Lithuania

A beautiful, very green country with a capital, Vilnius, protected by UNESCO for its Baroque-style historic centre, its countless churches and where I was lucky enough to come across the BALTICA folklore festival, which hosts groups from all over Europe, including from our country. Then I visit TRAKAI with its castle on the lake in a natural setting of great impact, and then I head to KLAIPEDA, the port on the west coast from which I take the very short ferry that takes me to the fabulous Curonian Spit peninsula, a national park 100 km long, half of which belongs to Lithuania and the southern part to the Russian district of Kaliningrad. The place is beautiful with extensive pine woods, a sandy beach and dunes up to 60 m high due to wind erosion.

NIDA is the main resort a few km from the Russian border and is a very beautiful and relaxing place with wooden houses, promenades by the sea and the lagoon, with the house that hosted the famous German writer Thomas Mann for 3 years. Finally I visit PALANGA, a beautiful coastal resort, the Lithuanian RIMINI with a sandy beach and a very long central pedestrian street that in the evening fills with tourists and bathers, up to the pier that divides the beach in two. I only skipped the hill of crosses, which is a bit out of the way and hosts thousands of crosses planted out of devotion, protest and vows. In short, a beautiful country where you eat well (the cepelinai, potato dumplings stuffed with meat) and drink excellent beers. The people are friendly, they are Catholic and lively, and prices are half ours.