This morning was quite a sobering affair as our first stop was the former head quarters of the KGB, which is now the Museum of Genocide. We had an included guided tour, most of which consisted of a tour of the in tact prison below ground level and viewing the appalling conditioners in which prisoners of the KGB and then the Gestapo had lived in.

I stood in one of the cells, which was no bigger than six by six meters, which had no beds and was used to house up to fifteen people. We were shown the solitary confinement cell, which only had a filthy toilet in the corner and a bench. People had been allowed to sleep for only five hours a day and if they were caught sleeping after this, they were beaten up.

There was another cell with padded walls, which is apparently sound proofed. This was the cell in which they used to torture people, so no one could hear them scream. There was a cell with a pit in it, which had once been filled with icy water and had been used to for solitary confinement in water. In other words, people were shoved into a pit full of water, even in the harsh Baltic winter.

The last room we were shown was the execution room, which was upstairs. People were taken here in the middle of the night, on the pretext of being released, so they would come quietly. They were then taken into this room and shot. 1043 people had been shot in this very room and the walls still showed some of the scars. It was a horrific thought, that people who had done nothing more than fight for their own freedom had been executed in cold blood and treated in the worst way imaginable.

After they were executed, their bodies were often thrown out onto the streets. Not only to make an example of them, but to see who their families were….to see who cried and came to grieve. The KGB watched for these people and when they came to grieve for their loved ones, they were rounded up and deported to hard labor camps in Siberia. This resulted in mothers being too afraid to grieve for their sons, sisters being too afraid to cry out in public when they saw the bodies of their brothers decaying in the street and friends not being able to say goodbye….people just had to keep walking and pretend they didn't know their loved ones.

After the KGB museum, I redid our walk around from yesterday. I had a look at the main cathedral and stood and looked up at the three white crosses on the hill behind, which mark the spot where seven Dominican monks were crucified long ago. I made my way back to the hotel and worked on some notes for a while before returning to the streets of the old town to practice the orientation tour and have lunch.

I ate so much at lunch I could hardly move again. I had tradition Lithuanian dumplings and cheese balls. I sat there thinking about the food that's impossible to get or make in Australia, but that I love so much while I'm away; Lithuanian dumplings, English Steak and Ale Pie, Ethiopian Shiro, Egyptian Kushery, Turkish Kebabs….the list just goes on.

On my walk I also saw the changing of the guard at the presidential palace, which was pretty cool. The guards actually carried big oversize shields and spears. I saw many churches, I won't go into all of them because there are so many in Vilnius. Its actually nicknamed the city of spires. I'm not sure why the spires, the churches are more baroque in style than gothic and don't really tend to have spires.

After my walk I returned to the hotel to rest up for my ten hour bus ride to Warsaw tomorrow. Another day, another country.