In Karklė, rest by the sea in a different way: without music, without parties, without alcohol and without tobacco

The morning at the Aušra Mendelė farm near the Baltic Sea is very clear and warm. Greeting on arrival, Aušra serves drinks. Not just anyone: teas with amber or various herbs, berry syrups that grow here, although for many they smell like real exotics.

Aušra is the owner and hostess of this place. In the house where the tourist apartments are now located, she grew up because her parents moved to Karklė in 1976, when she was only three years old. He bought half of the house that now belongs to him, it was an old school. She was abandoned in such a way that when she climbed high, the brothers broke in, recalls A. Mendele.

The old name of Karklė

“You have reached Karkelbeck No. 409. The name Karkelbeck is the old German name for Karkelbeck. It is nothing wiseDawn smiles. – That was the name of Karklė all the time before the interwar period, when for a certain period it was also called Karklė and then, during the Soviet era, it was called Karklinininkai, and in the times of Independent Lithuania it became Karklė again. You have come to a glamping and wellness farm. ”

Why does she call her home well-being? According to A. Mendelė, because the guests are given rest for both the body and the soul: “It really is not our merit. We do not live here and we provide it, but thanks to the surrounding nature: the sea, nature, trees, birds. All this creates that special environment in which a person can rest well. “

However, Aušra does not forget to mention that he must know in advance where he is going, because there are rules in glamping and everyone must follow them.

“Guests know where they are going, there are rules that we inform guests immediately if they are going to arrive at a glamp for the first time. Some are surprised, how come you can’t play music here for a day? No, it is not a day, there is a symphony of birds, for whom is that music one day? There are strict hours of rest at night. Some are very happy, others are surprised. Part of the glamping area is, as I say, alcohol and smoke free, it is a clean ether area where you never smoke or consume alcohol. This is a place for people who may feel subtler energies, feel that clean ether, and feel great there, ”said A. Mendelė of the rules.

The name Karkelbeck is the old German name for Karkelbeck. Is nothing wiseDawn smiles.

The idea of ​​Gazebos is from Bali.

Glamping, as A. Mendele says, is a luxury camp: “That luxury of ours is very simple, luxury is not luxury. These are our gazebos. These are semi-tent cabins where you can live close to nature. There is no electricity, but there is comfort, mattresses, wool bedding, raised floors, wind and water resistant textile walls. “

Gazebos really deserve special attention. There are four of them on the farm, but only for the needs of the owners themselves. The idea of ​​them rotates in the hostess mind after the trip to Bali in 2009, it came true in 2013, when the first gazeba appeared. The inspiration is from Indonesia, but these gazebos are adapted to the Lithuanian climate. The roof is not straw, but it is made of aspen, the textile is not as light as in Asia.

“The man lives as in nature, but in a comfortable home. Feel free to relax. In the morning, order breakfast, I will bring you whatever you want. To spend time pleasantly and comfortably,” says Aušra.

A. Mendelė says that she took the first steps on this farm in 2012; First, the guest house was opened after its restoration. “We call it the Royal Amber Workshop. This is right: when we restored and rebuilt it, we found a find there,” says the farm hostess, showing one of the findings. “This is the beginning of our name: Karkelbeck 409.”

Part of the glamping area is alcohol and smoke free, it is a clean ether area where you never smoke or consume alcohol.

The name was dictated by the find

The story of this sign, as Aušra tells us, is as follows: “It was an old and rotten fisherman’s house, where there was nothing; It was necessary to dig the water supply, sewerage, electricity. Once, on a rainy day, at the end of the job I come to, the workers forgot to lay a cable, they pulled it out again. After that, I come and observe: I see something on the floor. We found everything there a lot, this thing turned out to be like a ruble at first, but I think, not like a ruble, it’s too big. Patrin, I look at what is written in Karkelbeck, I realized that this is, as we say, Prussian times, East Prussian times. I see – 409, since it doesn’t say anything. Eagle with raised wings – an interesting eagle, because the Prussian eagle had low wings.

I saw the inscription “Royal Amber Workshop”. By then I was curious. Carrying this in my pocket for over a year, every thing I met, who was most interested in the story, I asked him who was here, why here, how here. So I discover that this is the moment, and that is the XIX century. Pab.-XX a. pr. – business license. Those who wanted to collect amber on the coast, keep it at home, and possibly process it to do something with it, had to pay taxes because the amber belonged to the emperor. To make it clear to everyone that this man was paying taxes, he had to have that mark.

It was a testimony of a business. It has a hole to hang it and hang it on the door. I heard different versions, perhaps hanging from the boxes. But it is a testimony of a business. 409 is his number. And the eagle with its wings up is a symbol of the city of Kioningsberg at the time. “

Patrin, I look at what is written in Karkelbeck, I realized that this is, as we say, Prussian times, East Prussian times. From the point of view – 409.

According to the farm hostess, this finding showed that amber was also collected in Karklė: in the same year, people found the same sign at the other end of the village. It was previously thought that there was never an amber workshop here, so these findings replaced a part of Karklė history.

Being a Swedish translator and guide, who also worked in the field of commercial mediation, Aušra says that this finding was the true beginning of her return to Karklė: she was drawn to it because it was interesting, stimulated her interest, and searched for maps.

Then, page after page, I began to delve deeper into healing, wellness, amber, because I wanted the guests who would come to this cabin to feel and enjoy the pleasures that nature brings. Digging deeper into amber, I discovered that it has many good qualities. Since then, amber tea has appeared, bears, pillows and mattresses filled with amber have appeared. One and a half kilo pillows, mattresses up to 11 kilograms, are intended for healing and even treatment in some cases, “says Aušra.

Scared ball festivals

Aušra says she has expanded this resting place a bit. First the guest house, then the first gazeba, dedicated only to itself, but with the attention of friends and tourists. “In this way, I gained a little courage and in 2018 three more gazebos appeared, a service house for camping guests. Officially, we are a tourist camp and we start a bit, from a toilet and a shower in the back of the farm building and mowing the lawn. It was our beginning because we wanted to see if we like it or if people like it. And it turned out that everyone likes everything, ”smiles Aušra.

She says things were not as scary as they were scary. And she was intimidated by dance festivals, after which there would be nothing left of her flower gardens (and many of them here). But this did not happen, Aušra is convinced that the thoughts that a person lives, what he sends, attract the same people. She says about her guests that there are very interesting people who travel, who come here are also interesting.

“One of the most popular stories is that we are driving here on the road (we are not very visible from the road) and we think we are turning from the road here.” And we come here, really here, here and we will stay. This is one of the most popular stories. We only raised the flag last year, and people discovered it that way, “says Aušra.

One night in a gazebo – 40 euros for a couple, in a cabin – 90 euros. Space for a mobile home – from 18 euros. Up to 110 people can stay here at the same time, as Dawn says, and they are trying to limit that number.

The main guests in this glamping were foreigners: Germany, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Poland, Switzerland and France. This year, Lithuanians arrive due to the coronavirus, although there are also guests from Germany who moved in as soon as they were allowed to drive.

Right here – trails

There are more places in Karklė where you can rest easy. Daiva Buivydienė, head of the Klaipėda District Tourist Information Center, talks about the health trails next to one of his signs, from which it is only a few hundred meters to the Dutch hat cliff.

“There are three health trails at Seaside Regional Park: red, yellow, and blue. They are all circular, there are information booths on every track, they say where you are. There are columns everywhere that show you are going right, on a so beige in color. There are arrows on them, either to the right or to the left, which means it can come from both sides. Some columns also have tables with the number of kilometers you have entered, “said D.Buivydienė.

The most interesting feature of this route are the dishes listed in the columns, the calories of which can be burned by walking in one way or another. True, it reminds the director, if you walk a few miles an hour, you are unlikely to reach your goal, burning calories per serving of zeppelins will have to go the entire route.

“When we pass three kilometers on the yellow road, it means we burn a cake with cream. Four kilometers later, we burned a hamburger. And five kilometers: you can burn two sausages. Next up is chocolate, a hamburger with fries, a bun with a filling. We burn zeppelins after the tenth kilometer, family pizza after 11. After 12 kilometers, honestly all the trails, then we burn half the chocolate cake. I don’t know if we really burn so many calories, but how good it is after reading everything, ”Laiva laughs.

And the trails differ in that most one leads through urban areas, not forest trails, but an asphalt or paved trail. Another trail is on the boardwalk, above the cliffs, where very beautiful panoramas open up and then descends into the sea. The third trail leads through the forest to Lake Plocio.