A day in Vilnius

Today I thought I would tackle a few of Vilnius Museums, first up was the Museum of Genocide Victims (KGB museum), it is housed in the old KGB building. It was one of the most in your face museums that I have ever been to.
There was a lot of history about the invasion of Lithuania during WW 2, first it was taken over by the Russians in 40, then Germans came in for 3 years from 41 to 44, then back again to the Russians. From the middle of the war the Lithuanian Resistance started, what I didn't realise that this Resistance lasted into the mid 50's.

Two of the displays.

 

The Russians were brutal to the Lithuanians, whole families were deported to all parts of Russia, families were broken up for years, the soldiers in the liberation movement who were caught were jailed and in some cases executed. In the basement of the building they showed all the old cells, even one was  padded for torture so the screams could not be heard. They even had the execution room, in it they had a video showing what the executions were like, the film was very real (they had plenty of blood and showed them cleaning up), in one of the other rooms, they had photos showing the bodies of some of the Resistance fighters that had been shot and then laid out in town squares, streets to be a deterrent to others. This museum is a must for visitors to Vilnius.

In the afternoon I had a look at the main Cathedral in Vilnius, it was very impressive inside, quite spectacular, below is picture inside.

Then I went and had a look at the Lithuanian National Museum (below), this was focused more on the 1300's to 1800's, they have a very long history, sometimes you think of Lithuania only existing since 1992, whereas they were just temporary out of action for 50-60 years.

Then tonight I had Dinner at one of the authentic Finnish resteraunt, I had the mushroom soup in a Bread roll and then the Potato pancakes with meat, it was very filling.