A journey of tastes and images towards Pomerania: hot food from the Nemunas, space in Taurage and the language of fans in Šilutė

The path to paradise really smells like paradise this summer. Vegetation even shines even in midsummer, and on the way to Pomerania or by the sea, there are more and more places where it’s fun to stop.

He wanted a beautiful place for him.

“Keltininkas” recently opened its doors earlier this summer. New, so maybe that’s why it attracts to stop and look around. Or perhaps because of the Nemunas panorama from the terrace and from the tables under the mushroom umbrellas, where you can see the famous “Rocket”. But chances are that here is very cozy for the owners of this bistro.

Until recently, Iveta and Darius Balseriai called themselves residents of Vilnius, where the husband had businesses and his wife had been working at the Tourism and Information Center since 2004, having previously lived in Jurbarkas. While moving to the capital and selling a house in Jurbarkas, Balseriai bought an old farm in the village of Šilinė.

“We wanted to have a nice place where we could invite guests, because places take a look! Can anything be more beautiful? We searched for this place for a long time, we had a co-owner, because we lived in Vilnius, we just fixed it here. Then life changed so much that we returned, “says Iveta, recalling that they started installing this place in 2017.

The former school dependency, with its attached ferry house, which now houses an elegant bistro, has been abandoned. Darius says he had to work hard to resurrect them. But he still calls vacations near Nemunas, who, as he admits, got tired of his own transportation business: “So I had no weekends or holidays, I called both day and night. I went on vacations.

The name “Keltininkas” came about not by chance, due to the ancient inhabitants of the cabin. “The profession of boatman was very necessary both in the interwar period and in later times. It was very necessary to go to Gelgaudiškis, to the church, to the store, to the other bank of the Nemunas, where you can see the towers of the Gelgaudiškis church among the trees, shows Iveta. “There were more than 800 inhabitants, so we will rebuild the primary school.”

Will revive the old school too

Šilinė’s old school is still waiting for its moment: voters are determined to order it and revive it to a new life, without forgetting its old spirit. “We want to restore in a very authentic way, to pay tribute to that historical period. Inside the bistro, the interior is also an interwar theme, a lot of geometry: floors, furniture from that time, what has just been produced, what has been restored This and the big picture should speak on the interwar theme The purpose of our life is to convey that interwar spirit as accurately as possible to those who come to our land.

We want to restore in a very authentic way, to pay tribute to that historical period. Inside the bistro, the interior is also an interwar theme.

There are the most beautiful places in the surroundings: castles, mansions, parks, it is currently being managed, but so far there are very few places ready for tourists to visit, only the Panemun Castle, the Raudon Castle Tower. He wants there to be at least one class here where people can see what it was like in the interwar period, what children read, how they study, what their free time is, after all, the interwar school was a center of leisure and employment familiar because they celebrated the festivals and theatrical performances. ready, and the chamois ran down the slope. The school was the place where families met, “says Iveta about his vision.

Balseriai is already collecting the material for the future project. According to Iveta, linguist Arnold Piročkin, who comes from these places, finished several classes here, so he shared his memories of how he studied here, how a brick with a baidoku sailed to Kaunas in the summer. “A lot of information, so many beautiful things,” says Iveta.

It is planned to install a conference center in the building.

Voters live in a house next to the bistro. Darius says he bought it in five minutes: The neighbors decided to move out and stated that they wanted to sell their house to them. After negotiating, he agreed to buy, so when he approached his wife, he generally said, “You know, we bought a house.”

He wants there to be at least one class here where people can see what the children were reading, how they were learning, what their free time was.

There is no regular menu

There is no regular menu at this location. Iveta says she can order a hot dish made that day every day: stewed ribs, chicken, or kugel. Also, try the cheeses from the local cheesemakers.

Hosts make no secret that they are not short on customers. Maybe they are a little surprised: they opened very recently, they don’t even pay attention to advertising, because they don’t need it.

“Friday, Saturday, Sunday are the heaviest traffic. And what you need most is hot dishes. It’s that we shoot a kugel with corpses in a toaster at night from Friday to Saturday, as has traditionally been the case here, perhaps during a most festive period, not a daily meal. But we pamper the visitors, let’s try what they ate before.

The food here was very simple: meat, sauerkraut, carrots and the ribs baked in our bakery are with salt, pepper, carrots, potatoes, without spices, unless we add sauerkraut. As a man makes apple cider for me, I have natural apple cider vinegar. All our dishes are natural, although now it is common to add many spices, we want ham or bacon to be natural, “says Iveta about the food in the bistro.

The food here was very simple: meat, sauerkraut, carrots, ribs baked in our bakery are only with salt, pepper, carrots, potatoes, without spices.

It is true, cheeses, with a variety of spices. Let’s say chili peppers, various herbs. According to Iveta, only the usual products in the “Celtic” cake are sour cream and flour.

When asked about investments, voters smile: that investments are huge, and when will they pay, if they pay, I don’t know. However, they claim that they love their work, so they do a lot “outside the idea.”

It even has space

Later, the path beyond Jurbarkas turns in several directions: if you turn to Tauragė, you can visit the regional museum “Santaka” in his castle. It is presented as the most modern museum in the region, which has a video projection “In the Tower of the Ages” that has no analogues in Lithuania, nitrogen smoke in the basement of the tower and a stylized space in the vault of the tower. It is true that the latter may not be visible due to the failure, although the museum does not publish about it on its website.

Tour guide Imantas Tamašauskas first leads to the nature exhibition, where the stuffing of animals and birds also tells the story. Imantas is in a hurry to make sure that no animals have been hunted so that their stuffing can be displayed in museums, that all have died or have died in other circumstances.

This nature exhibition was restored in the museum only in mid-September of last year.

“It seems that there is a simple tree here, and in fact here it is the oldest object of this size in Lithuania, the age would be about 22 million. Imantas says, showing a part of the trunk of a tree, and adds: – Amber in Lithuania it is older than this tree, but its parts are small. And it is quite a large object. It is not of Lithuanian origin, it comes from the Polish city of Belchatow, where there are coal mines, it is said that he found several wooden blocks at a depth of about 150m. Although it doesn’t look heavy, it weighs about half a ton. “

It has a museum and a mammoth bone found in the quarry of its antiquities: Sungailiškės. The mammoth lived here about 30 thousand. years before Christ, the ice age. Such bones are not a great rarity, they are found throughout Lithuania.

The museum also offers to descend into the dungeons of a tower, a room of secrets, where you can experience an impressive journey through the past in Taurage. Or – climb the towers. One has an archaeological exhibition, the decoration of which is a rare hat.

The second tower offers some space: sit on a pouf or lie down to watch the projections on the vault. It is true that so far the service has been blocked due to a power outage that caused the computer to crash.

Fans also talk

Another point when traveling to Pomerania is the Šilutė Hugo Šojus stately museum. The beautiful museologist Roma Šukienė meets here and immediately warns her that she will have to work. And that “job” is so unusual, because Mrs. Rome is determined to teach all the guests how to tie a scarf and the language of the fans. Not to mention, it simply fascinates with its narrative of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. The daily life of the mansions of Lesser Lithuania.

However, the lessons are paramount. It doesn’t matter at all how many years have passed since the day the mansion ladies and gentlemen really needed such skills. You had to pay to sit here, because the ladies’ skirts were blown with a wicker frame, so as not to break it, the lady sat on the edge of the chair, her legs compressed.

“And to learn how to drink coffee properly, one could delve into the book under one armpit and, after another, could not remove their hands.” Try to drink coffee and drink this way, “says Ms. Roma, who has mastered this technique.

19th century it was just obscene for a lady not to have a lover, if you don’t have a lover you haven’t believed anyone! And a fanatic to talk to him.

In those days, girls were also limited by corsets, so fans were needed, often passed out. The women in corsets, according to R.Šukienė, were released after the invention of the X-ray machine, because after illuminating the internal organs, doctors saw that the women’s lower ribs were not properly developed and the internal organs they were not where they should be. It was 1905

“Women’s clothing is becoming lighter, so fans are no longer needed, because they are not passed out.” But the fan is a good accessory, it is a shame to give up, so the fan language appears. When the fans were sold, instructions were included on how to use that fan. And I will teach you how to use it. It is true, the XIX century. it was just obscene for a lady not to have a lover, if you don’t have a lover, you haven’t believed anyone! And a fanatic to talk to him. Imagine I need to speak, and my husband walks here with other men and women. If I speak out loud, my voice is quite loud, he will hear everything. And if I greet the fan, he will hear nothing and see nothing.

I will speak as fans have spoken across Europe. If a man came and the lady slowly unfolded the fan and was slowly ventilating, it means “talk, talk, I’m happy with your company.” If it was uncomfortable for her to communicate, the lady quickly unfolded the fan and vented quickly, which meant please leave me, “are the secrets of that fan language.

And here were the men adorned with scarves. There are many ways to tie it. Demonstrating one of them, Mrs. Rome laughs and confirms that the Leopold cat from a childhood cartoon also adorned such a ribbon.

In addition to such fun educations, the museum also tells the story of the Šilutė region and Hugo Šojus and his children. Currently, there is also an exhibition of the Alexander Vasilyev collection.

Delicious coffee and cakes or drops are served in this mansion. But it is impossible to know the taste, you will have to try it yourself.

The journalists’ tour to Minor Lithuania was organized by the National Tourism Promotion Agency “Travel in Lithuania”. The content of the article is not affected.