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Vilnius (and a bit of Lithuania)

Lithuania, 31. August 2019
Hill of Crosses
First stop in Lithuania was the Hill of Crosses, about two hours out of Vilinus. It started some time in the mid 19th Century and despite being bulldozed by the Soviets a few times, it continued to grow and be replenished. It is still used, and tourists cam buy little crosses at any one of the souvenir stores at the entrance. Our guide said however that the tourist crosses aren't counted.

There is a bit of competition between Riga and Vilnius, who has the nicer Old Town.

Let's just say that we were staying in a really nice guest house, whose owner was really friendly and gave ua chocolate, opposite a beautiful church... Vilnius was winning already.

As we do, when we can, we tried to do a free walking tour (unfortunately they didn't turn up), so as there are enough tourists to have a couple of free tpur companies, we did a different free walking tour, along with the five other people we met waiting for the first tour. Thankfully one of them had mobile connection (we are being old fashioned and relying on free WIFI), and found the second tour.

The walking tour took us through the Old Town, and into Uzpis (a free republic declared by artists in Vilnius).

Our second tour was an "alternative tour" which showed us the grotty sorry, arty bit around the station and to an open-air street art park.

We additionally did a walking tour on our own... We did a lot of walking!

Lithuania is known as the land of crosses and is mainly Catholic. This meant the churches (of which there are many) that survived Soviet intervention, were highly decorated in a baroque style (read lots of twiddles, colours and marble). It was really nice to see after the often modern paintings or austere interiors of the Russian churches.

We even managed to be in Vilnius for its city day, which was a celebration with concerts and market stalls. It added to the charm, and volume of the city.

I have to say that just comparing the impressions given our at the walking tours, people in Lithuania seem to be more positive about their present and future.

Food wise, I actually found a dumpling I did not like! Shocking I know! They are called "Zepplins" and are fist (or bigger) sized glutinous mashed potato with a little bit of mince inside. That's a no from me.

Our one museum of the city was the Museum of Oppressions and Freedom Fighters. This showed the Soviet and Nazi treatment of the Lithuanians during their times in control. It showed the exiles, deportations and imprisonment of people sent to areas in Russia which were rather familiar to our trip (Krasnoyask, Tomsk, Ikutsk), and showed their lives there, the hardships and how they tried to make the best of it. It also had a section on the Jewish extermination of the Lithuanian population. As well as a part on the partisan movement which fought against the Soviet/Nazi occupation.

The final part of the Museum was about the KGB in Lithuania. The museum was housed in the ex-KGB headquarters and had the creepy, sad, horrible (no words are adequate) basement prison where apparently over 1000 people were executed and many thousands tortured. It was made more creepy when they started to turn the lights off (we were there near closing) whilst we were down there... I moved quite quickly at that point. It also showed the benefits of being a KGB member (I guess why people joined) and the surveillance equipment and operations. As a tourist in the Soviet period, the KGB were definitely watching.

Despite this, we enjoyed Vilnius and it's pretty old town, its friendly people and the availability of English, but it was time to leave and head to Belarus with our hard fought visas.

The checkout from our guest house was lovely and Luke even got cuddles from the owners son, Mykolas, who apparently is usually shy, but requested that Luke put him on his knee by turning round and backing up into Luke. Very sweet.

The train ride was completely uneventful, we got stamped out of Lithuania at the station in Vilnius and guards border the train and did the check in to Belarus during the trip. All easy.

We did have a bit of a wrinkle with our accommodation, where the apartment owner we booked through booking.com demanded payment in USD, and then when we said we couldn't reluctantly said she would accept local currency (apparently it is illegal to request foreign currency...) only to tell us the morning of checking that the apartment had "water problems" but that she could give us one elsewhere... We had read about a scam in Minsk which looked remarkably similar to this. It could have been a legitimate problem, however thankfully we were in the free cancellation period so cancelled and booked on AirBnB. Thank goodness for Wi-Fi and free cancellation!
Hill of Crosses
Hill of Crosses
Vilnius Cathedral
Vilnius Cathedral
Vilnia River
Backpacker Jesus in Uzpis
Friendly cat in Uzpis
St Anne's Church
Typical Old Town street
A sticker the ex-Mayor of Vilnius created, he ran over a car packed in a cycle lane - to discourage people. The words say "Don't make me get the tank".
View of the Old Town
A church
16thC Gates of Dawn
View through the Gates of Dawn
Church of St Theresa
University Cathedral
Modern Frescoes at University
Street Art - Vilnius
Street Art - Vilnius

Vilnius

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