I was at a little settlement south of Mikolajki that might have had a connection to the Norse peoples. They had some interesting wood carvings and upside down trees.
Galindia was the name of the place...
Priests travelling with the Vikings from Scandinavia in the 9th and 10th centuries first introduced Christianity to the Baltic tribes populating the western and southern parts of present day Latvia. In the 10th and 11th centuries, Orthodox teachings, via Old Russian, were spread to the inhabitants living in the eastern and central parts. No written legacies of the languages spoken in this area during this period have been found, though archeologists speculate about the possibility that some type of runic writing system borrowed from the Scandinavians may have been used. Borrowed words in use today, which reflect this early Old Russian influence on the Latvian language, include for example baznīca 'church', grāmata 'book', svece 'candle', svēts 'holy', and zvans 'bell'.
utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/eieol/litol-0-X.html
