Kaliningrad, August—September 2017

Kaliningrad (former Königsberg) is a city of greenery and traffic. Ufa is called green, but Kaliningrad has many more parks and trees on the streets.

There's more traffic there, too. No dedicated lane for public transportation, lots of cars, hardly any streetcars, but shuttles are racing.

There are pleasant places in the city. For example the park near the Verhnee Lake is nice. Apparently because of the large number of parks, more people run here than in Ufa.

Most of the new houses are fenced in with blind fences. Often there's still a sudden end to the sidewalk in such places.

There's trouble with the landmarks. Many look unattractive against the gray high-rises. King's Gate:

The Brandenburg Gate is just part of the road. There's no way to get up to them, no way to photograph them.

It's pretty awkward to take pictures here at all. The normal angle is either obscured by something, or all sorts of garbage like ads get in the frame.

But if you try hard enough, you can pick something up:

If you walk along the embankment, watch your step so you don't trip—there are holes in the pavement the size of Verhnee Lake.

Fishing Village. A parody of European development. Too bad it's such a cringe, could have turned out cool.

This one looks way cooler in contrast to it:

Lovely:

Be prepared that suddenly a fence may grow in front of you.

From Kaliningrad, it's a half hour to an hour train ride to the sea. Here's Zelenogradsk (former Cranz). There's a sandy beach and lots of people.

And here's Svetlogorsk (former Rauschen). It's less crowded, and there's a cable car.