Baltic Capitals-Lithuania episode 8 part d

Enjoy some pics of this quiet coastal city. Tomorrow the hills of witches and amber hunting.

Baltic Capitals-Lithuania episode 8 part c

Due to the moisture falling from the air, we were lucky to have a talk from a 91 year old survivor of the 300.000 Lithuanian deportation ordered by the Soviets to the merciless inhumanity of Siberia from 1945-1953. Only about 60,000 managed to return to Lithuania. Similar deportations happened in Latvia and Estonia. Our speaker was the most vivacious 91 year old. If we could have even half of her spunkyness near that age. What an inspiration.
Lunch stop at Magde. Yum yum yum. Our host restaurant owner treated us to home grown vegetables, soup, and potato pancakes with chicken stuffing. Yummy
On to Klaipeda.

Baltic Capitals episode 8 part b

More scenes from the Rumsiskes Open Air Museum. Managed to poke into all the buildings before the impending rain found us. The bulk of the rain fell while we were encased in the bus.

Baltic Capitals-Lithuania episode 8 part a

Goodbye Vilnius hello Klaipeda. We left the capital city and headed into the country. On the way stopped to visit the Rumsiskes Open Air Museum. Our museum guide led us through 18th & 19th century rural dwellings and farmsteads. Was really interesting to getting a little peak into daily life centuries ago. Beautiful flower gardens.

Baltic Capitals- Lithuania episode 7 part e

On our own is always an adventure. Mark, Lisa and I had to climb probably the only hill we had not scaled in the old town of Vilnius in our quest to find the Gate of Dawn. This is one of the original gates into the city of Vilnius from Poland. Dating back to about the 11th century. Success! Complete with a compliment of blue habited nuns. Not only we found it, we found a really fun pub that called our names...
Tomorrow we say goodbye to Vilnius and on to Klaipeda on the Baltic Sea coast.

Baltic Capitals-Lithuania episode 7 part d

Museum of Genocide Victims aka KGB Museum. Located in the former KGB headquarters. The Nazis converted this former city hall into the gestapo headquarters for 3 years. The war ended then the communists Soviets moved in and ran their operations of oppression, torture and executions until 1991. Lithuania was a state of USSR until 1990 when the anti-soviet resistance declared their independence. Innumerable atrocities occurred here.

Baltic Capitals-Lithuania episode 7 part c

Trakai. First destination for the whole group was the de facto medieval Lithuanian capital. Duke Vytautas the Great preferred this beautiful area dotted with lakes. Trakai Castle is a red brick, fairy tale fortress built by Vyautas in the 15th century to ward off German knights. It was fun to explore the castle and learn about its rich history.
Time for lunch! In Trakai is a settlement of Karim people. They are the oldest Turkish tribe brought from Crimea in the 14th century to be bodyguards for the castle. We learned about this tribe's culture and language. We also had a cooking lesson making Kibinai aka a small Cornish pastie or a bit larger than an Argentine empanada. We each made one and after cooked, ate it. Yum.