Vilnius vibes

We spent a lovely long weekend in Vilnius. After such a stressful journey, the thing Lucy and I most wanted in the world was a G & T and Rob thankfully obliged. Dumping our bags at the hostel, we headed out to explore Vilnius and find somewhere to eat, before heading back for a well deserved night's sleep.

The first thing to say about Vilnius is that it doesn't feel like a capital city at all. We were staying on a quiet road next to a stream which was only a 10 minute walk from the centre and yet it felt like we were out in the country. It's Baroque churches are what makes Vilnius famous, but what makes it so cool for me is the atmosphere; where else would you get a district declaring itself a republic and forming its own constitution with such gems as "Everyone has the right to die, but this is not a requirement"? Our first full day was spent exploring this district, called Uzupiz, before heading up to explore some of the Baroque centre. The plan to do much exploring was thwarted by the fact that it was Labour Day and so there were a huge procession going on. (At this point we were terribly English, and despite not having a clue what was going on, clapped very politely and tried to join in with the singing, somewhat unsuccessfully.) There was also a massive Taize convention, so we had to keep an eye out whenever we went into any of the churches to check we weren't about to end up in the middle of a service.

After the beauty of the centre of town, it was rather a sudden shift to go to the KGB museum, but it came highly recommended as something one must see and I suppose there is never a good time to see something which is so upsetting. It is a museum based in the old KGB headquarters, where people were sent for anything remotely constituting 'anti-Soviet' behaviour and has a large section on the fate of those transported to Siberia and other areas of Russia. What you realise is that whole families were sent, often without any charges being confirmed and that until these settlements had established themselves, the chances of the children surviving the vastly different temperatures was minimal. Another very moving collection was the embroidery with various messages about their homeland and the fight for independence and a rosary made out of bread. The bottom floor of the museum has been maintained as the prison it was when still the KGB headquarters. The isolation cells and execution cell are obviously pretty horrendous, but it was the padded cell which really threw all of us, which is where they put prisoners after torture. It was certainly well worth seeing, although I do worry that on this trip Lucy and I are perhaps becoming a bit numb to such horrors; so much inhumanity happened here in the 20th century, that I'm almost expecting to discover it in every new place that we see.