Vilnius and Trakai Castle in the Snow

This past week, Chase and I visited Vilnius, the capitol city of Lithuania. We stayed at the Old Town Hostel, which was cramped, but clean and conveniently located. Here are some pictures from Vilnius, where it had been snowing.

This is the Gate of Dawn, which house a miracle-working statue of Mary. Whenever you walk through the gate, you will see people stop, turn, kneel, and cross themselves in honor of the statue, which, according to Chase, is the most holy site in Lithuania. A French guy that I met at the hostel told me that the cult of the Virgin Mary was created to replace pagan Gaian cults. Apparently that's relevant because Lithuania is overwhelmingly Catholic and also is experiencing a pagan revival.

The Lithuanian National Philharmonic

One of many beautiful churches in the Old Town of Vilnius

The top of St. John's Cathedral flanked by flags in front of the Presidential Palace

Gediminas tower at the top of Gediminas Hill, which is part of the old Vilnius castle complex.

The slope of Gediminas Hill, which you can climb by foot or by funicular.

The view of the Vilnius old town, particularly St. John's Cathedral.

Another view of the old town.

The remains of the original keep of the Vilnius castle.

Vilnius Cathedral, which I didn't get to see inside. Chase and the study abroad group went and said that the medieval catacombs underneath the cathedral were awesome. I slept in. Dumb me.

The detail of the ceiling of the porch of the cathedral.

Not far from Vilnius is an amazing medieval castle that was restored by the Soviets. I took the day-trip to Trakai Castle separately from Chase, who went with the LCC study abroad group. I went with a French guy, Morvan, that I met in the hostel. He introduced me to the Ukrainian anarchist Nestor Makhno (who would interest anarcho-capitalists out there) and kept my mind spinning with detailed accounts of his readings. He was from the coastal city of Brest in Brittany, which is the northwestern-most corner of France. Anyways, Trakai castle is the ideal medieval castle that you would picture in your mind.

At this point, Morvan and I are standing in the middle of the lake, in complete awe.

The bridge to the castle, with picturesque bulrushes on either side.

A tower

The keep

The gate to the keep sits on a different island than the island from where I am taking this picture. The next picture illustrates that.


The view from the bridge between the walled courtyard of the castle and the keep. You can see that they are completely separated from each other by the lake.

This is such a cool place!

Inside of the keep

Inside of the castle passageways

This is a panoramic video of the frozen lake around Trakai Castle and, yes, Morvan and I are standing in the middle of the lake. In fact, we walked across the lake from the village to the castle and I slipped three times in a row on the ice before I fell hard on my bottom.