Greetings from Vilnius!

I arrived in Vilnius, Lithuania from Tallinn, Estonia last night. Tallinn's Old Town is adorable. I'll write more about it later, since I'm on the hostel's computer at the moment. We're also staying in Vilnius's Old Town, but it feels a lot more urban. I was planning on going to this Soviet era statue park outside of Vilnius, but I decided against it today because they have one in Berlin, and I just felt like I wasn't going to be able to see enough of Vilnius otherwise. Leila and Kristen decided to go and they should be on their way back right now. Instead I went to the Jewish community center, the Cathedral, the National Museum, and the Upper Castle. I was a little confused about this Jewish community center that I went to. Vilnius used to have one of the largest Jewish communities in Europe before the Holocaust, but now there is only a very small community left. I read in the travel book I'm borrowing from a friend that there was a community center or a museum or something in this one area, so I went. Maybe I went in the wrong part. I have no idea. Most of the signs were in either Lithuanian, Russian, or Hebrew. They did have some interesting photographs of the area near where I'm staying from the 1940s when it was a ghetto.

The Cathedral was incredibly beautiful and I took several photos of it. Hopefully they'll turn out alright. Oh, I also went to the Gates of Dawn, which was interesting, but I don't have the energy to describe that now.

The National Museum was fabulous. Two good displays on the recent history of Lithuania. The display on the WWII Partisans and deportations during Stalin were particularly moving. They also had several exhibits on rural life during the 19th century with lots of beautiful baskets and religious art. The wood carvings were particularly nice.

The Upper Castle was a lot of fun. It's quite far up a hill so you can buy a ticket to ride a lift to get up to it, and since the hill is so high the view is absolutely amazing. I paid another 2 Litas (a little under a dollar) to go inside the castle. I climbed to the top and the view was even better. Unfortunately, the wind was kind of strong and I didn't want to go too close to the edge. I still really enjoyed it. It felt a lot less scary than the church tower I went up in Tallinn. Don't worry, I will definitely write about that experience later.

Don't worry that I'm wasting all my time inside on the internet. I've been walking around the city and going to museums for the last four hours. I need a little break. I'm probably going to make a sandwich and wait to hear from Leila and Kristen, then I'll be off to explore the city some more.