Miriam's visit part 1

My friend Miriam came to visit this past weekend! We went to Goshen College together, and right now she is on Fall break from her teaching job, so she came all the way to Lithuania to visit me!!!! Saturday and Sunday we spent in Vilnius, the capital city of Lithuania. We saw so many different things - this was my first time in Vilnius, and yet we were still able to find everything we wanted to see and enjoyed the time to catch up while also learning about the city.

 We stayed in the "Uzupis" district, and they have their own constitution, with very interesting rules, i.e.

 Two of the churches we visited - St. Anne's on the left, and the Bernardine Church on the right, both constructed in the 14th century. We went to mass in English at the Bernardine Church on Sunday morning.

On Sunday, we also went to the Cathedral of St. Stanislaus and St. Landislaus - the most important Catholic building in Lithuania - originally built in 1251. We snuck inside in between masses to take more pictures.

We took the funicular train up the hill by the Cathedral to the Gediminas castle and tower. The tower (in the picture) was used for defense, and the castle is in ruins now.

view of us at the top of the Gediminas hill, with Vilnius in the background

 next we went to see the changing of the guard at the Presidential Palace

then some AMAZING Indian food, the KGB museum and Vilnius Picture Gallery and....

my name! :)