Vilnius - Lover's Locks & KGB

There's a new tradition in Vilnius that was apparently borrowed from Florence, Italy. On their wedding day, couples place a lock on the bars of a city bridge and throw the key into the water-apparently to symbolize the unbreakable bonds of love. Some lame dudes also take their girlfriends to place a lock on the bridge on Valentines Day...It's only romantic until they break up.

On a lighter note, we also went to the former KGB headquarters/prison.

It was pretty chilling. The old building was full of tiny prison cells that held 20 prisoners at a time, execution rooms full of

bullet holes from over 2000 executions, torture chambers, and hidden graves.

In one particular room, the floor was sunken several feet to hold ice cold water. A small metal disc was at the center of the chamber slightly above the water. Prisoner's would be made to stand for 3 days at a time on the disc. If they fell from exhaustion, they would be soaked and freezing as they returned to the disc. This process would go on until the prisoner made a confession or died by passing out into the ice water.

The most shocking part was that the prison was active until 1991 when it was finally shut down. So awful... so recent.