Trakai Local Customs

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Kinesa - Karaims, a minority religious group, worships here. The origin of the minority group seems to open to different interpretations, so I recommend viewers of this tip to open "Karaims in Trakai in Lithuania" site.

Direction: go on the main road 2-3 minutes from Trakai castle toward the city center. on your right side: Address: Karaimu 30.

Take care with this one it has a nasty habit or burning you as you attempt to eat it. A Zeppelin shape pastry filled with hot meat.# and very tasty i must admit.
For the ultimate Lithuanian experience enjoy this little piece of heaven with a pint (or litre here) of a local beer. Both are best enjoyed by taking in the views of the castle from the lake shore and people spotting.

The first karaite families were settled in Trakai in the XIV Century by the Gran Duke Vitautas.They came from Crimea and they brought with them their religion(jewish),their tartar (turkish) accent and customs.Nowadays they are only a few.
I ate an exotic food made in Trakai for the karaites.It is called "kibinai",a kind of cake with meat and baken in the oven

Walking around Trakai I didn't meet any local walking a dog. Instead, I could see dogs imprisoned in usually relatively small, fenced areas (doggy pens) with wooden kennel/doghouse put inside. This German sheppard, on my picture, looked rather aggresive and was barking loudly when any-one was passing by.

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They used to built more and more bars and restaurants along southern shore of Galve lake. As for now, they didn't destroy unique lanscape of that area, maybe a little bit. But you can taste delicious Lithuanian beer on a water with a pretty view over Galve lake and a castle on an island.

Sooner or later this very touristy area maybe full of similar restaurants, over-crowded and probably over-priced. But not yet... in 2004 :-).

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There was a group of wooden houses located along Karaimu gatve (street) close to a bridge to a castle island - one of them on my picture. Map here. They were described as traditional Karaims' houses. Karaimes were people of Turkish origin brought to Trakai from Crimea at the end of the 14th century.


Well, the houses didn't look very old. Their roofs mostly of corrugated iron sheets and their chimneys made of white small bricks were not authentic. They were painted mostly in green or yellow/orange, never in blue and they didn't look different than typical Lithuanian houses. Hmm... the most beautiful wooden houses I found in Lithuania were not in Trakai but in Kedainiai.

Excuse, it's more Lithuania than Trakai local custom tip. I will transfer it to my Lithuania page soon.

Whenever you look for souvenirs/gifts from Lithuania look for a sign "SUVENYRAI", like on my picture. Well, they usually added English explanation (souvenirs shop) especially in touristy places like Trakai but is less visited destinations not always. Suvenyrai is in Lithuanian language plural for souvenir. Nouns in plural end with "ai" in Lithuanian as I noticed.


For more basic words in Lithuanian including their pronunciation (sound files to download) click here, please and select Lithuanian language.

They used to put typical Lithuanian, wooden statues, like on my picture, in front of many touristy stores/shops in Trakai. Well, you can buy one if you have large car :-). Typical Lithuanian wooden statue was high and rather thin. Locals were not always that high and thin, though :-).