Kaliningrad

The last city we visited in Russia was Kaliningrad. It actually isn't connected to Russia. It is on the Baltic sea and borders Poland, Belarus, and Lithuania. Kaliningrad is an old German town originally called Konigsburg. After losing World War II, Germany gave up Kinigsburg to Russia so there are German buildings that have been restored and also blown up buildings from the war. To get there, we took a two hour flight from St. Petersburg. We went on a Russian airline and the airport was kind of interesting. To board the plane everyone gets on a big shuttle bus that takes you to the plane. When it was time to board, everyone just crammed their way through the doors. There was no lining up by numbers in an organized way. When we got on the plane someone was in my assigned seat and it was kind of like tough luck find an open seat.

In Kaliningrad we visited with the Tyazhlova family. They were helpful in finding an apartment for us to rent for the night. We went to Svetlagorsk, which is a town on the coast of the Baltic Sea. We planned on swimming, but it was a little overcast and it rained on and off throughout the day. We went with Anya Tyazhlova and Anya Olyampiav.

Brendan and I in the Renok (market).

The beach town of Svetlagorsk on the Baltic Sea.

A cute restored German house.

Konigsburg was the birthplace of philopher Immanuel Kant. His tomb was the reason an eleventh century German palace was not destroyed by the communists.