And while you most of you are probably as well up on the facts and figures of the Eastern European country as one of its Government Ministers, we thought that some of you may need a bit of a crash course.

So before you lace up your hiking boots, read on  Lying on the coast of the Baltic Sea, the Republic of Lithuania (Lietuvos Respublika) is about the same size as the island of Ireland.   The people speak Lithuanian which is the oldest of the living Baltic tongues. The country's 3.6 million people speak it as well as another one million people living in other countries such as Australia, USA, Russia and some of the bordering countries.

They also speak Polish and Russian, which is not surprising as it borders Poland and the Kalingrad region of the Russian Federation. It also borders Latvia and Belarus.

Although known as an Eastern European country, Lithuania (Lietuva) is in fact located in the centre of Europe and is divided by a straight line connecting Paris and Berlin with Moscow via its capital, Vilnius.
Knowing whether to pack an extra pair of shorts or a rainjacket could be a tricky one as the climate of the country depends where you are dropped.

In the 12-15 km-wide coastal zone it is maritime (which is a bit like ours), and in the Eastern part of the country it is continental.
The religion of the country is primarily Roman Catholic but other religions are also practised including Lutheran, Russian Orthodox, Protestant, Evangelical Christian Baptist, Muslim and Jewish.

Its economic state could not be further from ours at the moment with high unemployment and weak consumption. It is the Baltic state that has conducted the most trade with Russia and has been slowly rebounding from the 1998 Russian financial crisis.

* The highest point in Lithuania is Kruopine Hill at 293 metres. That is compared to Carrauntoohil at 1,041 metres.

* There are 722 rivers of longer than 10 kilometers and 21 of them are more than 100 kilometers long. And 1 sq km of territory contains 0.6 kilometers of river streams on average.

* Woodlands cover 28 per cent of Lithuania's territory. Their total area is 1823.1 thousand hectares, some 32 per cent of which are young forests.

* The country is divided into 44 districts (the latter into 423 apylinkes - the smallest rural administrative units) and there are 11 cities of national jurisdiction.

* It has six universities, academies and research institutes.

* Its flag has three equal horizontal bands of yellow, green and red.

* Unemployment is estimated at 10.8pc, the country's highest since regaining independence in 1990.