Kupiškis Lagoon Island "Mother-in-Law's Tongue"

A place with such a strange name is probably worth visiting for the name alone. After your visit, expect conversations like this: "Where were you at the weekend?" "On the Mother-in-Law's Tongue." Confusion and surprise on the faces of the people you are talking to. So what exactly is the "Mother-in-Law's Tongue"? It is the name of an island right next to Kupiškis, surrounded by the wide waters of the Kupiškis Lagoon (the Lėvuo reservoir). The island is quite large, and since 1988 a dendrological park has been created on it, where several dozen different plants grow. Each has its own sign with information about the plant. The island is well kept: you can walk all the way around it on a path that winds along the shore or cross it on a wide path through the middle. There are plenty of benches and several gazebos. As the "Mother-in-Law's Tongue" is surrounded by water on all sides, two bridges lead to the island. Incidentally, the "Mother-in-Law's Tongue" island used to be not an island at all but a peninsula that separated the Lėvuo river and the Pajuodupė stream within the village of Pajuodupė. In 1984 the Lėvuo river was dammed, creating the fourth-largest artificial body of water in Lithuania – the Kupiškis Lagoon. At that time the peninsula remained. Only later, when an artificial canal was dug, did the peninsula become an 8.97 ha island.