Isolation
from Lodz, Tezew away, I reach Kaliningrad, Russian city after the 2004 enlargement, is surrounded on all sides by European Union countries. The importance of Kaliningrad for Russia lies in its harbor, overlooking the Baltic Sea in winter, alone among the western ports in Russia, is not blocked by ice. The peculiarity, however, is that it is a city that has completely replaced a preexisting directory. In this same place, in fact, until 1945 there was the Prussian Königsberg. On April 6, 1945 the Red Army showed up at the city gates and, after a first attack carried out by artillery and aviation, General Vasilevsky orders the garrison to surrender German, said that displaying a banner reading "We shall never surrender." Thus begins the battle for the city streets. The Soviets had the upper hand at 9:30 am on April 9, when the German General Otto Lasch agreed to surrender; transferred to the USSR as a prisoner of war, remained there until 1955. During the assault were dead soldiers and 42,000 German officers and 60,000 Soviets. The bombing had destroyed all the buildings, the ruins of the thirteenth-century castle were demolished with dynamite, as documented by the photographs on display in the museum. The cathedral, which is of modest proportions, the adjacent tomb of Immanuel Kant and the railway station are only surviving structures in the battle area. Underground, however, you can visit the bunker which was installed in the command of General Lash. At the entrance, a guide asked me if I'm German and my negative response indicates to me with enough captions in English and reconstruct the stages of the battle. Shortly after, you see a group of German tourists and the guide, cheered them on a tour recounting the events in their own language, with a complacency that seems to arise from the awareness of rage on the enemy defeated. To maintain your grip on the masses the power does not hesitate to substitute their own icons: the statue of Lenin was removed from the main square, officially because bad condition, but on the same square is nearing completion with an impressive gold-domed Orthodox church. She was, however, the statue dedicated to Soviet cosmonauts also present in the photographs on display at town museum, one of which is titled "Viva la amistad Soviet-Cuban," and depicts a mixed crew. The shops, including food, are centered around the covered market and on the streets of downtown is nearly impossible to buy food, because the restaurants are rare. There are, however, many kiosks that sell beer and it seems almost compulsory for men, especially young people, keeping a bottle in his hand walking. At Yuzhni Vokzal, the station south of Kaliningrad I bought a ticket to St. Petersburg. Sighted as the mythical Epimetheus, I had imagined, watching the railway lines drawn on my map of the area, the train would have crossed the Baltic Republics, which would follow the most direct route to reach St. Petersburg. I did not ask, nor confirm the ticket office or the police that I have reviewed the paperwork prior to departure, and even the train crew. The first stop was Vilnius, hold my beliefs. Contrary to what I thought, the train is not at all inaccessible during the Lithuanian stretch. In the compartment that deal, in fact, take place a very sweet-faced old lady, her daughter and grandson of six years. They are Russians, but the two women have lived in Lithuania until 1989. Leaving Vilnius, the train turns south-east and soon I find myself struggling with a Belarusian border guard who invites me to get off the train with all their luggage. My compartment mates I translate into English the speech of the policeman and the train will go to Minsk and I do not have a transit visa for Belarus, so I have to get off and return to Vilnius. The Belarusian border station consists of two small buildings, one housing the ticket office and the other border police, and is not close to a city or country. The police accompanied me to their station, make me sit on a bench and I seize the passport. A few minutes later, comes a policewoman who tells me in English, my situation: I can not get a visa at the border, I have to wait for the train to Vilnius in Lithuania and return of the 21. It helps me to change rubles and buy a ticket, but I do not return the passport. I'm not allowed to get away from the station and there are not even passing trains. If there were at least I could spend the afternoon watching their passengers arrive and depart. A couple of minutes before the 21 police officers accompanying me to the train and there I only return the passport. The train that takes me back in the European Union is the most different places you can imagine for an international connection between Minsk and Vilnius are similar to a three-car underground, in which dozens of women are crowded with bags full of vodka, cigarettes and clothing that will sell in Lithuania. From the bench on which I spent the afternoon I could not see, but next to the ticket office there is a duty free shop, where women are sourcing their merchandise .
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