Homestead "Gervių giesmė"

All parents are preoccupied whether their children will have what to do during their holidays. We assure you that for as long as the homestead exists we have never met a single child who would be bored. Further afield, but in a clearly visible place, we have set up a space for children’s play. An outdoor kitchenette with real cooking utensils, crockery and cutlery, a sandbox, swings, a running barrel, a rotating round log, a hammock, a tightrope, and a forest cabin – children will be very busy and engaged.
Our homestead is full of offerings such as volleyball, duels with sacks, tug-of-war, archaic games, badminton, sack race, gathering of herbs, tea-cooking in a genuine witch’s cauldron, and many more diverse educational programmes furnished by us.
All cabins are packed with tabletop games of very different variety, the abundance of which we are continuously expanding.

It is a pleasure to engage in what is not a routine. We will narrate about the everyday life and daily chores of the old-time village dwellers, as well as about children’s duties and pastimes of those times. Do you know why, in the old times, children, when going to school, used to take two quills: a hen quill and a goose quill? Why were they supposed to hide behind the wood-burning stove when a guest stepped into their home? Did you know that it was not only girls but also boys who used to wear kerchiefs on their heads? We will show you and teach you the chores that were a daily routine to our grandparents and great-grandparents. It is a delight to watch with what great enthusiasm children are gathering soap plants in the meadows and subsequently making soap out of them, are doing the laundry using a washboard, are hanging up the laundry on the clothesline with clothes pegs, and subsequently are “ironing” the laundry with a fluted mangle board and a rolling pin. Children try their hands at butter churning and yarn twisting. For those who have escaped from the urban concrete jungle, even weeding in a vegetable garden is a thrilling diversion.

Perhaps no questions arise as to what one can do in the forest in summer or in autumn? Especially as the homestead is situated amidst one of the largest Lithuanian woodlands. We will give you a wicker basket, not forgetting to show you where the most bountiful spots lie. And, of course, once you come back, we will rate your success and the sharpness of your eyes in the light of your basket’s weight.

A village without pets is not a village. Clever people nowadays say that stroking and feeding pets is a curative therapy, and we can only add that it is an extremely joyful and lovely diversion. Children willingly help to take care of the pets, and look after them with great enthusiasm throughout their stay at the homestead. The pets are truly loved, pampered and are always awaiting for the little fellows, as well as for carrots, of course.

Have you ever spent a night in the woods in native Lithuanian jauja? This place is often visited by devils and other mythical creatures. Can this be true? 

Fire, silence of nature and stars in the sky… You will have an unforgetable experience for the rest of your life.

• Price – 150EUR 2-3 hours
• Price for the rest of the night:  20EUR per person.

“It’s better to try it once than to hear about it a hundred times”! – is the most appropriate saying for this diversion.

We invite you to spend an evening in the Lithuanian sauna, otherwise also called the Baltic steam sauna.  Professional bathhouse attendants Aušra and Edvinas – from “Pirties ratas” – will shatter all the myths about sauna baths and will turn even the biggest sauna-bath dislikers into the fans of this procedure. Throughout the evening you will realise how many die-hard and truly false claims are made about sauna baths: that you must be prepared to endure the heat; that you may not open the door of the sauna; that it’s VERY hot there; that it is a place just for body-cleansing or for feasting, and many other things that are spoiling the image of sauna baths.
It is gratifying that the culture of sauna baths is changing and that there are increasingly many more people who are interested in and rediscover sauna baths. Sauna baths that are far from a torture chamber; sauna baths that, conversely, are relaxing, fragrant, pleasantly warm, liberating and rejuvenating. You just have to try it.
During the session of the 4 Elements programme*, we will narrate a surviving story about the Lithuanian tradition of steam sauna baths, will put you through the ritual sauna-bath programme, and will teach you how to handle yourself in the sauna so that after the sauna bath you would feel as if you have gained a deeper knowledge of yourself and have shaken off all your tensions, fears and stresses.

Number of participants: up to 6
Duration: 4 hours
Price Rate: 250 EUR + 40 EUR additional person