EVS Aukstaitija

Interactive nature exhibition in Palūšė

2011-11-23T05:39:00.000-08:00

Giving new ideas, new inspirations, learning from local people and between each others, and having fun. I guess the main goals of this day were achieved. On the 22nd of october, Edouard, with the great help of some Park's staff members and together with ten volunteers, organised the so-called "interactive nature exhibition". Plenty of workshops were offered for anyone to discover different manual activities.

Paper making with leftovers of eggs boxes...

It was beautiful to see that 60 or 65-year old lady arriving from the neighbourhood and being so playful when it came to make rice-based juggling balls, before kids could try them out. She was very keen as well to learn how to make paper, an activity on which great attention got focused, especially from Edmundas, our work colleague, making it with so much care.

Beside juggling activities, kids as well as adults loved paper boxes and paper wallets workshops, or how to make your own beautiful wallets with simple paper, plastic foil, and thread.

Au menu were :

Coloured Eggs

Nettle Pancakes

French cheese : comte, beaufort, tomme de savoie

Drinking suggestion : natural mint syrup

PS : Be aware that mint syrup is not supposed to be flashy green like in the shop, but brown!)

The star of the day : the compost toilet!

After such a great meal, what's best than a beautiful compost toilet? Undeniably, the compost toilet was the masterpiece of the day, and kept four or five volunteers busy for more than half a day. The little extras of it : the sweet pine tree perfume, the water bottle, opening like a tap to wash your hands after doing the job, and the extra chair, just in case someone would have had the idea to support the main actor.

Although more workshops were expected to take place, and despite the slightly messy atmosphere, this day was a success. Only one major regret : a calendar coincidence that made this nature exhibition happen at the same time than an important kids theater festival in Ignalina.

Red cabbage painting : beautiful and tasty!

A very simple toy to make : juggling balls!

You can find online an article about the event :

http://www.ignalinietis.lt/ignalina-naujienos/naujienos/kurianti-paluse--gaminome-restorana-pauksciams-ir-kitas-keistenybes/

Gražutė Regional Park : A european-made Youth Path

2011-11-23T02:23:00.000-08:00

Sabrina, painting the swing

Let's appreciate the movie of nature!

32 young people, 4 nationalities, 10 days of hard work, and a project that took shape, the shape of a Youth Path. All this happened in the village of Salakas, heart of Gražutė Regional Park, located about 60km north of Palūšė.

The two EVS volunteers of the Park, Sabrina from Germany and Rocio from Spain, organised this event, contacting 32 youngsters from Germany, Spain, Italy and Lithuania (eight of each), who became themselves short-term volunteers for this great achievement.

Some pretty hard work

The idea was born when seeing plenty of local young people spoiling a beautiful area near the largest lake of Gražūtė, ten minutes walk from Salakas itself, by coming and drinking there, sometimes with not much respect for the environment.

There was a need for them to get a place that they would really like and respect, so Sabrina and Rocio thought. They put their ideas into action and built different wooden structures, forming like a path, a way to follow. These constructions are useful, artistic, informative, or even philosophical. The nature cinema, for instance, is a wooden frame without a screen, facing the lake, with big wooden mushrooms to sit on and watch. The movie is definitely a slow-motion one, with, as main actors, some birds flying in a distance, or a unhurried fisherman on his boat. The idea is, in our speed-based society, to take more time to appreciate the beauty of nature and what surrounds us.

Altogether to create a better place...

... with love for well-made work

The Youth Path is here to provide informations about the main issues that local youngsters might find on their way, like alcoholism and unemployment. And by clearly showing that it was all handmade, and on a voluntary basis, by youngsters from different countries including Lithuania, with for most of them no experience whatsoever in this kind of projects, it delivers a strong message of optimism to the local community.

One day off to discover the neighbourhood : Aukštaitija National Park!

Cooking for 32 people is something not so easy to manage. And yet, the four countries took turn to propose a great variety of dishes. And italian food was definitely the most appreciated one.

Lentil soup for a start...

... eggplant parmigiana and...

... a memorable tiramisu to finish

EVS life in Palūšė

2011-10-20T07:12:00.000-07:00


Festivals, part of volunteering life over summer

The other day, my mentor Linas told me : « In your blog, you desbribe lots of events. But there’s really something missing. There’s nothing about your everyday life in the Park, with the staff, your life as EVS volunteer »… And he is right ! So I’ll try to correct that now with this post.


Sharing family life with our colleague Edmundas

First, being a volunteer is not all about work. We surely helped a lot over summer with the visitors. We were arranging accomodation for them, giving them advices about what to see, what to do in the Park, selling maps and postcards, and sometimes showing them around Paluse. Other jobs were for instance putting up signs in the campsites and sites of interest all over the Park for better information, picking up rabbish left behind by unrespectful people, helping to clean up the campground and the tourism center in Paluse, improving the visibility of painted symbols on trees, showing the way to follow on the botanical trail. And the translation of the Park’s website into french is still an important ongoing job.

Our everyday walk or cycle work/home

Disoriented

But being a volunteer is about discovering as well. Culture, traditions, language… I believe some of the traditions are already a bit described in all the events we’ve attended and written about. Culture is a large concept. It encompasses people’s daily routine, way of life, way of thinking, beside others. Far from being a culture shock, Lithuania still offers us a different view over people’s behaviours, and opens up our minds to the diversity of Europe.

We enjoyed our gardening results all summer

One of the firsts

The first weeks, I was a bit disoriented, not knowing what to think about people who would hardly open their mouths or show any emotion whatsoever. Are they all shy ? Why don’t they smile ? Why don’t they reply when we expect at least some kind of reaction while daring speaking up our firsts « Laba diena » ? But then we understood. The soviet period is not that far away still, and people were not so communicative then, because they had to take care about everything they would say, and not to tell anything to anybody, cause such an attitude would cause them soon some big big trouble. So communication remains, for many people here, something that they don’t excell in. But actually, we started to find more and more really nice people to talk to, and locals started to be flubbergasted when hearing our timidly spoken lithuanian. Only a few words and they would already be like : « Oh you speak such a good lithuanian ! » Funny !

Like Columbo

Our colleague Roma and us

With the staff members, we became more and more able to communicate in lithuanian. Especially Florence. Following the opinion of all other volunteers and EVS trainers, I think she’s probably the best starting from zero word lithuanian-speaker volunteer of all time. Sometimes, it almost seems like she is more at ease with lithuanian than with english ! I feel like crap compared to her. The reason for that is very clear : I didn’t put as much energy as her in learning this challenging language. I felt I could follow her for the first few weeks, but then, I was just left behind. She is like Columbo, always having some kind of piece of paper with her to write any new word she would hear. Then, at the end of the day, with the greatest seriousness of all, she would copy all these words again on her little self-made dictionnary. And learn them. She is definitely the only Park volunteer doing that. And we can only have admiration for such a great involvment, passion and motivation. It is explainable. She loves this country so much that she wants to stay here. Forever ? Well, maybe, so she says...

Having a good connexion with our colleagues at work is definitely part of our EVS, and with her lithuanian skills and her capabilities to speak about nothing and everything with anyone, Florence is managing it really well! So well that from time to time, she now spends some nights in Ignalina, the closest little city, hosted by Irena or Asta.

I am probably much more shy in that sense, and don’t dare talking to my colleagues that often, by lack of confidence and frustration of not being able to share what I’d like to.

I don’t feel as much attachment with Lithuania as Florence does, maybe because I always tend to compare with my uncomparable previous travelling experiences, especially New Zealand. But I honestly like this country. Some really great people, especially the staff members we spend much time with. A very interesting culture, with this odd mixture of paganistic and religious influences – Lithuania was the last european country to become christian, that was only in the XVth century ! Some beautiful landscapes, with a such a rich and fantastic nature. And we can’t complain with the place we live in !

With another colleague...

Neighbouring the forest, we’ve been able to go quite often mushroom picking and berry picking (I was really amazed at the amount of blueberries you can find here over summer, they form like a gigantic carpet covering the whole forest, picking options are unlimited!), and to get some vegetables from our lovely home-made garden. For volunteers keen on fishing, our place is fantastic as well, with this little “pier” we have just down the stairs.

Interactive nature exhibition

With our bicycles, named “Ugnis” (Fire) and “Mėlynės” (Blue), we’ve been enjoying some nice chilling out rides throughout the Park. We actually used them a lot, to go to work everyday (a lovely ride along lake Lušiai) and to go to Ignalina, 4 kms away.

The delicious and typical cold beetroot soup

And the less typical snails (but we're french!)

We go shopping there, and for about three months, and an average of twice a week, we went to visit the greatest teacher of all, Astra. We got very lucky having her as our lithuanian teacher, for many reasons :

- Her full time job is teacher, which is not the case for most other volunteers’ teachers.

- She did not only teach us the language itself, but shared with us her great knowledge about lithuanian culture and history she is very proud of.

- She was very flexible and generous concerning the lenght of the lessons, supposed to last for 1h30 but usually lasting for at least one more hour of pleasure!

- We shall not forget she is a very good cook, and she would almost always prepare us a yummy dish or some cake to try out. Only once or twice, she did not manage because of a lack of time (she is a very active woman!), and was apologizing so much about it that it became really funny.

Only one and a half month before our volunteering project comes to an end. Time flew so fast! But we’ll make most of our time left. We are currently doing Park exchange, all eight volunteers hosting for two weeks and visiting for two other weeks. A good opportunity to see how it works in other regional or national Parks, what sort of activities our fellow volunteers are doing in their projects. Some more teaching and learning experiences up to come.

The interactive nature exhibition I organise in Palūšė this upcoming Saturday will surely be one of them. All Park volunteers will gather for this event they will run altogether, with plenty of workshops about recycling, making your own paper, your own natural paint, building up a compost toilet, making your own juggling balls, before trying them out of course, etc. The idea is to get local people involved, and to learn from them as well as to try to teach them some of our skills.

Lithuanians are shy... but not always!

This post might have been a bit long, thanks if you managed to read it till the end! :-)

One of the main issues : mosquitoes

Edouard

Seminar and holidays

2011-08-29T06:49:00.000-07:00

Last week-end, we had the chance to cross the whole country to attend a seminar in Nemunas Delta Regional Park with about a hundred attendants : employees and directors of almost all regional and national parks of Lithuania, employees of Protected Areas from Vilnius, and members of the Ministry of environment. The seminar last for a day. Then, on saturday and sunday, with colleagues of Aukštaitija National Park and Labanoras Regional Park, we spent some good time together in Nemunas Delta and near Klaipėda, by the sea.

The director of Nemunas Delta Regional Park welcomed all participants of the seminar :

employees and directors of regional and national parks, as well as the ministry of environment,

Protected Areas (the national institution in charge of all parks in Lithuania) and EVS volunteers of course

Nerijus and Leonas, from our hosting organisation Deineta, said how important it is to

spread the word about volunteering in Lithuania, something still not wellknown enough

Two boats allowed all of us to (re)discover Nemunas Delta

The atmosphere was great during the boat trip on the Delta

Picking up rabbish near the river : task accomplished!

Let's apologize for polluting rivers and be thankful for the water...

...said this group of volunteers, beside the seminar,

for an association of protection of water ressources.

Ramūnas Lydis, director of Nemunas Delta Regional Park,

thanked in some symbolic and funny way,

with cold water poured over his face and half-naked body

by these women of a folk group

The lutheran church of Rusnė,

little town in the heart of Nemunas Delta Regional Park,

on an island separated by rivers from the mainland.

On the other side of the river : Kaliningrad (Russia).

The bridge separating the island of Rusnė from the mainland

Here is the very end of Ventės Ragas (literally 'world's edge').

It is a sparsely inhabited area on the tip of the south-pointing promontory of the delta,

which, with its dramatic nature and uplifting isolation, is beautifully wild.

The main attraction here is the Ventės Ragas Ornithological Station,

66km south of Klaipėda at the end of the Kintai-Ventė road.

The lighthouse of Ventės Ragas was built in 1862

No, the bagpipe is not only irish, it is

actually a traditonal instrument of Lithuania.

Gydrius, from Labanoras Regional Park,

is one of the few dozens of people who have one.

Our mentor Linas used to play it regularly
and is actually pretty good at it

Place and time chosen to play were perfect...

On the 6th and 7th of June 2009, 1000 hats were hanged on this tree,

as an original way to commemorate Lithuania's 1000th anniversary.

Every visitor had a chance to contribute in that record.

A hat on a tree is a symbol which means

"It was good to be here, and I'm going to be back"

It was sunset time at Olando Kepurė (or Dutchman's cap,

in reference to the shape of this 24 m high cliff overlooking the sea)

From left to right : Edouard, Irena, Andrius, Vanda, Linas, Sigutė and Florence

One of the last summer week-ends on the beach. Lithuanian seaside remains

wild and natural enough, with no hotels, houses or restaurants by the beach.

Just sand and mostly pine trees. A big change compared to french or spanish coasts!

The sea was pretty wild on sunday.
A good occasion to have fun in the Baltic waves altogether

Palūšė : 360 years and a happy regata

2011-08-29T01:17:00.000-07:00

360 years old. For sure, Palūšė is not the oldest village of the Park. But this anniversary appears to be, each year, a good occasion to celebrate and to organise a nice event for locals and visitors passing by.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JJ-I8BOONA

Neptune, God of the Sea, appeared with his crew of beautiful Naiades, to give prizes to all participants of the Regata 2011

For a nice little clip of photos about the crazy "regata", watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JJ-I8BOONA

Figuriada 2011

2011-08-29T00:50:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2AdT4mkaDg

These bronze medals and this "champagne"
were are reward and awards for our craziest jumps...

Figuriada is an annual event held in Palūšė. Anyone can participate alone or in teams of two, no limitations of age, sex or nationality. The contest consists of three parts:

1. Compulsory jumps: a draw decided whether we had to play "bomb", "deadman", "total analphabet" or "scissors".

2. Homework, prepared by contestants.

3. Improvisation on a theme decided, once again, with a draw.

All events feature live music. The winners are selected by the votes of the judges, with marks going up to 10, and actually never reaching less than 7. The price ceremony is followed by a party that goes on all night and the day after (said the very humoristic program).

Palūšė, the boat that was successfully used for the Palūšė - Nida trip,
was there, showing off its beautiful celebration habits

As you've probably understood, this contest is all about having fun, something that quite a few Lithuanian people know how to do. Perhaps even more in Aukštaitija, the region that has the reputation to be the most relaxed one in the whole country.

So our team's name was sraige, meaning snail in Lithuanian. We played with the cliches related to France...

Our first jump was the analphabet one. Florence carried Edouard on her back, and we played...

For the second, we improvised a romantic scene (what else can you expect from french people?!)

for the last, the draw decided we would play... a mountain goat! Florence was imitating the goat, while Edouard was playing the shepherd, a quite angry one because of its uncontrolable animal.

This rich program provoked unstoppable laughs among the audience, and the judges loved it enough for us to end up at the third place, behind the untouchables Šarunas and Kostas (2nd) and the winners Jonas and Vytautas.

Before the "competition"

And here is the party itself, with all the craziest jumps. You'll see our romantic jump : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2AdT4mkaDg

Everyday celebrations

We've both noticed how much Lithuanian people like to celebrate, share, give prizes, for all sorts of reasons they may find. It seems totally normal for them, but slighlty unusual for us. Like this way to celebrate birthdays, the son or daugther of one employee's past or future wedding, or even just the beginning of holidays for the director of the Park.

First thing in the morning, so as early as 8am, all employees of the Park gather in the meeting room. They drink wine and/or some kind of champagne, eat sweets, and chat about the event and other things. Although we (neither Florence nor Edouard) don't have much experience in working places in France, we really don't think that would happen that often over there. It undeniably creates a nice atmosphere at work, as well as the usual every morning half an hour-chat with a cup of coffee, in this same meeting room.

Busy bees

2011-08-25T05:23:00.000-07:00

This is the bus that brought us to the museum.

A few hundred people gathered on monday the 15th, a national day off in Lithuania, for the traditional apiculture museum's honey harvest festival.

Perfect weather conditions helped in the success of this celebration.

Crowd was big, and even national television was there.

These belts are worn by Lithuanians, in their traditional "costume".

Kids were definitely not left behind...

Baskets, honey, soap, candles, food...

you could find all sorts of stuff by the entrance of

the museum. Most of them natural and home-made.

After harvesting, honey tasting

Vytautas Šiškauskas is obviously a very popular singer.

People who came to the celebration almost all gathered

to see his concert.

And after the concert, the singer

could not resist to the french charm

Thumbs Up Hitchhiking Race 2011 - August 19th-21st

2011-08-25T04:42:00.000-07:00

Sunshine and happiness for the departure in Vilnius.

But they all know the Race will be difficult

and this good weather will not last...

Florence Guiral and Robertas Žvirblis,

opponents during the Race,

but together to study the map and

the locations of the challenges to accomplish.

1007 km all over Lithuania with a thumb up as a unique tool of transportation, 10 stopovers and as many tasks to achieve on the way, all that under rain, heavy rain and/or thunderstorm...

Challenging? Apparently, it was. 32 people were supposed to take part in the Thumbs Up Hitchhiking Race 2011, only 6 brave ones came! But we can say that these six ones had fun, lots of fun. Unfortunately, one of the teams didn't make it to the arrival in Kernavė though.

A night in a police station

Among funny stories, the winners of this first edition Sabrina Buhn (Germany) and Robertas Žvirblis (Lithuania) pitched their tent in front of Klaipeda's big shopping center Akropolis, to be sheltered from the rain. Quite a few local people, totally astonished, took photos of this very unusual scene. The following night, they slept in Ukmergė's... police station! A policeman working there told them it is not a place to sleep overnight, and proposed them to sleep under the staircase, so as not to be seen by anyone in the morning.

The silver medalists Florence Guiral (France) and Fela Winkelmolen (Netherlands) got picked up by a 65-year old man, Vilginius, who hosted them overnight in his place in Vilkija. "The generosity and welcoming spirit of Lithuanians can really be astonishing", said Florence once the Race finished. The alarm clock rang at 6am the following day. Cause Vilginius got so interested in the Race that he motivated both racers to carry on as early as possible, and wishing they would win eventually.

Among other prizes, medals were offered
to all participants of the Race

Around the three Baltic countries

The event managed to raise 554 Lt for Lietuvos Gamtos Fondas' projects :

1. Editing a fish guide for a sustainable use of ressources

2. Developping a better coexistence between farmers and wolves, and protecting both wolves and cattle

This sum of money is of course far less than what was expected, but it still means almost a hundred litai per participant. For instance, Sabrina and Robertas managed to collect 80 Litai during the Race! This is very important, knowing that next year, there will most likely be a second edition of the Thumbs Up Hitchhiking Race. Bigger, longer, earlier, better!

The idea would be to make it around the three Baltic countries, and for at least a week or ten days. It would probably be in june, best time to get both Lithuanians and internationals to participate. The partnership with Lietuvos Gamtos Fondas would remain, and the equivalent associations in Latvia and Estonia would be called for partnership.

For photos and all informations, go to the official website : http://thumbsuprace.jimdo.com/

European Basketball Championship 2011

2011-08-23T23:58:00.000-07:00

Not so common to see a traffic jam in Aukštaitija! The reason?

A convoy promoting the basketball european championships,

that are about to start in Lithuania (August 31st - September 18th)

and their sponsor (a chain of supermarket).

Basketball is said to be the second religion

of Lithuania. And Lithuania will host

the Basketball European Championships 2011, for the second time since its independance.

The kind of event most Lithuanians will follow with great passion, from August the 31st till September the 18th.

Each relay lasts for one hour,

and these volunteers run all over Lithuania.

And here is how a EuroBasket 2011 medal looks like.

The medals we got as prizes for the

"Thumbs Up Hitchhiking Race 2011" (see other posts)

come from the same company.

A sea museum in... Gražutė Regional Park!

2011-08-08T07:37:00.000-07:00

Vida Žilinskienė, the extremely lovable and passionate founder of the Sea Museum

Our dear volunteer colleagues Sabrina (from Germany) and Rocio (from Spain) do their EVS in Gražutė Regional Park. This large protected area is definitely not as wellknown as Aukštaitija National Park can be, and Sabi and Rocio sometimes almost never see visitors for a week or so, even in summer time. And yet, there is some kind of totally unique place thousands of visitors would love to go to. If only they knew...

It is actually difficult in Lithuania to be further away from the sea than where... the sea museum is located!

This place is full of unbelievable treasures that open their beautiful secrets to visitors. For 30 years, Vida Žilinskienė has collected or has been offered corals, shells, fossils of all kinds. She used to work at school, and the geography programme was very wide (pupils had to know all seas in the Soviet Union, all the world's oceans, and of course, what used to live in those waters). So when travelling, the teacher was actually already collecting the future exhibits of her Sea museum. Then, wherever she would go, she would bring something interesting for herself. When the first 300 exhibits were collected, the collection was included in the list of places of interest of the district.

More in Salakas than in Klaipėda

The teacher was very surprised when a young family who claimed that they had seen much more in Sea museum in Salakas than in the real Sea museum in Klaipėda. Vida Žilinskienė could hardly believe it : 30 000 exhibits are estimated to be in Klaipėda and she has hardly more than 2000. It turned out that the visitors saw a sea fox in Salakas sea museum, which they couldn‘t see in Klaipėda. The sea fox was brought by one of Vida Žilinskienė's relatives, a sailor (nearly all corals and fish were also brought by him).

Vida Žilinskienė is always happy with visitors, and she welcomes them with such obvious passion, immense pleasure and beautiful smile that she makes the visit even more enjoyable. She is a kind companion, an excellent expert of her collection as well as an active citizen of Salakas.

In the same building, visitors may have a look at Salakas ethnographical and Gražutė Regional Park exhibitions too. With Salakas ethnographical exhibition, you learn about the way people used to live during the whole XXth century. You can get to know some beautiful festivals of Salakas area, as well as old crafts and famous local people.

Luxury was there...

2011-08-08T07:12:00.000-07:00

Palūšė is a tiny settlement. Although being one of the biggest of the Park, there are still only about a hundred people who live there permanently. But it's a place of major interest, in the heart of Aukštaitija National Park, and tourism is something important here. It didn't prevent this huge restaurant-cafe-bar to close its doors about two years ago. This place is about to be totally destroyed, as well as quite a few little "cottages" that used to accomodate visitors here. Some new projects should pop up during these next few years. So here we go for the very last visit of this "historical monument".

A bar, on the first floor, first welcomes customers...

From the bar, let's go up the stairs and discover...

some kind of Hawaian bar. Take only the bar itself, and it could

really fit on a postcard sent straight from some Pacific islands

Here was the dance floor...

Meat cutting room... Hopefully not a torture room...

the kitchen... well... the leftovers

Are we in a church? No, unless you consider a bar a holy place...

On the other side...

2011-08-05T06:44:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the hidden part of Palūšė, somewhere underneath the ground, a place that used to be like a small town isolated from the surface. A place in which people used to live and hide, waiting for a better future. This was during the Cold War. Hard to know what happened exactly. But here is our photo report of deep Palūšė.

A long corridor, with rooms on each side.

All kind of scenarii must have been imagined
when building these super-thick doors

This one is even more impressive

Plenty of these masks were left behind

And still in their package

Obviously they didn't use all masks...

A massive diesel engine was probably providing
electricity to the whole underground place

To be able to breathe...

Joninės in Vilkaviškis

2011-08-05T00:33:00.000-07:00

A big family-size Joninės, in the nature. The best we could hope for...

After Rasos (different name for Joninės, meaning "dew" in lithuanian) in Ignalina, our mentor Linas invited us for another Joninės, at the other end of the country, near Vilkaviškis, hardly 10km from the russian border (Kaliningrad). In Ignalina, it was crowded and commercial. Here, it was a much more quiet, pleasant, and family-like atmosphere. We loved it!

This is the gate under which participants walk, one after another, and then get purified. After that, we had to walk and pick blindy seven plants. A fortune teller was there to interpretate this small bunch. Result? Florence will have a short but very colourful life, whereas Edouard will have a long one, perhaps with many kids, but with plenty of non-achieved ideas or projects. What's best?

We were meant to celebrate the Sun...

... but rain welcomed us first

Here comes the time to burn the bunch of

flowers previously picked for fortune-telling

Gira (bread-fermented beverage), salt and bread

on the menu before sunset.

We only saw a tiny part of it for sunset, but its whole beauty appeared for sunrise. After the shortest night of the year.

The place where we spent our shortest sleepless night. The "vegetation tower" on the right is used for some more fortune telling. The idea is to throw a previously made crown of flowers trying it to get stuck on one of the sticks horizontally attached to the tower. You have to do that while looking in opposite direction. Florence tried many times and never managed. Edouard needed only for try for his crown not to come back to the ground anymore. What does it mean? Well, Florence might never get married (not before a long time anyway), whereas Edouard will within four of five years!

Joninės in Ignalina

2011-08-04T13:04:00.000-07:00

Joninės (Saint Jonas in english) is among the most popular and esteemed festivities in Lithuania. Lithuania was the last european country to become Christian. It could explain the great importance of this pre-christian and worldwide tradition, celebrating the sun and the summer solstice. Here in Lithuania, at that time of the year, on the 24th of June, the night is very clear and only lasts for about five hours...

The crowns will be telling the future in the lake...

If the crown of a young man meets the one of a young girl,

they will get married

During Joninės, people gather near rivers or lakes, pick plants to get their future told, and create flower crowns. Then, these crowns are thrown in the water. If they don't get stuck in branches, the year will be good. If the crowns of a boy and a girl meet, it means they will get married! To purify yourself, you have to jump over the fire. Overnight, young people go to the forest to look for a fern flower, that is supposed to give them magical powers. Nine months later, the stork (the national bird) comes back and brings the child born during Joninės.

A strong man contest...

... followed by a traditional music concert

Florence followed the tradition, making herself

a crown of plants and flowers

Are we becoming local celebrities?

This was on Ignalina's newspaper, about our presence in Joninės

Thumbs Up Hitchhiking Race 2011

2011-07-28T07:03:00.000-07:00

With Sabrina, german volunteer in Gražutė Regional Park, Edouard is organising an event called "Thumbs Up Hitchhiking Race 2011", starting from Vilnius on friday the 19th of August, and ending on sunday the 21st.

This event is a hitchhiking race, whose purpose will be to promote sustainable travelling, to support an environmental cause, and at the same time, to have lots of fun.

The association we will support, for this first and hopefully not last edition of the Thumbs Up Hitchhiking Race, is Lietuvos Gamtos Fondas (Lithuanian Fund for Nature). We're supporting two of their ongoing projects :
1. Help to achieve coexistence between farmers and wolves
2. Editing a seafood guide for a sustainable use of ressources

More on : http://thumbsuprace.jimdo.com/

The participants will all hitch in teams of two people, one person from overseas with one person from Lithuania (if numbers are matching of course). To build the teams, a last-minute draw will be organised right before the departure on friday the 19th. So all participants are expected to come at the very least one hour before the official start, so at 10am MAX. (best between 9am and 9.30am). All teams will have to respect some stopovers all along the way, eventually providing the evidence of their stopovers with photos taken with either a mobile phone or a digital camera.

http://thumbsuprace.jimdo.com/

We will have some sort of a honesty box, in which all participants will be invited to put as much money as they can. Our suggestion would be to give around 100 Litai. That's what we, organisers, will give, plus one Litas (at least). If you don't collect that much money from friends, family, or other people, you can still be part of the Race. But if you collect that much, or more, then of course it's even better! ;-) Just be aware that 100% of this money will be given to Lietuvos Gamtos Fondas.

3 months, 3 countries, 3000 dollars, 3000 kms

2011-06-19T23:32:00.000-07:00

The very brave Bernii, with her 50-kilo loaded bicycle...

Her name is Bernadette. But she prefers Bernii. She comes all the way from Melbourne, Australia. And the 16th of June 2011, she "landed" here in Paluse, for a night and morning stopover. "Landed", so to speak... She actually cycled to here. One month ago, she was still in Helsinki. She stayed there for a few days, before starting her trip : 3000 kms through the 3 Baltic countries, for 3 months. At first, the trip was going to be just holidays. It's only two weeks before she left Australia that she thought about raising awareness and money for mental disabilities.

"This is a huge issue in Australia, Bernii explains. Lots of people suffer, and there's not enough money for it. Plus there are still prejudices. If you have a physical illness, people can see it and acknowledge it. But if you have a mental illness, it's a lot more difficult."

So before leaving Australia for Europe, she sent a common email to all her colleagues at work (she worked for the State, as a project officer to help people to carpool), and to all her friends, eventually trying to collect as much as 3000 Australian dollars for the Mental Illness Fellowship. She collected more than half of it for now, and still hopes to achieve her goal.

If you're intererested by her ongoing project, check it out on :
http://www.mycause.com.au/BikingtheBalticStates

or on her blog :
http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Bernii/

Kretuonas Lake : thousands of birds...

2011-06-15T08:50:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Didzioji sali, a large island located in the middle of the biggest lake of the Park, Kretuonas Lake. This island used to be a place for grazing and mowing for local people and their sheep and cows, and a fantastic bird reserve. In the seventies, a decision was made to empty the island from all grazing animals to as to protect an endangered species of bird, threatened by these animals stepping on its nets. But the troublesome consequence was forest starting to grow and birds, instead of living there, were... leaving from there!

In 2001, trees were cut and later on, some sixty sheep were sent to the island to graze, like in the "old times", to try to come back to the original state. And that's been pretty successful, with the presence of more than ten thousand birds (mostly Larus Ridibundus for the ones who know...). But that only last for two years, and some trees are starting to grow back again...

Some monitoring is being done on the island on a regular basis to count birds, especially three species : Larus Minutus, Sterna Hirundo and Philomachus Pugnax. If the number of these birds decreases too much, some money can come from Europe to improve the situation.

Bronis, ornithologist, biologist and botanist
for the National Park, on the way to the island

The population of Larus Ridibundus raises up to 10000 units!
And then, there are other species of course...

Four people from the Birds Protection League were already
on the island to look for birds nests and to clip young birds

Sterna Hirundo's eggs

Larus Canus' eggs

Beautiful plant diversity as well on the island...
this is a Platanthera Bifolia

And the parasitic plant Cuscuta europaea,
first time Bronius saw it on the island

Andreus, inspector of the Park,
uses this tool to look for illegal nets in the lake's waters

Another illegal tool : a berry "collector"

Sekmines : folklore at our door

2011-06-15T08:49:00.000-07:00

Last sunday (the 12th), we went to a small folk festival in Meyronis, the closest village from our "Ekologinios Svietimos Centras", the place we live in. Organised by Aukstaitija National Park and Labanoras Regional Park together, this event symbolises the approaching end of spring and real start of summer. Normaly, each year, a cow (or a few of them) has to swim in the lake and to cross it to get to the other side, where it can stay for the whole summer in a pasture. But tradition is getting lost, and the cow had already crossed Lake Lusai... First time it does not happen during the event. What a shame!

The event

The customs

Soon, Florence will be crowned... with a home-made crown of various plants and flowers

Participants carry birch branches to give them to villagers.
The birch tree is seen as a link between earth and sky.

The people

Florence with our Lithuanian teacher Astra, member of
the same folk group than the one our mentor Linas belongs to

A drama play amused the visitors...

And for a small village like Meyronis, the visitors were quite numerous!

The food

The diversity of Lithuanian food

The giant omelette was a complete success

Singing and dancing

Many more women than men...

This is quite exceptional. Unfortunately,
men are not as numerous as women in traditional folk groups

Our mentor Linas, much better dancer than we were!

Florence was pretty good in dancing
the traditional "Oira Oira"

An example of traditional singing

Istakos nuo pradziu pradzio... 540km by rowing boat across Lithuania

2011-06-14T09:30:00.000-07:00

Here comes the story of some friends and co-workers, uniting their strenght in a never-seen before trip by rowing boat, all the way from Paluse to Nida. These twelve or so people struggled and suffered for 540 km and during eight days, experiencing heavy rain as well as a big hot sun, but most of all enjoyed and celebrated some kind of freedom, although being (proudly) "stuck" on their 8-meter long wooden boat.

Why proudly? Why being so proud of achieving what can only appear to be a physical performance? Well, because it is much more than that... We both know about it, cause for the first three days, and for the very last day, we were part of it.

Three questions to... Sarunas, "captain" of the boat :

1. When was "Paluse" born?

The idea of building this boat was born two years ago in Finland, when we went there with a bunch of friends for a few-weeks trip. We were staying in small houses in the nature. There was this night I drank vodka with this local guy. I asked him if he could find a boat-builder. He found us one, I wrote him a letter, but he was asking 8500 euros for it. And then, we would have needed to add one more thousand for transport from Finland to here. So my friend Kostas decided to make it. It took him two or three months to make it, with some information provided on the internet. It was easy work.

"Captain Sarunas"

One day, we were sitting by the fire, and we decided this boat had to make a long trip, like a trip to the sea...

When I told Linas (our mentor, employee of Aukstaitija National Park, ndlr) and other guys of the Park about it, they said we could make it bigger, create a real event, with the official opening of the new boat rental place in Paluse, and the 20-year anniversary of lithuanian National Parks (the five of them were created in 1991, except Aukstaitija, named that way in 1991, but created in 1974, ndlr). And they called the trip Istakos, which means the source of a river, the beginning of it.

2. What were the most beautiful thing, the biggest difficulty and the biggest surprise you experienced during the trip?

The most beautiful thing was the team. I was afraid that twelve people altogether in a boat for a week would have been a difficult situation. But the team was wonderful. Everyday was a new day, a happy day, we had lots of talks about nothing and everything. We became real friends. With some colleagues, we used to say just hello in the morning, not much more, but now we know each others much better.

The hardest part was not what I was expecting. I thought we would experience some problems along Nemunas river. I thought some big winds would come from the West and we would have to row against them. But there was only one day with strong wind. The hardest part was on Zeimena river, when there were so many branches across the river and one of them made a hole in the skull of the boat (the second day, ndlr). But we managed to fix it in Kernave, with the help of some very good people.

And what surprised me the most was the warm welcome we've had in different regional parks we stopped for breaks or overnight. In Panemuniu (regional Park, ndlr) for example, we arrived very late, it was 9.30pm. But they waited for us, made us very good food, and some home-made vodka (laughs). We've even had a local guide from there, who spent the whole day on the boat with us!

3. How is the boat being used now? Did the trip give you other ideas for the future?

The boat has a commercial use. People like to be altogether, so over the week-ends, this boat is perfect for rent for large groups of friends or family.

Kostas has another idea to make a boat with a roof, with tables, maybe for a restaurant. But I've got an idea to make another boat like Paluse. I really like the shape of this boat, it is very stable. Last day of the trip, we've had big waves, but no problems with that.

So I would like to make long up to 10-day commercial trips. But of course, the participants wouldn't have to row ten hours per day everyday! So we could use a motor sometimes, and go for some sidewalks to the forest or to interesting places. I really want to try that this automn. This summer, I'm going on vacation to Iceland and to Oural, I won't be back before the end of september. So october, with rain and short days, might not be the best, but I'll try...

1. The excitement of a... NEW BIRTH

The preparation of the fish soup, before leaving

Some traditional music, after the official part

Almost ready to leave...

2. The innocence of... CHILDHOOD

3. The harsh realities of GROWING UP

Rain + trees and branches = problems...

The only solution is sometimes to go for "a swim"

4. The beauty of FAMILY

The arrival in Nemunas Deltas, the day before the last

Last day, 6am... a bit early maybe?

Mixed feelings before the end of a beautiful adventure

The "inspection" boat, last joke right before Nida

Imantas will not go for the sirens...

This gift was given all along the trip

They did it!

EVS meeting in Varniai

2011-06-02T01:26:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Varniai, beautiful "lake-resort" in Zemaitija region, western Lithuania. Varniai is famous for its lake Lūkstas, which is the biggest natural lake of Samogitia region in Lithuania. The lake is the only one in Lithuania where visitors can find pieces of amber stranded. But today, the very place we spent a day and a night in is even more famous for its international blues festival, Blues Nights. We are hoping to get there this summer, the first week-end of July.

But this time, the lake was a very quiet location offered for us to enjoy our meeting with all other volunteers from different regional and national parks, and their mentors. We (volunteers) discussed our first steps in our parks, the projects and expectancies we might have, the atmosphere at work, our accomodation, etc. Mentors did the same on their side. Then we gathered to share our conclusions, positive for most of them. For us? So far so good!

Was Anthony Hopkins with us? No, this is Leonas,

responsible from our host organisation.

Leonas, some kind of a father for all parks' volunteers...

On the way back to Varniai

Medvegalis Mound

Burbiskio Dvaro, a huge property with a manor and some stables,
all given to the town of Pakalniskes (Radviliskio rajonas)

A small plunge into lithuanian folklore

2011-05-24T07:23:00.000-07:00

EVS gives volunteers the opportunity to learn a new language. But much more than a language, it is a whole new culture we will have the unique chance to get into. After our first lesson in Ignalina with Astra last week, we were lucky enough to attend an end of high school show, letting us discover some traditional dances of the country.

After some dances came the award ceremony

A glimpse of lithuanian dance :

Visits with school kids

2011-05-24T05:39:00.000-07:00

Florence, Edouard, and their Macedonian fellow volunteer Aco spent half a day with school kids, dancing with them before visiting some marvels of Aukstaitija National Park, participating that way in their growing knowledge of their close environment.

The beekeeping museum

Welcome to the "bitinintystes muziejus"!

Beekeepers had to find tricks
against bears trying to steal honey

It is possible to try some "museum-made" honey here!
Did you know that it takes a whole day for 200 bees to gather one spoon of honey?

We admired many wooden carvings

From the top of... Ladakalnis Hill

After the museum, we enjoyed the beautiful view
from the top of the 175 m high Ladakalnis Hill

This sacred place used to serve as the site
of pagan sacrifices to the Goddess Lada,
the Great Mother who gave birth to the world.
Today, people still offer a bit of money,
on the foot of this oak tree

Hitch-hiking and planting trees

2011-05-24T05:28:00.000-07:00

Saturday the 14th : let's go for a second week-end in Kaunas, to meet up with some fellow volunteers and plant trees together in the botanical gardens, in a project partly financed by Europe.

Our mission to get there : hitch-hiking all the way, with no lithuanian language skills whatsoever... A mission hard enough for us to fail in Jonava, only 30 km away from our goal. But usually, hitch-hiking is quite a common thing and is relatively easy here in Lithuania. With a monthly minimum wage of about 800 Litas (250 Euros), how can you possibly pay for petrol, when it is as expensive as in France?!

...and planting trees

Four volunteers from Germany, Moldovia and Great Britain

On sunday, we bought ourselves bicycles on a big open-air second-hand market in Kaunas, and proudly cycled all afternoon, stopping for a while in Kauno Marios Regional Park,

some 15 km away from the city. Founded in 1662, this monument went through lots of changes since then. It was successively turned into an orthodox church, an archive, a psychiatric hospital and an art gallery. Today, twenty nuns live there and each year, the monastery hosts an international classical music festival.

Pazailis church and monastery, just outside of Kaunas

Our little paradise in Aukstaitija National Park

2011-05-24T04:27:00.000-07:00

Sunset lights on our place

So here we are, in the land of hills, lakes and forests, Lithuania's first national park (five in all), established in 1974, Aukstaitija National Park (A.N.P.). A true excitment envelops us when we first reach the place we will live in for seven months. And this spot goes beyond our expectancies. Overlooking Lake Lusiai, our comfy little apartment will provide us all the quietness we could hope, with beautiful nature all around.

Lake Lusiai is one of the 126 lakes of A.N.P. Scattered among the woods and , these lakes are often interconnected by rivulets and streams. The largest of them is lake Dringis - 721 ha. The Tauragnas is the deepest lake in Lithuania - 60 m. Over 70 % of Aukstaitija's territory is pine stands. Some of the pine trees are over 200 years old. The woods, marshes and meadows of the Aukstaitija National Park abound in rare plant species, including a number of plants that are listed in the Red Data Book of Lithuania and are protected as endangered species. The lakes and rivers, too, are rich in wildlife, from Canadian mink to a variety of birds that can bring quite a few exciting moments to a devoted birdwatcher. There is so much to explore here!

Totems above the lake

The parks territory covers an area of 30 thousand hectares and embraces some 80 settlements and villages, some of which have retained not only their old original layout but also archaic wooden farm buildings and other structures. The Paluse village, which is a tourism centre of the Aukstaitija National Park, was first mentioned in written sources in 1651. It still boasts an octagonal wooden church dating back to 1757.

Our flat is a 20-minutes walk from the headquarters of the Park. Along the way, we can admire some fifteen wooden scultpures, standing up like totems above the lake. They were carved in 1977 by a group of folk artists. Some of them were inspired by stories about devils (the devil seems to be pursuing us since Kaunas, cf. "first impressions in Kaunas").

Burial mounds

During our first days, we got the chance to discover burial mounds in the forest near the village. During almost the whole Middle Age period, between the 5th and the 13th century, people used to bury their deads, covering them with a small hill of dirt. Today, despite some illegal excavations, it is still possible to see quite a lot of them in the forest near Paluse. If you see a hill, possibly surrounded by some kind of small staves, it is most likely someone was buried there, hundreds of years ago. Actually, perhaps not someone, but a few people, or even a horse, if it had a great value.

In Paluse, near the beautiful wooden church, you can find a reconstitution of a burial mound, cut in halves, with the exhibit of a squeleton. Good to get a better idea of the Middle Age customs.

From the 5th until the 13th century, people in Lithuania and Eastern Europe
used to bury their deads in burial mounds

Botanikas Takas / Botanical Trail / Sentier botanique

Asta the biologist gives some plant explanations to Florence

Hardly fifteen minutes from our place starts the very diverse botanical trail. Diverse in terms of landscapes and plant species. More than 150 of them are presented on this 3,5 km long trail, nine of them being included on the Lithuanian Red List (this list identifies endangered species).

Edmundas shows us the work of a beaver

First impressions... in Kaunas

2011-05-19T02:04:00.000-07:00

A pretty big audience for these fire jugglers in Kaunas

We spent our first week-end in Lithuania in the second city of the country, Kaunas. We met up with other volunteers from various european places, but spent most of our time with Aco, from Macedonia, learning for instance about the difficult economical and political situation of his country.

Among our first discoveries was the fact that it would be relatively easy to interact with young people here, cause almost all of them have a (very) good english. It will be much harder to connect with older persons, who used to live under USSR, so who only know Lithuanian and Russian. And lithuanian language is considered as one of the five most difficult languages in the world. Fortunately, Florence knows basics in Russian and Edouard has a fluent english, which makes them complementary. And even if they can't speak your language, most Lithuanians will always try to help you in case you get lost in the city jungle...

Kaunas was booming the whole week-end we spent there, with bands playing all sorts of music everywhere in the street, fire jugglers, and lots of good people to meet.

Devil : a sick sense of humour

the devil loves music

On Sunday, we went to the Devil's Museum, which was definitely worth a visit. This museum hosts a collection of more than two thousand sculptures and carvings from all over the world, most of them still from slavic countries and of folk provenance.

We felt like folklore and traditions used to be deeply impregnated in people's lives here. This is partly due to resistance against communism (the regime was forbidding any kind of belief apart from the main one) and strong paganism. Lithuania was the last pagan state in Europe, with an unbroken tradition of pagan practice in rural areas lasting until the early 19th century. And Eastern Europeans have a very different view of the devil from that commonly held in the West.

The devil is actually very close to man, he represents a part of ourselves. He is responsible for earth, flora, fauna, fertility, and is the patron of farmers and craftsmen. He loves music and has a very sick sense of humour. Hence the humoristic rather than sinister-looking collection. By the way, the devil is into drinking as well. God gave permission to drink two glasses of alcohol, one to God, the second one to yourself. The third one goes to the devil. When a man drinks this third glass, his throat starts burning... So watch out for the devil in you...

In pagan times, the devil was the equal of Gods, accepted by the people as a normal part of life. Only Christianism managed to transform the devil into a demonised creature. Today, slavic Paganism is undergoing a renaissance: traditional folk celebrations are again popular, and Pagan groups are springing up throughout the former Soviet Union.

On Monday the 9th, we left the city by bus, to reach our tiny settlement of Paluse, in the heart of Aukstaitija National Park...

What is EVS?

2011-05-16T04:56:00.000-07:00

European Voluntary Service (EVS) is the European Commission's project that allows a young person (18–30 years) to become a volunteer in another country for a specified period, normally between 2–12 months. The service activities can be, for example, in the field of environment, arts and culture, activities with children, young people or the elderly, heritage or sports and leisure activities.

In this way, it seeks to develop solidarity, mutual understanding and tolerance among young people, thus contributing to reinforcing social cohesion in the European Union and to promoting young people's active citizenship.

Each project has three partners, a volunteer, a sending organisation and a host organisation. The project has to take place in a country other than where the volunteers lives, is non-profit-making and unpaid and last for a limited period (maximum 12 months). One of the countries involved in a project must be an EU Member State or an accession country.

Our hosting organisation is Deineta (cf. photo), financed by a national agency, this national agency being financed by Brussels. Deineta is located in Kaunas, where we spent our first week-end.

For more informations, check :

http://ec.europa.eu/youth/youth-in-action-programme/doc82_en.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Voluntary_Service

Who are we?

2011-05-10T22:33:00.000-07:00

Dear readers,

By chance, by mistake, or perhaps on purpose, you give us a first visit. So you deserve some explanations, that is the least we can do...

Florence is a 22 year-old french woman, raised among apples and cows in Jacques Chirac's region, Correze. Her childhood dream was to work with monkeys, but when she turned 18, she discovered... ducks! As a first working experience, during her agriculture studies, she worked in a duck farm for a month. The year after, she got into another symbol of the region, studying the ecosystem of a species of mushroom, the famous and delicious cep! But as mushrooms go along pretty well with beer, she flew straight to the lemurian country... Madagascar. Definitely not a well-known place for beer-making, but still, she worked for a brewery for five months over there.

After such a strong experience, her french come-back was pretty hard. She still managed to get back on her feet, so to speak, and worked with kids as an environmental guide for a nature and sport association in her native area.

Edouard is a 29-year-old french man, born and raised in Chambery, in the beautiful Alps. After seven years of history and journalism studies, he decided he had had enough of it, and in september 2007, he left his country for a two-year trip in New Zealand. He was looking for new experiences, and got into organic gardening through Wwoofing (Willing workers organisation on organic farms), hiking, and travelling on his own. This long period of time overseas definitely transformed him.

After he came back, in March 2010, he went cycling around France for six months, discovering the beauty of his native place. Then, he volunteered for three different missions in the South of France, healing, feeding and releasing injured birds and small mammals; welcoming the public in the beautiful bird reserve of the ancient saltworks in Hyeres; and taking care of tortoises in the tortoise village of Gonfaron, visited by tens of thousands of people each year.

Without knowing each others, Florence and Edouard have been sharing a common passion for nature and travelling for years. They both applied for a European Volunteering Service (EVS), and got a positive answer from Aukstaitija National Park, in Lithuania. So that's how the adventure started, on the 6th of May 2011...