“Surink Lietuva” (collect Lithuania) is a project which aims to encourage local, national and international tourism throughout a magnetic puzzle made up by pieces in the shape of the Lithuanian map. Each district of the country has a piece which completes the map, and every part of the map can only be acquired at a designed location of the district (e.g.: tourism center, postal office…). Also, every cutout contains a customized work of art that depicts a representative feature of the area.
Originally, the main point was to bring smaller and less popular regions of Lithuania into the spotlight, but after further review, it was decided that amplifying the scope of our objective to the rest of the Baltic countries, would make this beneficial not only for local and national tourism but also to foment the exchange of visitors all around the center of Europe.
Today we share Kevin experience and tips how to find, and collect Lithuania:
Why you started to collect Lithuania?
– I started collecting Lithuania because I love puzzles and found the idea and the creativity of those magnets amazing. I’m from Ravensburg, the hometown of one of the biggest puzzle and board game manufacturers called Ravensburger.
Would you do this again?
– I definitely would do it again and also would recommend it to everybody who loves traveling and exploring countries and amazing places.
Did you visited whole Lithuania or did friends helped?
– In 2018 I spend 6 months in Lithuania because of my work. The first 4 months were kind a boring and I saw not much. Then I met my girlfriend, had more and more possibilities to get in touch with locals and the culture. Like a freshly loving couple we enjoyed every minute together and visited the first places around Kaunas together. After my job, we decided to go for an extreme long-term-relationship and we are still trying to meet us approximately every 8 weeks. Since those visits are unfortunately only for a 1-2 weeks it was not possible to visit all places by myself. But my girlfriend joined me in collecting and helped me while I was at home.
What was the most unexpected and interesting place that you visited?
– My absolute favorite place is Elektrėnai. One of my other hobbies is geocaching, which shows me sometimes amazing abandoned and lost places. The abandoned theme park there is incredible and can create goose bumps. It seems the time is standing there. This is something you can’t find in Germany, at least so far I know.
Can you name your top 10 of places you must visit in Lithuania?
– Vilnius (Amazing and as the Capital it is a huge contrast to the countryside)
– Kaunas of course (Where my girlfriend lives. Plenty of nice venues for delicious food and beers. Also a huge variety of people)
– Klaipėda (Absolutely worth of you love the Baltic Sea)
– Nida (This is also a big must, if you want to relax and be somewhere not that crowded. The curonian spit is beautiful and picturesque with his dunes)
– Trakai (Castle Trakai is like our Castle Neuschwanstein a must see)
– Šiauliai District and the Hill of crosses (even if you’re not religious, it is breathtaking to see all those crosses)
– Anykščiai (That was a Birthday present to me from my girlfriend). We spend a beautiful weekend in the woods and visited the tree-walk path and one of Lithuania’s biggest stones
– Alytus (Offers a nice landscape)
– Birštonas (Especially for elderly it’s a really nice resort place to rest and get some new energy. It feels absolutely like holidays there)
– Joniškis (The hometown and place of birth of my girlfriend). It’s nice to see the “modern” houses and the traditional old style houses. Also a huge contrast but worth to see. Oh and it is close to the border of your brother Latvia.
What tips you could offer for others collectors?
– When your staying in Lithuania for a longer time, try to plan a round trip by car. Lithuania is such a small but lovely country. You really can enjoy driving through the country and enjoy the scenery. You can pass all districts if you’re planning the route and accommodations for one night are absolutely affordable everywhere.
What did you knew about Lithuania before collecting magnetics and what you can say now?
– Before collecting and before my first stay I only new approximately where Lithuania is. I knew it is one of the three Baltic countries, but definitely where not able to locate it blindly.
– After collecting and all my visits I definitely know more about the geographic. I learned more about the culture (which is quite similar to the German), I found out that the cuisine is similar like ours, especially compared things like Cepelinai. We have something similar, just ball shaped and without filling. And last but not final, I learned what it means to say family and how important it is. From the first day I felt so welcomed to the whole family of my girlfriend.
Did you had such experience in you country?
– Only contrasts between big cities and the countryside. Doesn’t matter if you visit Berlin, Frankfurt or Munic, there you can find a big variety of many cultures and open minded people. On the other side in small villages and the countryside the people are more suspicious about strangers and sometime but very rarely rude. In general our culture is really similar and it not easy to compare our two countries. Firstly because of the size by itself but also about our different geographies like high mountains and deep valleys.
And would it be intresting to collect whole Europe?
– Oha I’m pretty sure it would be interesting but it also would take plenty of time. If that game would be ongoing for several years, why not. Actually what I always wanted is a huge world-map, were I can mark/pin all countries I visited. Collecting Europe would be a great start.
