Better late than never...Lithuania wrap-up

Well, we've arrived in Cambridge safely, and amidst all of the settling-in (e.g. figuring out how to get the internet hooked up in our flat) we haven't documented the last leg of our Baltic adventure: Lithuania!

We took the bus from Riga to Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, found our way to a hostel, dropped our bags, and headed out to explore.
Vilnius used to be one of Europe's most important cities and it had the grand buildings to prove it. However, like the rest of the Baltics, the effects of multiple foreign occupations are very obvious. For instance (and humor me here b/c I think this is wild...), we saw one huge cathedral in the center of Vilnius that was founded by the Jesuits in 1604. Then, it burned down when the Russians invaded in 1655. In 1812 the French army turned it into a grain silo, destroying the altars, statues and paintings. In 1839 the Russians turned it into an Orthodox church. In 1915 the German army it into a Lutheran church for their troops. In 1963 the Soviets turned the church into a museum of atheism. And now it's back to being a Jesuit church but all of the artwork, sculptures, and artifacts have obviously been looted or destroyed.

And...I can't leave out my favorite Lithuania food experience....
GOULASH (think Will Ferrell and GOUULETT)! One afternoon in Vilnius it was cold and blustery, so we found a place to eat for some soup. I tried their goulash and we liked it so much we came back for more at dinner...mmmm

Anyway, after getting a feel for Vilnius, we took advantage of great weather and went on a day trip out to the REALLY old (we're talking 1300s) ex-capital of Lithuania, and beautiful lake town, Trakai.
Trakai's biggest attraction is a castle that sits on an island in the middle of a lake. It's been turned into a pretty interesting museum, but it was mostly fun to be out enjoying the blue sky and the quaint little town.
*Rob's doing an awesome job as travel photographer; here are some other fun pictures of the 2 cities.