all right everybody we are finishing up
the Baltics with our last Baltic country
if you didn't watch the Latvia episode
it basically goes like this welcome to
the creepier Baltic sister Lithuania
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everybody host Barb's okay once again I
know some of you guys are kind of like
come on barb stop calling the two
countries creepy but my response is that
would be it's kind of true and it's not
necessarily a bad thing if used in a
charming way some people like creepy I
mean just capitalize off of it I mean
like Latvia I made that prison hotel
Turkmenistan did that thing with the
burning hole believes made bank off of
whale vomit
who knew that stuff would be so
expensive up the market anyway huh
cha-ching okay we need to get back to
Lithuania let's find out where it is now
shall we now Lithuania may be the
largest baltic country in size but it
kind of got the short end of the stick
when it came to coastline first of all
the country is located in the area of
europe known as the baltic which no
shocker borders the Baltic Sea to the
north the nation is divided into ten
counties with the capital Vilnius
located in the south they're also
surrounded by four countries remember
this little chopped-up exclaimed
Kaliningrad belongs to Russia in which
they share this long famous stretch of
land known as the caronian spit a
98-kilometer long sandy barricade with
dunes about 54 kilometers of which
belong to Lithuania and it all
effectively cuts off the entire caronian
Lagoon except for this small opening at
the port of Klaipeda this is literally
where almost all sea-bound shipping
comes in to Lithuania I mean come on
nobody's gonna deliver cargo at that
dinky little dock at palanga so
essentially Russia has the bigger
portion of the lagoon but Lithuania has
the only way out yeah we don't need we
have opening at Vistula Lagoon on
straight of ball tisk
it has funny looking star fortress thing
to welcome you Oh Russia I can't wait to
do your episode largest cities after
Vilnius are cool news and the city we
just talked about Klaipeda
and surprisingly for such a small
country they actually have four
international airports busiest in order
being Vilnius CONUS palanga and shoal i
internationals now here's the thing
Lithuania is proud to claim that they
debated lis have the geographical center
of Europe like they literally even built
a monument in sculpture park next to
showcase a nope wrong nope
no really Hungary even you yep no I mean
the Guinness Book of World Records
recognises my village job no make of it
what you will the country doesn't really
have any territorial anomalies or
disputes except for kind of a maritime
dispute with Latvia up north something
about oil reserves and there's that
weird salient that juts into Belarus I
think we already talked about that in
the Belarus episode did we let's not
even get started how Lithuania was like
yeah I'm just gonna take this dear
Venetia cou Easter a nice National Park
from you guys even if it does give me
like a one mile wide quarter to reach it
oh yeah we did well cool I guess I don't
have to discuss it minimal effort funny
enough there's a micro nation in
Lithuania the Republic of boots peace
which is actually just another one of
those Bohemia hippie-ish neighbourhoods
in the capital Vilnius
they kind of wanted to be edgy and cool
much like Freetown Christiania that we
studied in the Denmark episode
self-proclaimed but unrecognized
autonomy is like SoDo Lithuania does
kind of have a dark past I mean they did
play a huge role in the Holocaust during
World War two they had one of the most
significant Jewish populations in Europe
once nicknamed the Jerusalem of the
north nearly the entire population of
about a quarter million was killed by
Nazis with a huge massacre at Poenari
many were sent to the hkp 5/6 to forced
labor camp and veal news today various
memorials and museums and exhibitions
can be found to commemorate the incident
also due to the high immigration rate
after joining the EU many towns started
to see houses and buildings and
properties left unattended and decaying
like the Ignazio nuclear power plant the
palace of sports and concerts the trade
unions building the Platina nuclear
launch site yeah nuclear launch site so
yeah that kind of sets the mood right oh
and they also have a devil's museum and
a KGB experience in a former Soviet
bunker where you can pay to pretend to
be a prisoner getting yelled at and
interrogated complete with guard dogs
and everything charming speaking of
which some places of interest might
include and keep in mind I will not
really pronounce these Baltic words
because they're so hard these castles
this monastery the Liberty Boulevard the
hill of three crosses the monument of
the victims of fascism the funicular
railway of this place the Museum for the
blind the cat museum the museum of
illusions the Frank Zappa memorial the
pan house your Vitas garden and finally
the two most iconic cultural landmarks
that might really give you a feel of
what Lithuania is all about the hill of
crosses which has over a hundred
thousand crosses and nobody really knows
why it got started that way and even
though the Vatican says it's a holy
place full of power
locals think it's kind of creepy and the
hill of witches a sculpture park with
sinister-looking carved wood images
depicting characters from ancient
Athenian folklore from back in the pagan
days so yeah Lithuania is kind of like a
weird pagan ii catholic ii forest loving
technology advancing but kind of
reserved an overcast country so much to
cover let's start with those forests
well here we are again for the third
time explaining basically the same thing
that we discussed in the Latvia and
Estonia episodes I know you're gonna be
tempted to skip through this section so
to keep you watching here's Keith on
bass Lithuania or Lea Tuva gets its name
from via to spa which means rain here
symbolizing the abundance of rain and
fertile land first of all the country is
made up of four general parts the flat
coast the slightly higher uplands the
middle lowlands and the Baltic Highlands
here you can find the tallest point
extroyer's at only about 293 meters in
elevation making the tweeny of the
flattest of the Baltic States
amidst everything at over a third of the
country you will find just like the
other Baltic States a plethora of boggy
marshland and swamps as well as forests
the longest river being the Neman which
starts in belarus flowing through Qo'noS
blocking into the conus reservoir
however the largest lake would be lake
droogs I share partially with Belarus
wait did I mention that in the Belarus
episode also you have an island split
between Belarus and Lithuania in link
reach ooh and two islands and two
peninsulas in like group she a or dist
Vaati dang i did a good job in the
belarus episode i'm making my job so
much easier for me on the national
animal is historic lithuania also has
the highest nesting density for storks
in the world they believe it's good luck
of historic and that's near your house
they even have a holiday dedicated to
them on March 25th
so anyway resources one thing that
Lithuania is famous for is amber the
Baltic coast has the largest known
natural amber deposits in the world and
Lithuania was pretty much the place
where it all started in the town of
you'll die on day I'm not even gonna try
that again otherwise much of the land is
arable over 1/3 is cultivated some
national dishes of Lithuania might
include things like cold beet soup
stuffed cabbage rolls that custom these
dairy product thing anthill cake tree
cake poppy seed rolls blood soup and
lily pootis cheese para todos los que
habla espanol si si lo escucha tambien
kallithea todos and probably the most
iconic dish potato dumplings who got
through that section now let's meet the
Lithuanians shall we Wow
not other few Indians are fine and dandy
like cotton candy
remember that Lithuanian geography a
throw that I met in Tokyo she was cool a
gift that I literally tried to hit you
up for this episode just get some
information but I couldn't find your
email I don't know if you're watching
this right now let me know what you
think was it accurate so anyway the
country has about 2.8 million people and
is the largest economy in the Baltics
with the highest GDP as well the
majority of the country at around 88
percent identify as ethnically
lithuanian 6% are poles 5% russian and
the rest are other groups mostly slobs
like Ukrainians and Belarusians with a
few other minority groups mixed in as
well they use the euro as their currency
the type-c plug outlet and they drive on
the right side of the road now if you
really want to get a feel of everything
Baltic Lithuania is kind of like the
epicenter the politics were like the
last places in Europe to convert to
Christianity and to this day like Latvia
and Estonia ancient pagan traditions and
folklore still live on through festivals
artwork and traditions in a nutshell
though Lithuania was more Catholic
influence and Latvia was more Protestant
influenced Lithuania joined Poland in
the Commonwealth and became at one point
the largest country in Europe while
Latvia was taken over by the Germans and
Prussians and whatnot first of all the
language as mentioned before Latvian and
Lithuanian are the only two surviving
Baltic languages left in the world their
older brother Old Prussian died out in
the 1800s and these two languages are
ancient like older than Greek half the
words and names end in s and like half
of everything ends in like newest or eat
this Lithuanian is disputable II the
oldest indo-european language still in
use some say it even still retains words
that related to ancient Sanskrit
originated in India yeah India for
example agnus vs. nice values vs. vay
asks de Vos do you have us and the list
goes on and on it's pretty strange how
close the coincidence is when you look
into it I want to say thank you in
Lithuanian all you have to do is sneeze
like literally the word for thank you is
achoo now if you don't know anything
about the Baltic this region has the
highest ratio of two things blond-haired
blue-eyed people and women to men the
numbers usually switch off every so
often but Lithuania usually ranks second
or third between Latvia and Estonia when
it comes to male and female ratios
ranging between point eight eight males
for every female this is partially due
to a number of factors such as large
portions of the male population being
killed off during war times mortality
rates caused by things like smoking or
alcoholism and suicide here at Agra now
we don't gloss over the controversy but
try to report it as objectively as
possible
and unfortunately Lithuania often
in the top three suicide per capita
nations in the world many times first in
a weird way though this dark fact has
kind of put a sort of weirdly
romanticized image on Lithuania and
Lithuanian stew the point where that
people just kind of shrug and own up to
it I mean this dude invented a
euthanasia roller coaster concept
designed to kill the passengers and
Lithuania was selected to be the
childhood home of fictional character
Hannibal Lecter add some pagan statues
juxtaposed to thousands of overly ornate
crosses in a swampy land and bam you
have the perfect setting for no but
seriously in Lithuania is not all jump
scares it's more of like a legendary
place where ancient customs still live
on with a valiant populace that became
the first to break away from the Soviet
empire and they loved basketball
speaking of which history time in the
quickest way I can put it pagan tribes
this guy unites them all and becomes
King like literally the only King in all
their history wars with the Teutonic
order the 1400s it becomes the biggest
country in Europe with the Polish
Lithuanian Commonwealth they briefly
colonized parts of Africa and the
Caribbean colonies sold off and lost
divided by Russia Prussia and Austria
books smuggling years to keep their
language alive quick independence in
1918 but then the Russians came in again
Nazis tried to take it go back to the
USSR bloodiest guerilla war in European
history over 30,000 Lithuanian men died
singing revolution with all the other
Baltic states independence finally in
the 90s joins the EU and eurozone they
somehow became the basketball capital of
Europe and it's almost like a religion
to them and here we are today and
speaking of basketball some famous
Lithuanians might include all these
basketball players and this one is
probably the most famous this guy who's
supposed to be like the king but died
before it could happen
painter Michael Lewis Constantinus
director Jonas Mekas writer Salome
Esther Nerys fear to lose elect nah
celebrities with partial Lithuanian
heritage but it still kind of counts to
the Dominions might include Jason
Sudeikis Charles Bronson john c reilly
Sean Penn Sacha Baron Cohen Bob Dylan
William Shatner pink Anthony Kiedis and
before we finish off this segment some
last-minute factoids instead of the
Easter Bunny they have an Easter grandma
they have the highest number of hot air
balloons per capita they have their own
national perfume scent they have some of
the fastest internet in the world is
considered bad luck to whistle inside of
a house otherwise it will explode and
burn down and yeah that's about it for
now Lithuania let's talk about their
friends now
Lithuania is the largest of the Baltic
States but often the least publicized
nonetheless some countries have managed
to make their inner circle of course as
a member of the EU most of their trade
and business goes through their
neighbors especially through Germany and
Sweden Iceland was the first country to
recognize them after independence the
two get along great they even have a
street named after Iceland the u.s.
Brazil and the UK each have the largest
expat communities outside of Lithuania
which has only strengthened ties over
the years I just found out my hometown
Los Angeles has a little lithuania
district they love Georgians and
Ukrainians because they share the same
history of being part of the former USSR
they support them in any kind of
political movement against Russia they
even send foreign aid Poland is like the
ex-boyfriend that they started out
really happy with but then they fought
and broke up but over time they moved on
and are just friends now Estonia is like
the childhood friend that they got along
with really well but after graduation
that kind of moved on and Estonia got
more and more obsessed with Finland in
the end though their best friend no
shocker would be their little twin
sister Latvia even though the years have
caused the two to grow up a little
differently they still moved forward
keeping traditions alive sharing the old
mystical Baltic charm
in conclusion Lithuania is the larger of
the last surviving Baltic peoples on the
planet and it's quite amazing how
they've held it all together to this day
but seriously if you don't want to
become extinct start making babies you
to Bulgaria those diaspora immigration
rates are quite alarming
stay tuned Luxembourg is coming up next
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