Curonian Spit. Lithuanian side

An article about how and why sand dunes move, what the Curonian Spit is (Lithuania), how to get to the Curonian Spit, about the beaches and forest on the Curonian Spit, the city of Nida and how to get from Vilnius to Klaipeda, as well as how to rent cheap apartments in Klaipeda.

The first half of the year turned out to be full of surprises and interesting places. One of these wonderful miracles was for me a vacation on the Curonian Spit in Lithuania, which took place during summer holidays in the Baltics.

Curonian Spit is a unique natural attraction, which is a strip of sand 98 km long and 400 meters to 4 km wide.

It separates the salty Baltic Sea and the freshwater Curonian Lagoon. Half of the spit belongs to the Russian Federation, and the other half to Lithuania.

So it all started with the ferry. We are frugal and horseless guys, so we decided to live in Klaipeda in these rented apartments one kilometer from new ferry crossing.

On the way to the ferry, the houses look sad from the outside

But the traffic lights in Klaipeda are like those in your beloved Berlin. Do you know these little people?

Living in Klaipeda is very convenient, I want to tell you. Supermarkets nearby (Acropolis and Rimi), no need to overpay for food. On the Curonian Spit prices are 2-3 times higher than in Klaipeda.

And so you come to a new crossing, pay about 0.8 euro in both directions and after 10-15 minutes you are already in another world. Where there is a coniferous forest, sandy hills and the Baltic Sea.

By the way, on the way back, pedestrians do not have to pay for the ferry, because the return trip is included in the ticket price. The ferry runs every 20 minutes until 20.00.

If you go straight along the hiking trail from new ferry crossing, then after 15 minutes you come out onto a stunning deserted beach.

Along the way you enjoy the views of coniferous trees forests on the Curonian Spit

And privacy. One such walk brought a lot of emotions and new impressions. You could stay on the beach with a sense of accomplishment. But the spirit of adventure took us further to the sand dunes.

According to rumors, which were later confirmed, the highest and most beautiful dunes are located in the city area Nida, which is almost on the border with Russia, 50 km from Klaipeda.

In Nida, by the way, there is also a beach, but everything there is somehow very touristy, not like us. 3 km from the city there is one of the most beautiful sand dunes of the Curonian Spit, reaching a height of about 70 meters.

These dunes move under the influence of the wind. Walking sands, in a word. Not only sands can walk, but also people, especially for whom there are signs “Do not walk on the dunes.”

Unfortunately, such a sign for people is like a red rag for a bull. A wide road of footprints in the sand indicates that it is simply impossible for our man to prohibit something.

Get from Nida to the sandy beaches dunes You can either walk along the sea or ride a bicycle.

Renting a large one for an hour will cost 2 euros, this is enough time to climb the dunes, look at the Russian Federation, take pictures in different poses and return to the city.

There are a lot of cyclists on the Curonian Spit. Equipped trails run along the entire length of the spit, so many people ride with their two-wheeled friends and cut through the forests and sands.
There are benches for rest along the entire perimeter of the route.

TOP 3 things to see on the Curonian Spit

1. Coniferous forest

2. Baltic Sea beach in the area of the new crossing

3. Sand dunes near Nida, with views of the Kaliningrad region, Death Valley and the lighthouse.

How to get to Nida from Klaipeda

You can get to the city of Nida on the Curonian Spit from Klaipeda in two stages: first by ferry, then by bus.

1. Ferry Klaipeda - Smiltyne

First you need to take a ferry from Klaipeda to the city of Smiltyne on the Curonian Spit. Bicycles are transported free of charge, you only need to pay per person and per car.

Prices for the ferry Klaipeda - Smiltyne:

In winter, I have already been to the river, which rises from the mainland near Zelenogradsk (Kranz) and ends opposite Klaipeda. Even then, I made several assumptions about the similarities and differences between the two halves:
1. The Russian side has richer and more exotic nature.
2. On the Lithuanian side there are more settlements and historical monuments.
3. The Lithuanian half is more “cultured” and more convenient for tourists.
The first two points turned out to be correct, the third - with one caveat: “a striking contrast with the Kaliningrad region” is shown not even in the Lithuanian Spit itself, but specifically settlements on it, first of all, Nida.

In general, the Lithuanian Spit is structured very interestingly - its “edge” belongs to Klaipeda, and there is the Lithuanian Maritime Museum shown there. The rest of the spit with 4 villages (Juodkrante, Pervalka, Preila and Nida) since 1961 has been united into the city of Neringa (3.6 thousand inhabitants), stretching for 50 kilometers, and I think it’s not worth explaining that 95% of its area is forests and dunes. Neringa is also the only regime city in Lithuania - only the “regime” is set here national park and a UNESCO protected area. There will be a separate post about Nida, but now about the road to it through the dunes and the village of Juodkrante with the picturesque Witch Mountain.

I already told the story of the Curonian Spit in the “Kaliningrad” post, and I’m too lazy to retell it in detail. But, in short, the Curonian Spit is a man-made work: the fact is that back in the 17-18 centuries, people completely cleared away the forests that covered it, thereby releasing the Sand Demon. There is no mysticism: the wind quickly scattered the last soil, and a natural desert with creeping sands and multi-meter dunes was formed on the Baltic coast, burying entire villages. Now this period is called the Sandy Catastrophe - it became almost impossible to live on the spit, the Curonians went so far as to start catching crows with nets and salting them in barrels, like herring. As a result, Prussia began a grandiose environmental project to restore the forests of the Curonian Spit, the implementation of which dragged on for a century and a half. Basically, the spit was planted with common pine trees (59% of its forests), but in general it was a real “acclimatization testing ground” - here there are plantings of a variety of trees, which continued to be planted until the war. In 1987, a national park was created on the Russian side of the spit, in 1991 - on the Lithuanian side, and in 2000-2003 (first Lithuanian, then Russian) both of them became part of the World Heritage UNESCO, and not as a “natural”, but precisely as a “cultural” object.

But the fact that the national park appeared earlier on the Russian side is generally not surprising: the southern half of the spit is much more beautiful and exotic. Firstly, there is a braid at the same (from 2 kilometers to 400 meters versus 2-4 kilometers in Lithuania); secondly, there are more extensive dunes there; finally, the forest there is much more diverse - there are five species of pines alone, and there are also all sorts of exotics such as giant thuja: apparently, in the part adjacent to Königsberg, they worked out which tree would be most convenient to plant a spit, but here, in the far part, they worked with showed the greatest effectiveness. In general, the forest here is mainly of two types - deciduous crooked forest (as in the frame above) and pine forest:

That is, it may be, of course, that the forest here is more diverse - but still in the southern half it is more noticeable. Specially protected areas, like a border, are separated by a strip of loose earth in which traces are imprinted:

Even before entering the national park, the top of one of the dunes (and the dunes here are all hills - the only difference is that some are lightly covered with soil, while others are not) covered with a patch of growing forest. It seems that in 1997 there was a fire here that destroyed the entire forest - and if measures had not been taken immediately, the burning area would have quickly turned into a sandy desert.

Near the first farm Alksnine(Erlenshorst), founded in 1898-1907 as a ranger post to look after the dunes and forests - Checkpoint national park. There is an entry fee, and in addition to the huntsman, we were met by a grim-looking policeman. On the way back, our documents were checked here one of two times during the entire trip... however, the work is like this: what if we sailed from the Kaliningrad region on an illegal ferry?!
The shift house is covered with fair thatch:

An interesting fact is that in the 1870s there were prisoner of war camps on the spit: after the Franco-Prussian War, several thousand French prisoners were sent to these sands to plant trees (which was hard work). One of their camps was near Nida, the other was here. And half a kilometer from the checkpoint there is a very impressive monument to the Great Patriotic War (1967) made from a boulder from the bottom of the Curonian Lagoon.

In principle, there are many attractions on the spit - here is a lighthouse, there is a cape, here is some kind of museum, or a Curonian cemetery, or a village with a church or an old school (we never went to Preila and Pervalka) - but as always, see everything without exception We didn't even plan it. From the entrance we first went to Nida, and from there we moved back to the crossing with stops. Therefore, the first large settlement from the entrance Juodkrante(900 inhabitants) we examined only in the evening, when an impressive thundercloud crawled onto the spit:

In German, Juodkrante was called Schwarzort, in Russian, respectively, the Black Beach. One of the ancient settlements of the spit, it was inhabited by primitive people (a treasure trove of amber items was found here in 1882), and was first mentioned in the Teutonic chronicles in 1429. In the middle of the 19th century, before the discovery of the famous Palmniken mines (nowadays), there was the largest deposit of yanatra here - a total of more than 2000 tons were mined, and apparently those developments gave the shore a characteristic “broken” shape. But in general the village is quite serious - there is even a church (1884-85):

And the main buildings are fishermen’s houses and “art nouveau” villas: at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the village turned into a resort. Here is an interesting house - built in those days when Memelland did not belong to any state, and most likely some French officer took a break here.

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On the shore of the bay, which still looks like a giant river here, there are all sorts of stone figurines, which in fact are nothing more than the work of sculptors from different countries on the theme "Earth and Water" (1997-98). An obvious attempt to surpass the Witch Mountain created at the “wrong” time is, in my opinion, absolutely ridiculous.

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Witch Mountain is, without exaggeration, one of the most famous attractions in all of Lithuania. Covered by a virgin forest that survived the Sand Disaster, the dune (42 meters high) of a regular parabolic shape was a popular place for various Lithuanian festivities such as Midsummer's Night back in the 19th century. In 1979, a festival of Lithuanian woodcarvers was held in Juodkrante, who made a dozen or two sculptures based on folklore. Later, gatherings were held every year, and their creations were installed on the crest of the dune - this is how Witch Mountain, the best reserve of Lithuanian wooden sculpture (not counting church sculpture, of course), arose. At the entrance, it seems, Egle the Snake Queen:

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Entry sign. The lever raises the weirdo's eyes... that weirdo who is to the left, of course. You can clearly see from my round face what the Lithuanian people are doing to people. National cuisine, consisting mainly of potatoes.

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And then... All these are folklore characters, whom every Lithuanian probably knows by sight, as we know from childhood Baba Yaga, the Serpent Gorynych or Koshchei the Immortal, but I don’t know Lithuanian folklore well. Maybe someone can tell me?

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And the path makes a loop along the crest of the dune, and you yourself don’t notice how the sculptures managed to form a plot that you begin to follow, and with each subsequent clearing the tale becomes more and more terrible:

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And then the rooster crows:

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Evil spirits will hide in the darkness:

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And the heroes of the fairy tale will play a wedding:

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Overall, it's really impressive. A few more sculptures that probably no longer had a place on the path - after the happy ending:

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Latest. But I showed, of course, only a small part - in total there are more than 80 subjects on the trail and there is even something like credits at the end (sculptor - sculpture):

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And the path leads out into some back streets - you can’t accidentally pass it backwards. I wonder what kind of residential garages these are? Temporary buildings where locals live while their houses are rented by tourists?

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While we were walking along the path, a cloud just rolled in. By the way, all the villages of the spit, except for Lesnoy, which is located on a narrow dam, face the Curonian Lagoon - shallow, quiet and warm, this is a real gift from Nature to fishermen. But for holidaymakers, the sea is still the best - the bay blooms and smells unpleasant in places:

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Although there are swans here too. I wonder what kind of sailboat is at the pier (obviously a remake):

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But the main thing on the spit is still the dunes, areas of uncovered sand, also always facing the bay (since the wind blows from the sea, that side was landscaped first). On the Russian part, I climbed the Efa dune, which is considered the highest (about 70 meters). On the Lithuanian side the dunes are lower, but wider. There are two main massifs here - the long Pelkosjos dune (just south of Juodkrante) and the shorter and higher Paranidis beyond Nida, as well as the Paraglider dune, divided in half by the border - even under the Germans, the center of this sport. We (even before Juodkrante) stopped at Pelkossos, which is half a kilometer from the road through the forest.

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But the forest opens up - and here they are, creeping sands! Or rather, most of the dunes were secured with grass (1854). Its height is up to 52 meters, and the most interesting thing is in front, where the wooden flooring leads:

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Oh, the Karakum is wide,
There is no saxaul anywhere
There is no uchkuduk anywhere
And the village is not visible!

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My wife is the evil Shaitan,
My head scolds me
We ate our donkey
To the last gut.

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Fifth day without water
All the camels are coming
Allah help us
Get to the water!

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In fact, only observation deck we realized that we had broken the law. The fact is that a group of schoolchildren left before us into the desert... and at first I mistook their language for Lithuanian, but I began to doubt more and more and by the middle of the hike I was already sure that they were Latvians. And so it turned out when I saw their bus - and these were not just Latvian schoolchildren, but a children’s and youth basketball team (or some kind of regional team in Latvia). The children are very nice, and the Latvian language turned out to be unexpectedly beautiful to hear, so soft and melodic - despite the fact that in toponymy, on the contrary, I like Lithuanian more. The funny thing is that although at the end of the trip we stopped in Latvia, only here we had the opportunity to hear Latvian speech.

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However, the point is not that they are Latvians, but that the children are without the supervision of rangers (and, by the way, there are none on our dunes!) They immediately ran away in all directions, jumped all over the hills and, in general, I suspect caused considerable damage to the reserve :

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We, succumbing to euphoria, simply followed the tracks and also wandered where we shouldn’t, catching ourselves only when the schoolchildren began to leave. Well, I won’t even compare the landscapes of the two dunes - they are equally impressive, only it was winter in Efa, and here it’s summer:

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A tree in the sand is really just like saxaul:

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Pine trees and sandy desert - what a strange sight!

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And across the bay, windmills are waving - I think the same ones we passed by after Rusne:

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In the next part - about Nida, the capital of the spit and the best Lithuanian resort, as well as the ethnography of the Kursenieki who lived here.

LITHUANIA-2013
and table of contents.
Border of the Principality of Lithuania.
. Smolyany, Lepel and Babtsy.
. Begoml, Budslav, Vileyka.
. Smorgon, Krevo, Medininkai.
Vilnius.

Among other Lithuanian resorts, Nida stands out for its aristocracy; holidays here are prestigious, but not cheap. The high cost of living due to the impossibility of building new houses and cottages is also due to the location of the resort village of Nida on the Curonian Spit, which is a National Park.

Resort Features

The spit extends 100 km in length, the width of which is about 3-4 km, starts from the Russian Zelenograd in the Kaliningrad region and stretches to the Lithuanian Klaipeda, from which it is separated by the waters of the bay of the same name. If you prefer air transport, then, despite the fact that the nearest airport is Palanga, the flight from Moscow will take from 4 to 6 hours, while the flight time to Kaliningrad is only 2 hours. From Kaliningrad you can get to Nida by bus in 3 hours. Those traveling by road when entering the Lithuanian territory of the Curonian Spit will have to pay 20 - 25 litas (about 8-10 $ or 6-7 €) per person, the so-called eco-tax; for those arriving by bus, the amount is included in the ticket price.

We must pay tribute to the local residents - they look after nature here. You won’t find a dead tree; everything grows, blooms, and smells fragrant. This is in the village of Nida, and there is nothing to say about the natural park. Quiet, very clean pine forests with paved paths are just a sight for sore eyes. One inconvenience is that when booking a hotel and seeing the price, you involuntarily assume a location on the very seashore, but almost all hotels in Nida are located on the side of the freshwater bay. On the side of the spit that is washed by the sea, there are several hotels, but they are also not on the shore, but at some distance. But given the width of the spit itself, there is no need to talk about long distances.

The small village of Nida, whose main areas of development are fishing and tourism, can offer travelers accommodation of various categories from 4 and 3 star hotels to apartments and cottages. Among the 44 options offered in Nida by well-known travel sites, those who want to save on accommodation will not find hostels. All categories of hotels in Nida, even if they do not claim stars, are relatively expensive. The exception is the campsite near the village, which offers accommodation for a more modest amount.

Weather

However, a holiday in Nida is worth it. The Curonian Spit, recognized as a UNESCO site, is one of the ecologically clean places in Lithuania and is distinguished by its extraordinary picturesque nature. On one side, the bay, on the other, the waters of the Baltic Sea, the pattern of sand dunes and the aroma of pine forests attract tourists almost all year round, although the tourist season in Nida begins in early June and lasts until the beginning of autumn.

Summer in Nida is not hot, it is ideal for people who like moderate warmth and small children. The best time July-August is considered, when the weather is more stable, but even then rain is possible. Experienced tourists recommend immediately purchasing a raincoat, which costs about 3 litas ($1), and carrying it with you, then no sudden downpour will be scary. And children will enjoy splashing through puddles in rubber boots in the rain. Yes, yes, and in the rain it is useful to walk by the sea, because the Baltics have very healthy iodized air.

But a sufficiently high air temperature does not guarantee warm water. Warm water in the Baltic Sea it is extremely rare (most often around 19 degrees). But, even if it’s cloudy outside or there’s a strong wind blowing, sunbathing in the dunes is very comfortable. But be careful, even in such seemingly cool weather it is very easy to get sunburned.

The velvet season is recognized as the beginning of autumn, when the air is still warm, but there are still no strong winds, which appear somewhat later. At this time, tourists come to enjoy walks along the coast and picking berries and mushrooms, of which there are many.

The autumn-winter period in the city is associated with the arrival of the season of storms and winds that mercilessly blow through the spit. And if in October tourism is attractive for lovers of bird migration and those who are fond of driving on sand on blockarts, then in winter the resort seems extinct or has fallen asleep until late spring. With spring, the resort village literally blooms; flower beds, lawns, even the walls of houses are covered with blooming greenery.

Beaches

One of the reasons for the popularity of the resort is its beaches marked with the Blue Flag sign. Sandy beaches The Nida stretch along the entire coast and reach a width of 25-70 meters, so even during the peak tourist season it is not too crowded and you can always find a secluded place in the dunes, where you can hide from the wind and from people. The shallow Curonian Lagoon is not usually considered a swimming destination, except during periods when the water in the Baltic Sea is too cold.

There are also nudist beaches in Nida, and here they are divided into men's and women's, as evidenced by warning signs.

Since winds often blow on the Baltic Sea and the rising sand sometimes hits the body painfully, tourists use special tents to shelter from the wind. Such tents can be purchased in advance in online stores, or directly in resort towns.

Attractions

Vacationers go to Nida not only to relax in the lap of nature; the resort is distinguished by unique attractions. Tourists are invited to visit the amber museum and the house, which became the writer's museum, in which Thomas Mann lived for 2 years.

Previously, the Curonians or Kursenieki lived on the territory of the Curonian Spit - a disappeared people. It is their culture that can be seen in the architecture of the village of Nida, in that special wood carving that so attracts the eye on the streets. The Curonian style spread throughout the country. Characteristic features of the style can also be found in the stylized ethnographic fisherman's estate.

Another reminder of the fishing heritage of the village of Nida is the lighthouse built on Mount Urbo, 300 m from the village. Its rays - 1000 V light amplified by a lens system - extend over 41 km.

At the top of one of the natural attractions of the city - the Parniggio dune - there is an observation deck, the most visited place in the resort after the beaches. There is also a sundial installed there, representing a stone stele with symbols of calendar holidays applied to it.

Leisure

For relaxation, Nida, where you won’t find a single discotheque, offers active pastime. This can be a bike tour or just a bike ride, which can be rented along the bay for 8 litas/hour (about 3$ or 2€) or 30 litas/day (about 12$ or 9€). There is no need for it to move around the village - a bank, a supermarket, a souvenir kiosk are in the center, but a bike ride along one of the longest bicycle routes is a pleasure that is difficult to refuse.

How difficult it will be for lovers of sailboats, paragliders and windsurfing to refuse. Trips on a yacht, kayak or local Kurenas boat are also popular, because... offer a view of Nida from a completely different angle.

An unusual resort knows how to charm. It offers high dunes to those seeking peace and solitude, and to those seeking wellness - clean beaches and the aroma of pine needles, fans of fun - active sports recreation, children - freedom on the beach to build sand castles and jump on the waves. And only noise lovers will not find anything for themselves in Nida.

The Curonian Spit, the Lithuanian half of which I showed, and the Russian half, also has its own capital: the village of Nida (1.1 thousand inhabitants) almost in its very middle, a few kilometers from the border crossing. A quiet, beautiful and sunny place between the bay and the sea, sands and pine forests - I have never seen anything like Nida, not only in the Kaliningrad region, but also in Lithuania itself; the resort cannot stand any comparison with it. But Nida is not only a resort - it is also the center of the disappeared Curonian people, or Kursenieki, the indigenous inhabitants of the Spit, whose flavor has been very carefully preserved here.

After the Pelkosjös dune, where I finished the last part, we drove to Nida without stopping. Somewhere behind the trees there remained Cape Zhirgu with an old lighthouse (1900), the village of Preila with an equally old school, which in 1846 moved from a village buried by sands, pine trees, parking lots, turns to the bay and the sea. The road in the border part of the spit is unexpectedly broken - to be honest, in the Kaliningrad half the asphalt is better. Nida presents that “striking contrast” beloved by Kaliningrad residents with the surrounding area when you approach it from the north.

But the first thing that catches your eye when entering here is not even the cleanliness and comfort, but the completely original architecture. The “Curonian style” cannot be confused with anything else, and imitations of it have recently been found throughout Lithuania. The fact is that it was not Germans or Lithuanians who lived on the spit, but their own people, the Kursenieki, who were closest to the Latvians. The latter were consolidated only in the 16th century from the Baltic Curonians, Latgalians, Semigallians, Selo and Finno-Ugric Livonians, but even earlier, among the Curonians who lived closest, there were many who fled from the German masters to the ruined forests on Kos, where no Lithuanians had previously settled down, neither the Teutons nor the Vikings, but these somehow managed. The Kursenieki language has preserved many actual Curonian words that were not included in Latvian..

In isolation from “their own”, the Kursenieki generally preserved a lot of archaic things - for example, local wood carvings, primarily the decorations of the pediments of these houses:

The Sand Disaster of the 18th and 19th centuries added even more originality to the Kursenieki. They found themselves face to face with the barren creeping sands that buried the villages - say, Nida, known since 1429, in its current location since 1787. But more than that, nothing grows in bare sand! The Kursenieki were, in principle, a people of fishermen, but in those days there also appeared Kraibiters - crow catchers. The technique was simple: the craybiter buried a net with bait in the sand, hid in a hut, and when crows landed on the bait, he pulled the rope and caught them with this net. Traditionally, crows were killed with a bite to the neck (!), after which they rinsed their mouths with schnapps, and the houses of the caught birds were salted in barrels, like herring. To be honest: I could eat a cooked frog, but not a crow.

The originality of the Kursenieki began to be lost already in the 19th century, with the landscaping of the spit and the development of Prussian resorts. Salted crows began to be served in best restaurants Koenigsberg called the "dove of the braid". In the southern part of the Kursenieki, by the beginning of the 20th century, they had already forgotten their native language and culture, and the Nazis clearly did not favor national diversity - which is why the Lithuanian part of the spit is richer in ethnographic monuments. The Kursenieki finally disappeared in 1945 - having left Prussia along with the Germans, the tiny people disappeared among them without a trace.

But nevertheless, the Kursenieki left enough material monuments, and Nida was built up in the “Curonian style” even after their exodus. These motives are everywhere here - even the administration:

At least souvenir stalls:

At least the bus station:

In many places there are colorful weathervanes - they served as a landmark and identification mark for Kursenieki fishermen: each village had its own symbol.

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Having parked on the main square, the first thing we did was go to the tourist information center, where we received a map and schedule of Klaipeda ferries - these are the moments in Lithuania that really make us envious... Before the trip, I was told a lot that in Nida you can taste the most exotic delicacies of Kursenieki cuisine - like the already mentioned crows or alcoholic tincture on amber (!), but at the tourist center we were disappointed: “for now we can only dream about it.” Perhaps there really is something like that here - but it’s not put into production. Traditional Lithuanian cuisine with individual Curonian inclusions (such as flounder with sour cream and onion sauce) is also presented here. We had lunch in a tiny cafe at the end of that street - and the food there was perhaps the most delicious of the entire trip.

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On the same street there is a small museum of fishermen’s life, but after a similar museum I didn’t see anything new here, and in addition you can’t take photographs here (a paradox, but it’s a fairly common occurrence in Lithuania!):

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Still, I photographed the carved decorations of the houses and the model of the kurenas boat:

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In the museum courtyard there are more boats, on the left there is a boat without a mast. In the background is another restaurant under a reed roof:

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The street led us to the pier. In the house on the far right (or the one next to it at the edge of the frame) dad vacationed one summer when he was a child. In principle, his main place of childhood in Lithuania was Zarasai - the last point of the trip, but Nida immediately made him remember a lot.

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From the pier you can clearly see the Paranidis dune and the distant Cape Grabst on the border:

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It’s the same in winter, from the reverse side:

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Paranidis (Zanid Dune) is the “Lithuanian Sahara”, one of three large dunes on the Lithuanian part of the spit, 52 meters high. From a distance it looks formidable. In addition to the Sahara, there is also its own Death Valley - this is the name of the valley where in 1871-72 there was a camp of French prisoners of war engaged in landscaping the sands - they say few of them survived. I didn’t go to Paranidis - Pelkosjos was enough for me, but last fall I visited there periskop.su - here is his report. Behind Paranidis is the Paragliding Dune, where in 1930-39 one of the first camps for lovers of this sport was located in Germany. It is officially forbidden to walk on the dunes outside the paths - but as you can see, there are tracks leading into the sands of Arabia and on the virgin sand:

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This is what the whole braid once looked like. Here you will really learn to eat crows...

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And the bay, by the way, although it looks tempting, is not very conducive to swimming - the water blooms and smells unpleasant. But Nida also stands in the very bottleneck the Lithuanian part of the spit (which, in principle, narrows from here to the south), and it’s about 15 minutes walk to the sea from here... but we didn’t walk anymore. Next - just some Nida sketches. Without people - people here are like everywhere else, the Kursenieki flavor remains only in architecture and design.
A miniature weather station, seemingly very old. On the Russian part of the spit, accordingly, there is the oldest ornithological station in the world (1901).

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One of the few permanent buildings is a school, the carving on it is more common Prussian than Curonian:

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Numerous monuments - for example, to the Lithuanian bard Vytautas Kernagis-Benas:

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This is apparently just for beauty:

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There seems to be some kind of salon or workshop here:

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I also don’t remember who this board is for. One of the main attractions of Nida is the house-museum of Thomas Mann, which the writer rented for the summer in 1930-32. But I haven’t read Mann, the exhibits would hardly have revealed anything to me, outwardly it’s an ordinary Kursenieki blue and red house... in general, we were too lazy to go there.

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Another strange, almost Mongolian symbol that I came across in several places - I wonder what it means?

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And basically Nida looks like this:

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The local church (1888) is also visible on the wooded dune:

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Almost typical for its time - but how it looks among these twisted pines!

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Near the church there is a cemetery, and in the cemetery there is another local archaism - krishkts, carved tombstones, only very vaguely similar to crosses:

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Kriksti were first described back in the 16th century in Samogitia, which means this tradition probably has pagan roots. Then their range steadily shrank - by the beginning of the twentieth century they were found only in Memelland, and until the mid-twentieth century this tradition survived only on the Curonian Spit. It seems that several such cemeteries have been preserved here - and nowhere else.

32.

The difference between kriksht and crosses is not only the shape: firstly, they were placed at the feet of the deceased, and their shaft had to reach the bottom of the grave - it was believed that on Judgment Day the deceased would grab onto it and go to God's judgment. Women were buried under linden, aspen and spruce trees, men - under oak, ash and birch trees. In the past, kriksht carvings were much richer and more elaborate. Judging by the photograph, the Nida kriksts were mossy until recently and looked much more arachic, but recently they were cleaned for some reason.

33.
:

They say that burial is one of the fundamental differences between humans and animals. And the appearance of cemeteries is one of the most obvious differences between peoples...

34.

Kriksht, cross, pines and bay:

35.

And the krikshta are echoed by the carved decorations of the houses. Still a wonderful place!

36.

Finally, a few shots from the “new” Nida above its main square. She is charming even in the non-tourist part:

37.

I really liked the four-story “Christmas tree” buildings. Eh, why couldn’t these be built in other places?

38.

On the hill is one of the most unusual modern temples I have seen. A wooden church under a reed roof is the apotheosis of Lithuanian ethno-tech:

39.

40.

And this church helped me finally understand what Nida’s main charm is. Yes, these are something like microscopic capitals of microscopic states on paradise islands Polynesia! Some Tuvalu, Tokelau, Fiji or Tahiti. Tropically bright sun, expanse of azure water, reed roofs, government and church in a simple ethnic style, and even pine trees can easily be imagined as palm trees. Thanks to these associations, Nida is an ideal piece of paradise.

41.

This concludes with the Curonian Spit and Memelland in general. Further our path lies through the already shown Palanga and Kretinga to a completely different Lithuania - the gloomy pagan Samogitia.

LITHUANIA-2013
and table of contents.
Border of the Principality of Lithuania.
. Smolyany, Lepel and Babtsy.
. Begoml, Budslav, Vileyka.
. Smorgon, Krevo, Medininkai.
Vilnius.
.
.
.
. Axis of the Old Town.

The third day in Lithuania turned out to be sunny, so I went on a boat trip.
As I already wrote, my hotel is located in the port area - just cross the bridge and you will find yourself near the Old Ferry Terminal, from where you can sail to the Curonian Spit. True, that morning for some reason there was no ferry, but a catamaran; It’s not the first time I’ve sailed on one of these, but every time I’m surprised - I’m used to that being called a pedal boat in park ponds, but actually it’s such a small boat :)

The Curonian Spit is a funny piece of land, very long and narrow, so it seems incredible that the sea has not eaten it during its entire existence. Attached to mainland spit in our Kaliningrad region and stretches just to the Lithuanian Klaipeda, where it ends and leaves a narrow strait connecting the Curonian Lagoon with the Baltic Sea. Here the spit runs very close to the mainland, so the water doesn’t look like a sea at all, but rather a not very wide river.

Here I am standing on board the catamaran, and those trees on the horizon are the Curonian Spit. It costs a ridiculous amount of money to cross the bay, and tickets are checked only on the way there, and no one looks at them back.

We sailed and looked back at the port. Buildings "K" and "D" are visible on the horizon - also landmarks of Klaipeda.

On the map the spit looks tiny and slightly thin, it is not difficult to cross it on foot, but there are not only dunes and sands, but several villages, forests and hills. People began to settle in these places back in the late Stone Age, but then they left the spit for some time, because the sands were advancing on the villages and it was difficult to live there.

The ferry doesn't last long and arrives in a place called Smiltyne. They write that there is a dolphinarium and a maritime museum there, but the trained fur seals did not interest me, and they told me about the museum that it is now closed for reconstruction - what a pity. I didn’t have a special plan, but I decided not to waste time on Smiltyne, but to get further away, and then get out of there. Near the ferry/catamaran pier there is a bus stop, where there was a bus leaving for Nida.

Nida is the largest village in the Lithuanian part of the Curonian Spit. By bus it takes about half an hour to get there through pine forests and along the seashore. On the way, I saw a fox near the road through the window, and it definitely didn’t seem to me like that dead end on the Shetland Islands :)

The atmosphere in Nida is resort and country. Locals mainly engaged in tourism business and/or fishing. You can rent a room in the toy-looking red, blue and white houses, or stay in one of the small hotels. I really just want to stay there. Although, to be honest, I don’t know what I would do there, except walk through the pine forests, and that would probably get boring quickly?

Bicycle paths are everywhere in Klaipeda.

I still went for a walk in the pine forest. It is very sunny, dry and therefore fragrant. There are many paths in the forest and marked walking routes.

This light blue moss is completely dry and hard, like lichen.

Out of the forest I came out onto the dunes.

They say that these sands used to move with the wind and swallow up forests and entire villages on their way. People began to protect their homes and plant trees, securing the restless land, and now the dunes stand still. True, at the end of the last century, when the landscape was already considered valuable and interesting precisely for what it is, it was discovered that the dunes were becoming lower and gradually eroding. And now people have begun to protect the sands on the contrary. Therefore, this relief is called natural-anthropogenic - people have been shaping it for a very long time and in different ways.

This is the biggest and high dune- called Parnidisa, which, according to the information board, means “crossing Nida.” Can you imagine?

The Curonian Spit is a national park, so you can’t walk along the dunes everywhere. For example, you cannot climb some slopes - this will cause the sand to crumble. Of course, tourists do not listen or read signs in Lithuanian: (You can walk along the paved wooden paths, it’s nice to take off your shoes and walk on sun-warmed boards and sand.

At the very top there is an hourglass calendar.

Somewhere in the distance is the border with Russia.

And you can walk down there. People trample giant inscriptions in the sand.
“It looks like Tatooine,” those two children said when they climbed up from the valley to the observation deck.

It's time to go down and return to the village.

Then I had lunch - prices on the spit are slightly higher than in Klaipeda, but still pleasant. And the food is not boring, in the first place guest house I came across a very tasty multi-component salad, everything I like - goat cheese, Parma, pesto, onion jam... I don’t know, of course, whether this place characterizes Nida, maybe I’m just lucky, but in general I still like it the way I do food in Lithuania - you always come across subtle and neat combinations of flavors. I remember how I suffered in Belgium on this topic... I definitely need to try something from their local 100,500 potato dishes.

Even in Nida, you can see very elegant painted weathervanes everywhere - they are made of wood and decorated with various figures: boats, houses, carts, moose, and also pieces of fabric are attached to them, by which it is even easier to determine the slightest change in the direction of the wind. Such weather vanes appeared on fishing ships in the 19th century, and essentially consist of two parts. The black and white part was official, each surrounding settlement was assigned such a design, reminiscent of a flag, so that the ship could be easily recognized from afar. And local craftsmen added multi-colored carved symbols - some for good luck, some to add individuality, to turn the weather vane into a kind of coat of arms of their village.

Here we could have stopped at another village, Juodkrante - there is a park “Mountain of Witches” with wooden sculptures, but I was already tired and set off on the way back. Well, there will be something to do next time - what if I ever return to the Nida dacha?

It all happened yesterday. And today I felt that I still didn’t have enough sea on the spit, I was looking at it from the Curonian Lagoon, so I went for a walk to the beach in Palanga. But I’ll tell you about this next time when I look at the photos.

All about car tuning