Lithuania

Text courtesy of Students of Zeimiai Secondary School.

Welcome to Lithuania!

Lithuania is a small country on the Baltic Sea.  There are about 2.5 million people.  The capital of Lithuania is Vilnius, the old city.  There are a lot of forests, lakes and rivers in Lithuania.  The longest river is Nemunas.  We have a very beautiful nature and old culture.

Lithuania has a very long and complicated history.  Our country was founded in the XIII century.  There are a lot of old buildings in our country.  In the picture there is a mansion and our village Zeimiai.  The mansion belonged to a man named Kosakowki who ruled this village.

The centre of Europe is 26 km away from the capital of Lithuania.  There is the European park that was established in 1989.  It is famous for the impressive nine woods.  You can visit the Puntukas Stone in Anykšciai which is the largest one left by the receding glacier.  What is more, near Druskininkai (the famous SPA resort In Lithuania) there is the park of Grutas which consists of sculptures of the Soviet era.  They are symbols of the Soviet regime.  In the Soviet times the museum exhibits were erected in many Lithuanian towns and villages.

Lithuanian national flower is the rue (Ruta).  It is a symbol of chastity.  Many people grow rues in their flower gardens.  When the girls are getting married, they carry the wreath of rues on their head.

The currency of Lithuania is called Litas.

Lithuania is very famous for basketball.  Lithuanians play basketball and we know everything about basketball.  Our famous teams are Zalgiris Kaunas and Lietuvos Rytas.  The most famous players are Arvydas Sabonis (played in NBA), Sarunas Jasikevicius, Linas Kleiza, Zydrunas Ilgauskas (now playing in NBA).

Lithuania's famous visitor places are the Lithuanian Sea Museum and the seaside resorts Palanga and Nida  Every summer many tourists come to rest here.  In Lithuanian Sea Museum you can see dolphins and other sea fish.  In Palanga is the Baltijos (Baltic) Sea and Amber museum.

Kaunas is the second largest city in Lithuania.  It has a town hall, an impressive building with a tower of 53 metres height.  There is a zoology museum, M. K. Ciurlionis National Art Museum named after Mikalojus Konstantinas Ciurlionis (the greatest Lithuanian composer and painter) and Devils Museum.

In the summer, many people go to Palanga for their holiday.  "Basanaviciaus" street is a famous street in Palanga.  There are many bars and shops.  Palanga is visited by many tourists too!

Jonava is the centre of Lithuania (60 km from Vilnius and 30 km from Kaunas) on the River Neris.  There are about 40,000 inhabitants.  The district is famous because there are a lot of villages that have the same names as many famous cities of the world such as London, Paris and Venice.  In Jonava there is the biggest factory of fertilizers in the Eastern Europe: ACHEMA.

Zeimiai is a village in Jonavas district.  It is 15 km from Jonava with about 1000 inhabitants.  The place is famous for its beautiful gothic church that is more than 100 years old and the mansion of Kosakowski, former landowner of this village.  The village is on the small river Lankesa.  There is the oldest secondary school in the Jonava’s district.  Last year we celebrated 410 th anniversary of our school.

You can discover all sorts of interesting things about Lithuania and other places by looking in encyclopedias and books at your school or local library.  There are also many wonderful sites on the Internet.  Here are a few links to get you started:

http://www.jonava.net
http://neris.mii.lt/homepage/lietuva.html
http://www.balticsworldwide.com/tourist/lithuania
http://www.2.omnitel.net/ramunas/Lietuva