if you feel like a cold one! The kids went for a swim and played in the sand for a while before we made our way back to the car. On the walk back to the car we came across a marching band making their way down the street. A bit further along Jurga pointed out an old Russian building and told us that in the USSR era this building was a government-owned holiday unit block. If you wanted to have a holiday on the beach, you could stay there for free. You just had to line up and apply for it.

We were intending on leaving on Monday 1 July but were having such a good time and after another night of cards and Vodka, we decided to stay an extra day. So instead of leaving on Monday, we made our way up to Latvia to have a look at another country. As soon as we crossed the border the roads changed and we had a not-so-lovely reminder of Poland. We went to the nearest large town on the Latvian coast - Liepaja. This looked to be an industrial area with a couple of large ports and other associated industries. We had a bit of a drive around but didn't see too much that interested us. The buildings were very run down and a lot of graffiti.

After we got back into Klaipeda Matt took us to an underground bar that he'd been to before, there are many of these bars in Klaipeda - they are quite small and built in the basements of the buildings. We had a bite to eat - I had some lovely pancakes filled with chicken - delicious! From there we found another bar, had another drink before heading home for an early night. Loche and I had decided we'd better leave the next day and keep moving or we won't see everything we want to see.