Sometimes, all you need to be 100% happy and 100% relaxed is a good walk in the forest in the morning, an afternoon exploring the small city and a dinner in a local restaurant in the evening. That’s exactly how I remember Telšiai, one of the oldest cities in Lithuania, located in the northwestern part of the country.
If you’re looking for some off-road, off-mainstream destinations with lots of chill yet many attractions, just go to Telšiai and enjoy this charming place.
If you ever find yourself in Telšiai and its surroundings, make sure to:
- explore some ancient pagan statues while wandering around the forest
- walk on the wooden pavements right above swamps
- go water biking and watch the sunset coloring the city all gold and pink
- try some delicious local food in the nearest family restaurant (there’s always one nearby)
I visited Telšiai when traveling with Roadtrip Lithuania – a 6-weeks social project, organized by AIESEC Lithuania. In short, Roadtrip Lithuania was a 6-weeks long, meaningful adventure across the country. Being part of the international group of 6 volunteers was a dream come true as the project was a pure definition of what I call ‘awesome’. We were packed in a small hippie bus with a mission to travel around Lithuania, give presentations about our culture in local educational and social institutions, get to know Lithuanian traditions, places and people, and document everything like true travel journalists.
To find full content simply go to roadtriplithuania14.blogspot.com. Photo and video credits belong to Rogelio Robledo, Kamia Fernandez, Li Wu, Caterina Falvo and Zé Vieira Lopes.
Here’s a short report from the Telšiai experience.
Stop number 3: Telšiai and around, where WIND BLOWS with the breath of old pagan gods, the smell of fried homemade cepelinai and fresh aroma of blooming wildflowers.
6 strangers, walking in a line… Looking at houses, rivers, forests. Travelers, who will do anything for a new adventure and a new place to visit. Exploring, discovering, gaining new skills – this is what we do here.
After a weekend spent at a summer camp, we headed to another destination of our journey – Telšiai. The city has its own special charm, which we felt from the very beginning. 2 days spent there showed us that this intuition was true – we met a lot of kind and nice people and saw lots of new amazing things.
What exactly? Well, our first meeting with Telšiai happened in the place where we were sleeping – a guest house called Pas Stefa. The owners prepared it for us and we felt like very special guests when we saw our rooms. The hotel is situated in a city center, so we could immediately start our tour around Telšiai. The city is quite small but spacious, with a big lake in the middle and beautiful surroundings, where you can rest, walk or… use a water bike, like we did. Apart from the lake, there were some very interesting churches, parks and houses, which we saw on our small discover-the-city trip.
Above all, Telšiai happened to be a city with friendly people, and we could see that in various moments. From random situation near the church, when an elderly woman asked why are we speaking English, and then told us a story about her granddaughter, through funny conversations with the guy from the water bike place, ending with a talk with young hitchhikers on a highway. Again and again, we could discover the kind part of Lithuania, represented by its people.
Telšiai story continued in a wilder side of the country. We visited a park, where two charming gentlemen told us stores about the woods, rivers and swamps nearby. After visiting a small but lovely museum we saw the exhibition in real – we walked in the swamp field, climbed hills, went through the forest, where we discovered old pagan statues and discovered Lithuanian nature one more time. We could seem like a group of strangers, walking in the meadow, singing funny songs, picking up flowers and creating incredible stories about this place.
We are changing our roles almost every day. Once we are a group of tourists, walking around the city and taking lots of photos. The next day we’re turning into a bunch of villagers, wiping out new routes and running through the bushes. But the next day we are changing into a team of people who come to a social institution and present their countries and share their stories.
This is what happened during this trip. We visited an institution for people with the Down syndrome. Surely we didn’t know what to expect exactly – we just came there with smiles on our faces and flags in our backpacks. We met kids, teenagers and adults with the Down syndrome, accompanied by their mothers or sisters. From the very beginning the atmosphere was really friendly and peaceful; we could see this true curiosity in their eyes, while we were talking about our countries. When we started our games, it turned out to be much easier than we expected. Our new friends trusted us completely and engaged in our activities with all the joy and commitment.
Soon we run out of the games we prepared, so we kept on inventing new ones – and still, they were waiting for another one with smiles and this amazing positive energy. They opened to us to the maximum – we were talking, playing, singing and painting with chalk together. For one day we became a real part of this place like we would never have to leave.
But the ‘goodbye moment’ eventually happened, and once again – it was really sad for us to leave this unique place. We waved for the last time and as the bus started to gain the speed the Roadtrippers finished another chapter of their journey, only so they could open another one.
6 strangers, walking in a line… Looking at people, situations, landscapes. Travelers, who will do anything for meeting new interesting people and getting to know new places. Learning, making an impact, developing ourselves – this is what we do here.
