Chapter 2: How to reach Kaliningrad

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Darrell Banks
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1 2.1. Travel options Chapter 2: How to reach Kaliningrad By plane International flights available to Kaliningrad are serviced by LOT - Polish Airlines (Kaliningrad - Warsaw - Kaliningrad) every day except Saturdays. You can book your flight via Moscow, Saint-Petersburg, or another Russian city connected with Kaliningrad by domestic airlines. The nearest international airport that can be recommended is in Gdansk, Poland. Your trip there will take approximately 5 hours, including border crossing. The price of a transfer by taxi is around $100 - $120. See section 2.2., it contains information on how to cross the border check-points. International flights from/to Kaliningrad by LOT Polish Airlines (Summer 2003) Please note that all flights are via Warsaw Depature from Kaliningrad Arrival to Kaliningrad Destination Dates Dep. Arr. time Days of Dep. Arr. return Warsaw 2-3, , , , Milan 2,3,5, ,3, , , Rome ,2,3,5, ,2,3,5, , The time is local for departure and arrival. For detailed information, please contact BaltmaTours incoming department: 7 (0112) , (0112) , Domestic flights from Kaliningrad to Moscow and Saint-Petersburg Destination Flight Days of Moscow/VKO, Moscow/VKO, Moscow/VKO, Tu154 Moscow/VKO, dep. of of Flight Days of dep. arr. dep. arr. K :55 11:25 K :45 13: /2800/ - K8990 1,2,3,4,6 15:30 18:10 K8 1,2,3,4,6 19:15 20: /2800/ K8990 5,7 15:30 18:10 K8 5,7 19:15 20: /2800/ :50 20: :55 16: /2300/ /3200 dep. of of Prices **

2 Moscow/DMO, Moscow/DMO, Moscow/DMO, Moscow/DMO, Moscow/DMO, Moscow/SVO, K8994 1,3,5 08:00 10:50 K8993 1,3,5 20:10 21: /2800/ - K :00 10:50 K :10 21: /2800/ - K :00 10:50 K :10 21: /2800/ - K :00 10:50 K :10 21: /2800/ - K8984 4,7 08:00 10:50 K :10 21: /2800/ - SY 11:20 14:15 SY 09:15 10:20 E=2000/2800/ B=5300/ - K8485 1,3,5 09:25 12:00 K8486 1,3,5 18:55 19: / :10 22: :35 09:05 E=2500/B=3400/ 4 10:15 12: :10 16:30 E=2500/B=3400/ :55 20: :35 08:55 E=2500/B=3400/ :20 12: :40 18:10 E=2500/B=3400/ :00 21: :45 11:15 E=2500/E=3400/ 1 12:25 14: :55 17:25 E=2500/B=3400/ 7 15:20 17: :35 12:05 E=2500/ - tariffs are used on flight depending on terms of acquisition of tickets ** - tariff "Economy / Business / Amount" Kaliningrad airport Kaliningrad airport is divided into two parts, adjoining, but with separate access, distant five kilometres one from the other. There is the domestic area for flights to/from Russia and a smaller area dedicated to international departures. The airport is located about 30 km away from the city and, due to the traffic, going to the centre takes about 30 minutes. The domestic departures area is nearer to the city. Foreign passengers arriving from Russia are subject to passport control and their data are registered in a computer, but no stamp is affixed (for those who have a one entry visa or a visa with a limited number of entries, it is important to mention that the arrival in Kaliningrad from Russia is not considered as an entry in Russia!). Luggage delivery is immediate: in order to receive the luggage it is necessary to show the relevant coupon. There are no luggage trolleys in the airport, either in the domestic or in the international departures area. The price of the taxi into the city centre is approximately 10 euros. Taxis are not always available, so it is a common habit to stop private cars and ask for a lift. In this case the price of the transfer has to be agreed upon, but usually it does not exceed 150Rb. It is also possible

3 taking the bus (the ticket can be bought on board and costs 5 Rb) or the so called marshrutnyj taxi, namely a bus following a prearranged route that stops on the way upon clients request. For domestic flights the check-in normally starts one hour before departure and finishes 40 minutes prior the departure time. Passengers are boarded about half an hour before departure. The boarding procedure envisages a luggage safety control before checkingin. Luggage is weighed (usually also hand-luggage is weighed) and in case it exceeds the allowed weight (20 kilos in economy class), an extra sum has to be paid. Pay attention: the airport staff is very rigorous to this respect! The boarding pass may not always be given: for instance, the seat can be assigned automatically when the ticket is bought, or there can be no assigned seats on the plane. After checking-in, personal safety and passport are controlled again. Even in this case, no stamp is affixed. After personal safety control passengers enter the waiting room, with a Free Duty Shop at disposal where perfumes, pieces of jewellery and especially amber are sold. In the airport hall there is an information office, a post office, a newspaper kiosk (selling newspapers only in Russian language), two souvenir shops, drinks (but not vodka) and ready-made food, the offices of two air companies and a bar where it is possible to find some snacks. In the basement there is also a left-luggage office, whose opening time changes quite frequently. It is better to check it before claiming the luggage. The arrival area consists of a simple roof where documents are controlled and luggage is given back. Outside there is a wide parking area where it is possible to leave the car (the cost is 30 Rb per day). The international departures area is used at present only for flights to/from Warsaw and is much more spartan than the domestic departures area. The building is very simple. The check-in is carried out right at the entry, followed by the security and passport control. The waiting room has a little shop (where it is possible to buy amber) and a bar inside. For international flights as well the ticket registration begins two hours before the flight and finishes 40 minutes prior to the departure time. It is a good rule to be at the airport at least 1 hour before departure time, because once the plane arrives the outgoing passengers are passing through the passport control, which usually may cause mixing up with passengers boarding the plane since they stand in the same passport control area. At the international arrivals area it is much more difficult to find a taxi. For this reason it is a good rule to have the pick-up already organized with the hotel. By train The railway connects Kaliningrad with mainland Russia, Moscow and Saint-Petersburg (via Lithuania and Belarus) and Poland, namely Gdynia. Two trains to Moscow and one to Saint-Petersburg are available. A trip from Kaliningrad to Moscow or Saint-Petersburg takes approx. 24 hours. The ticket cost

4 varies from 30 $ to 90 $ depending on the travel class. As far as it was possible to find out, citizens of the European Union travelling from Kaliningrad to Russia do not need transit visas to pass through the territory of Belarus and Lithuania by train. The train to Poland (Gdynia) is available. The trip takes approx. 6,5 hours. The ticket cost is approx. 15 $. Should you go to Germany or any other Polish city you d better buy a ticket in Kaliningrad to Tchew for about $13 and there buy a ticket for your final destination. Some train connections are also available with Belarus and the Ukraine. Railway table City of dep. of arr. City of dep. of arr. Gdynia (Poland) 7:00 13:32 Kaliningrad 15:55 21:20 Gdynia (Poland) Moscow 14:06 10:45 Kaliningrad 10:20 9:30 Moscow S. Petersburg 18:13 19:34 Kaliningrad 11:47 13:14 S. Petersburg Moscow 19:16 16:49 Kaliningrad 16:10 16:08 Moscow Charkov (Ukraine) 0:30 Gomel (Belarus) 16:43 By bus 07:40 (even days) 09:50 (odd days) Kaliningrad 13:02 (even days) 19:36 Kaliningrad 18:42 (odd days) 11:14 A net of regular bus lines connects Kaliningrad with Germany, Poland and the Baltic States. Baltic States Lithuania (Kaliningrad Vilnius - Kaliningrad) the one-way trip takes approx. 9 hours Latvia (Kaliningrad Riga Kaliningrad) the one-way trip takes approx. 11 hours Estonia ( Kaliningrad Tallinn Kaliningrad) the one-way trip takes approx. 14 hours. Connections are also available with some other cities in Lithuania and Latvia. Poland (Kaliningrad Warsaw Kaliningrad) the one-way trip takes approx. 9 hours. Connections are also available with Gdansk (), Olsztyn (twice a day). Germany Bus connections are available with Berlin, Bremerhafen, Essen, Bremen, Hanover, Stuttgart and some other German cities. The one-way trip from Berlin to Kaliningrad takes approx.12 hours. City Charkov (Ukraine) Gomel (Belarus)

5 Bus timetable City of dep. of arr. City of dep. of arr. City Germany Bremerhafen 16:00 (via Berlin) 1,2,5,7 Essen 20:00 1 Bremen 8:00 (via Berlin) 1,2,4,5,6,7 Hannover 20: :45 1,2,5,7 Stuttgart 15:00 7 Poland Warsaw 12:00 2,3,4,5,6 Gdansk 15:30 Olsztyn 12:45 15:00 Lithuania Vilnius 13:15 Latvia Riga 9:20 Estonia Tallinn 18:00 10:00 Kaliningrad 14:00 1,3,6,7 17:00 Kaliningrad 12: :00 Kaliningrad 14:00 1,2,3,4,6,7 14:00 Kaliningrad 12: :00 14:00 1,3,6,7 14:00 Kaliningrad 19: :20 Kaliningrad 21:00 1,2,3,4,5 21:00 Kaliningrad 6:30 17:30 Kaliningrad 6:00 19:45 8:00 20:35 Kaliningrad 22:40 19:00 Kaliningrad 9:20 9:00 Kaliningrad 19:50 8:00 Bremerhafen (via Berlin) 9:00 Essen 16:00 Bremen (via Berlin) 6:00 Hannover 07:00 16:00 Stuttgart 3:30 Warsaw 10:00 Gdansk 9:30 11:00 Olsztyn 05:45 Vilnius 18:55 Riga 10:35 Tallinn By ferry You can also consider the possibility of a ferry line connecting Kaliningrad with Kiel (Germany) and Saint-Petersburg (Russia). The trip from Kiel to Kaliningrad takes approx. 32 hours (available each Sunday), and to Saint-Petersburg 44 hours (each

6 Thursday) and costs 128. Moreover, you can pick your car on a ferry with you this will cost additional 213. Contact information: Agent in Kaliningrad TransExIm, tel.: +7 (0112) , fax: , office@transexim.ru By car The car can be a valid alternative to other means of transportation, especially when two or more persons are travelling. There are two main routes that can be followed to reach Kaliningrad from Italy. The shortest one touches Tarvisio, Vienna, Brno, Katowice, Warsaw, Olsztyn and the Polish-Russian border post in Bagrationov. This route is 1,300 km long from Trieste and 1,550 Km from Bologna. The condition of roads is quite good up to the border between the Czech Republic and Poland, but the 700 km to be covered in Poland are quite difficult and slow. The approximate duration of the travel from Bologna to Kaliningrad is one day and a half. The other route touches Brenner, Munich, Nuremberg, Berlin, Gdansk, and arrives till the border check-point in Mamonovo. The entire route from Bologna covers about 1,800km (400km on Polish territory). In addition to that, after the border between Germany and Poland there are no other borders till the arrival in Italy, and in Germany there is no speed limit on the motorway and no risk of incurring into speed cameras. There are no cities to pass and the entire route is by motorway. If two people take turns at the wheel one day should be enough to cover the distance from Kaliningrad to Bologna. Concerning the travel by car, the sore point is border crossing between Poland and the Russian federation. The queue of cars can be very long, but a decorous foreign car can pass through the border avoiding it. There are some tricks that can be used to this respect: 1. Don t stop when you see the queue, but overtake it very slowly; 2. At the border explain everything to the police in Russian language just telling the truth: mention that you are on a mission and that you are expected to arrive at a definite hour. 3. If you don t speak Russian nobody will ask you anything, but just in case, passwords are: komandirovka (mission) sovescianie (meeting) director italianskaja companija (director they will understand general director of an Italian company) It is essential to give the interlocutor the idea of being an important person, who cannot lose an entire day waiting on the border. These long queues on the border between Russia and Poland are due to the so called trans-national trade : in fact in the two countries there are big differences of price for some consumer goods like fuel, cigarettes and vodka. People gossip on the border: they talk, eat, exchange information on this or that functionary. A system of precedences and little corruptions exist, but without this trans-national trade there would be much more misery and jobless people on both sides. Therefore the queue on the border is part of everyday life of those who survive thanks to this activity. Anyway, it shouldn t block the way to people who have nothing to do with trans-national trade.

7 The formalities to be attended are (in chronological order): - Passport and car registration documents control, control of the car loom number. - Issue of a certificate for car temporary import (it can have six months of validity). - Customs control. Pay attention as in Russia the green card is not valid. It is a good rule to make an insurance policy at least for the civil responsibility for the period of stay. The border crossing points are: On the border with Poland: Bagrationovsk Bezledy Mamonovo Gronovo Gusev Goldap On the border with Lithuania: Chernyshevskoe Kibartai Sovetsk Panemune Pogranichnoe Romanishkyai Morskoe Nida (Kurshskaya Spit) In Kaliningrad the speed limit is 90 km/h on out-of-town roads and 60 km/h on town roads Visa and passport regime Foreign citizens and stateless persons can enter and exit the territory of the Russian Federation (RF) by obtaining Russian visas and carrying valid documents accepted by the Russian Federation and proving their identity, except it is otherwise envisaged by international treaties and agreements. Residence permits in RF are issued by the organs of internal affairs to foreign citizens and to stateless persons who reach the age of 16 at the place of their permanent residence for the period of validity of their foreign passports, but not more than for 5 years, and for those who are 45 or older for the total period of validity of their foreign passports. Foreigners in RF must have a foreign passport that should be registered (the note with indication of place and period of permitted stay in RF) in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, department of internal affairs or in hotels. The following persons are exempt from registration of their foreign passports: members of parliamentary and governmental delegations (including technical personnel, their family members); foreign citizens younger than 18 years of age; foreign citizens who arrive to RF for holidays or for week-ends and stay for less than 3 days in every place of their trip; foreign citizens passing through RF territory in transit; foreign cruise tourists;

8 Since there are some areas restricted to foreigners in Kaliningrad Region (marked with big blue signs written in Russian, English and German), in order to control their entrance to these areas, Russian hosts must applicate for registration of their foreign guests at the territorial division of the Administration of Federal Security service (AFSS) or at the department on duty of the AFSS in Kaliningrad oblast. Application is made in three copies with indication of number and personal data of coming persons, purpose of their visit, time and period of stay. After co-ordination with the departments concerned, two copies of the application are given back to the hosting organization and they are used as the permit for the trip. In order to enter Baltijsk and Primorsk, a permit of the relevant Administrations is required. In case of necessity visa registrations and extensions are made on the basis of written application of the Russian hosting party in the following bodies: 1. Passport and visa department of the Administration of Internal Affairs of Kaliningrad oblast at the address: 13, Sovetsky Prospect, Kaliningrad, tel. (0112) Passport and visa sections of the district departments of internal affairs in the city of Kaliningrad.

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