2011-10-16 Part 1: Home Sweet... Russia?
In effort to retell stories of my travels I will write about the past week in a confusing and ridiculous order. Good luck keeping up. To start off we’ll go with the most recent events that are the freshest in my mind. Kaliningrad, Russia.
When I first came up with the idea to see Latvia and Lithuania I wasn’t sure if the amount of time I had would be enough for the current itinerary I had, but once I booked tickets half way through the trip for a return flight home from Kaliningrad to Saint Petersburg, it looked like I was strictly obligated to visit the city if only to get to my flight. The flight was a brilliantly intelligent choice because it became a domestic flight within Russia, which is bucketloads cheaper than anything international. Even trains or buses from one of the Baltic states. My original intention was to create a circle (my mother would be proud) of a route that way not repeating anything, however this new development allowed me to go straight through and not worry about backtracking.
Crossing the border became an issue… Joking for the past week how if I wronged anybody or if anybody followed us that they wouldn’t be able to follow me into Russia, due to the strict visa regulations. Apparently on the way out of Russia they didn’t properly stamp our visas and it created a big issue for us, and we held up the entire bus unfortunately. Yes, we became those Americans. I also brought a literal bucketload of chocolate with me. When questioned by the border guard as to why I had so much I told him simply in Russian that I really liked chocolate, so he laughed and let me go. Even though he could have confiscated it. Russian language finally has a specific purpose.
Kaliningrad itself was unfortunately a great disappointment. Yes it was somewhat worth it for the cheap Aeroflot (Soviet Airplane Company) tickets home and a great place to say I’ve finally been, tied only with Andorra (a much better random destination), but there wasn’t much to do there. Though it was fantastic to finally be back to using the ruble. We saw the famous cathedral, a nice park, pretty bridges, a fishing village and got a tour of an old Soviet submarine (for $1, thank you Russian student identification!).
In the hostel I met some wonderful Russians, whom we watched the Zenit - Dinamo football match with. They were schoolteachers from Moscow, who enjoyed our American company despite their complete inability to speak English. They were very fond of speaking Russian in American accents, and talking about movies. However two of them were from farms in the Russian countryside and were very disturbed by the existence of the Colorado Beetle.
The tale of the Colorado Beetle dates back to the Soviet era when these men were boys on their farms. Apparently a beetle appeared sometime during their childhood and began wreaking havoc among their potato farms. Mind you, Russians love few things, and potatoes are one of them. Apparently this beetle was named after the state of Colorado not because of any true relation to the state but because the Russian government blamed Americans for conspiring to destroy Russian lives through the destruction of potatoes. One of them whipped out their computer and showed us a picture and asked if we had ever seen it. I responded in swift Russian, that I had not only seen it but I was asked to bring some over by the government and that a box of them were sitting in my backpack. They thoroughly enjoyed my humor but for the rest of the night would tell me horror stories and nightmares that this type of beetle caused on their potatoes. Way to go CIA, you have used insects to eat your way into the minds of wonderfully pleasant Russian farmers.
So that’s all for now. This entry is getting far too long. I will hopefully post other parts of the trip for you all soon. Much more to come. Riga, Moscow, Liepaja and Klaipeda. Now I need some rest. Good night!