It usually takes me a few days to get around jet lag when I travel internationally to Europe. This case was no exception. Last night partially due to jet lag and otherwise because I did not have the air conditioning on, I couldn’t sleep. This left me tired throughout the day.

I started off with a complimentary breakfast provided to me by the hotel. My hotel is connected to a Belgian restaurant which must cater mostly to the hotel guests but they will serve non-hotel guests as well. At breakfast they had scrambled eggs, toast. croissants, and luncheon meat with cheese. The latter two seems to be a frequent case when traveling in Europe. I could easily make myself a sandwich using many of the usual breakfast foods they seem to have in Europe. At breakfast a young blonde waitress monitored the pitchers of orange juice, apple juice and water and refilled them as necessary. In cases like this I usually try to fill up on the free breakfast so that I will not be left hungry throughout the day.

I decided to visit the Museum of Genocide vVictims in the old KGB headquarters. It didn’t open until 10 a.m. and I got there at 9 a.m. so I decided to walk around the area to discover new things. There was a park nearby with people walking their dogs. Also there was a church full of churchgoers. I peeked in to see what was going on but only very briefly as I did not want to disturb the worshippers. This church was celebrating its 800 year anniversary Jubilee. Imagine that: this church is older than my country. I walked along the riverfront in went to another church but I did not go inside this one as well. In the courtyard there was a statue of Mary. I saw a lady do the sign of the cross and seemed to pray. I stood off to the side and I did not want to disturb her. After she left I was able to get a picture of the statue along with the flowers left behind my other churchgoers.

It was getting to be around 20 till 10 therefore I decided it was time to walk back to the KGB Museum. The door was open to the museum and they had apparently opened a little earlier then 10 a.m. The older lady at the desk seems to be a little rough with me especially whenever I handed her two 5 Euro bills instead of one 5 Euro Bill + 1 Euro coin. I had hoped that she would be able to break a larger bills down so that I would have change for bus access later on in the week. But I guess I can find a way of breaking down my larger bills by other means.

The museum documented the history of Lithuania under Nazi and Soviet occupation. It was mostly about the latter. The museum documented the atrocities the Soviets did against Lithuania. For example the KGB listened in on telephone conversations and public conversation (by means of disguise). Anyone speaking out against the government could lose their job or worse sent to a work camp in Siberia. Sometimes being sent to a work camp was done in the night where those being sent had very little time to prepare and weren’t even sure where exactly they were going. Children were born in these were camp but the Lithuanians made sure they were talking about their Heritage so that one day they could return to Lithuania. Many of those who tried to escape failed and were sent back to the work camp.

The basement contains the small holding cells for the political prisoners and execution rooms. This was a very sad time during Lithuanian history and only ended in 1987.

It took me about an hour to 90 minutes to go through the museum. I had planned to eat at a nice burger restaurant called Drama Burger, but decided that I should probably go for fast food in order to get a head start and going to Trakai.

The guidebook said that on weekends there are about 40 buses a day which go to Trakai. The bus arrived about 12:45p.m. I paid my 1.80 euros and got to see waiting for the bus to leave. Surprisingly our bus was very crowded and I wasn’t sure why. Apparently Trakai is a very popular destination for Lithuanians.

At this point I should probably talk about my way that I prevent pickpocketing. I keep my wallet and cell phone in my front right pocket of my jeans. I also keep a decoy wallet filled with play money in my back pocket. Anytime I am on a public transport I always keep my hand on top of the wallet so that I can tell if anyone is trying to take it. On this bus ride there was an older man woman who sat down in the same area right beside me and in front of me. As a precaution I tend to view anyone who gets close to me as a potential thief so I kept my hand on my wallet the entire bus ride over. But this couple apparently was honest and did not try to rob me.

The bus ride took about 25 minutes period normally would probably take about 20 minutes but we did make about five stops picking up more passengers along the way. As we got out of the bus I heard Lorde’s song “Royals” played over some loud speakers in the bus parking lot.

The walk to the island castle was somewhat long and probably could not be done by an elderly person. There were taxis around which gave people rides as needed but thankfully I did not need the ride and walked the entire way.

As I was walking I discovered that many of these buildings were personal residences. I figured they must be very high value property to be on the lake. Also I passed by a community soccer field width little robot roombas mowing the grass.

As I got closer to the bridge connecting the mainland to the castle touristy things started to appear. There were food stands souvenir stands and paddle boat rental. I had hoped to get a good photo of an empty bridge with the castle but it was near impossible as there was people coming and going from the bridge itself at all times. It was 6 euro to get into the castle. As I entered into the main courtyard I saw stairs leading up to the other parts of the castle. Within each room there was different exhibits about the history of Lithuania end the castle itself. It was all very interesting and probably would have been even more interesting had a study Lithuanian history beforehand. I was able to make a few GoPro videos with my selfie stick of the stairs around the castle. I hope they turned out. That’s the thing about making these GoPro videos while on vacation you never know if they turned out or not and you can only really watch them while you’re at home.

I spent maybe an hour at the castle walking around before heading back. On my way back I saw a cat. This is an ongoing joke with me and some of my friends back home. I’ll take a photo of a cat and explain to my friends that I was unable to speak to the cat because I could not say meow in the local language. This particular cat was very friendly and wanted to be petted frequently. I had to leave it disappointed while it was rolling on its back looking for more attention. Also on the way back I took a photo of a library to show to my girlfriend who is also a librarian.

I managed to get back just in time for the bus leaving for Vilnius. It was a small bus and completely full of people I barely got a seat. The good thing about this bus is that it did not stop until I got to Vilnius providing for a faster trip.

I was pretty tired after walking around so much so I went back to my hotel room and rested took a shower. After that I went out to try to eat at Drama Burger.

I got somewhat lost and headed the wrong direction after I got off the bus to go to Drama Burger. But I did eventually manage to find it and had a nice but small Burger. Also surprisingly enough my friend Mark and I chatted via video on the restaurant’s Wi-Fi connection.

The restaurant also served homemade lemonade which seem to be a frequent drink for restaurants to serve here. This particular drink head ice and sliced inside the lemonade.

Afterwards I walked down to Cathedral Square and went through the Old Town streets. I was looking for the literary gate which had some interesting sculptures put into the walls of the gate. Through this brief walking tour I feel like I’ll be better prepared on how to handle tomorrow which will be my first real full day and Vilnius. I had to go to the KGB Musuem and Trakai castle because they were only open on Sunday and closed on Monday and Tuesday. Tomorrow I will plan on visiting the rest of Vilnius and try to buy some souvenirs. The souvenir shops are not as frequent or else I haven’t seen as many in the areas that I have visited. I always like to buy a soccer or in this case with Lithuania basketball jersey, a city patch, and Lithuanian flag.

We’ll see what tomorrow holds. Thank you and goodnight.