Latvia to Lithuania

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We are in the country of Lithuania tonight. I like it! The vibe here is good and the buildings – everywhere – are gorgeous. It’s like walking around a fake town and our hotel isn’t even in the “old towne” section. Their “normal” buildings are beautiful. Kamie & I walked around town on our own for a couple of hours during lunch today and then at 3pm we took a group tour of the Museum of Genocide or the KGB Museum. This is the original prison that was the headquarters for the Gestapo during the German occupation and the headquarters for the KGB during the Russian occupation. I will tell the stories below the pictures but I warn you, they are extremely sad. At one point during the basement prison tour, I felt it was too much sadness and horribleness to continue reading everything. It is almost unfathomable that an entire group of people were killed and tortured just because of their religion. I wish we would have known how depressing this tour was going to be because we would have skipped it. We signed-up for the tour to see the spy equipment and learn about that aspect of the KGB (which we did) however, the tour included three floors one of which was nothing but padded cells, water torture cells, extermination rooms, etc… Terrible.



Our hotel here in Vilnius, Lithuania is ultra hipster. We have beautiful views of a castle, gorgeous churches, and other interesting architecture from our hotel windows. I’ve included a couple of pictures.



Dinner tonight was with the group here in the hotel. Veal for Kamie, chicken for me…. Both plates included lots of beets as side dishes – red, yellow and white beets. Kamie & I decided the only thing we miss (besides Simon and Scaredy) is my home cooking…. But I wouldn’t mind a tall, iced Dr Pepper right now and dinner that didn’t take 2.5 hours.

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Photos

Baltic Way
When the Baltics won their freedom from USSR, they formed a human chain through Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania all holding hands in celebration of no more Soviet occupation.

Vilnius, Lithuania
side street by our hotel

View from front window of our hotel room
The beautiful lit building is actually a mall.

Read the picture
Women lined-up before a dug grave- I'm sure they were all shot in the back and then fell in the grave. Saved the monsters energy in burying them.

Padded cell with their version of a straight jacket
Documents verify there were 5 of these cells. Blood splattered on the walls. They tortured prisoners for info.

Water torture chambers
There were two. See the small disc in the middle of the room? Prisoners were told to balance on the disc in their underwear. Ice cold water was filled in the area beneath. If they fell, they fell in the water.

My favorite picture
Women held in camps were found to have handmade their own little prayer books.

Spy equipment
Some of this still works today

Deportations
Only around 30% ever returned "home" but usually with no family. A lady in our group said her dad lost everyone in his family. EVERYONE but him died or were killed.

Names of some of the dead now on the bottom of the building
Many were very young - 20s.

Dinner
This interesting lady is very nice. She was eating grey bread. None of us - even her - knew why it was grey. She has traveled to over 120 countries and is still traveling. Her favorite place was Greenland. Her husband is too old to travel. Lots of people here who travel without spouses. Odd, it seems.

Mars Bar Ice Cream at McDs
Mars ice cream. Kamie says they don't have these in US?
Today is the first time we actually ate a very quick lunch at McDs.

Hotel room key
Even our hotel room keys are ultra hipster

Comments

[Kari]

Makes one think
I remember as a kid reading Anne Frank and thinking hiw very very brave she was. It is just mind blowing all that happened.. after our Australia trip we were excited about McDs drive thru fkr coffee and it was less than 3.00 for 2 large ☺

[Eeda and Jahn]

Yes...
It is mind blowing that we let so many people be tortured and killed over a religion - any religion. And we had a no-big-deal McDs today because it was on our walk back to the hotel and it was cheap - 7.80 Euro total for 2 to eat lunch. I am not at a point where I'm really missing anything yet.

[Mallory]

:(
This reminds me of the Holocaust museum in DC that Matt and I went to. Its overwhelming to hear the stories and see the pictures of so much sadness and pain and reflect on the fact that humans are capable of so much evil. While also seeing how resilient those held captive were. It is definitely an eye-opening experience. Glad you got to go!

[Stacy]

I. LOVE. BEETS!!!!!!

[Eeda and Jahn]

Yellow beets
We've had lots of beets the last couple of days. The yellow beets were the best.

[Stacy]

We only have Oreo or M&M McFlurries here. I will be disappointed if you don't try one/all of these!