Nida - National Park Curonian Spit (park exchanges)

Nida and Olga greeted me warmly!!!






But, I had a work. With employees of the National park, we went to the dunes.  In the dunes, we were pulling out  young fir-trees, which can damage dunes.










There was a lot of discovery. Wild Rose. Its berries can be eaten and used in jam. Barberry. Very tart, but tasty. Old sneakers. We can not eat it, but they look impressive. Sneakers became part of nature.












I was lucky, because together with staff of National park, I visited the reserve dunes. And even saw a rare plant from the Red Book of Lithuania.
















In addition to the dunes, I saw many other attractions Nida. I visited one of the highest points in the park. From there a beautiful view over the dunes. I also saw a sundial, but I did not like. Amber Museum, Historical museum made ​​a good impression.













On the instructions of the office of National park I and Olga walked through the dunes and forests in search of columns for the lottery. We had to check whether all the columns "alive." At the same time we have taken part in the lottery.







On the way we saw a monument for  gliders and Nida artists colony and modern church of Nida.











Before leaving I and Olga did dumplings (kolduni) for staff office of National park.













Thank you very much for the opportunity to be in Nida. Nida, I will definitely be back ...  :)

Traditional Lithuanian “margučiai“ (painted eggs)

Before Easter Lithuanian people paint eggs. It is very interesting because they use some traditional methods. The most difficult way - decorating boiled eggs with melted wax. I and Vincent tried to do this.



We were invited as special guests for event in the local library where people of the local community together got ready for Easter. They learned to decorate eggs with complicated drawings, they taught their children, grandchildren and us the art of decorating Easter eggs. We learned many interesting facts about Easter traditions of Lithuania. We presented Easter traditions of our country (Moldova & France). But, of course, most importantly, we were able to decorate Easter eggs that we ate 2 weeks ago…But I have nice pictures, as the memory of our masterpieces))



My pictures look like a children's creativity.



Unlike me, Vincent is very talented. His creativity you can see even here. :D









Decoration of the wax is hard work. You must have melt wax and a tool with a sharp tip to apply the wax on the egg. The wax dries very quickly, so it's important to do everything very fast. You have to put the egg with the wax down into the paint and, finally, to delete the wax.  Pooohhhhhhhh…)





I prefer the other way. On eggs are pasted small flowers, leaves, or an onion peel. Then they are packed  with a thin thread and they are lowered into the paint. After this, all plants are removed from the surface of the egg. We can see a beautiful image!



                            GERAS!!! :)

The Cocktail of pictures and events

Today is April 1 - Day of humor. Weather joked. Today, instead spring, we have winter. Snow fell today. We have just returned from Kaunas. This is the second largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius. Nice town with clean streets and cozy center. The weather was not very good, so it seems that people in the city center are sad and inhospitable. We really wanted to visit the museums of Kaunas, but they were closed. We only saw the city. May be next time our trip will be better. :)























The only museum that we visited - the museum in the House of Culture in Ignalina. Very interesting!  We saw the famous pictures on a piece of wood, folk art objects.







In this museum I liked very much “verbos” - compositions of dried plants and flowers. I would say the traditional Lithuanian Ikebana.)) People make it for Easter.







Last Saturday, I and Vincent walked 20 miles through forests, villages, fields and forests again. We have seen traces of large wild boar and deer. It is good that we have not seen the animals themselves), they can be dangerous. During the trip, we climbed to the highest point of our National Park. From this point we can see at least seven lakes.







We also walked through the broken bridge )) and saw real water mill. I will still talk about water mill in the future.





But the main thing! We have seen snowdrops. This means that the spring comes into its own, and soon we will enjoy the warm weather. :)