Vilnius

The bus ride of just over 4 hours from Riga to Vilnius went pretty smoothly.  I caught a public bus to a stop near my apartment for 3 nights which is located right in old town.  The apartment is nice & the building it is located in dates back to 1755.

Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania & has a population of 500k.  Lithuania overall has a population of 3 million people.  It is the 30th country that I have visited.  The town is really nice & more affluent than what I expected.  On my first 2 days in town, I visited several churches & did a walking tour of the city.  The walking tour also included a visit to the Republic of Uzipo.  

The tour guide also explained a little bit about the Lithuanian language & how they add "as" to the end of many words.  I guess it is similar to Southerners in the US adding the letter s to words such as shopping at Walmarts or getting their medicines from the store.

 Tour guide Milda explaining the history of Uzupio.

Backpacker Jesus statue in Uzupio.

Plaque commemorating George Bush's speech in Vilnius.

Abandoned church, waiting to be renovated.

Street leading to the apartment I rented in Vilnius.

Main Street in the old town.

I was able to get some really nice photos of the city at night.

Main cathedral in town.

Castle overlooking the city.

On my 3rd day in Vilnius, I took a side trip to Trakai castle, which is a 30 minute bus trip from town.  It is the biggest tourist attraction in the country.  The castle sits on an island connected by a bridge. Here are some photos from my visit.  Lots of tourist & school groups were there when I visited.

After my trip to Trakai, I visited the KGB museum, did another walk around the city, & was able to take some photos from above the town.  I also hiked up to this hill with the 3 crosses shown below.

Solitary confinement cell in KGB basement.  It was bigger than my office at AVM & probably much quieter.

I did one more walking tour on my last morning in Vilnius.  This one focused on the Soviet occupation period from 1944-1991.  There were only 2 of us on the tour, so we were able to ask a lot of questions of the tour guide.  One thing she mentioned is that basketball is the national sport of Lithuania & the Soviet teams were made up almost entirely of Lithuanian players.  They won bronze medals at the 92, 96, & 2000 Olympics in basketball.  Here are some photos from the tour.

Abandoned sports arena

Performing arts center.

Former communist building, now decorated with street art.

Tour guide Martyna

Overall my visit to Vilnius was good & the prices were very affordable.  My next stop is a one night stay in the Lithuanian town of Kaunas, which is just over an hour by train from Vilnius.  Here are a few more photos from my visit.

Trump kissing Putin

Frank Zappa is popular here.

Registration for a half marathon on Sunday