Walking, Walking, and More Walking

Today was quite eventful. We started off with going to a local coffee shop to get something small for breakfast. We all used our stipend money we received yesterday, however to the dismay of the cashier this stipend came in the denomination of 50 euros and we used those 50 euro bills to buy items no more than five or six dollars. So now she probably has no more money for change! After eating and talking for a while we made our way to the KGB museum which was a KGB (Russian secret police ) and Nazi office and prison until 1991 when Lithuania became an independent nation.

The prison was in the basement of the building and consisted of about 50 cells in total. The cells were small and would house anywhere from fifteen to twenty people depending on the size. We also saw the shower room, bathroom, the suicide watch cell ( which was just a padded room to ensure inmates could not kill themselves ), and what I will call the breakdown cells. The breakdown cells were made to not kill the inmates but only to mentally break them so they would divulge important information. These cells consisted of a fully cement room taking up the footprint of about five feet by eight feet. In the middle of the room was a pedestal about one foot off the ground. This is where an almost naked inmate would stand. The unheated room would then be filled with water to just below the pedestal. The cold Lithuanian winters would sometimes even freeze the water below the inmate. The design of the cell was used to deprive the inmate of sleep and mentally break them.

The most solemn part of the visit was the trip to the execution chamber. The execution chamber had cement walls on all sides and one slanted wall with a window about one foot high and four feet wide. This was used to pull the bodies out of the chamber located in the basement. The execution was quick and efficient and completed by one simple shot to the head. We could see chunks missing on the wall and were informed these were where the bullets would hit the wall after going through an inmates skull. It was very chilling. After the museum tour we departed on a more light-hearted walking tour of Vlinius with stops at the presidential palace for the Lithuanian president, an interactive museum tour, St. Anne's church ( a church that is around 500 years old and was a favorite of Neapolitan Bonaparte), the central park of Vilnius, and dinner. In total I walked just over 31,000 steps which is over 14 miles! That's a lot of walking!

Inside St. Anne's Church

During our tour I learned that January 13th is a very important day in Lithuanian history. It marks the day Lithuanians kept the Russians from gaining control of and propagandizing Lithuanian TV. I have also learned that Lithuanians are very proud of their new independence because their fight for independence has lasted for hundreds of years and has included fights for independence from the Russians ( pre-WWI) from the Nazis ( WW2) and from Soviet control ( just after WW2-1990). It is very interesting to see how another nations pride in their country is portrayed by its citizens.