Lithuania

September 13, 2006

We departed Vilnius at 9:00 AM and headed towards Riga, Latvia, our next destination.  Before leaving Lithuania, we stopped at the hill of crosses.  A small hill covered with millions of crosses.

The story of the hill goes like this – a father who was sitting by the bedside of his ailing daughter, had a dream in which a woman asked him to build a cross and to place on the hill.  In 13 hours, he made a heavy cross and placed it on the hill. When he returned home, his daughter was healed.  Other people hearing of the event began to place crosses on the hill.

During the Soviet occupation, religion was not allowed and the crosses were repeatedly destroyed.  However, during the night, people would bring new crosses.  It became a place of anonymous rebellion against the soviets and a symbol of the nation’s hope.

Crosses varied in size from the most simplistic form to extremely ornate.  I did find someone placed a large, encased metal Star of David on the hill.

Continue reading →

September 13, 2006

I was very impressed by the food in Lithuania. I thought it would be rather bland and uneventful. but to my surprise, I really enjoyed it and even bought a cookbook. The central staple is potato (of course) that was prepared in just about every way imaginable including pancakes, dumplings, zeppelins, pies and sausage. I noticed a lot pork and curd cheese being used to flavor the dishes along with Dill.

Lunch on the first day consisted of cepelinai (meat filled potato dumplings) along with a hot broth. When I heard about it, I pictured a pierogi but the tour guide explained that the dumplings were baked so you could hold them in your hand and that Lithuanian version of the pierogie is the Koldunai.

Mushrooms also appear in a lot of dishes. I noticed while going to places outside of the city, there were many people walking with baskets going in and coming out of the forests, harvesting mushrooms. At the hotel, there was a really nice display of some of the largest mushrooms I have ever seen. Continue reading →

September 12, 2006

Our next stop on our tour in Kaunas was the Devil’s Museum.  This museum owes itself to the eccentric Antanas Žmuidzinavičius (1876-1966) who collected over 2,000 depictions of devils from all over the world. It was more interesting than it was scary.  There were lots of references to the Devil with alcohol and tobacco.  One of the more interesting displays were of Hitler and Stalin Devils doing the dance of death over Lithuania which was created during the soviet times but taken out of hiding after Lithuania gained independence. Continue reading →

Kaunas

September 12, 2006We met our guide at 9:00 AM in the lobby of the hotel and boarded our minibus to Kaunas, the second largest town of the country.   Kaunas became the temporary capital when Vilnius was occupied by the Polish from 1920-1939.  In 1939 Hitler and Stalin made a pact giving the Baltic states to Russia and Poland to Germany thus giving Vilnius back to Russia.  Two weeks after the Hitler-Stalin Act WWII started.

As we entered the city, the tour guide pointed to an area along the river saying that the location is where the Jewish Ghettos were established during WWII.  Near the end of WWII, the area was burned and destroyed along with its citizens. Prior to World War II, Kaunas had a large Jewish population and at the end of the war, it was reduced to a very small percentage.

After getting a bird’s-eye view of Kaunas, our first stop was the Church of Vytautas (Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary into Heaven) which was built-in the 15th Century. This is one of the first brick Gothic buildings in Kaunas and the oldest church in Kauanas. When the French Occupation was exchanged for Russian Occupation, the Roman catholic church became a Russian Orthodox Church. When the Germans took command in the 20th century, it was used to store wartime supplies. Continue reading →

The Gate of Dawn

Gate of Dawn

September 11, 2006

In the afternoon, we took a city tour starting at the The Gate of Dawn.  The Gate of Dawn was built-in 1522. Of the original nine gates, the Gate of Dawn is the only remaining.  In 1671, the chapel was built within the gate with a miraculous icon of a dark faced Vilnius Madonna, “The Blessed Virgin Mary Mother of Mercy”.  Many religious people make pilgrimages to the including Pope John Paul II who blessed it in 1993.

After viewing the Gate of Dawn, we headed to Old Town to see various things.  There is a lot of renovation going on in Vilnius.  In 2009, Vilnius will be made the Capital of European History as well as celebrate it’s millennium.  In preparation for it, there are a lot of monuments being renovate.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t make for good pictures. Continue reading →

Trakai Castle

Sep 11, 2006

Trakai is the ancient capital of Lithuania just outside of Vilnius.  The castle was originally built-in the 1400 (and later restored) to defend against crusaders.  In later years the castle was used as a political prison.

Complete with drawbridges and moats, the castle is stunning with its gothic architecture.  In addition to being a tourist attraction the castle is still used during festivals.

It was absolutely beatifull surrounded by the lake and plush countryside.  Continue reading →

Me in a holding cell

Sep 11, 2006 – Day 2

After breakfast our first stop was the Museum of Genocide Victims otherwise known as the KGB Museum.   Along the base of the building the names of the victims who died at this location.  The KGB building was established in 1940 when the Soviet Union occupied Lithuania.  It was here that people and entire families were brought in for questioning and detained for 7-8 weeks while the paperwork was prepared.  The only way out was death or a trip to Siberia.

In the basement of the museum are actual prisoner cells used by the KGB to retain and torture prisoners.  There were padded cells with straight jackets, cells with water-proof floors used to make prisoners stand in cold water.  In one corner of the basement there is an execution chamber where prisoners were shot, up to 25 people a night.

The last prisoner left this prison in 1992 after the Soviet Union fell and Lithuania became a free nation.  Remains of victims as well as personal artifacts were found were and are now on display.  Also on display are KGB uniforms, photographs of the KGB officials, and the bags of shredded documents left behind by the KGB officials. Continue reading →

September 11, 2006

After a good night’s sleep, Allan, my travel partner, and I were up early. We had breakfast and headed out for a walk before the morning tour. I snapped some photos of the town as I walked around. The white ghosts sits on top of a subway station. The picture with the three dark robed figures is the National Drama Theatre. Built in 1981 on the site of an older early-20th century theatre building (architects Algimantas and Vytautas Nasvytis). This sculpture above the entry is called “The Feast of Muses” and shows figures of Drama, Tragedy and Comedy (sculptor Stanislovas Kuzma, 1981). (Thanks Deb Rapone, my sister, for finding that out)

September 10, 2006 – Day 1

Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania.  The population of Vilnius is 580,000 and the population of Lithuania is 3.5 million.  Putting it into perspective, the city of Los Angeles has three times the population of the entire country.

We were supposed to arrive at 12:30 PM but leaving JFK didn’t go so well. There was a passenger who wasn’t on board but his luggage was.  After retrieving the passenger, as opposed to removing the bag, we sat on the runway for two hours waiting to take off. I wondered if the air traffic controllers weren’t a little upset with the airline for not reconciling the baggage to passengers before leaving the gate.

We arrived in Frankfurt at about the same time our connecting flight was leaving.  In hopes of making our connecting flight, we ran to the gate.  Running was the one thing the Dr. said I shouldn’t do and I wondered how much damage I had done by doing so and it was all for nothing, we missed our connecting flight. Continue reading →