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 It is said that this dish originated in Germany, but was originally made without filling.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...

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...

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 a...