Travelling from Kaliningrad to Teriberka in one month. My plan is simple : go from the exclave of Kaliningrad in the heart of Europe to the village of Teriberka by the Barents Sea in the far North of the Kola Peninsula.
Running this blog is, believe it or not, a great experience, but I’ve spent the past year mostly writting about what people & Google wanted to read. A vast majority of the readers look for practical stuffs to visit Moscow and Saint Petersburg but that’s about it. Here’s the thing : what’s beyond these cities is what I am mostly interested about.
This post and the next few ones will be more personnal. Simple daily travel journaling : my journey, some thoughts & a few pictures.
This is part 1 of the trip : Kaliningrad
Day 1 : From Gdansk in Poland to Kaliningrad city
Kaliningrad, so close yet so far. A geopolitical anomaly. It’s been on my bucket list for ages but somehow I feel now it’s the right time; the Russian exclave is back to being a heavy loaded military outpost, completely surrounded by NATO and the European continznt seems on the brink of World War III. Perfect time, yes.
I flew from Paris to Gdansk (Pre-WWII German Danzing) yesterday. I passed by Poland countless times the last decade but never really visited it. Next time maybe.
Departure at 9am from Gdansk by bus to the border where 3 of the 4 agents were sleeping slumped in their armchairs so that it took us 45 minutes to get everyone through while there was nobody bus our bus at the border. On the Russian side it wasn’t much faster, only 2 guardhouses open. The friendly agent didn’t ask any questions except “were you born in France?”, well yes it says Mam’.
I arrived in Kaliningrad (Konigsberg before 1946) and was welcomed by a large statue of the former president of the Supreme Soviet of the, Mikhail Kalinin with the hammer and sickle. No doubt I am in Russia! After a walk on Leninsky Prospekt I finally reach the city center and Kant Island. Here I am in front of THE symbol of the city, the very large Konigsberg Cathedral made entirely of bricks. It’s strange to think that this is Russia, far from the churches with colorful onion domes, this country will always surprise me.
I dropped my bag in a small hostel 2 steps from the city center, twice cheaper than the day before in Poland and especially twice cleaner; bonus no old man snoring above me, this time I am stuck with an annoying babushka.
Went for a walk in the “new old city center”, since it was almost entirely bombed by the English allies and finished by the Soviets between 1941-44. The “Rybnaya Derevnya” – fishing village is “traditional” but brand new and is stuck between the “Naberejnaya Veteranov” (veteran embankment) and “ulitsa Oktyabrskaya” (October street), half of the famous 7 bridges of Konigsberg are gone, all the streets, parks and squares have been renamed, the “Adolphe Hitler Platz” has been turned into “Ploshad Pobedy” (Victory Square) and flanked by an enormous obelisk like the one in St Petersburg. In short, it’s curious this mix of Soviet architecture and names! I changed money in a currency exchange office that was recommended to me (impossible to find Russian rubles in Gdansk, but I was able to change some Israeli shekels found at home in a cupboard for Polish zloty. (Double standards hello!): 1€ for 100₽, I have never had such rate officially.
The sky is immaculate blue, the atmosphere is peaceful.
Day 2 : Visit of Kaliningrad
Long walk around the old fortifications of Konigsberg, towers, forts, bastions from the 17th century that were only protected a bit too late by the Soviets. Some are in good condition, open with a museum inside, others serve as a market place, and we literally walked on the old walls of fornications where trees have grown … Lunch: I ate the famous “klopes of Konigsberg” in a recommended Prussian/German restaurant, it was meh, tasted line German food to me (no offense!). The service is still so-so in Russia, it saves me money on tips. Half of the roads in the city seem to be paved, it makes a terrible racket and I really see very few women in heels. Coincidence? The tram stops in the middle of a 4 lane, most of the sidewalks are divided into 2 or rather 4, one part for pedestrians the other in a cycle path. A joyful mess but it seems to work quite well.
Afternoon direction the Amalienau district, relatively untouched during the war, it was the residential district of the rich with beautiful architect-designed villas from the beginning of the 20th century. Some are very beautiful, they have preserved the style and others are in their original state. The district is crossed on both sides by the entirely paved propsket pobedy. That’s no quiet area!
It is 25 degrees, I did not really bring summer clothes in my bag.
Day 3 : Sovietsk, borderland with Lithuania
Sovietsk formerly Tilsit (the cheese!). Yesterday a meeting place for the emperors Napoleon and Tsar Alexander I, today wars of flags on both sides of the Niemen River (the name of the Normandy – Niemen regiment comes from there). On the Russian side, a Z sign in the color of the Saint George ribbon flanked on a Prussian building; a stone’s throw away, the flags of the Wagner group flying in the wind. Opposite, on the Lithuanian side, the flag of the country and that of Ukraine side by side … And across the famous Niemen the magnificent Queen Louise Bridge! Miraculously, the Germans did not bomb this splendid gate but the rest of the bridge to slow the advance of the Reds. Back in Kaliningrad I went to see an organ concert in the Konigsberg Cathedral, for 600 rubles I got my money’s worth. The interior of the cathedral is a bit disappointing, it was partly rebuilt and deconsecrated. You can feel it, something is missing. But I imagine that it was either that, or it would have been taken over by the Russian Orthodox Church and they would have drawn frescoes and icons everywhere. But the organ concert, wow, super impressive, I loved it!
Day 4 : Chernokhovsk and Gvardeisk
Respectively the cities of Insterbourg and Tapiau. I visited the first in the morning, the main street Lenin is entirely paved, awful noise! There are quite a few old Prussian buildings here and there and the ruins of the Teutonic castle, I really liked the city, small and quiet compared to Kaliningrad. Around noon I got a bus to Gvardeivsk (what a pain to pronounce!). Lunch next to the Tapiau castle, finally a Teutonic castle not entirely in ruins! The “Cold Lithuanian soup”, it strangely resembled the Karaite soup I tasted in Yevpatoria in Crimea. Didn’t the Lithuanians steal the idea from the Karaites who emigrated to their country by any chance?
The city of Gvardeivsk was not bombed and it shows! My heart ached a little when I saw the market square renamed once again Ploshad Pobedy, Victory Square. It’s a classic market place with its church like you find everywhere in France or Germany. Until now, the cities I’ve seen have been so Sovietized and Russified that it din’t shock me. This is different.
Back in Kaliningrad at 5:30 pm in front of the FSB office for my permit to the city of Baltiysk. If only the restaurants had the same quality of service as the FSB! Apparently my request made by email must have ended up in spam, the agent reprinted everything and patiently helped me re-fill the forms in Russian. So kind!
Day 5 : the resort of Zelenogradsk
THE seaside resort of Kaliningrad. Absolutely everything is made for tourists; cafes, restaurants and souvenir shops everywhere. There are still some pretty streets with Prussian houses and buildings. There is an obsession with cats here, chubby kitties everywhere, real ones but also painted on the walls, as statues in front of the houses and even on the manhole covers.
My hostel is great, run by a big lady who is a bit rough but super nice, she knows 2 words in English: milk and excuse me 😅. She told me she couldn’t give me the registration paper because she can’t do it in her computer system, so I told her to forget it. I don’t care and apparently neither does she.
The beach and the promenade are crowded, maybe I shouldn’t have come on a weekend. Babushkas sell fruit from their gardens to passing tourists for quite a lot, but they buy: apples, elderberries, even rose hips. Do Russians eat that like semichkis?
Day 6 : the Curonian Spit
I realized that it was Sunday so I woke up super early to take the first bus to the Curonian National Park and avoid the crowds of visitors as much as possible. The very nice driver gave me 2 or 3 tips, there is one road only where buses pass more or less every hour and almost always stop at points of interest.
I went to the end of the spit, next to the village of Morskoye and the Lithuanian border closed until further notice. There are 4 ecotrails of a few kilometers on this strip of land, the first and the one I preferred Visota Efa is a viewpoint on the lagoon and the sand dunes, superb and necessarily very calm, there was no one except … a cat. I met 3 people alone on the trail, I refrained from saying hello, the last time I did that in Russia the old man answered me “I don’t know you”. Ok.
I found the other trails a little less nice and interesting, in fact I thought there was more sand and less forest on the spit. Of course there is too much noise with the number of visitors to see any animals and the signs are unfortunately all written in Russian, except those where it is indicated not to leave the marked paths and not to throw rubbish. They may put it everywhere but apparently some Russians can’t read!
Day 7 : Baltyisk, Russia’s westernmost city
They are all nice these bus drivers in Kaliningrad, or it is my accent and my grammar worthy of a 3 year old child that makes them smile. The journey from Zelenogradsk to Baltyisk took 2h45 for 50 km. We stopped in every possible village.
Baltyisk, the westernmost city of Russia is also restricted for foreigners since it is the naval base of the Baltic Fleet. It is the Sevastopol of the Baltic except that you need a permit to go there, even if no one checks when getting on the bus, you have to show it at the hotel and at the ferry to go to the Vistula Peninsula or the Baltic Spit in Russian.
The city is relatively small and hallelujah there are very few tourists compared to yesterday, there are soldiers everywhere, I gor a “dievuchka, you can’t take a picture of that, please delete it”, and he checked that I had indeed deleted the said photo! Unfortunately for me, I forgot to check the days to visit the Pillau fortress and it is closed today and tomorrow, so I took the old half-rusted ferry for 5 minutes to land on the other side on the Vistula peninsula. Honestly, I much prefer this one to the Curonian Spit. It’s wild, there are 2 small villages, an almost non existent road, it’s quiet, no signs to indicate the “tourist places”.
I walked to the old Pillau-Neutief air base built in the late 30s by the Luftwaffe. On the path some babushkas in the middle of the bushes are picking rose hips, sea buckthorns and other elderberries. Silence reigns in front of the large abandoned hangars but one can easily imagine the German planes and the Prussian refugees who were trying to escape the advance of the Red Army.
In the city of Baltyisk itself there are bus stops with curious names: Komendatura (kommandantur but Soviet version) or Dom Ofitserov (officer’s house) and streets like Red Army Street and Artillery Street … I finally found a small normal Russian cafe, I have the impression that in Kaliningrad everything is made for tourists. The menu fits on a small page and the waitress is super nice. The lower the prices, the better the service in this country, no logic.
Day 8 : Baltyisk & the khabrovo airport
Baltyisk, the HQ of the Baltic Fleet is nevertheless very calm; almost deserted fine sand beach, only a fighter plane disturbs the sound of the small waves, kids are fishing in front of the warships where young soldiers, surely their big brothers, stand guard. It is 20°C in the sun, I enjoy the warmth of this early autumn before the coolness of the far north.
In Kaliningrad life is simple, quiet, people are always ready to help. A Russian province, far from the tumult of Moscow. I will come back.
I change my “travel plans”. I wanted to take the ferry to Ust-Luga south of St Petersburg but the boat takes 40 hours! I do not want to waste 2 days of my already short visa on the sea, so I take the plane. The choice is quickly made at Khabrovo airport, the planes leave for 2 destinations: Moscow and St Petersburg. The duty free of this small national airport is well stocked despite the sanctions: from Tobleron to bottles of champagne and French perfumes.
Dasvidania Kaliningrad, da slediuchi raz!
