My Travel Adventures

Having left Vilnius this morning, I want to jot down a few notes on the differences I observed between the Baltic countries while they are still fresh in my mind. Firstly, the capital cities are very different architecturally. Tallinn does have quite a few imposing baroque and gothic buildings, but its alleyways, city walls, and towers give it a distinctly medieval feel. Riga, on the other hand, has a strong Hanseatic atmosphere thanks to its prominent brick gothic churches and its location on the wide Daugava River. Much of Riga’s urban fabric is also woven out of art nouveau. Finally, Vilnius is the quintessential baroque city, though it boasts a few neoclassical and gothic gems.

On my last full day in Lithuania and the Baltic states, I saw my friend Diana, and together we made a trip to Lithuania’s second largest city Kaunas. The modern history of Kaunas is quite interesting, as it briefly became the country’s capital during the interwar period. During the Polish-Soviet War of 1919-1921, Vilnius frequently changed hands between the Poles and the Russians. In 1920, the Soviets awarded the captured city to Lithuania, but Polish President Józef Piłsudski secretly ordered a mutiny to annex Vilnius. Kaunas, which had been Lithuania’s provisional capital during the unrest after WWI, thus remained its capital for twenty years until its return to Lithuania in 1939 by the USSR – which proceeded to annex Lithuania in the following year.

This morning was the first cloudy morning during my entire trip, and I was very thankful for it. While it meant my pictures would not be full of beautiful azure skies, it also stopped my bouncing from shade to shade like a desiccating frog. My first stop today was the Gate of Dawn, which houses a prominent icon of the Virgin Mary in a chapel facing the inner part of the city. When locals walk through it, they often turn around and cross themselves, sometimes adding a short prayer. Right in the vicinity are the Church of Saint Theresa and the colourful Orthodox Church of the Holy Spirit, and farther along the same road one can see the imposing baroque-era Church of Saint Casimir and the city’s neoclassical town hall.