Road trips, mountain walks and holidays

If we talk about national dishes, Lithuanian cepelinai and sakotis are obvious representatives of Lithuanian cuisine. I wrote about the Lithuanian dessert sakotis before, so in this post more about their main dish – Lithuanian dumplings cepelinai. Every time I have a chance to stay in Lithuania for a few days, I try to include Lithuanian dumplings cepelinai in one of my meals at least once. So what are Lithuanian dumplings cepelinai? They are large-sized dumplings made from potato dough, which have a shape similar to an airship or zeppelin. The honour of the inventor of the airship goes to the inventor Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin. Zeppelins (cepelinai) as a food were already known before the invention of the airship, and before that they were called didžkukuliai (something like grand dumplings) in Lithuanian. It is said that this dish originated in Germany, but was originally made without filling. Potato dough is made by mixing fresh grated potatoes with mashed boiled potatoes. The

We can travel long distances quickly and relatively cheaply, especially if it is possible to get to the destination with one of the low-cost airlines. However, sometimes, for one reason or another, you must travel by land. The easiest way, of course, is to get into your car and drive. But not always there is such an option. Then we need to look at the opportunities offered by other means of commercial transport, for example, to travel by coach or train. So, after spending about a month in Latvia, we boarded a coach in Riga to go to Berlin. Our final destination was London, this was only the first leg of the trip. It must be mentioned that we were planning the trip a while in advance and had purchased tickets for all sections of the trip several months before the trip itself. This is mainly because train prices in Europe become more expensive as the departure date approaches. In the end, this helped us to save a considerable amount of money. Fortunately, we were able to plan the trip in

Visiting Prague will provide you with huge positive experiences. Prague is the most visited touristic site of the Czech Republic. We have been there several times and never were bored. Visiting Prague and Czech Republic Czech Republic, also called Czechia, is a country in the Central Europe, although, due to its 20th century history it is classified here rather as belonging to Eastern Europe. Czechia has borders with Slovakia, Austria, Germany and Poland and its land territory is 77 thousand square kilometres (almost 30 thousand square miles). This is a very similar size to their neighbouring country Austria (slightly smaller) and central American country Panama (Czechia is slightly bigger). In Czechia live more than 1ten million people; majority of them are Czechs. Prague is the largest city in the Czech Republic and the 13th biggest city in the European Union; total number of the people living there is around 1.3 million (over 2.5 million in the metropolitan area). Getting there By c

Sightseeing tour to the western part of Estonia This was a corporate trip by bus together with work colleagues to the Estonian islands. It was a short weekend sightseeing tour to western Estonia to relax, have some fun and look around. Our destination was Saaremaa island, with a short stop in the summer capital of Estonia – town Parnu. The border between Latvia and Estonia You may cross the border between Latvia and Estonia using main road E67. However, there is an interesting alternative – turn left just before the Estonian border to the small town Latvian town of Ainazi. Driving through the town you may be surprised that after a short period, you will see a road sign showing that you are passing the state border. Just before the border, there is a small parking place. If you stop there, you can go for a short walk to the old mole (located in Latvia just a few hundred metres from the Estonian border) and enjoy the beautiful landscape. Sea resort Parnu The next stop we made was in Parn

This was one of our corporate trips and before departure, we spent a lot of time making it happen successfully. During two days accompanied by friendly colleagues, we decided to visit several exciting sites in Lithuania and spent time together in the eastern part of Lithuania. About one month we spent for preparation of this trip looking for interesting sites, convenient prices and adjusting the schedule of our visits. Lithuanian icon Cross Hill And finally, here we are – at the beginning of June at 7 AM we meet each other to start the trip. Just some morning coffee before departure and short waiting for colleagues who are a bit late. Our first destination – one of the most famous and exciting sites in Lithuania Cross Hill (Križiu kalnas) near the town Siauliai . Cross Hill is a small hummock covered with more than one hundred thousand various religious things like crosses, figures and pictures. However, it is a very important even iconic historical place for Lithuanians. In this place

At the very end of April, we went for a quick trip to the Czech Republic. Perhaps, the most famous destination of the Czech Republic is its capital Prague, however Nord-Eastern part of the country, the region of Bohemia, is very exciting and attractive because of the mountains and local traditions. The whole Bohemian region covers about two-thirds of the Czech Republic. We had plans to visit a factory producing glass and crystal according to the old traditions, a local brewery (Czech beer has been always tasty and of high quality), spend some time hiking in the mountains near Adrspach and to find something else interesting in the area. Camping near Trutnov Before arrival, we found on the Internet and booked a camping Dolce Vita near the town of Trutnov (address: Dolce Vita, Oblanov 37, 54101 Trutnov, Czech Republic). Camping offers apartments in cottages located near a lake. Camping is located about two kilometres away from the main road, however, it is easy to find it. The cottage its

Czech glassworks Visiting Czech glassworks and zoo were parts of our trip to Bohemia, Czech Republic. Our first destination before arrival at the camping Dolce Vita was the small ski resort village, Harrachov. We visited the Novosad & Son factory located there (address: Harrachov 95, 512 46 Harrachov, Czech Republic) – the second oldest glassworks in the Czech Republic, founded in 1712. Since the foundation factory is active and now also offers guided tours for visitors to find out how glass and crystal are produced and processed. It is possible to see glass furnaces, glass blowing, crystal polishing and other processes. They produce traditional hand-made free-blown, cut and hand-painted glass. After this educational and attractive tour, you can have lunch or dinner as well as taste local beer in Pivovar Novosad restaurant located just beside Glassworks. The restaurant offers both traditional Czech and international cuisine with a wide selection of beer specialities. Altogether, we

In the middle of March, we managed to go on a short about a week-long trip to Bulgaria. We had to drive more than five and a half thousand kilometres in eight days (more than six hundred kilometres per day on average). The idea of a trip was born when I was returning from a business trip; I met a young lady on a plane sitting next to me. She told us a lot of interesting things about Bulgaria and we went to check how it is there in the west of the Balkan peninsula. Arrival to Bulgaria Late in the afternoon, we arrived in Bulgaria by ferry connecting the Romanian town Calafat and Vidin in Bulgaria (the location of Vidin and Calafat on the map). The size of the Danube River is very impressive there – another coast of the river looks quite far away. And here it is – a journey back to the last century: apart from customs and border control, there were several other official authorities collecting currency for various mandatory border crossing “services” – phytosanitary control, veterinary

Coast of the Black Sea After visiting the monastery, we continued our way to Burgas (see more about our whole trip to Bulgaria and Bulgarian fermented grape juice). Burgas is the second largest city on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast after Varna. Between Plovdiv and Burgas, we saw lots of newly established vineyards – the view was really impressive! We did not stay in Burgas for long – just filling up petrol and a quick look around while driving. We aimed to go to the south along the coastline to see old and newly established seaside villages and resorts. It was surprising how many new buildings are being constructed along the coast! Any small village located on the coast was like a big busy building site. In 2007, even in our host country, we saw many offers to buy a new property in Bulgaria. In reality, a major part of all new buildings are located far away from advertised sandy beaches because houses are built on cliffs. It may be true – very near to water, however often it seemed imp

Bakery near Ignalina This is another part of our trip around Lithuania. On the morning of the second day of our trip, after a coffee and light breakfast, we went to Ignalina. Our destination was bakery Romnesa, where Lithuanian desert sakotis (šakotis, šakočiai or raguolis), what is a national delicacy, is produced.   Sakotis is a special muffin in the shape of a tree with a hollow in the middle prepared by monks since the 15th century. A similar kind of muffin is also popular in Germany, Poland, Sweden, Hungary and Japan. However, every country has its own specific traditions of preparing them. Variants of preparation may vary but just for an example here is one sakotis recipe (keep in mind that the same importance as ingredients also is a technology of sakotis preparation). In this case, sakotis was made on open fire. We were also told about the history of sakotis (there is a small museum inside the factory’s premises) as well as made our own. The size of sakotis depends on the amoun

Saturs pieejams arī latviski Poland is a big country, one of the largest in the European Union. Usually, we have been crossing it as a transit country, however, there are many places in Poland worth visiting. One day, we decided to see how people celebrate Easter in Poland. Here are notes of our trip made during the Easter Holidays in 2010. This time for the trip was chosen because the majority of Polish people as very active Catholics and visit churches and celebrate Easter according to their traditions every year. Some sites we visited for that reason were of religious character. City of Krakow We went to Krakow which is one of the oldest cities in Poland and is located in the Lesser Poland region famous for its architecture, and religious and cultural heritage. Since 1978, the old town of Krakow has been on the list of UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Sites. Also, Krakow is the second largest city in Poland with many beautiful sites for visitors. For example, Old Town (Stare Miasto)

Saturs pieejams arī latviski   Wielicka Salt mine This is one of the episodes of our travel around Poland during the Easter celebrations, although we have visited this country many times. On Saturday, after a night spent in Krakow , we visited Wieliczka salt mine which is one of the world’s oldest operating salt mines – it is in operation since the Middle Ages. The salt mine is also on the list of UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Sites since 1978. This site represents the progress of mining technology, the development of work organization and management. Over more than 700 years, 7.5 million m³ of post-excavation voids were drilled in Wieliczka. The mine is normally open for visitors from 9am to 5pm, adult ticket costs approximately 22 Euro per person. Visitors should be aware that the route includes approximately 800 stairs the temperature underground in the mine is about 17–18ºC. During one of the stops, it is even possible to buy cold and hot drinks and snacks. Town Wieliczka is loca