Vilnius, Lithuania

Another 5 hours coach ride and I was in Vilnius, Lithuania.

I disembarked and found my hostel before exploring the city. Vilnius is far larger than Tallinn and much cleaner than Riga. There are three beautiful view points from which you can see most of the city. The first is Gediminas's Tower, which is the remaining tower of an old castle. It gives a stunning view of the old town in one direction and the skyscrapers of the new city in the other direction. the next viewpoint is the hill of Three Crosses (with three white crosses) which were erected because three monks were martyred there. The Lithuanians built the crosses and the Soviets took them down and the Lithuanians put them up again and the Soviets destroyed them and the Lithuanians built them again. So they stayed. This seemed to be a common theme with the Lithuanians (and all the Baltic states for that matter). They really practiced satyagraha like Ghandi taught. In 1991 the Baltic states were freed from the USSR in the "Singing Revolution." Estonians, Latvians and Lithuanians joined hands-literaly- and made a human chain 640 km from Tallinn to Riga to demonstrate. What dedication. In Lithuania 14 people stood in front of Soviet tanks and were crushed. But since they didn't fight back the Soviets gave up. These people have a wonderful national pride and identity and I hope they remain free.

While I was at L'Abri I met a wonderful girl named Akvile who is from Kaunas, the second largest city in Lithuania. She offered to put me in touch with her friend, Simon who lives in Vilnius. Of course I wanted to be shown around by someone who lives there!

It turns out that Simon used to work at the hostel that I was staying in and he met me there the next morning. For several hours we roamed the city and he showed me many places that I otherwise wouldn't have seen or appreciated. He showed me the Republic of Uzupis, which is an independent country inside the city and founded by hippies. Now it is more hipster and artsy, but you can still go to the main building and get your passport stamped and read the constitution on the wall (I'll include a picture, zoom in and read it). Better than the sites, however, was the conversation. I find that every time I have a serious conversation with someone on my travels I learn so much. We talked mostly about economics and politics, both of America and the EU but also about Soviet influence on the Lithuanian people. Thank you Simon for being a great tour guide and conversationalist!

After Simon left I went to the KGB museum, which tells of the Soviet occupation from 1939 to 1991. It is a bloody tale. Tens of thousands were killed and many more were deported. Vilnius was 10 % Jewish and was known as the "Jerusalem of the north". 90% of these Jews were killed when the Germans passed through. The museum is in the old KGB headquarters and by far the most impactfull part of the tour was visiting the cells. They were below ground and you could go in and close the door and sit. Very soon I felt claustrophobic. It was horrible. There was a padded cells with a straitjacket used for torture. And solitary confinement rooms with bathtubs for floors so that the prisoners were forced to stand in icy water. But the worst was the execution chamber, where over a thousand prisoners were killed--their mass grave has never been found. It was a horrible place and it has been preserved just as it was found when the USSR left.

After all that emotion I felt that I needed a beer, so I went to Alaus Namai which has been recommended to me and I ordered a local beer called Varniuku. It wasn't bad, more sour than I usually get. I walked all the way across town (I did ALOT of walking that day) to a traditional Lithuanian restaurant called Snekutis and ordered cepelinai which is meat wrapped in mashed potatoes--delectable. 

Then I more or less bummed around until it was time to take the overnight bus to Warsaw.(And hopefully make the connection to Krakow and arrive thete midday). Ug. 24 hours of bus in three days.