An Excursion to the Na t ional Park of Aukštaitija Gabija Kumžaitė Viktorija Klastaitytė, 8d

Places we visited:  Palūšė  Ladakalnis  Ginučiai mound  Cooking šakočiai

Palūšė This is a village in Ignalina’s district. To the east from the village is the lake Lūkšiai. There is the Saint Joseph’s church in Palūšė. It was built in 1757m. (it’s the oldest wooden church in Lithuania).

Ladakalnis It’s a 175m height mountain. You can see 7 lakes from it: Ūkojas, Linkmenas, Almajas, Asėkas, Asalnai, Lūšiai, Alksnas.

Ginučiai mound Next to the lake Linkmenas is the Ginučiai mound. Supposedly, on the oblong, m height steep hill, once stood the Linkmenas castle, which was added to the general Lithuanian defense system in XIII-XV century. In 1433 the castle was burned by the Livonian Brothers of the Sword. President A. Smetona loved to visit the Ginučiai mound. On the occasion of his 60 th anniversary he planted an oak. Next to the oak the border zone policeman put a commemorative stone in In 1956 the soviet authorities cut off the oak and rolled the stone in to the Linkmenas lake. In 1989 the member of Vilnius marchers club found the stone and rolled it onto the mountain. In 1997 the commemorative stone was rebuilt and the oak was planted on the Ladakalnis slope.

The geographical centre of Europe In 1989 the scientists of the National geographical institute of France found the geographical centre place of Europe continent. Using the gravitational centres method they found, that The geographical centre of Europe is 54 degrees 54 minutes north latitude and 25 degrees 19 minutes east latitude. The point’s accurate place is in Lithuania, 26 km to the north from Vilnius. In km to the north from Vilnius, between Purnuškės and Bernotai villages the rock, that represents the geographical centre of Europe, was unveiled. In 2004 a monument was built in the geographical centre of Europe. The monument is a white granite column with a crown of stars at the top.

Strigailiškis Strigailiškis is a village in Ignalina’s district, next to the western Ignalina’s edge, Aukštaitijos NP; resort area. It is the centre of Seniūnaitija. There is a library. The village promotes food heritage traditions, you can not only partake traditional Lithuanian šakočiai, but also you can watch how they are made.

Šakotis Šakotis is a tall branched hollow confectionery. It is a traditional Lithuanian treat, which is often baked for weddings. About the baking of šakotis in Europe was already known in XI century. It was baked by monks and they kept the recipes in a big secret. There are known about 60 šakotis recipes.

Cooking Šakotis Šakotis is a German cuisine product’s baumkuchenas strain, sometimes called Bankuchenas from this German pastry title. Šakotis’s form recals a fir and its needles serve as branches. After a transverse section, you can count how many times has the dough been added. They are cooked all sizes. They have a mild flavor and pleasant aroma. You need a lot of eggs to the dough of Šakotis (30-50 eggs for 1 kilogram of flour), margarine or butter, flour, sugar or honey and sour cream. Without traditional Šakotis there is also brittle šakotis where much more eggs are needed.

We are cooking Šakotis... This Šakotis we have made ourselves.

The excursion was very exciting. We learned many interesting things about the region of Aukštaitija and we were glad, that we had a chance to see, how Šakotis is cooked, and to cook it ourselves.