Alan H said:
What's Kaliningrad like? We tried to get in once from Lithuania but the Ruskies weren't having it.
I wouldn't rate it as a holiday destination...
I was last there in December and it was dark, grey and grimmer than a grim place. Last week the sun shone brilliantly, the trees are green and in bloom and it looked mildly less grim TBH. There is very little of Konigsberg left apart from a few renovated buildings, most of the old German buildings that remain are very very shabby indeed. The soviet tenaments are much the same crumbling and rotting, the shops are emptying fast, the roads are abominable. It's hard to find the good bits in and around the bad. Flights in and out are getting scarcer as KD Avia seem to be dying a slow and lingering death and the half rebuilt airport is already decaying due to lack of funds. There are a lot of drunks on the street and apparently the level of AIDS is also higher than European averages.
However, the locals take immense pride in their city and the nearby coastline which apparently boasts some beautiful buildings spa's and beaches. The people that I've met through working there are lovely and very well educated. The women are incredibly lithe and beautiful, dress to impress and strut like catwalk models.
I don't know if the Russians know what to do with Kaliningrad.
://images.google.com/images?q=Kaliningrad&rls=com.microsoft:en-gb

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