Lithuania

Lithuania’s short Baltic coast is dominated by the Curonian Spit, a thin ribbon of pine forest and drifting dunes, shared with Russia’s Kaliningrad region, that cuts the Curonian Lagoon off from the sea. Amber washes up on its beaches after storms, and the Nemunas, the country’s great river, empties into the lagoon. Inland the land is low and rolling, shaped by the ice age, with the Samogitian upland in the west and hundreds of lakes among the pine woods of Aukštaitija in the east.

Lithuania was the last pagan state in Europe. Mindaugas was crowned king in 1253, and under Gediminas and Vytautas the Grand Duchy stretched towards the Black Sea. Jogaila married the Polish queen in 1386 and had his people baptised, and in 1410 Lithuanian and Polish armies beat the Teutonic Knights at Grunwald. When Russian rulers banned Lithuanian books in the Latin script from 1864 to 1904, smugglers carried them in from East Prussia. In March 1990 Lithuania became the first Soviet republic to declare independence.

Basketball comes close to a faith, above all in Kaunas, where Žalgiris plays. Catholicism absorbed older customs: Užgavėnės, the carnival before Lent, ends by burning a straw winter hag, and the Hill of Crosses near Šiauliai bristles with crosses left by pilgrims. Cepelinai, potato dumplings shaped like airships, are eaten with sour cream. The port of Klaipėda stays free of ice, Mažeikiai refines crude oil, and Lithuanian firms build lasers for laboratories worldwide.