To put it shortly, Vincas Kudirka was a doctor, poet and he also wrote and composed the national anthem of Lithuania. These are just a few things on why he is so important.
@@willieexplore just subscribed, I enjoyed this video as my grandparents were born in Lithuania, my Dads uncle married a Kudirka in Canada and she was a relation of Vincas Kudirka.
@@lindasanderson1699 Hi Linda! Thank you so much for your support and for your comment, it is great that you have that link to a Lithuanian great! Welcome and I hope you enjoy my channel :)
@@delmarmees thank you Delmar, glad you enjoy them! On which Baltic capital is my favourite. That is such a tough question (and also an unfair one) as they are all very different in my view. But the place with which I have the greatest connection personally is Tallinn. What do you think?
Hi Ray! Thank you very much for the kind words, glad you enjoyed the video and hope you look forward to more Baltic adventures with me :) Have a good one!
We had a wonderful time Vilnius here! Visiting the country by train and bus was so interesting for the 2 of us ! We stayed in a small, cheap hotel close to the Cathedral with its freestanding tilted clocktower! Had such a good time with friendly people!( mostly by sign language!) From Cape Town ,South Africa.🇿🇦🇿🇦❤❤(must say,it helped to be of the white race.....)
I'm from Vilnius, I like winter, especially sunny days -5° or smth with snow. People who are born in a climat zone with 4 seasons usually like seasons 😊
Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment! Haha, yes it is difficult for us from the Southern Hemisphere - we do better in 40 degrees than others though :) Having said that, the winter in Vilnius is totally magical!
Looking forward to this series, Willie and learning about these countries. Interesting to hear the history, as always. The baroque church and the orthodox church are stunning. I won't comment on the weather as, of course, I am used to those temperatures! In fact, in Scotland we say "it's baltic" when describing a very cold day😂
Thank you Sheila, as always! Glad you're looking forward to this one; this is definitely a fascinating part of the world to visit. Very different vibes from my previous visit in 2008 though, especially on the weather front!
Hey Willie good to see you made it to lithuania buddy ,what a change of scenery from warm madeira all the way to the baltics , in the last few years i was contemplating on visiting Lithuania and possibly moving there but then i put my project on hold who know's maybe in the future . I enjoyed the vilnius walking tour keep it up brother I'm looking forward for more baltics content 🔥🔥💪👍👍
Thanks my friend, always such a pleasure hearing from you! A really nice place to visit but I'm not sure if I can live there to be honest. Too cold! More vlogs coming soon so watch out for those :)
Very impressive as ever Willie I bow down to your knowledge. Great walkabout. Interesting you say about how the locals are dressed, I was in Mallorca last week and it was 22° and the locals were more covered up 😅 looks a very nice city, lots of nice architecture and churches
Cheers Matt, always a pleasure! This part of the world has a very interesting history. Haha same in Madeira when I was there, low twenties are considered long trousers weather! A beautiful part of the world and I know you will enjoy my Riga videos too. Merry Christmas!
Hi Willie this was fabulous and with such interesting history. It looks so snowy and cold but lovely. The architecture where you walked was very beautiful, I loved the old town area and well worthy of its UNESCO status. Great tour, looking forward to the rest of the series 👍~ Anna
Very nice to see since I have so many Lithuanian friends here in London! Looking very much forward to this series as I’m half Estonian, but I’ve never been there 🤣
Willie, If it werent for you I would never see any of these countries, thoroughly enjoy your tours of these places. Boy it looks cold: Thank you so much. Kiwi from Virginia.
You are most welcome Swanoaks! Really appreciate your support - without viewers like yourself there could be no channel like mine. Happy exploring, Willie
In the former Prussian part of Lithuania, the Lithuanian was not encouraged, but also not banned. It was used in the Bible translations, catechism and hymnals. Lithuanian pietists would meet to read sermons in Lithuanian and pray on Sundays. This was often the case in the rural areas. In the cities, German was more dominant, but there were Lithuanian churches in towns like Königsberg and Tilsit.
Vilnius population size is a bit dubious because of our weird laws for registration. Even if you live in a city or town you don't have to register there, you just need to be registered somewhere in Lithuania. So in Vilnius majority of 50k+ students are registered in their parent's homes somewhere else. Also goes for lot's of other working and commuting people. Vilnius also has these huge tentacles of suburbia that are technically not part of the city. General estimate would put the population closer to 750k.
Hi Marius, thanks for watching and commenting! I really appreciate it. Yep, population stats can be confusing, especially when you also start dealing with the differences between city, urban and metro. The latest figure for the wider metro I could find put the population at around 850,000. I found various figures for the city itself, the closest estimate around 593,000. Some sources claimed closer to 560,000, which is why I quoted the specific range I did. Very interesting about the students and registration in Lithuania!
@@willieexplore I have few more factoids if you are interested. This registration ambiguity brings some issues, e.g. if you are student living in Vilnius, but registered, let's say in Panevėžys, like I was during my studies, you can't vote for local municipality or local parliament seats. If you are working, then your VAT goes to the place you are registered in. I'm living in Germany and now I understand better why Germans are so strict with their registration regulations. It's about proper distribution of taxpayers money and also proper assessment of voting districts.
@@mariusrutkaus that really is fascinating. Sounds like it is something you should address or, at least, look into in Lithuania. But the issue of student voting is prevalent in many other countries too. I'm more interested in how it impacts how the population is counted - perhaps this is at the heart of, or at least contributes to, the Riga-Vilnius "dispute" about population size :) By the way, I also studied in Germany many years ago and had a Lithuanian friend who lived in Jena.
Thanks for watching and taking the time to comment! I visited Vilnius in summer 2008 and it is definitely a different vibe :) I still very much enjoyed my visit despite the cold weather!
Hello :) Our king Mindaugas sits on the throne to the left of the Cathedral ;) And about the weather: -4 is a very warm winter for us (at that time it should be at least -10, and often -20) and there is very little snow this year...
Hi there! Thank you very much for letting me know, I must have missed him then! I am sure the winters can get brutally cold, but remember I am used to much warmer temperatures haha :)
@@willieexplore Then you should visit Lithuania in June :) This is the most beautiful time to travel around our country, for example The Curonian Spit is home to the highest moving (drifting) sand dunes in Europe, also near Šiauliai we have the impressive Hill of Crosses and many other interesting, strange and enchanting places. We hope you will visit us again. Good luck!
4 minutes is of course nothing to them, just like a mild autumn! It gets a lot colder in that part of the world! You surely stands out with that hat in the mild weather 😂
@@willieexplore I realise that what I experienced in South Africa is nothing! I was in Johannesburg, Soweto and in Durban, but I need to go back to explore Real South Africa 🇿🇦
Lithuania 'converted' in 1387, but as you might imagine, there was a lot of resistance due to the fact that theyve spent last 150 years defending their faith from the crusaders so it took maybe 50 years for the country to actually become catholic
There were Pagans all the way up to the mid-late 1800s. Remember that right after conversion, Christianity became embroiled in a massive schism with Protestants, Calvinists, Anabaptists and many other movements springing up to challenge the Catholic church. Hard to convince a stubborn people to convert when you can't even agree on a doctrine internally haha.
Great video, I was just thinking of doing the 4 countries you mentioned today. How is travelling in this weather and how long did you spend in each country? Thanks
Hi Abraheem, nice to hear from you and thanks for your kind words & supporting my channel! I am still in the Baltics and have an itinerary of about three nights in each place. That should make for a good trip I reckon!
I have heard that there is a beautiful Orthodox monastery church in Vilnus. I do not think it was one of the two you showed, but I could be wrong. It has the tomb of the 3 Martyrs of Vilnius who were killed by the king because they would not eat his meat in Lent.
Really appreciate this extra information and insight, as well as your engagement, Stephan! I'm sure there are many bits of the city I missed on this trip.
Actually I have not been there, but have been researching things a bit as I want to go there in the near future. Possibly next year. Thanks@@willieexplore
@@willieexplore By the way, Vincas Kudirka was a poet and physician. He was also the author of their national anthem and is considered a national hero.
The most known lithuanian Duke ,,was Vytautas The Great !!!!!!!! ,,Jogaila was King of Poland (because of him Lithuanian kingdom ,,died" ) ,,Vytautas The Great was In rool Of Lithuania at that time ,,,, we Have Algirdas as well who took lots of russian lands . in begining of Lithuanian expansion .
What was the religion in lithuania before converting to Christianity back in 1387? And i wonder if there are some people practicing the old religion nowadays
Largely nature and spirit worship with some popular gods such as the thunder god. Possibly also human sacrifice on occasion. Similar to the native religions of North America.@@willieexplore
@@stephanottawa7890 No evidence of human sacrifice as far as I'm aware. The only thing that is even close to that is burning crusaders, but seeing that Christianity burned and executed those they considered heretics, I don't think it qualifies as human sacrifice.
