– Visit Kant's grave. Feel like an intellectual who knows who he was.
The austere memorial of the famous stay-at-home philosopher.
– Learn by heart Immanuel Kant's phrase (in a free translation from the German): "Two things fill the soul – the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me." Back home, recite it with a profound air to your friends and acquaintances.
Round every corner here a medieval fortress may be lying in wait for you!
– Buy a picture sprinkled with amber chips from a street vendor. Give it to your relatives. Let this kitsch remind them of where they have never been.
It is simply impossible not to buy something made of amber here!
– Try pancakes with wild raspberries at the little restaurant on the Curonian Spit where President Putin ate them. Feel like the President of the Russian Federation for a couple of minutes.
The Curonian Spit from a bird's-eye view...
– Try at least 20 kinds of beer and take home a couple of honestly earned extra kilos.
– Have your photo taken on the beach and next to every German structure you come across. Take a few dozen "sunset over the sea" photos. Let those you left at home be green with envy.
Our sunsets over the sea can be simply magical!
– Gather small bits of amber on the seashore and take them home in a plastic bag. Tell your friends rapturously that "amber is just lying around underfoot there!"
On the seashore amber sometimes really does just lie underfoot!
– Buy a German knick-knack in an antique shop, even a cup with a broken handle, as a reminder that the city you visited was once called "Königsberg".
An antique cup from Königsberg.
– If the idea of taking home broken crockery or other antique junk does not appeal to you, we recommend buying a prehistoric fly or mosquito baked into a piece of amber millions of years ago. At the same time you will add a new word to your vocabulary – "inclusion" – while diligently examining the little fly through a magnifying glass. That is what the thing you have bought will be called.
A spider in amber – what an inclusion!
So, to carry out all the useful tips above properly, you should start with your kit.
Kit
– Summer kit: an umbrella, a swimsuit (or swimming trunks, for persons of the male sex), a camera and, if you have one, a passport for foreign travel. That is the minimum set. Don't forget to bring money! Without it there is nothing to do in the Kaliningrad region.
– A tourist's winter kit for visiting Russia's westernmost region includes an umbrella, a waterproof jacket and a camera. Fur coats, sheepskins and felt boots can stay at home – you won't need them here.
Translated from Russian with the help of AI (Claude, Anthropic), October 2026.
