An Excursion to the Na t ional Park of Aukštaitij a

1. An Excursion to the National Park of Aukštaitija Gabija Kumžaitė Viktorija Klastaitytė, 8d

2. Places we visited: • Palūšė • Ladakalnis • Ginučiai mound • Cooking šakočiai

3. 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).

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

5. Next to the lake Linkmenas is the Ginučiai mound. Supposedly, on the oblong, 20-30 m heightsteep hill, once stood the Linkmenas castle , whichwas added tothe general Lithuaniandefense system in XIII-XV century. In 1433 the castle was burnedby the Livonian Brothers of the Sword. President A. Smetona loved to visit the Ginučiai mound. On the occasion of his 60th anniversary he planted an oak. Next to the oak the border zone policeman put a commemorative stone in 1937. 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 wasplanted on the Ladakalnis slope. Ginučiai mound

6. The geographical centre of Europe In 1989 the scientists of the National geographical institute of Francefoundthe geographical centreplace of Europe continent. Usingthe gravitational centres methodthey found, thatThe geographical centre of Europeis 54 degrees 54 minutesnorthlatitudeand 25 degrees 19 minuteseast latitude. The point’s accurate placeis in Lithuania, 26 km to the north from Vilnius. In 1997 25 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.

7. Strigailiškis Strigailiškis is a village in Ignalina’s district, next to the western Ignalina’sedge, 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, butalso you can watch how they are made.

8. Šakotis Šakotis is a tall branched hollow confectionery. It is a traditional Lithuaniantreat,which is often baked for weddings. Aboutthe 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 60šakotis recipes.

9. Cooking Šakotis Šakotisisa German cuisine product’s baumkuchenasstrain, sometimes called Bankuchenas from this German pastry title.Šakotis’s form recals a firand its needlesserveas 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 kilogramof flour), margarineorbutter, flour, sugarorhoneyand sour cream. Without traditional Šakotisthere is also brittle šakotis where much more eggs are needed.

10. We are cookingŠakotis... This Šakotis we have made ourselves.

11. The excursionwasvery exciting. We learnedmany interesting things aboutthe region of Aukštaitija andwe were glad, thatwe hada chance tosee, howŠakotis iscooked, andto cook it ourselves.