On the road from Vilnius to Klaipeda, we stopped at Rumksiske’s Ethnographic Open-Air Museum. Our costumed guide, Ruta, led us to some of the more than 400 acres. The museum was established in 1966 but did not open to the public until 1974 because of the time needed to find, dismantle, and reconstruct all the original buildings here.
Five ethnographical regions are represented in the fascinating outdoor museum: highlands, southeastern, northwestern lowlands, southwestern, and Curonian Spit. Each area contains very different forms of housing, each of which was adapted to the geography in which they were built.
A few of the many interesting facts we learned:
· Bread was considered sacred because of all the work that went into making it. If a piece of bread was dropped on the floor, a person was to pick it up, kiss it, and put it back on the table. At that time, a girl was married at 14 when she baked her first piece of bread by herself.
· Ruta, the name of our guide, is the name of the national flower. Ruta signified purity and virginity. Somewhat ironically, Ruta tea was used to terminate pregnancy.
· Matchmakers judged people by the condition of their flower gardens.
The Deportation and Resistance area of the museum was especially fascinating and sobering. Our guide, a 96-year-old survivor of Siberia, shared her story of Soviet occupancy. Her father, a Lithuanian military officer, was shipped to a separate place and executed very shortly thereafter. (The Soviets believed that getting rid of intellectuals, military officers, and the elite would leave the remainder of the people like sheep who would blindly follow whoever told them what to do.) Her mother, sibling and she were deported on a cattle car with 63 others—so many that there was no room to sit, much less lie down. Their horrific journey lasted about a month with only brief stops every two days or so for the Soviets to put new buckets of water on the car and remove the dead bodies. Miraculously, this 13-year-old girl survived the trip and the remainder of her 17 years in Siberia before escaping and returning to Lithuania.
We arrived at our destination of the day, Klaipeda, after a fun lunch stop at a family-owned café featuring traditional Lithuanian foods and a visit with the owner. Klaipeda is a coastal town with a lively ice-free port. Even though the weather was cold—at least by my standards—we enjoyed exploring the town with its charming statues that popped up everywhere.
Like much of Lithuania, Klaipeda had belonged to the Curonians, the Teutonic Knights, Russia, Germany, and the Soviet Union through its history. Much of the town, including the castle, was destroyed in WWII, but the oldest houses still date to the 1700s. (A very interesting note: As we walked around town, we kept hearing loud booms. We later discovered that the explosive noises occurred every time a bus crossed the drawbridge.)
Our hotel, the National Hotel, was located very close to everything and had a cozy pub attached to it. After a wonderful dinner, we walked to the port where we spotted the eeriest statue, the Black Ghost, as he perpetually pulls himself from the water’s depth to the pier. (We enjoyed searching for varying size statues hiding throughout the town.)
The next morning the weather cleared as we took the ferry to the Curonian Spit, an island about 60 miles long and a quarter to 2.5 miles wide. This small island holds a wealth of history and natural beauty as it separates the Curonian Lagoon from the Baltic Sea. The northern part of the island belongs to Lithuania while the southern portion belongs to Russia.
The beach of the Curonian Spit also contains surprises for those able to visit after a storm and patient enough to look carefully. The surprise? Raw amber that washes up from the Baltic Sea. (We didn’t find amber, but we enjoyed the windy beauty of the beach.)
Our next stop, with Wilma, our guide for the day, was at the Hill of Witches in the Curonian Spit National Park in Neringa. (You have to pay a toll to enter.)
The beautiful hike to see the wooden statues highlights many of the traditional Lithuanian tales. The ancient forest on the beautiful hillside was once the area where witches came to celebrate midsummer’s nights. The statues are of good happenings while walking up the path, but descending the stories become darker.
Many of the statues are of Neringa, a giant girl who once lived in Lithuania. She was guided by the goddess of fortune, Fortuna, and Neptune. (Wilma pointed out that the sun within the cross is prevalent here, also.) Neringa made the Curonian Spit to protect the fisherman from storms.
Next up was a dying forest which was being killed by the sheer number of giant cormorants that live there. Their feces are so acidic that it has destroyed many of the trees. However, the cormorants are protected so the ways to remove them are limited.
After a delicious lunch in Nida, the downtown area, we walked along a beach to an amber workshop where we learned how to discover amber beneath its humble façade and make it into jewelry.
After this stop we adventured to see one of the island’s many natural phenomena, the largest drifting sand dunes in the world. These dunes, a result of deforestation, ate 4 towns and 2 cemeteries between 1675 and 1854. Thankfully, careful moves have stabilized the dunes, and they are now a UNESCO World Heritage site.
From the top of one of Parnidis Dune, we could see Russia and the large sundial built in 1995. (We were warned to turn off our phones or put them in airplane mode as we neared Russia to avoid an excessive bill that sometimes occurs in the area.) From this point, we were only about 1.5 miles from this bit of Russia that is totally separated from its motherland.
Then, back to the ferry, which has operated for more than 1,000 years, and to Klaipeda, our stop for one more night before heading to Riga, Latvia, with our tour director, Marius, with Overseas Adventure Travel.
Check out my post on Vilnius, Lithuania, by clicking here.
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