Lomography

The Curonian Spit in Lithuania
written by dogma on July 9th, 2009 , 6 comments (7 votes)

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This tiny sand strip was formed around 5000 years ago and i have heard old people talking that it was created by a giantess, Neringa, who was playing on the seashore, but i‘m shore that this special prodigy was made by ice-age. There are nine small settlements, six of them Smiltynė, Alksnynė, Juodkrantė, Pervalka, Preila, Nida are on the Lithuanian side, while the other three Morskoe, Rybachy, Lesnoye are on the Russian side. Well i dont know nothing about those Russian side settlements, but the most intersting, famous and tourist beloved settlements from Lithuania side are: Juodkrantė and Nida. If you ever gone go through Juodkrantė, stop and have a look at three most tourist beloved atrractions: Hill of Witches, Sculpture park “Land and Water” and heron and cormorant colonies.

Hill of Witches – is park full of unique wooden sculptures build on the big hill in years 1979. At the moment it has more then 70 objects. “Land and Water” park is a fresh location it was build 7 years ago. This park houses 31 stone and metal sculptures, created during an international symposium “Land and Water.” All sculptures sits straight along the lagoon shore.

The heron and cormorant colonies. Well this place is really surprising, i‘m sure it will shake you. This colonies has around 2000 pairs of great cormorant and around 500 grey heron. I‘m not a very big birds lover, but i love what these birds create. Actually they are doing very bad thing, they are damaging forest because the ingredients of the birds’ excrement burn tree roots, but that „naked and dead living“ forest looks really impressing.

Ok so this was Juodkrantė, what about Nida? I would say Nida is the most beloved tourist place in whole Curonian Spit. Each summer more than 300000 tourists visits this place. There are lot of interesting things in there, but the most exciting destinations are the Parnidis dune and the Sun Clock. The dune is around 52m height and it‘s a perfect viewpoint where people can observe both – the sun rising from and the sunset into waters.

The lighthouse of Nida is not less worth visiting. It‘s 29,3 m and its light signals are seen from approximately 40 km.
So if you ever come to Lithuania, you cannot miss a chance to hit a road through The Curonian Spit. Its breathtaking landscape, lovely, small settlements, white sand beaches and fresh smell of pine forests will leave you unforgettable impression.