Greetings!
We took a short ferry ride to a 80 mile long peninsula today known as the Curonian Spit, whose southern half belongs to Russia, and the northern half to Lithuania. A massive sand dune and UNESCO World Heritage site, it straddles a protected lagoon on one side and the Baltic Sea on the other.
In the 12th century, the spit was the home of a now nearly extinct Baltic ethnic group (the Curonian-Kusiai) reputedly credited with fierce warrior-like reputations.
Just south of the landing are of the ferry, he spit road leads up to a trail known to locals as the "Hill of Witches". Forty years ago, dozens of wooden-carved totems were installed depicting figures from legends of mythological figures, including serpents, goblins, and devils.
Finally, we drove to near where Lithuania and Russia meet for a view of both the Lagoon and the Baltic Sea. We walked along the Baltic beach looking for washed up amber, before visiting an amber museum and learning how to clean and polish small pieces of the ancient tree resin.
The Baltic Region contains the largesst deposit of natural amber in the world, dating back approximately 44 million years to when the melting ice caps created the world's largest estuary covering forests of pine in an area the size of Canada. Currently, storms in the Baltic wash up sunken shards of amber, to be found afterward on the beach.
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