Baltic Beginning in Lithuania - Vilnius and Kaunas

Vilnius, a city I would not have been able to locate on a map last year, was the first stop on our Baltic adventure. Like many other European cities, it is cobbled in its center and full of old buildings and church spires. Unlike most cities to the west, this city and this country have a long history of being controlled or occupied by other powers: Poland (18th century), Russia (mid-19th century), Germany (WWII), Communists after the Russian Revolution, Poland again in the 1920's, Soviets (1944-1991). The Germans killed off the Jews in WWII (200,000 with 80,000 fleeing to the West) in a country where Vilnius was known as the Jerusalem of the North. The Soviets killed off, arrested or deported 250,000 more Lithuanians. Finally, in 1991, the USSR recognized Lithuanian independence.

This is a picture of the Vilnius Cathedral with the belfry next to it. It doesn't look like a cathedral at all and was reconstructed in 1980 because during the Soviet time it was used as a tractor warehouse. Lithuania is known as a Catholic country but has deep pagan roots in the days when the country was tribal. During the Soviet times when religion was outlawed Catholicism became a symbol of nationalism.

This is the place on Cathedral Square in 1989 marking the end (or the beginning) of the human chain of 2 million Latvians, Lithuanians and Estonians protested Soviet occupation. They lined up across three countries from Vilnius through Latvia to Tallin, Estonia. It says stebuklas (miracle). You are supposed to make a wish and turn clockwise.

We did spend time in the Museum of Genocide Victims housed in the former KGB headquarters and before them, the Gestapo, Polish occupiers and Tsarist judiciary. This museum is dedicated to the thousands of Lithuanians who were murdered, imprisoned or deported by the Soviets from WWII to the 1960's. The basement is the old execution room and inmate cells. Some might question visiting a place like this or saying that if you have seen one museum documenting oppression you have seen them all. But each one seems to mark another way people or nations have systematically tried to control others. In recent history, the people of Lithuania first experienced the Nazi's and then the Soviets. Between 1944 and 1960 more than 1000 people were executed here. The ghosts of the victims live in the stone cells and hallways of this building. Chilling.

That evening, we met up with our cycling tour. There are 11 English speakers and 12 German speakers. Although we are divided into two groups with one guide with each group, it seems we will be cycling together. The group is very international with a couple of Australians, a Canadian, an American who has been living in Italy for 10 years and her German friend, two cousins-one from Tampa and the other who has been living in Hong Kong for 20 years and a couple from Bloomington, Indiana.

Before leaving Vilnius with the group, one of our guides Romas, led us around part of Vilnius for a tour. Most of the information Romas shared with us was not included in any European history class I took. We wandered through the streets of the Old Town and past church after church, through the area that marks the history of Jewish Vilnius up to the Gates of Dawn which is one of the last standing portals built into the city walls. One street was particularly interesting. It is called Literati Street since 2008, plaques honoring authors who are Lithuanian or are connected to Lithuania line this street.

 The dulya gesture - used to disagree with or refuse aid to another. Used against Soviets.

Sisyphus??

Truly, there are lots of alternative tourist sites in Vilnius with statutes and plaques. Sadly, we did not find the bust honoring Frank Zappa.  

 
We drove out of Vilnius in the morning and headed to Trakai to tour a 14th century castle built on a small island in Lake Galve.

Model

Interior Courtyard

After the castle tour we started our first day of biking of about 25 km. The countryside is relatively flat and agricultural once you leave the city.

After the ride, our bus took us to our hotel in the city of Kaunas. Kaunas used to be the capital of Lithuania but now is a university town. We walked through the Old Town, listened to a group of four young women singing in the church during Eucharistic Adoration (when the communion wafer is put in a special display and people come in for 24 hours), and finally ate outside in a restaurant on the main street. 

 Kaunas

Looked strangely fake but tasted good

Tomorrow we are off to the west, eventually making our way to the Curonian Spit on the Baltic Sea.