Vilnius: Part the Third

If you knew me in childhood, you will know that I love castles. They, along with pirate ships, were my favorite things to build with my Legos. So when I get a chance to visit a real one, well, it's not hard to convince me. This one is called Trakai, and it is a short drive from Vilnius. It was originally the seat of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania, a stronghold in their fight against Germanic religious-military orders in the late-Medieval period. Later, it was the center of a wojevod-ship (a county, of sorts) in the period of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

The sweetest part: it's a castle, on an island, in the middle of a lake. How cool is that?

Killer facts: spiral staircases were always built in this direction so as to allow the defender, backing his way up the stairs, a free right sword-hand, while the central pillar blocked his opponents range of motion.

One interesting thing about the town on the peninsula across from the castle is its small Karaim minority, related to Turkic and Kalmyk peoples much further east and holding a religion based on a reading of the Old Testament. Also, they make tasty pies.