Kaliningrad

Kaliningrad is known to be one of the bad boys of Europe, or at least that is what the leaders of the west are telling us. So of course, I had to go there myself to find out, and to make my own opinion.

To start with, I was happy to see that Kaliningrad was welcoming me with extremely grey and rainy weather. Kaliningrad should be like that, I thought, no sun, no color and no croissant bakeries. But I was soon to be surprised. Already when I was entering the south-west suburbs of Kaliningrad, I saw the first signs of most positive side of Kaliningrad: The friendly and curious people! When driving slowly through a slight traffic jam, people were actualy hanging out of the window of their cars, giving me thumbs up and shouting "Welcome to Russia! "

The people of Kaliningrad are very hospitable, friendly and curious. They were really glad and proud that somebody would like to come and visit their country and I have never been anywhere where I had to do so much posing with my motorcycle.

The city of Kaliningrad is no beauty, thats for sure. Big highways that are difficult to cross go straight through the city and huge, grey block of flats from USSR times are all over the place. But despite all this, the city has a nice charm and after a while you feel a little bit at home. The countryside is the opposite. You will be surprised how beautiful it is and the roads are the best I have ever seen. And when you get to the coast your jaws will drop. The steep sand cliffs diving into the Baltic Sea are simply great!