Lithuania

The difference between Eastern Europe and Central Europe is a matter of point of view and private definition. Put simply there is not any clean cut, universally-accepted definition obviously outlining which nations are included in Central Europe and which are in Eastern Europe. In a number of cases, some states may make both lists, further adding to the paradox of the terms.

The UN does have an obviously outlined term for Eastern Europe.

It encompasses the following nations : Belarus, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovakia, and Ukraine. Nevertheless the UN remains silent on what may represent Central Europe, preferring instead to split the EU continent into Northerly , Southern, western and eastern regions. Traditionally , since the middle of the twentieth Century, the term Eastern Europe has come to mean those nations which were separated from Western Europe by political philosophy. A lot of this definition had to do with the states that were linked to the USSR in the Cold War. Nevertheless since the decline of many of these Commie regimes, the states outlining Eastern Europe have been likely to change. Central Europe, from the other perspective, may include many of these nations also.

Again, because there is not any universal definition, it can be terribly hard to say what nations are in Central Europe. But some nations have tried to outline themselves. The central EU Countries Travel organisation incorporates the countries of Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. As seen from this organisation, the decline of some Red systems have confused the meaning of Eastern Europe. Actually as the political divisions are now not as intense, Central Europe may shortly come to represent a more clear definition.

This travel organisation is made of both nations that would’ve been considered Western Europe and Eastern Europe in the Cold War. So , as we move farther away from the twentieth Century, the term Central Europe may become more obviously outlined. Frequently some organisations skirt around the dictionary definition of Central and Eastern Europe altogether. They do it by mixing both groups into the same class and will even include the two geographical areas in their official names. An illustrative example of this would include the Regional and Environmental for Central and Eastern Europe.

Boarding pass

Boarding passes are documents issued by airlines and some other transport services. The pass is a key document that makes it possible for the passenger to lawfully board the mode of transport. A boarding pass is most commonly linked with plane flights, and aids in facilitating the boarding process so the process is accomplished in an orderly fashion. The common boarding pass usually encompasses a few essential elements.

The name of the passenger, as it would seem on the travel reservation, is located on the pass. With the name of the traveler, the identification number for the flight or train is nearly always included.

Rounding out the basic info is the time and date of the exit. Generally, the gate or platform that’s lined up for boarding is also included on the boarding pass.

At a previous time, it was mandatory for the traveler to report to a service desk to receive a boarding pass. Over time, one change on this process has made it eminently viable to get the pass. Together with checking in at a reception station and getting a boarding pass at that point, many of us now select electronic kiosks to complete the check in process. The kiosk mechanically prints out baggage tags and the boarding pass. This process has helped reduce waiting time along with permitted travelers to proceed straight to the correct gate or platform for exit. Sometimes , an airline or rail service will not permit a traveler to ski without a kosher boarding pass. In the event the boarding pass is damaged or lost between the point of issue and the exit location, most transport services may be able to replace the pass upon corroboration of your identity and your travel reservation. But it is really important to notice the precise process employed by different airlines change, so that the process may take anywhere from 1 or 2 mins to an hour or even more.

Historical Lithuania

The complex and varied history of Lithuania has meant that there are many influences which can still be seen today both in the buildings and the culture of the country.  This means that there are many interesting and beautiful places to visit in order to help to understand Lithuania and its people.   With far too many sites to list in entirety, here are just five to whet your appetitie.

1. The ancient Lithuanian capital, Kernave is a fascinating site of such significance that is on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.  Primarily a fortified medieval town, archaeologists have been working here for thirty years and have found evidence of habitation stretching back as far as 11,000 years.  Visit the Museum of Archaeology and History at Kernave to discover the story of the city.
2. Gediminas Castle in Vilnius dates back to the 1400s.  Nowadays part of the castle contains part of the National Museum of Lithuania.  Its position at the top of Gediminas  Hill means that there are superb views of the city.
3. The Lithuanian Hill of Crosses is located on the outskirts of Siauiai.  A unique pilgrimage site, the hill is quite literally a hill of crosses as statues and crucifixes of all shapes and sizes are found here.  The town of Siauiai itself is worth a visit for its many old churches and the chance to soak up Lithuanian culture.
4. Vilnius Old Town is a splendid place to wander around and soak up the atmosphere and surroundings.  Its many architectural styles include Italian Renaissance, Russian Byzantine as well as Jewish influences.  There are surprises around every corner and an abundance of bars and cafes from which to watch the world go by.
5. The Curonian Spit is a UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site on the coast of the Baltic. It is a strip of land which separates the sea from the Curonian Lagoon and was formed thousands of years ago by the winds and waves of the Baltic.  With hills of white sands and fantastic views it is well worth a visit and if you are very lucky you may find some amber washed up from the sea.
ll of Crosses is sacred site for pilgrims and it’s truly a site like no other you’ve ever seen, or are likely to see anywhere in the world.

Lithuanian culture includes a long musical tradition in both folk and classical genres. 

Folk Music
Sutartines  are unique Lithuanian examples of traditional music dating back hundreds of years.  These usually take the form of two or three part polyphonic forms with simple melodies.  Originally these would have been sung by women, particularly in the North-Western part of Lithuania with instrumental versions played by men.  Expressive and with clear rhythms (typically syncopated) these songs were performed at social occasions such as weddings.  A lot of the Sutartine repertoire was written down in the 19th and 20th centuries and are still performed by Lithuanian Folk groups today.

Lithuanian folk songs also include references to wars throughout their history.  Documents from the 16th century refer to songs about the heroic deeds of those who fell against the Teutonic Knights.  There are also many religious songs associated with particular festivals such as Easter and Christmas. 
Another popular form of Lithuanian folk music is that of Work Songs.  Some of these appear to be of great age and the rhythms of some are even suggestive of the rhythm of the work being done as they are sung.   There are herding songs, often sung by children and though to be a way of calming the animals.  Haymaking and harvesting songs, milling and spinning songs and even laundry songs have been recorded.
Instrumental dance music is also an important part of Lithuanian culture, performed using a variety of instruments including violins, clarinets and accordions.  If visiting Lithuania look out for its many folk festivals held throughout the year.

Classical Music
Perhaps Lithuania’s best known composer is Mikalojus Konstantinas Ciurlionis.  Born in 1875 in Varena, Ciurlionis studied piano and composition at the Warsaw Conservatory followed by a spell at the Leipzig Conservatory.  Although he died in 1911 aged only 35 in 1911, his body of work includes around 200 pieces of music including th symphonic poems, “In the Forest” and “The Sea” both of which were first performed posthumously.
Vytautas Miskinis, born 1954, is a popular Lithuanian composer and choir director who has written more than 400 secular and 150 religious works.

Kaunas is today Lithuania’s second largest city and, like Vilnius, it has a long and varied history. 

In 1408, Kaunas became a city with a charter granted by Vytautas the Great. 

In 1441, after the signing of the Hansa agreement, Hanseatic Merchants established an office in Kaunas which was to remain active until 1532.  The wealth brought into the city plus the cultural advances of the European renaissance meant great expansion and prosperity to Kaunas and by the end of the 1500s it had a school and a public hospital.
 
The 17th and 18th centuries, however brought hardship and hostility to Kaunas caused by both political and environmental problems.  The city was attacked by the Russian army in 1655 and in the aftermath of this was to experience two epidemics of bubonic plague in 1657 and 1708.  Later, in 1731 and 1732, great fires brought widespread destruction to Kaunas.  

The city had rallied somewhat by the end of the 18th century but this good fortune was not to last and 1812 saw Napoleon I’s army cross the Nemunas River in Kaunas on their way to Russia wreaking havoc along the way. 
It was the industrial revolution which was to help Kaunas back onto a more prosperous path with engineering achievements such as the building of the Oginsky canal which connected the Nemunas and Dnieper rivers as well as the introduction of the railway linking the Russian Empire with Germany in 1862.

The expansion of Kaunas was interrupted by World War I when it lost its independence until 1919.  Due to the occupation of Vilnius by the Russians that year, the Lithuanian State Council and Cabinet of Ministers moved to Kaunas and the following year it temporarily became the country’s capital when the national parliament gathered there.  The period between the two world wars saw rapid economic and industrial growth to Kaunas with buses appearing on the streets in 1924 and plumbing being installed to most buildings in 1928. 

Again the good times were short lived as World War II brought more devastation to Kaunas and the subsequent Soviet occupation led to oppression of the Lithuanian people.  Since independence was finally achieved in 1991, many monuments and museums have been restored which along side the universities art galleries and theatres make Kaunas a fascinating destination and a vibrant home to its population of around 400,000.

In 1323, The Grand Duke of Lithuania, Gedimin, appointed Vilnius as the capital city of Lithuania although it wasn’t until 1387 that Vilnius was granted city status.  The influence of the European renaissance can be seen in the architecture of parts of the old town to this day and it was during this flowering of culture and science that the city’s university, the oldest in Lithuania, was established in 1579. The Union of Lithuania and Poland in 1569 meant that Vilnius became a centre of both Polish and Jewish culture and learning.  In 1655, however, the city was plundered by Russian forces and parts of it were destroyed and some of the population were massacred.

In 1769 the Rasos Cemetery was founded in Vilnius.  It is one of the oldest cemeteries in the world to remain in continuous use and is the resting place for many famous Lithuanians.  By 1796, Lithuania had been divided between Russia and Prussia and Vilnius was incorporated into the Russian Empire. 

Napoleon I seized Vilnius in 1812 on his progression towards Moscow. 
The November Uprising of 1831 against Russian rule led to the University of Vilnius being closed due to Russian repression.  In an attempt to staunch further uprisings, the use of the Lithuanian language was banned both in public and in print and many from Vilnius were deported to Siberia for their political views.

During World War I, German forces occupied the city (from 1915 – 1918) and in 1920 it was to become part of the Soviet Socialist Republic (USSR) until Polish forces re-occupied the city later the same year.
At the beginning of World War II, the USSR captured Vilnius once more and the following year (1940) Vilnius became the capital of the newly created Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic SSR, only to be occupied by German forces from 1941 – 1944.

In 1991, Vilnius was still the capital but now to an independent Lithuania which since 2004 has been a member of NATO and member state of the European Union.
Such a turbulent history of occupation and re-occupation has imparted many influences on the City of Vilnius making it an interesting place to visit with a rich cultural heritage.

The new kingdom created by the alliance of Lithuania and Poland immediately became the most powerful state in Eastern Europe.   The arrangement guaranteed that Lithuania would still maintain its own separate identity with a Grand Prince of its own that may or may not at the time also be the King of Poland.  Such was the strength of the state that it secured a great victory against the Teutonic Knights at Grunwald in 1410.

In 1501, an agreement, the Union of Lublin, was reached stating that the King of Poland would always also be the Grand Prince of Lithuania, a situation which continued until 1569 when there occurred a more complete merging of the two regions with the creation of a joint parliament made up of nobles from both areas.   

During the renaissance which took place in Europe during the 16th century, there were innovations in  the arts and styles of architecture as well as a renewed interest in the classical civilisations of Rome and Greece.  The legacy of this period of development can be seen today in many of the beautiful buildings which survive in Lithuania from this time, particularly in Vilnius and Kaunas. Following this union, the influence of Poland on Lithuania began to increase. 

The Lithuanian upper classes and the church began to use the Polish language and this usage was to filter down into public life, so much so that in 1696 Polish was to become an official language in replacement of the Lithuanian language.  Despite the close union between Poland and Lithuania, however, Lithuania still retained certain autonomy and was still known as the Grand Duchy of Lithuania as part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.  Despite the shared parliament (sejm), Lithuania had separate laws and its own army and treasury. 
In May 1791, government attempts were made to integrate the two countries more closely but separation was maintained by the Mutual Declaration of the Two Nations.  However, partitions to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 1790s meant that Lithuania was divided up between Russia and Prussia and it ceased to exist as a distinct country for over a century.

Other than a brief mention by the Roman writer Tacitus, the first written reference to Lithuania as a nation is in 1009AD.  This reference is found in the annals of Quedlinburg monastery.
 
In the 11th century, Lithuania was included in the number of lands paying taxes to Kievan Rus (an area covering parts of modern day Russia, Poland and Ukraine.) By the 12th century, however, the tables had turned and the Lithuanians were themselves plundering their neighbouring territories.  Such military activities started a struggle for power which was eventually to lead to the formation of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

By the early part of the 13th century, Lithuania was still a very much pagan country.  This led to it becoming threatened by groups of crusaders from Germany with the Knights of the Sword trying to forcibly convert those in the north and the Teutonic Knights doing the same to the south.  Tribal chiefs manage to resist this invasion but do seem to have considered the potential advantages of adopting either of the neighbouring religions, i.e. the Catholicism of Germany or the Orthodox church of the Russians. 

In 1251, Mindaugas, a Supreme Chieftain decides to become Catholic and he and his family are baptised.  However, he and his two sons are assassinated two years later by the strongly pagan opposition.  Still Pagan, Lithuania thrives under the rule of Gediminas from 1315.  It is at this point the Vilnius is made the country’s capital.  Gediminas extends his territory so much that by the time his grandson, Jogaila, inherits in 1377,Lithuania stretches through Belorussia and as far as the city of Kiev in the Ukraine.

It is under Jogaila that the problem of which religion to adopt is finally solved.  In 1385 He reaches an agreement with Polish ambassadors that Lithuania, Belorussia and Kiev become linked to the Polish crown.  In return, he agrees to marry the 11 year old Polish Queen and becomes the King of Poland.  The following February, Jogaila travels to Cracow where he is baptised in the Catholic cathedral, adding the Polish name Wladyslaw to his own.  Three days later he marries Jadwiga and is finally crowned on March 4th 1386 as Wladislaw II, thus marking the end of the last remaining wholly pagan kingdom in Europe.

It is sometimes said that culture is the main-stay of Lithuania’s survival.  Despite its history of occupation, the main Lithuanian ethnic group managed to preserve their cultural identity and allow the flowering of new creative forms of modernism and post-modernism.  After the end of Russian occupation in 1990 the largest Cultural Congress in Lithuania’s history took place in the capital, Vilnius.

Lithuania is home to over 50 museums and art galleries.  Modern fine-art in the country is thought to begin with Mikolojus Konstantinas Ciurlionis (1875 – 1911.)  His symbolic type of art mixes modern and folk themes together.  His paintings can be seen in the museum named after him in Kaunas.  Also in Kaunas,at the Mykolas Zilinskas Gallery, is Lithuania’s most valuable collection of works of art.

Lithuania has a long tradition of sculpture and many impressive statues can be seen in the country’s cities and towns.  During Soviet occupation many of the old monuments were destroyed although some have been renovated since the restoration of independence.  Some of the statues and sculptures from that time can be found in the Park of Soviet Sculpture (Grotto Parkas) near Druskininkai.  Some of the latest, post-independence paintings and sculptures can be seen in hotels and offices as well as in museums.

Literature, like art, has also seen a re-birth since 1990 brought independence to Lithuania once more.  The first acknowledged Lithuanian book is Catechismus by Martynas Mazyydas which was published in 1547.  Secular literature was initiated by Kristijonas Donelaitis (1714 -1780 and, ironically, a priest) who is the author of the poem “Metai” (the Year.)

During Soviet occupation in the late 19th century, Russia initiated a 40 year ban on printing in the Lithuanian language.  This led to printing being done in East Prussia and books in Lithuanian being smuggled into the country.  After the ban was lifted in 1904, literary movements such as symbolism and expressionism that existed elsewhere in Europe began to influence Lithuanian writers.  One outstanding literary figure from this period is Vincas Kreve-Mickevicius who was both a novelist and playwright.  Also popular from this time is Zemaite (1845 – 1921) who published short stories celebrating the joys and hardships of Lithuanian village life.  She is commemorated by her image being printed on the 1 Litas bank note.

Food plays an important part in Lithuanian culture.  The moist Northern European climate means that a wide variety of ingredients can be grown successfully.  Potatoes, barley, rye, greens, beets, and many types of berries and mushrooms figure prominently.  Having borders with several Eastern European countries, such as Poland means that it is also influenced by other cuisines.  It also has things in common with Scandinavian food but nevertheless still has its own unique features.

Bread, the perennial staple food, tends to be the dark rye variety.  Sometimes flavoured with caraway or onion and served buttered or with cheese.  Bagels are also produced and eaten in Lithuania.
By far the most widely used vegetable in Lithuanian cooking is the potato.  Having been introduced to the country in the 18th century, they soon became indispensible and an enormous amount of potato based recipes exist, such as kugel – a potato pudding and kopytka which are similar to Italian gnocchi.

Beets are popular bases for soups and stews such as borscht whilst cabbage is used for side dishes or wrapped around a filling.  Tomatoes are grown in greenhouses and are widely used. Seasonings in Lithuanian cuisine may include dill, garlic, bayleaf and juniper. 

Due to the prevalence of woodland, berries and mushrooms figure prominently in Lithuanian recipes.   These are usually picked from the wild and are rarely bought in shops. Baravykas is a popular varietal of mushroom and is often dried for use in seasoning soups and sauces.    Bilberries and cranberries are valued and are made into jams which are often used to accompany pancakes (blynai.)  Sometimes red bilberry jam is used to dress fried chicken or turkey.

Pork, followed by beef, is the most frequently used meat, often grilled or covered in breadcrumbs and fried.  Smoked pork products such as sausages are readily available.  Areas closer to the Baltic have a tradition for smoking fish such as eel or bream.

For pudding, cakes often containing apple or plum are served and ice-cream (ledai) is popular in the summer.
Beer (alus) has had something of a renaissance recently and several Lithuanian brews have won international awards.  Degtine, a type of vodka is produced in varying strengths and is made from rye, potatoes or wheat.  Coffee houses are abundant although tea is also drunk in Lithuania.

Since the end of the Soviet occupation in 1990, the preparation and consumption of traditional Lithuanian cuisine has come to symbolise the county’s independence.