Monday, May 5th, Vilnius, Lithuania

Greetings1

We started the day listening to a university professor providing us with a talk about recent Lithuanian history.  Ahead of the rest of the Soviet states, Lithuania gained independence in in 1992 after groups of citizens staged civil disobedience demonstrations.  After a particularly violent confrontation led to an economic shutdown of the country, and inadvertently isolated the Soviet state of Kaliningrad, Gorbachev agreed to end his blockade.

Boarding our Tour bus, we headed to the Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fights, located in the Central KGB Headquarters.  Long corridors of locked rooms housing dissidents until their deaths by firing squad, or transfer to Siberian labor camps.  Accounting for 724 deaths in this prison alone, over 280,000 were killed in Lithuania from 1941 to 1944.

Next, we drove to Trakai, home of 200 of the estimated 2,200 remaining Karai in the world.  Originating as Turkish Kipchaks, this ethnic group was brought from Crimeain the 14th century to act as bodyguards for a nearby castle.  

Invited to a cooking lesson to prepare our own lunch, we made kibinai (a savory meat pastrie) and were given an excellent lecture from the chef on the traditions of Karaite culture.  
 

To see all of the photos taken today, click on Monday, May 5th, Vilnius, Lithuania.