russia: kaliningrad again

I used most of the three day weekend to see places in Kaliningrad Oblast, but I also realized there was still plenty to be seen in the city of Kaliningrad itself. Even though I only spent one of my three days in the city, it was the perfect base for the entire weekend, as there is plenty of public transport to get around the entire oblast.

On day three I got up, packed up, and checked out, leaving my bag at my hostel. The day before, when I'd walked to the train station in the morning I noticed a pretty view over one side of the bridge and vowed to take the photo the next morning, day 3. 

So that's what I did. The view of several museums from the bridge was pretty. Then again, I'm almost always a fan of photos that have water in them.

The first sight I wanted to see was a Lenin statue marked on Yandex maps, but after hunting around for it, I realized it was in a walled in courtyard behind a building that was most definitely not open to random visitors. Darnit.

Next up was a museum. The walk to the museum was supposed to be around thirty minutes, but of course it was longer with me, since I stopped to take random photos and follow random side streets a few times.

The Friedland Gate Museum is located just where its name says it is: in the former Friedland Gate of the city. (Remember that Konigsberg was a walled city when it was part of East Prussia.) I was thrilled because the employees made it clear that I could take as many photos as I wanted, and I didn't have to pay an extra fee to do so. At one point I was even able to set up my tripod and take a photo with me inside the museum! That's not normal, but I loved it. I wish more museums were like this. 

One of the rooms in the museum had regularly scheduled showings of slideshows with pictures of life when the city was still called Konigsberg. I showed up for one of the showings, and realized that nearly every other person in the room was an army soldier. A couple of them fell asleep during the slideshow, hee hee.

After leaving the museum I followed streets that allowed me to see the remains of some of the old city walls. They're falling apart in most areas, but are really photogenic at the same time. (As long as you don't fall into any of the bodies of water nearby.)

I found a war memorial, an obelisk with carvings of Lenin on a couple sides. I always find this fascinating, since Stalin was in charge during WW2, and he most definitely did not like Lenin. Not too far from this obelisk was the Soviet-Polish Friendship monument. Nothing terribly exciting, I was the only person looking at it while I was there.

On the side of living city photography I found a sports court that was vibrantly coloured. I imagine it gets quite busy with kids playing football (soccer,) and/or basketball. 

The juxtaposition of the brightly coloured court next to a gray apartment building was pretty cool.

Next I stumbled upon what I thought was a church. I was wrong, it was actually a concert hall. I was able to wander around a little, and see the area where concerts take place, which was quite nice. The stained glass windows from when it was a church were still there, including in the toilet!!! I don't think I've ever seen such a fancy feeling loo. 

I walked a bit more to get to my next sight: the Brandenburg Gate. Traffic still enters and leaves the city center through this gate. One side of the gate was home to a free, small Marzipan Museum. There were a few marzipan molds, as well as instruments used to carve the stuff. There were some books too, though I don't know if those were about specific people, or the history of marzipan, or something else. My favourites were models of a few important sights in town. I don't like the taste of marzipan at all, but I appreciate the artistry that can be done with it.

Next up was another long-ish walk. I followed one road nearly the entire way, it was a main road on one side of the city, there wasn't much to see. I finally got to the street I really wanted, which is where the former Fort Friedrichsburg is located. The former fort is now a museum; it was a Monday, and a holiday, so it was closed. Darnit.

The fort was really close to the river that flows through the middle of the city, it was easy to cross the river and get to the museum area I mentioned earlier. As the weather was fabulous, and it was a holiday, there were plenty of other people out for a walk along with me.

There are several ships docked on the river, they are now museums. I chose not to go in any of them, partly because I didn't want to pay entrance fees, but also because the weather was nice and I wanted to enjoy it as much as possible. The next time I go back to Kaliningrad I'll go in at least one of these museums.

From there it was an easy walk back to the hostel. Along the way I passed a giant mosaic on the side of a building, showing the sports culture of the Soviet days. I also stopped in the supermarket to pick up noodles to eat before heading to the airport.

I ate 'dinner' at the hostel, then walked back to the train station. This was the third or fourth time I'd walked to the train station, I didn't have to pull my phone out to check directions at all. The bus station is next to the train station, it was easy to find the bus stop to catch the next bus to the airport. The price was less than $2USD, woo hoo!

Checking in at the airport was easy, the flight was on time, and I got back to my flat in Moscow a little after midnight :)

I'm pretty sure I'll go back to Kaliningrad at least one more time.