Fun Weekend in Varena

Our buddy Mindaugo father lives outside Varena on a rural estate: electricity, but no hotwater, no gas, cooking only on a fire. Awesome! We thought we'd camp out, but when we got there he had a barf full of fresh hay, so we just slept on that. I mean, barn.

On the way, though, we stopped at the annual Lithuanian Aviation Fair. There were lots of planes there, and an air show including planes, helicopters, gliders, and skydivers. Bumped into some fam there, Algis and his family, so that was fun. There were no crashes, but we did see an ambulence on the way out. (I'd told Mindaugas about the air show in the simpsons when everybody sighs in disappointment when somebody almost crashes.)

We got there and drank lots of beer, but didn't pour beer all over ourselves because of the no shower/sleeping all in a big group situation. I guess we should have anyway.

Awesome šašlykai! Several heated debates, including Russia-Georgia and the ethics of at work corruption (what constitutes embezzelment, just stealing money or taking pencils home too?). Played some Beirut on the old hood of a car (I won twice, once against Rolandas, and once with my sepcial lady against Rolandas, Sveta, and Nikita).


The next morning we mourned Lithuania's loss of bronze.

Then we went mushroom picking, which I wrote about here. I've made two mushroom recipes already. Wild mushroom pizza was fantastic, wild mushrooms in sour cream sauce were way too liquidy, but I salvaged them by mixing them into potato mash instead of sour cream/butter.

Then sauna, including a some tequila for Mindaugas and me, and then more šašlykai, hooray!

Great weekend!

UPDATE: Wild Mushroom Risotto was also very good, a B+, though I just has bullion cubes for chicken broth and Gojos semi-hard cheese instead of Parmasan.