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July 29, 2006

Nida and family

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Some more of Lithuania again. Doesn't look bad, does it? This is the the view to the sand dunes in Nida, at the Neringa sand spit of the Lithuanian Baltic seaside. For the longest time Nida and Neringa was the most beautiful place that I've ever seen and could ever imagine.

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After seeing half of the world, Nida is still the reference point for me ("almost as beautiful as Nida", "not nearly as pretty as Nida", etc). I think, New Zealand comes a close second.. :)

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The amazing thing about Nida is that you don't have to do anything to feel on holiday and completely relaxed. The vast sunny sand dunes (the sand is cleaner and squeekier than I ever remember seeing anywhere else!)...

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...the 90km long sand beach, the sea sometimes wavy (good for kite surfing!), sometimes still like a bowl of milk...

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...beautiful pine tree forest covering the whole 90km of the sand spit (lots of berries and mushrooms).

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This time the forest was so dry and hot, that it smelled like sauna! (no berries or mushrooms because of that)

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I don't remember Nida this good, the weather was spectacular - not a cloud in sight and temperature around +25C degrees. This summer is a true summer of the childhood (childhood is when everything was better, brighter, the days were longer, the sun brighter, etc...) So we swam a lot and baked in sun (and came back much browner and healthier looking!)

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In the olden days Nida was a small fishing village suffering from infertile soil and threatened by moving sand from the dunes. The valley in the picture is called the Death Valley - the old village was burried under sand here. Beautiful place, definitely, but probably not so good for seriously agriculture-minded, I think.

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These days Nida is a prime holiday destination for families and pensioners (especially Germans!). Before the World War II Nida (and most of Lithuanian seaside) belonged to the Prussian empire. There are still people who had their homes here (or their families) that come down to Nida for a holiday or to buy a piece of property. You'd find Lithuanian and German menus in restaurants and most of the locals speak German rather than English.

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The cross in the dunes is the mini version of the Hill of Crosses. I think it started with someone erecting a makeshift cross just for the hell of it (hmm, is it proper wording talking about crosses? :) And later on people started adding small crosses, making a wish, asking for things, the usual pagan idol worshiping, you know. Its a good place to leave your worry for someone else to worry about - I left one tiny cross too... To make someone to worry about our future. :)

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And of course, of course, we had a lot of Svyturio, the best beer in the world. Kaj made a beer drinker out of me... :)

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On the other hand, I made a Lithuanian food fan - a herring and zeppelin eater out of Kaj... :)

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Nida was the final stop in our trip to Lithuania. The rest was scheduled and packed with relatives related activities. :) On the first day we had horse riding organised by my sister.

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If you've been reading my blog diligently, you may know that my sister was crazy about horses since she was very small. She still rides horses these days and she really knows how to handle them. For me the horses are too big and too unpredictable.

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So I took this oportunity to ride a horse with due caution... But it was excellent! I never knew what kind of interaction is really supposed to go on between you and a horse, before Loreta, the horse owner, explained me how to really ride a horse. I'd just sit on it like a piece of wood and do nothing. I though that the horse reacts, because you're giving voice commands and kicking its sides. But there's really much more than that, your whole body is supposed to work and tell the horse to go or to stop. You're basically supposed to pull the horse forward with each step that it makes. Really cool!

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Then we went to visit my grandmother in Rokiskeles village with my father and his wife. Me, my sister and my cousins were spending most of our summers there. Its was nice to walk the old paths and go to the lake where we used to swim on hot summer days.

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My gradmother is close to 90 years old now, she's living alone in the house in the country side (not much services around!) and is capable to take care of herself, the house and the dog. She's really amazing and very sharp. She's also taking care of a lot of plants (look at the lemon tree behind!) and a huge beautiful flower bed in the yard.

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My grandmother has some problems with blood pressure, so she has the device for instantly measuring it. I tried it on Kaj and it came out 230 on 90 or something. My grandmother said that last time she had this kind of blood pressure, she called the ambulance. It took us some time to realize that we were taking the blood pressure from the wrong side of Kaj's wrist.. ufff... thank goodness... :)

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We didn't have time to meet any of my friends this time, we were so busy hanging out with the family... Sorry, guys, we've seen in June, I just couldn't make it this time!

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I'm happy that we could see almost everyone from the family (my sister and Giedrius had the 11th anniversary of their marriage! congratulations!), before... yes... Going to New Zealand. I haven't been writing a lot about the decision making that was going on the background here, but this is completely official now - I'm flying off next weekend and Kaj is joining me in a week or so, when his work visa arrives... So stay tuned for more.. :)

Posted by gkligyte at July 29, 2006 03:59 AM
Comments
I had got a desire to begin my own commerce, but I didn't have enough amount of money to do it. Thank goodness my close mate told to take the loans. Thus I used the college loan and realized my dream. Posted by: ClementsJacqueline on July 3, 2010 05:54 AM
Giedrute, tik dabar apziurejau tavo ispudzius is Nidos, bet yra tik kelios pirmosios nuotraukos, visur kitur nebuvo paveikslu, nei is Rokiskeliu, nei Vilniaus... Gal tai lokali problema, bet pasitikrink ar viskas gerai. Laukiam naujienu is NZ. mama Posted by: mama on August 7, 2006 09:47 PM
Yeah, Anna, it was great to meet you (just that one time :( in the Lab. I don't think I'll make it there again before leaving. But I'm sure I'll be coming down many more times! Thanks for moral support and comments, it makes it worth writing... :) Posted by: Giedre on August 4, 2006 01:11 AM
Dalyt, labai gaila, kad nesusitikom Lietuvoj pries isvaziuojant. Tikrai visas laikas buvo prarytas visokiu pusiau oficialiu vizitu ir dar gavom kelias dienas Nidoj praleist... Bet labai tikiuosi, kad rasysi man daznai ir jus visada laukiami atvaziuot!!! Tik issiruoskit, butinai priimsim! Posted by: Giedre on August 4, 2006 01:08 AM
Ok, so be it that way, then. Your grandma's citrus tree is spectacular! Posted by: AA on August 3, 2006 06:13 PM
grazu... kur as tai maciau?.. Pasirodo, tu buvai visai netolies...:( smagu, kad spejai uzsukti i LT pries ilga kelione. Sekmes prisijaukinant nauja vieta, naujus zmones ir darba. O mes, tikiuosi, vel turesim dziaugsmo ir malonumo susipazinti dar su viena kultura, paprociais ir naujais tavo ispudziais ir nuotykiais. Posted by: dalia on August 2, 2006 01:17 AM
Yes, neringa still looks as beautiful as I remember it, perhaps warmer =) Posted by: abc on July 30, 2006 10:19 PM
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