Svetly, KaliningradSeptember 30 — October 1, 2008 When I found myself in Kaliningrad for the first time, I still had a film camera and wasn’t yet putting together descriptions of cities and countries for my site. After getting a proper digital camera, I’d only taken photos in the Kaliningrad region. SvetlyMapThe road into the city is lined with lampposts stylized to evoke seagulls from the nearby sea (see the lampposts with airplanes on the road to the airport in Blagoveshchensk).  Variations of these beauties are acceptable: some of the seagulls have lamps on both wings.  One wall in the city was recently whitewashed.  NATASHA, ILOVYOU! The roadside creativity is a feast for the eyes.  Attention! Accident-prone area! 6 dead, 29 injured. The local PSAs are very sophisticated.  No to trash! Preserve nature! The city’s only accomplishment is the decoration of the traffic signs downtown. Neptune’s trident at the top of the pole is meant to underscore the municipal authorities’ dedication to improving the city and evoke the nearby sea.  KaliningradMap
They sure do love their seagulls here.  Pink Seagull Hair and Beauty Real estate creativity.  RosStroi Corporation: Medvedev will be living here... As well as Volkov, Zaitsev, Bobrov and others (there’s a play on words in the original here, but it’s so not funny that it’s not worth explaining) Repetition is the mother of all learning.  It’s clean when NO ONE LITTERS! Yesterday, today, tomorrow... It’s clean when NO ONE LITTERS! It’s clean when NO ONE LITTERS! Someone has confused alma mater with the Holy Mother.  Alma Mater Lyceum now open for enrollment: full-day school for grades 1–4 as well as classes for children ages 1–7. Summer camp available. Councilmen boast about doing what their job requires.  Door installed per the request of building residents. —Councilman Oleg Vitalyevich Migunov A new post box.  An old street sign (I had to steal one of these, they’re just too nice).  The lampposts downtown have three stories: the first story is for trolleybuses, then comes the light, and finally the power lines at the very top.  Individual apartment insulation (compare with collective insulation in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk).  The panel apartment buildings have a very curious garbage disposal system, by the way. The garbage falls down the chute into a dumpster like everywhere else, but then there are rails on which the dumpster rolls out to the curb, where a garbage truck collects it. I’ve never seen such rails anywhere else—I guess in other cities people don’t like the garbage truck stopping at every single entrance to the building.  Speaking of building entrances, Kaliningrad has an unusual address system: every entrance in an apartment building has its own street number, as opposed to one number for the whole building. The numbering of apartments starts at one for each entrance. This system is a holdover from the Germans. They left a few cozy-looking houses here as well.  And several manhole covers.  |
