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Alcohol
Almost without exception Lithuanian beer (alus) is light, crisp, cold, cheap and delicious. Many varieties exist and you're recommended to test a few before settling on one you like.
Among the many imbibed by persons annonymous (hic) are the delicious Utenos, Švyturys, Kalnapilis and Ragutis. Be weary of some as they tend to be stronger than the standard EU/American brews, making the forming of the simples words a challenge after just a couple of the most lethal. In bars expect to pay somewhere in the region of 5Lt for half a litre and half this price for a bottle in the shops.
Lithuanian vodka (degtinė) is cheap (2-5Lt for 50g), generally of a good quality, and is drunk with enthusiasm at the mere rumor of the dropping of a hat.
Be warned though, imported spirits (and to lesser extent imported beers) are not cheap. Don't fall into the trap of thinking that because local booze is giveaway every else is too. Check prices before a session, as the presentation of the bill can come as quite a shock.
Smoking
Many international cigarettes are readily available, and cigars, pipes, rolling tobacco and cigarette papers are also reasonably well represented.
Filterless Lithuanian cigarettes are dirt cheap (a pack of Astra will set you back a mere 1.65Lt or so), slightly nasty, and will kill you in exactly the same way as the finest tobacco money can buy. Leave a Comment
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Visiting Lithuania?
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Lithuania is a country dominated by the Roman Catholic Church. Over 80% of the population consider themselves Catholics. Also here you can find Evangelical Lutheran, Evangelical Reformist, Russian Orthodox, Baptist, Muslim and Jewish minorities. Leave a Comment
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Lithuania is situated on the eastern Baltic coast and borders Latvia in the north, the Kaliningrad region of the Russian Federation and Poland in the southwest and Belarus in the southwest and east. The geometrical centre of Europe lies in eastern Lithuania near the village of Bernotai, 25km (16 miles) north of Vilnius. The landscape alternates between lowland plains and hilly uplands and has a dense, intricate network of rivers, including the Nemunas and the Neris. One and a half per cent of the countryżs territory is made up of lakes, of which there are over 2800. The majority of these lie in the east of the country and include Lake Druksiai and Lake Tauragnas. Leave a Comment
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Lithuanian is the official language.
The Lithuanian language is one of the most archaic in Europe. Lithuanian is a representative of the Baltic group of the Indo-European languages. Currently, only Latvian is closely related to it. The four ethnic groups of Lithuanians have preserved their dialects, which differ in their phonetic, morphological and syntactic features, and even in vocabulary. Standard Lithuanian was formed on the basis of Latin vocabulary. It is claimed at times that Lithuanian is descended from Sanskrit. This hypothesis finds a sizeable number of supporters.
Lithuanian has a large number of dialects for such a small territory, including High Lithuanian (Aukstaiciai) and Low Lithuanian (Zemaiciai). Leave a Comment
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Temperate climate, but with considerable temperature variations. Summer is warm with relatively mild weather in spring and autumn. Winter, which lasts from November to mid-March, can be very cold. Rainfall is distributed throughout the year with the heaviest rainfall in August. Heavy snowfalls are common in the winter months. Leave a Comment
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Summer and spring (May through September) are far and away the best times of year to travel in Lithuania. The majority of foreign tourists come during July and August, when low-budget hotels and hostels can be fully booked. While there's usually a picturesque sprinkling of snow on the ground in winter (November through March), there's also only a few hours of daylight each day. Leave a Comment
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Time: Lithuania is in the Eastern European Time Zone: GMT + 3 hours (Summer time)
Summer time in Europe begins on Sunday March 31, 2002 at 2:00:00 AM local time.
Lithuania is in the Eastern European Time Zone: GMT + 2 hours (Winter time)
Winter time begins on October 27, 2002 at 3:00:00 AM local daylight time.
Climate: In 1999 there were: 1883 hours of sunshine, Total precipitation: 518.4mm, Average humidity: 77%
In 1998 there were: 1635 hours of sunshine, Total precipitation: 757mm, Humidity: 81%
Population: Lithuania (6th April 2001) : 3 483 972 (similar to Ireland, Albania, Norway or New Zeland)
Urban: 2 332 098
Rural: 1 151 874
Ethnic Composition: Lithuanians 81.8%, Russians 8.1%, Poles 6.9%, Belarusians 1.4%, Ukrainians 1%, Jews 0.1%, Others 0.7% (2001).
Religion: Roman Catholics accounted for 79% of Lithuanias population
Vilnius (2001): 542 287
Ethnic Composition: : 52.8% Lithuanians, 19.2% Poles, 19.2% Russians, 4.8% Belarusians, 4% others.
Geography: Territory: 65 200 km2: Lithuania is the largest of the three Baltic countries, twice the size of Belgium (30513 km2) and a wee bit smaller than Ireland (70283 km2).
Geographic coordinates: 56 00 N, 24 00 E
Borders: Inland borders with Latvia, Belarus, Poland and Russia (Kaliningrad) total 1,747 km. The Belarusian border is the longest, at 724 km. Coastline totals 99 km.
Map references: Europe
Land boundaries:
total: 1,273 km
border countries: Belarus 502 km, Latvia 453 km, Poland 91 km, Russia (Kaliningrad) 227 km
Coastline: 90 km
Maritime claims: territorial sea: 12 NM
Climate: transitional, between maritime and continental; wet, moderate winters and summers
Terrain: lowland, many scattered small lakes, fertile soil
Elevation extremes:
lowest point: Baltic Sea 0 m
Highest Hill: Juozapine, at 293.6m.
Natural resources: peat, arable land
GOVERNMENT OF LITHUANIA
Digraph: LT
Type: republic
Capital: Vilnius
Administrative divisions: 10 counties (apskritys, singular - apskritis): Alytaus, Kauno, Klaipedos, Marijampoles, Panevezio, Siauliu, Taurages, Telsiu, Utenos, Vilniaus .
Independence: 6 September 1991 (from Soviet Union)
National holiday:
January 1 - New Year's Day
January 13- Defenders of Freedom Day
February 16- Independence Day (1918)
March 11 - Restoration of Lithuania's Statehood
March 30 - Catholic Easter (1997)
May 1 - Labour Day
June 14 - Day of Mourning and Hope
July 6 - Crowning of Mindaugas, Day of Statehood.
August 23 - Black Ribbon Day
September 8 - Crowning of Vytautas the Great.
October 25 - Constitution Day
November 1 - All Saint's Day
December 25 - Christmas Day
December 26 - Boxing Day
Constitution: adopted 25 October 1992
Legal system: based on civil law system; no judicial review of legislative acts
Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal
Executive branch:
chief of state: President Rolandas Paksas (since 02 January 2003);
President Rolandas Paksas, tel. (+370-5) 2664001
President's office: Simono Daukanto sq. 3 LT-2008 Vilnius, LITHUANIA
head of government: Algirdas Mykolas Brazauskas
cabinet: Council of Ministers; appointed by the president on the nomination of the prime minister
Legislative branch: unicameral Parliament or Seimas (141 seats, 71 members are directly elected by popular vote, 70 are elected by proportional representation; members serve four-year terms)
elections: last held 8 October 2000 (next to be held October 2004)
election results: percent of vote by party - Social Democratic Coalition 31.1%, New Union/Social Liberals 19.6%, Liberal Union 17.2%, TS 8.6%, remaining parties all less than 5%; seats by party - Social Democratic Coalition 52, Liberal Union 34, New Union/Social Liberals 29, TS 9, Farmer's Party 4, Center Union 2, Poles' Electoral Action 2, Modern Christian Democratic Union 1, independents 3, others 5 Leave a Comment
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In 1898, when the tenth anniversary of Varpas magazine, the herald of ideas of independence during the tsarist regime, drew nearer, one of the leaders of the national movement, the writer Vincas Kudirka, wrote a poem called the National Song - Tautinė giesmė and set it to music. It was published for the first time in 1898, and first publicity performed in Vilnius in 1905. In 1918 Tautinė giesmė officially became the national anthem of the Republic of Lithuania. During the years of Soviet occupation it was forbidden to play it.
National Anthem of Lithuania
by Vincas Kurdika
Lithuania, my homeland, land of heroes!
Let your sons draw strength from the past.
Let your chidren follow only the path of virtue,
working for the good of their native land
and for all mankind.
Let the sun banish all darkness from Lithuania,
with light and truth always guiding our steps.
Let the love of Lithuania burn in our hearts
And for the sake of our country, let unity blossom.
The state flag of the Republic of Lithuania is cloth consisting of three horizontal stripes: yellow , green and red. The colours of the flag arise from various aspects of nature and Lithuanian values.
In olden times, Lithuanians had many flags. During the Zalgiris battle, the flag of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was red, with white coat of arms, the Vytis, embroidered on it. The Lithuanian public renewed discussion as to what the Lithuanian national flag ought to be only towards the end of the 19th century. Various combinations of two or tree colours prevailing in traditional national dresses (red, yellow, green, white) were used in national flags. The present-day flag and its colours were chosen by a special commission (Jonas Basanavicius, Tadas Daugirdas, Antanas Zmuidzinavicius) set up by the provisional supreme body of state power - the Lithuanian Council - of Lithuanian state under restoration. On April 19, 1918 the Lithuanian Council approved the design proposed by the commission. After Lithuania's occupation and annexation by the Soviet Union, the flag was placed under a ban and anyone flying it incurred severe punishment. A great many of these flags appeared at various rallies held by the Sajudis movement in the summer of 1988. Soon the flag was legalized: first, recognized as the national and later as the state flag on November 18, 1988, and on June 26, 1991 (the Supreme Council of the Republic of Lithuania law "On the state flag of the Republic of Lithuania").
About the The State Emblem you can find more info in this page --->
http://neris.mii.lt/homepage/vytis.html Leave a Comment
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Legend has it that the benevolent sea goddess Neringa loved the Curonian fishermen so much that, in order to keep them safe, she built a wall for them, far out of the coast, to protect them from the treacherous waters of the Baltic Sea. She personally carried the sand in her apron to build a seemingly endless ridge of dunes, and the fishermen, feeling indebted to this great deed named the land after she who created it: Neringa.
The Curonian Spit, Kurių Nerija or Neringa, is a very long and narrow peninsula stretching from the Russian enclave Kaliningrad to the port city of Klaipeda in Lithuania. It is 97 kilometers long and never more than four kilometers wide. After the last ice age, wind, wave, current and sand collided between the Baltic Sea and the delta of the great river Numenas, forming a ridge of dunes that nearly cuts off the Curonian Lagoon from the open sea. Only a narrow sea passage remains between Klaipeda in the east and the Curonian Spit in the west, easily crossed by ferry.
Soon after the dunes were formed trees began sprouting saplings all over the peninsula, their roots preventing the loose sand from being blown away. The forests that grew kept the dunes from moving and people came and built villages. But this peace was disrupted when the Teutonic knights invaded the peninsula in the thirteenth century and began deforesting the spit for gain in timber and tar. No longer kept in place, the dunes started drifting and soon the tranquil villages were devoured by the sand, forcing the inhabitants to rebuild their homes time after time. Entire villages were moved several times until, in the second half of the eighteenth century, realization came that the forests of Neringa formed the best defense against the moving sand. Since then Scots pine and mountain pine have been planted on the dunes, protecting the fragile eco system from the elements again.
PRACTICALITIES:
Today the Curonian Spit is a national park and listed on the UNESCO world heritage list. The park is easily accessible from Klaipeda; there is a small foot passenger ferry departing from the Old Castle Port (Senasis pilies uostas), and a larger car ferry leaving from the New Port (Naujasis uostas). You can find a ferry timetable and pricelist on this site:
http://www.keltas.lt/en/tvarkarastis.php
In addition to the fare for the ferry, all visitors are required to pay a 3 Lt national park entrance fee at the road block 5 km south of the ferry landing. Cars cost an additional 15 Lt (July 2005). We were advised to hold on to our receipt untill we had left the park, but we were never checked for it. Leave a Comment
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Before coming I did 2 years of research, and found it did me some good to know a little of this country before entering. To my surprise I knew more about this country then Irma. Now I have to admit that Grazina knew more then I, but it pays to know a little, just in case you go on your own, and you don't have a Lithuanian tour guide or friends in the country to show you around.
The warmth of the people and the food. Leave a Comment
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on November 24, 2005
on July 3, 2003
on October 9, 2005
on October 30, 2003
