Oh my God, it finally happened. After all these years of doubts we made it to Russia. To me, it always seemed so far away, so difficult to reach. However, one gets tired of Europe one day and then you start looking for something new. That’s how I got to Russia.
My journey begins with a very small region of Kaliningrad, located somewhere between Lithuania and Poland. Technically, it’s not even Russia, it’s just a tiny island surrounded by the Baltic Sea and the Baltic states.
My worst concern about Kaliningrad was that it would be impossible to find good accommodations. I was really relieved and surprised to find that Kaliningrad has quite a variety of housing to choose from. We decided to use Kaliningrad flat rental because it turned out to be pretty cheap.
Then we had to make a plan because we didn’t have much time and really wanted to visit as many places in Kaliningrad as possible. Well, Kaliningrad itself is a bizarre combination of grey Soviet buildings and new shopping malls. Lots of shopping malls! Where do they get money to go and shop at all those expensive boutiques? No idea whatsoever.
So, we just spent the first day walking around Kaliningrad, just visiting these shops, went to several parks, saw that really strange column at the main square.
After that we decided to have a short trip to a local must-see: the Curonian Spit. It’s a national park which consists of a thin stretch of land facing the Baltic Sea and the lagoon. Oh, that was really worth it! It’s not just the magnificent nature, all those wide sandy beaches and dunes, no. It’s the feeling of freedom you get when you walk along those beaches, it seems like there’s no one else in the whole world. I’ll never forget that feeling.
Well, I should also mention Russian cuisine of course. First of all, the restaurants are more or less cheap. We wanted to try something really Russian, so we asked at the tourist information office where to go. The restaurant is called Khmel (has to do with beer, as they told us). Actually, I can’t say I saw a lot of beer there but it’s located in the very centre of Kaliningrad facing the Kaliningrad Duma (local parliament) and the Cathedral (really huge big thing). Here, we tried Solyanka – a very thick soup with a lot of stuff there, like meat, cucumbers, potatoes and God knows what else. I wish I had ordered something different, really. It’s not that it was bad but I do really prefer pizzas L I guess it’s nice to have this kind of soup in dark cold Kaliningrad winters but I’m not into it. You can try, perhaps you’ll like it.
So, what can I say after these two days? It’s been great, yeah. For one thing, it’s just something absolutely new for me: new people, new food, a new way of organizing things. Or rather, disorganizing, because I can’t say it’s a lot of order there. Particularly when it comes to cars. Lots of them! Everywhere! It’s like a river of cars flowing down the streets of Kaliningrad. And they are so dirty. It rains here quite a lot actually, so you might expect the cars would be a bit cleaner but no. Kaliningrad cars are so far the dirtiest I have ever seen.
Otherwise, the city is quite OK if you stay there for a couple of days. A lot of places where to go, to see and to eat. If you want something for a change, you should definitely go to Kaliningrad.
