The first year I
lived in Russia Claire and I went to Kaliningrad during one three day
weekend. This is the region of Russia that is not connected with the
mainland; it is an oblast surrounded by Lithuania and Poland, with
one side on the Baltic Sea. It's a region of Russia that was part of Prussia before WW2, but has also been part of the Baltic countries it its past.
During that
particular trip we read the guidebook and wanted to visit a national
park, but realized that public transport wasn't going to work out
very well. We might have been able to get to the park, but I'm not sure we would've been able to see all the major sights.
Ever since then I'd wanted to come back and see the park;
this past summer while I was in the States I got an international
drivers license so I could rent a car and drive around the national
park.
Kurshkaya Kosa is
usually called the Curonian Spit in English, but I'd never heard
either the English or Russian name before moving to Russia. The
entire spit is 98 kilometers long, making a barrier between the
Curonian Lagoon and the Baltic Sea. The northern half of the spit is
Lithuanian, the southern half is Russia. My trip was only around the
southern half as I don't think you can cross the border in this particular place.
Kurshkaya Kosa is a
UNESCO designated sight, as of 2000.
Wikipedia tells me
the spit was formed waaaaay back in the 3rd millenium BC.
There are several
small towns/villages within the borders of the national park, but I
don't think they get many tourists. There are other cities nearby
with more accomodation and supplies. There are three or four major
places to stop and visit in the park, I saw everything of interest to
me. To be honest, if it hadn't been so rainy and windy I probably would've stopped to walk every boardwalk, and much further along each beach.
The entry fee to
the park is 300 rubles per car, with an extra 150 rubles for each
person in addition to the driver. That's a pretty sweet price to see
a national park.
I opted to drive to
the furthest thing I wanted to see, then work my way back. The first
place I stopped was called Vysota Efa. Massive dunes are one of the
main things to see in this park, this is a viewpoint at the top of
the tallest one, which is currently 62 meters high.
To get to the
viewpoint you walk up a bunch of boardwalk steps, there are three
different viewing platforms.
Only one of the platforms has any sort
of cover, which I definitely noticed because it was really rainy and
windy. Very very rainy and windy.
The pictures online
are of beautiful dunes with nothing but sand. The dunes you see have
plenty growing in them. Bushes, grasses, etc... Even so, the views
were still really nice. You can see the Curonian Lagoon from these
viewpoints, but it wasn't super pretty because of the clouds and
rain. Obviously all the photos online show blue water and blue skies. I wonder how often that actually happens.
To keep the dune as
it is, visitors are not allowed off the trail, or off the viewing
platforms. They don't want people traipsing around the dunes, moving
the sand around in ways nature didn't intend. It's a shame that
people can't be trusted, as it would've been amazing to climb around
all that sand.
When I got back to
where I'd parked I noticed another boardwalk heading over to the
Baltic Sea side of the spit, so I kept walking. It was just as windy
and rainy over there, but you're allowed down on the beach. I'd call
my photos 'visual misery.'
I imagine it is always windy there, so
you'd never want to hang out on the beach, but it would be a nice
place to walk in warmer and drier weather.
I hoped back in the
car and drove to the next stop, called the Dancing Forest. The signs
for the sights throughout the park are in three languages: Russian,
English, and German. Since there is only one road going up and down
the spit, it isn't hard to figure out where to go.
In addition to the
dunes, there are several forested areas on the land.
A while ago
someone noticed that a few of the trees appear to be dancing. They're
waving at the bottom, some of them are almost curly. Though much of
the spit is covered in the same types of trees, the so called dancing
trees are concentrated in one area.
Scientists don't
know why some of the trees are shaped this way, while others are not.
The government has built fences and boardwalks for visitors, you're
not supposed to go off the trails. It's sad, because that rule is
defniitely in place because of what we all know just a few people
would do: ruin the entire area. There was one tree not behind a fence, so I stood with it to take my photo.
Bark had been stripped away where others had clearly stood on the tree to have their photos taken. Sigh.
I wandered around
like everyone else, enjoying the quiet, and the fresh air. (We don't
get a lot of fresh air in Moscow.)
Near the dancing
forest I saw another walkway leading to the other side of the spit,
with more beach spaces. Even though the beach was similar to what I'd
already seen, I couldn't resist walking up and down a bit. Since it
was so windy the waves were pretty wild, I love watching the never
ending motion of water.
Last up was Chaika
Lake, or Seagull Lake. It's not big, and I didn't see any seagulls,
but I did see a few swans and ducks. There is a boardwalk built out
to one viewpoint, very nice. It didn't take long to see and take
photos, but again I stayed a few minutes longer to enjoy the quiet,
and fresh air.
I did make one more
stop, to take a photo with the national park sign. I've done so in
the States, so I'm definitely going to take such a photo in Russia!
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