Here's Liudas holding a koala in Queensland, in 2018, on the left. And here he is holding his Maine Coon Česlovas (aka Cheslov) on the right
Some people chose to recreate stunning city skylines by replacing them with apartment buildings in the distance. While others pretended to be surfboarding by posing on windowsills, replaced snakes with vacuum cleaners, and exchanged waterfalls for showers. Liudas himself posed with his Maine Coon instead of a koala.
We were interested to find out more about Liudas’ koala photo. According to the journalist, he’s got plenty of pictures with these fluffy creatures from his earlier trips to Australia. This particular photo, however, was taken in Queensland, in 2018.
“They’re very slow creatures and they’re not too bright. They either sleep or chew eucalyptus leaves all day long,” Liudas told us about what koalas are like. According to him, the male in the photo was incredibly friendly, but he simply stank of eucalyptus. Just like all males do.
“They have a special gland in their chests which spreads the smell so that they can mark their territory when they rub up against a tree.”
Liudas’ Maine Coon is called Česlovas (aka Cheslov or Cheska for short which is easy to call out) and he’s turning 3 years old this Summer. In case you were wondering, Cheslov weighs 11 kg and his original name was Yahoo.
The veteran traveler revealed to Bored Panda that the coronavirus quarantine messed up a lot of his plans in 2020. “We had to cancel a very interesting family trip to rarely-visited places in Turkey. I’m not sure if we’ll be going to Portugal for Midsummer’s Day where they have a peculiar tradition to celebrate the day by hitting people on the head with inflatable hammers in the streets.”
He added: “Our trips to Canada, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama won’t happen, either. We also planned to visit Mauritius and Reunion Island in November. Other than that, not much else has changed.”
Liudas told Bored Panda that he’s keeping busy during the quarantine. “I give out interviews, I sometimes go on TV shows, and I’m working on an interesting new project which will be important for Lithuania after this entire story is over and done with.” He also hinted that he might release another new book this year. “I already have the plot figured out and I even have the time to put words on paper.”
Liudas is a veteran journalist. He's been with the Associated Press for more than 22 years. He's currently an editor at Laisvės TV (Freedom TV), while previously he worked as editor in chief at two major Lithuanian news websites 15min.lt and Lrytas.lt, and was deputy editor in chief for the Lietuvos rytas newspaper. Before that, he was editor in chief at Playboy Lithuania and a production assistant at the BBC.
Besides being one of the most widely-recognized journalists in the Baltics, he’s also an avid traveler with a thirst for new experiences. He’s been to more than 70 countries all around the world. And earlier this year, he published a book titled Žuvis, kuri supainiojo duris (The Fish That Fooled The Door) which is a collection of 70 short stories about his globetrotting adventures and wanderlust.
“When we go on a trip, we’re determined to suffer so that we can become enlightened,” the writer said. “We wander about to find some sort of meaning in our daily lives.”
