Friday 11 September
Vilnius was only 30kms away from Trakai so we arrived there about lunchtime. We parked in a car park that was a few minutes walk to the old town. The car park allowed motorhomes to park for 24hrs at a time but had no facilities. Rob and Sue had told us about it. It was a great place, even though it was quite isolated, no one much came into the car park and it had security cameras all around and the police patrolled the roadway in each night (don’t know why – and they didn’t either when I asked).
We walked into the town and started to walk around some of the tourist sights. We passed a few weddings about to start and one church we went into they were about to start the ceremony so we left feeling like we were intruding a bit. It is obviously a very popular place for weddings and Friday was a popular day. We got harassed by a few beggars – these guys though were funny as they had legs bandaged up and we thought possibly fake makeup on to look like injuries and they often faked bad walking postures for the sympathy effect. They were ok though as they just left when we shook our heads. We sat at the information place to try and get emails, but it’s difficult to sit for very long at these places so after a short time we left. We went to an area called Uzupis which is an arty farty area. We stopped for a drink and a cheese platter at a hotel there – for our wedding anniversary – and they refused to tell us their WIFI code even though they had given it to some others who were sitting close by, so we left. Uzupis has it’s own constitution and rules and pleads to be it’s own republic, not sure how that works though.
We went to find a cat café but it wasn’t there which was a shame as it was a bit out of the old town and we wasted some precious time. We were a bit tired so after we had a walk through the lovely gardens near the cathedral square and a short walk up Gedimino avenue we went back to the van before dark (which is getting earlier every day unfortunately) and Scot cooked dinner.
The next day we walked up to the top of the hill beside the car park where there was a castle and some ruins and got a great view over Vilnius. They have kept a lot of greenery and it makes it look like a very small city indeed. They have a lot of parkland which featured fountains, very pretty flower gardens and wide pathways. We watched in the cathedral square as they were putting up a whole lot of tents and wondered what was happening. We discovered there was a marathon on in Vilnius tomorrow and because of this we made the decision to stay an extra day. I convinced Scot he would be fine to do a short run and how awesome to be involved in something on this side of the world along with something like 20,000 other people, so he went and registered to seal his fate.
We then walked along Gedimino avenue to find a second cat café which we knew was still operating but they hadn’t opened for the morning when we arrived so we went down the road for a coffee. Just as we were crossing the road I spotted the Japanese man we had spoken to in Trakai, so we went up and spoke to him and invited him to have a coffee with us since he was on his own. He thought we were hassling him until he recognised us with surprise but declined as he was heading to the airport to go home.
We headed back to the cat café when it was open. They have 13 cats here but have a licence for 15. They don’t rehome them, this is their full time home and they are simply there for people to come and have a pat of them whilst having a cuppa or a meal. The cats are generally friendly but I felt they just get too much attention and they really wanted to just be left to their own devices. It was cool though. There are many such cafes right around the world particularly in places like Tokyo or New York where it is difficult for people to have their own cats.
We then went in search of the campsite we thought was nearby here because our van was running out of power and we also were close to needing the loo emptied, but we couldn’t find it. We did however find multiple weddings happening. One church we walked past had 3 brides virtually lining up to get married. When one came out of the church, the next one and their guests filed into the church and the next one moved up in line to wait. Even though Scot was dying to tell them it was a great day to get married as it was our Wedding Anniversary but he didn’t. I doubt they would have spoken English anyway.
Next we went into the KGB Museum also called the Museum of Genocide Victims. It was in the actual building that the Nazis and the KGB used when each of them occupied Lithuania. The base of the building has the names engraved of those they know were murdered in this building. They brought people here who were deemed to be collaborators, resistance members, political agitators or those who helped the resistance. Any who had been previously in power when they took over as political figures were considered a threat as well as many others for various reasons – but since when did the Nazi’s or the KGB need reasons?
We wandered around reading about the plight of Lithuania and how dreadful l they were treated from the time of the Russian occupation before and after WWII and during the Nazi occupation. They had various photos along with spiel in each of the rooms and one particularly graphic room had photographs of murdered people as they had lain when killed. Very graphic and quite upsetting. The basement of this building had been used to house the people that either occupier had arrested and in one small cell they could have up to 24 people – really just enough room to sit with cramped legs. From the moment I walked down the stairs I could feel this oppressive energy like I have never felt in my life. They murdered too many people to even mention the numbers here in these cells and you could feel it. I can barely describe what I felt in the cells as we walked along looking, until I walked into one particular one. There was nothing different about this cell compared to others but as I went inside I thought I was going to vomit. The feeling I got was so strong and felt so dreadful, like a huge weight, I had to get out and thankfully there were exercise yards opposite where I could get some fresh air. I don’t know if others can feel the same thing, but as I said I have never felt anything like this, but I guess when you have thousands of people murdered in these confines it must leave some spiritual energy behind. When we went into the torture chamber – I was surprised they didn’t have any torture implements or anything. They were just showing a video re-enacting how some of the murders were done. But like that one other cell, although there was little in this room, I couldn’t handle the feeling and I had to leave. I couldn’t look at the rest of the museum as I felt so sick from the oppressive energy so we left. I would go back to that museum in a heartbeat as it has taught us so much of what happened in this part of the world that we never knew about.
We walked around more of the town and then went back over to Uzupis to look for the other campground where we may park up the next night. The campsite was a shit hole and was fine for the hostel people who were staying there, but not a pleasant place to park the van so we decided we wouldn’t waste our money here, we would have to deal with the lack of power in the van as best we could. The refrigerator was being powered on gas so it was fine, it was just the reading lights we would lose only too soon. We walked back around the town and it was starting to get dark. It was actually nice for a change to be in a city when it was dark and see it in a different light. We felt very comfortable in this city and never once felt threatened. We stopped at an Italian restaurant to have a pizza and beer/wine before heading back to the van. Scot needed his sleep for his big run the next day! As we got back to the car park we could hear a band playing and lots of people walking up the hill to where the 3 crosses were. We asked someone coming down what was going on and they said it was a rock/music festival. The coppers we had asked at the entrance to the street had no idea. We decided we didn’t need to walk all the way to the top and went to bed.
