Vilnius..the new Prague
Trip Start
Mar 10, 2008
1
5
13
Trip End
Mar 17, 2008
Vilnius,
Lithuania
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Went outside and saw identical twin girls wearing identical clothes...thats just weird..
I walked through the city, stopping to take photos of a beautiful Orthodox cathedral before heading to the KGB headquarters- the bricks at the bottom of building have the names of "Forest brothers" (Resistance forces against the Soviet Union) who were killed in the building carved in them
And again
. I then entered the building and its "Museum of Genocide Victims", I was told it was free that day (which was very good timing) and went through a frankly brilliant exhibition about the Forest brothers who had gone into the forest (obvious, given the name) and fought the vastly superior Soviet forces. Thousands of the brothers, and their contacts were killed by the Red Army, the KGB and the various agencies at their disposal- the last forest brother was killed in 1980.Afterwards I went down into the basement of the building- the KGB prison, once you were in, there was little chance of ever leaving again. Amongst the normal cells were several other cells the KGB used to get the information they wanted-The padded cell, complete witha strait jacket to restrain those mad from torture, the solitary confinement cell, the interrogation room, a second interrogation room where they could sit prisoners they had already crippled and in my opinion the most abhorrent- the water cell,a prisoner would have to stand on a small concrete block, elevated just above the ice cold water, if they fell sleep, they fell in. There was also the execution chamber- all in all it was an excellent museum, very dark. I was the only person in the cells at the time, and you could feel that people had died there, an uncomfortable feeling I didnät have at Auschwitz (mainly because the numbers the bigger, the sun was shining and Povey was there)- I think the fact that in a way its not quite over is another factor- they still haven't found all the mass graves around Vilnius
Shoddy photo of Lithuanian flag
.After the museum I wandered out towards the old town, which is exceptionally beautiful- stopping en route to accidently buy ten postcards for Anniken when I only wanted one (for what happened to the rest..well, keep reading the blog)- I climbed to the top of a hill opposite the hill of the three crosses -an interesting landmark- they were erected in 1935, but torn down by the Russians during the occupation- now new ones have been built above the ruins of the old ones and they glimmer white against the sky and mass of green foiliage around them- of course I'd wanted to climb the hill they were on but by the time I'd reached the top of the first one and noticed them on the even larger hill across the river (bit fo a cock-up..) I decided they probably weren't as cool close up anyway and took some photos in the rather cool ruins I found instead.
Afterwards I wandered over to the worlds only Frank Zappa memorial statue..which is situated in what appears to be a small car park..I know nothing about Frank Zappa (other than he was an American musican..I think), but I have a diverse group of friends, so I imagine at least one of them will find this remotely cool..maybe.
Then headed down the main street in Vilnius, buying a cool t-shirt from the tourist information centre and going in to a Russian bookstore and using their internet for a while to watch an episode of the Peepshow..which was pretty funny, don't think any Russians who glanced in my direction really got it though
Orthodox Cathedral in distance
.I then walked through the gates of dawn, noting how many people crossed themselves then walking beneath it- it is the cities only remain gate from the original wall and (due largely I imagine to the massive Virgin Mary painting on it) has become holy to Lithuanias majority Catholics(At one point later on I saw a beggar underneath it chanting her prayers- she needn't look as far as God for help..Lithuania should just introduce a better healthcare system. I then went to the Bus station to get a few moe euros changed into Litas before walking back across town (grabbing a pretty good hotdog on the way)* and hitting my first bar of the day (considering this was 5pm, not bad going).
"Transylvania" bar is one I can highly recommend, themed on Vlad the Impaler without really hitting the Dracula character who Bram Stoker based on him- bars well versed in correct Wallachian (the proto-Romanian state he ruled) history are a tragically rare thing.
I indulged in a pint of Utenos (good), followed by various types of the local brand of choice "Svyturys"- including one which tasted a bit like Hoegaarden with a lemon stuck in the top (as I've said before,in Slovenia I think, I don't usually like citrus fruit in my beer- but I let it slide this time.
I walked (sort of) back to the bus station, and with some more time to kill, went into a local bar populated only by middle-aged Lithuanians, but they were friendly enough so I had a few bottles of Taurus in there and ate what I can only describe as a beer burger in a pie...which was a new experience, albeit a good one
Better photo of Orthodox cathedral
. I then headed onto the bus and set off towards Tallinn, Estonia, my third new country on this trip.Thoughts-
-Lithuanian beer is pretty amazing
-Vilnius is beautiful and somewhere I consider the new Prague (its been described as that before, and I'm usually sceptical of such claims, but like Ljubljana in Slovenia, it really grew on me- coincidentally these are the only two places I've had citrus fruit in my beer, could that be it? am I secretly a lemon junkie? I don't care much for lemons)
-Lithuanians seem pretty quiet
*To you "Traditional, Local food is part of visiting a country" people, I say this- fuck you.
A)I'm on a bugdet and a schedule, I don't really have time and money for 4 course meals compete with squads of dancing otters for after dinner entertainment
B) Sitting in a restuarant selling "Genuine +Country Visiting+ Food surrounded by other (presumably fat) tourists is not experiencing the culture- the only locals you;d see in there are waitors..
C)Lithuanias tourist scene is practically non-existent, so in this case, hotdogs are what they actually eat- same goes for that excellent Pizza I had in Belgrade once
In conclusion..yeah..don't condescend to me just because you once ate goat-come in a swiss roll.
