Is it worth visiting Kaliningrad for half a week or so? Anyone ever been and have any stories?
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Is it worth visiting Kaliningrad for half a week or so? Anyone ever been and have any stories?
Is it worth visiting Kaliningrad for half a week or so? Anyone ever been and have any stories?
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Shopping Cart Returner Shirt $21.68 |
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Königsberg
Krolewiec
Wouldn't go now. kek, unless you'd like to volunteer for the meat grinder. The Russians have been known to coerce foreigners into the army. If you're an American they'll just jail you so that they have some bargain chips for later.
is that real? i'm not american or european
i'm not going till july and also kek maybe ill give it a miss
>is that real? i'm not american or european
If you don't look European, don't bother going to Russia, especially now. Russians have term "churka" which means "black head" (from color of hair of brown a asian people) and they're quite racist on both personal, and official level (even Russian taxi app has option for filtering out churka drivers). There were many cases lately when Russian police was catching random churkas and sending them to Russian military (to be sent to Ukraine), even if they were not Russian citizens.
Possibility that you'll be catched in Kaliningrad is minimal, but it exists. There was one village in Kaliningrad oblast where all men were sent and killed in Ukraine and they might look for more meat to the grinder, that isn't Kaliningrad city's locals.
If you want to see post-soviet stuff got to Lithuania, e.g.:
https://druskininkai.lt/en/what-to-do/gruto-parkas/
If you want to see ex-Prussian old towns go to north/east Poland or any capital of Baltic states (even if they were never technically part of Prussia, they have similar northern, slightly germanic vibe).
With Russia itself I would wait til summer, or even better (if you're not white), when war ends and their government collapses and everything is cheaper and open to foreign tourists, like it used to be in 90s.
>The Russians have been known to coerce foreigners into the army
Source: I made it up
Well, technically Russian citizenship is given to them once they're catched, so yeah, I guess everything is ok:
https://cepa.org/article/migrants-coerced-into-fighting-putins-war/
This is just
>Source: I made it up
with one more layer.
It's literally a Washington DC think tank whose stated purpose is to "strengthens the transatlantic alliance" (i.e. to promote Atlantacism, the thing that fights Russia and that Russia has been trying to undermine)
Why wouldn't that be mainstream news? Is it perhaps because a lone think tank can afford to burn credibility with public readership in a way that a prestige publication can't?
The source listed in that article for your claim is one St Petersberg website called Fontanka, who claim that a small number of recent !!RUSSIAN CITIZENS!! have forcibly registered. So it's now Russian citizens being forcibly registered, not large numbers of foreigners, or even migrant workers, being forced into battle.
Original fontanka article: https://www.fontanka.ru/2023/12/05/72985367/
Quite far from "known to coerce foreigners into the army", particularly not some random tourist from the West.
As based as getting conscripted by Wagner might superficially sound.
>Quite far from "known to coerce foreigners into the army", particularly not some random tourist from the West.
OP mentioned he's not European or American which basically means any policeman will have another churka to feed on. Will he be send to Ukraine? Very unlikely, but still going to Kaliningrad, of all places, is moronic idea.
Also, there were cases of foreign casualties in Russian army when Russian officials weren't able to confirm how that foreigner (usually from some shithole coutry) was recruited. If someone is churka, there's just no reason to risk and find out. Kaliningrad isn't worth it. Russians turned this city into shit - just like everything they touch.
>t. savior of the White Race
>If you're an American they'll just jail you so that they have some bargain chips for later.
I think you have to have committed a crime for that. There is no legal right to bring copious amounts of kush into Russia because you can't function for 24 hours without it.
They arrested some American lady basketball player and traded him for Victor Bout, a known convicted arms dealer. Last year they arrested and convicted Paul Whelon on espionage charges. They are looking to prison swap him as well when the times come. Long story short, i would avoid Russia until the war is over. Which is a shame because i've always wanted to do the transsiberian route.
ISW blog reports on this stuff a lot. In all honesty they have been doing this mostly to migrant workers from central Asia ( they're the only ones who still go to Russia i guess). Russia needs troops and they don't want to do another mobilisation.
I know it sounds moronic. But they've been doing it for quite a while. I mean they also recruited/forced/coerced Ukrainians in occupied territories to join the army. The male population of Donetsk oblast is not what it used to be i can tell you that much.
>They arrested some American lady basketball player and traded him for Victor Bout, a known convicted arms dealer. Last year they arrested and convicted Paul Whelon on espionage charges.
How is it Russia's fault Biden is a complete moron?
OP wanted to travel to Russia. Thats why i said it. Not in relation to American politics. Köningsberg is probably the safest place to visit in Russia right now i guess. But it was more of a heads up. Russia is doing some crazy stuff, its all geopolitics for Putin and his crew. Your personal freedom or innocence is of no importance.
Or you could just not engage in espionage. Believe it or not, Russia is full of foreigners. I'm actually salty I didn't get to visit. Feast and famine.
I'll flatly say I don't believe that they're stealing foreign workers off the streets who aren't Russian.
Post borders
Do you see how it's unflattering to you to talk down people you've been losing to?
>The Russians have been known to coerce foreigners into the army.
Is it really what W*stern propaganda tells you? Lmao if true.
That is total bs and you know it. Ukraine supporters probably are also triple vaxxed and still wearing masks too...
How's it BS? their widespread reports of central asian migrants getting rounded up and pressured into Military service. Imprisonment on bs charges in Russia is a well known fact at this point.
Try to find a non-Western, actual Russian source that presents that bs.
In actual point of fact: Telegram is full of aggressive Ukrainian military recruiters stopping buses in Ukraine to search for military age males, or recruiters going into Poland to harass ethnic Ukrainian draft dodgers to replace their 500,000 military casualties that include the bulk of their once 200,000 professional military force.
Incase you globalist ass lickers haven't figure out: Western globalist media grossly lies about Russia, China and other countries they seek to target as enemies.
There is literally no chance of a tourist in Russia getting conscripted. You idiots are so pathetic in the amount of shit you will make up about Russia. Frick off to /misc/ .
Go back to /misc/ you moron. This whole thread is just bait. What idiot would go to Russia in the middle of a war. Find Russian sources he says. First rule about Russia. Don't trust Russians. I never even mentioned Ukraine. Yet you go on some big moroner rant.
Russia is waging a war, but they termed it a special military operation because the goal of the Kremlin is to cause as little disruption to civilian life as little as possible by avoiding the declaration of a full on formal state of war and everything that would entail under Russian law.
Russia and Kalingrad isn't a shithole warzone with limited electricity like you beloved Ukraine you globalist asslicker. Russia even during this special military operation is safer than many muslim immigrant ghettos of Europe or black/Latino ghettos of US cities.
>cause as little disruption to civilian life as little as possible
Just how delusional are you?
You're either Russian or you've gone full moron. But just leave travel plz. You're lowering the average iq
>as little disruption to civilian life as little as possible
I can tell you have been here
>Russia and Kalingrad isn't a shithole warzone
Warzone - some places in Russia are getting there, but Kaliningrad isn't one of them. It's shithole though (both Kaliningrad and vast majority of Russia) and if you can't see it, it's probably you got use to it or you just don't know any better. Going to Kaliningrad instead of Riga or Gdansk is like going to Kurilsk instead of Sapporo.
>Kurilsk
Sapporo is cool and all, but Japanese hotsprings with a Russian aesthetic looks incredible
Going to hot springs with clothes on is ridiculous.
TZD
>their widespread reports of
Reports by whomst? Of what?
The reality looks to be closer to the military going around construction sites at one point in one city and registering recent Russian CITIZENS (not randos, or illegal immigrants).
>What idiot would go to Russia in the middle of a war
People who don't think it's Mordor and whose brain isn't occupied by ZOGslop. Russia has no obvious history of fricking with tourists minding their own business. You have to sneak into a military base while talking shit about the war and Putin to even get deported. You have to try to import narcotics to even get jailed. I wanted to go literally for ethnographic reasons because I wanted to study the environment and its interaction with culture and architecture, in a pseudo-Spenglarian way. But no, my country, Australia, decided to send bushmaster vehicles to Ukraine to burn on the steppes and our state broadcaster invited the Russian consul on to open the interview with "How do you sleep at night?" because we have no independent foreign policy and our upper middle class are a bunch of insular c**ts who don't think the rest of the world exists outside the West. And now I'm not able to visit Russia unless I become a Russia shill, which I'm not inclined to. Fricking grifting politicians making their stupid need to have White people to be racist against for being too Asian a problem for me. I'm stuck in the problems caused by these schizos running the West and still having problems with random Ukrainians because great grand bubbi got fricked by a Cossack and was never the same. I DIDN'T DO THAT. I DIDN'T MAKE THESE PEOPLES' PROBLEMS.
I doubt OP is a central asian migrant.
>Imprisonment on bs charges in Russia
Trespassing on a military base, being a CIA agent engaged in traditional humint espionage, or importation of narcotics are BS charges?
The "well known" really sells it as "I'm going to try to make believing this seem like a gateway to social acceptance".
They claim whoever they want to imprison is a spy kek. You're naivety is actually cute my childish friend
Sure they do. Very organic post from someone who is used to travelling in adventurous places.
>Is it worth visiting Kralovec for half a week or so?
You mean right now, during winter? It's emotional suicide. It's worse than Baltic states because it's fricking Russia, which means everything is flooded with mud til june.
Russian TV tried making propaganda on how Kaliningrad is thriving under the sanctions and they moved to Polish city of Elblag to film most of material, because they couldn't find enough decent places in Kaliningrad, even for just a few minutes of coverage. Pic related.
Think about it: Russians themselves think that some Polish town of 110k people is better than Kaliningrad. There are several other cities on Polish and Lithuanian side that will be much better (Gdansk or Vilnius are obvious choices), but if you want to scratch that authentic post-soviet itch, wait til summer. Basics like moving around is very tiresome with all this mud and snow and muddy snow that never is cleaned in Russian cities for some reason.
>turdie seething about their fellow brownoid that got captured
lol
Russians ruined it
dude Russia is at war! you'd have to be a absolute moron to go there now
Thank goodness America doesn't do wars
America has money for them, Russia is in a bad way right now. Ukraine too.
>America has money
I think people don't realise that money is unlimited, but the things that it's supposed to represent aren't. So yes, the USG could print eight hundred gadrillion trillion quadrillion dollars, and spend them on whatever it wanted, and doing so would be able to *divert* various things that can be bought (peoples' labour, material resources, access to things), but that wouldn't mean that there's more actual *stuff* around and free to be used by the average person. Each time the state is able to divert things made with money to its ends, it reduces the individual's ability to divert those things to *his* ends (i.e. it causes poverty - unless the things the state diverts ultimately grow the common wealth of things that everyone can divert [e.g. if the state builds a road that can reduce the amount of labour and fuel required to move goods]). But if there's no increase in access to purchasable resources that goes along with the money printing, the result isn't that everyone is richer. It's a more inefficient economy that gives people less of what they want, because the resources are diverted to things the money-printer is doing.
How does Kaliningrad sustain itself? Not only is it detached and far-removed from mainland Russia, it's surrounded by the EU. And I assume the EU has trade embargoes with Russia, and the surrounding waters are heavily guarded.
boats anon, although it feels like it isn't sustained when you go because everything sucks
seems pretty based
also you can travel to russia from there, instead of going through turkey
It's a pretty shit place not really worth a trip just for itself, but not unreasonable it you're in the general area anyway and want to tick off a box. Kaliningrad has maybe 10 buildings in total that are in any way pleasant to look at.
Even russians think it's a shithole. Make of that what you will.
No one thinks like that
>din du nuffin
Yeah sure
>It's not true because I don't want it to be
Naive
It's the cheapest way to experience Russia without an expensive flight. It's like a typical Russian city with some Prussian ruins scattered about and abandoned commieblocks. They were abandoned because the area is very boggy and not fit for commieblocks. There's hardly any Prussian vibe left as it has all been bombed out and replaced with sad brutalist buildings.
The city is very neglected and run down due to its isolation, but also because it was used as a Soviet military base and when that collapsed it basically froze in time and slowly rebuilt. But really it's like a typical Russian city with a bit more blight.
The people who say you will be recruited to the military are ridiculous and dramatic.
At worst, I think you will be detained and interrogated depending on your nationality. And then probably under surveillance though because it's not really a tourist destination and people will probably be suspicious / confused of your presence.
At best, nobody will give a frick but you will be bored and not able to do anything due to sanctions. If you like urban exploration and dopamine rush then do it, but if you are risk averse, I would wait until the war ends.
I have no stories worth recounting, but I did visit once, a number of years ago. It was noticeably more decrepit than its Baltic neighbors. There are only a small handful of historic buildings, and these are heavily reconstructed. But it had an interesting border-town vibe, all the same, and, at least at the time, a more outward-facing, European outlook than most of inland Russia—at the time I was there, it was relatively easy for people to cross into Poland or Lithuania to go shopping, and there was a little community of ethnic Poles (not sure if ancient or more recent immigrant) with cross-border cousins.
It’s not very attractive, and it may be hard to get in and out of at the moment (Poland is having a pissing contest with Russia, fortifying the border, and Russian-registered cars aren’t allowed to drive out through any of the crossings into the EU anymore). But for someone with appropriate visa access to Russia I can see it being strange enough to be an interesting few days’ visit in peaceful times.
Right this minute, though, I would sooner recommend going somewhere like Narva, in Estonia, which has a slightly similar, maybe somewhat less military/industrial, atmosphere, and is more accessible.
>wants to visit Russia
You should. I liked it. If you are a scared little pussy, then go to Belarus. That's a cheat code. They are 99.5% identical to Russia.
I've been to Kaliningrad in february 2020 by car using Mamonovo crossing. Crossing took a while because we had to declare our car for tax purposes. The city is a bit dull and ugly bc it was completely destroid in ww2. So no nice german arcitecture. We went to a concert in the cathedral an visited Kants grave, which was nice. Not much english spoken in the city. On weekend we had to reserve a table even in pubs bc everything was full. Also we had a good time in the bar Yeltsin and a good talk there with german speaking girl (we are from Switzerland).
Other than that we mainly came for the curonian spit which is very beautiful. Went there by car.
I found the visit to Kaliningrad intresting and worthwile but I guess its not everyones thing.