Kaliningrad Favorites

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Favorite thing: Vityaz' Ship is the scientific ship which explored the World Oceans from 1949 to 1979. During the period 7 942 scientific researches were conducted including the fact that the depth of Mariana Trench was measured by Vityaz' team in 1957.
The ship was constructed in 1939 in Germany and was used as a transport ship. After WWII the ship was reconstructed to scientific ship. The ship was given to the museum in 1992. The interior of the ship is in travelogue.

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Favorite thing: One of the most interesting museums I've visited so far is Museum of Ocean in Kaliningrad. To be true we were not interested in to see exhibitions in the museum buildings but the chance to visit submarine and the scientific ship. The museum is situated on Pregolya River, along Bagramyan Street (not far from Kant Island and Cathedral). The museum was founded in 1990 and first exhibits were open in 1994.

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Favorite thing: Monument to 1200 Guardsmen was placed in Kaliningrad in honour of 150 thousand os soldiers and officers that were killed during Koenigsberg assault in WWII. The monument seems to be the first monument in USSR in honour of victory in WWII. It was open in September of 1945. In 1946 a pair of sculptors, "Assault" and "Victory" were placed on both sides of the monument (2nd photo shows "Victory" sculpture). Since 1960 the monument has the eternal fire. In 2000 the Victory Park was open behind the monument.
The monument is situated not far from crossing of Guardsmen and Moskovsky Prospekts.

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Favorite thing: Victory Square is the main square of the city and many public transport lines connect with the place (including the regional trains to near-by Northern Railway Station). Historically the square appeared in 1920-1923 when Koenigsberg administration destroyed Steindamm and Tragheim Gates and open in the place th Eastern Fair-market. After WWII the square was given the name, Victory Square. In 1996-2006 the building works of Christ the Saviour Cathedral took place.

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Favorite thing: Cathedral of the city seems to be the oldest building we can see nowadays. The first mention of building works dates back to September of 1333 (although the beginning of the works were begun in 1297-1303). The clock in the belfry was placed in 1640 and the organ was placed in 1695. There were several restoration works. During WWII the cathedral was totally fired down but the building carcass survived. During Soviet times there wasn't the decision to have the building works and the cathedral turned to ruins. The restoration works began in 1992 and finished in 1998 (although some decoration works has been lasting till now).
In 1804 Immanuel Kant, the famous citizen of the city, was buried in the cathedral.
We haven't see the interior. As fas as we understood the cathedral is open only for the concerts events. The cathedral is siatuated in Kant island, city center (former Island of Kneiphof).
Some photos are in the travelogue.

Favorite thing: It's really worth to see the coastal part of the Baltic sea that stretches through Russian territory as there you can find different beaches from ours in Lithuania. You can find more wild nature and shores, less comfort and less civilization, but don't you think that we are a little fed up with all the comfort we've got. It's worth to see Zelenogradsk, Svetlogorsk, Jantarnoje and Kaliningrad as some places are growing up from the past times, some - are still having something from the past. But everything is much better than we thought. And people are ready to help you, just ask them.

You can say anything you want, but Russians are very open-heartned people and it's always a big pleasure to chat with them about the life particularly knowing their language. I speak it very well as I'm half Russian, so I felt like staying at home, but with more opened people around. And it doesn't matter that we have a different religion, politics and opinions, you will feel comfortable speaking with them. That's what I miss here, at home.

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Favorite thing: Just walk through this widespread city, see the different building styles, discover some left overs of the old Prussia era and act as normal tourist!
If you wana do some Russian Roulette, take a taxi...cheap but damn we had a careless driver who speeded up to 90km/h while commenting on the city.
Ask your hotel receptionist to book tickets to the Oceanography Museum, City Theatre and Zoo!

Fondest memory: Going down the magificent stairs to the Baltic Sea, enjoy the pure coast line of the Kaliningradskaya Oblast.
The promenade is about 2 kms long and many different steps bring you to the sandy beach.
At sunny days many stalls do sell all kinds of Amber/Yantar and around the old elevator there are some cafetarias with nice Czech beers for low prices. Walk urther and meet the 5 stars Hotel where Putin invited Chirac and Schroeder for a tete-a-tete. Prices per night at least EURO 100,00. Hotel has a nice but push private sun terrace.
At the end of this long beach road there are a few other bars with one decorated with old photos of Rauschen and Koenigsberg. Enjoy the scenery of happy Russians at the western borders sun bathing, playing beach volley or swim in the calm sea!.

Favorite thing: On the countryside you can drive through beautyful long old alleys with wonderful trees, in Summer resembling almost green tunnels. Such alleys were cut down almost everywhere else in Europe because of reconstruction of the roads and of traffic security reasons. But here it looks really original - and 60 years older - than elsewhere.

But left and right of these alleys you see swamps where the storks stand catching frogs. This was under German time the German "Kornkammer" (grain treasury), extremely productive wheat and rye fields. When the Russians took them over they went with their ploughs a few cm deeper and were wondering about the pipes they found there and removed them all and this way destroyed a sophisticated drainage system and turned the fields into swamps. A sorts of successful fight against the German "colonization"

Fondest memory: No, not something of the category "Fondest Memory". On the 60 years jubilee of the Soviet/Russian Victory Day on 9 May it again came into my mind what the Soviet Union/Russia succeeded to make of the piece of territory they took over as a compensation for their part in the successful fight against Nazi Germany (which they call "Fascist" in memory of the Italian clown Mussolini). It looks much more like a depression after a lost war than the optimism following the biggest military victory of Soviet history....