Калининград

After three fun filled weeks in Poland the IRD show went on the road. And what a road it was. We decided to grace Kaliningrad with our wonderful presence. More like Russia let us grace her with our presence, but those are details really. Our trip was a study trip so we got to visit various universities in Kaliningrad and it was a very interesting experience to say the least. The Polish-Russian border crossing only took three hours and 27 minutes!

The first full day in Kaliningrad was spent at the state technical university. This picture comes from a very interesting lecture about a topic I forget. I don't, however, forget the horrible acoustics in the room or the fact this man spoke in Russian and had to stop so every sentence could be translated and often pointed to overheads that were in Russian with a GIANT WOODEN STICK.

This is a blurry picture of another lecturer who did not have a giant wooden stick but does bear a fairly strong resemblance to Dr. Nick from the Simpsons.

This is my room at the Hotel Deima which I shared with Louisa and Myrto. We decided to host a few guest the second night there.

More lounging in the room. The very high quality room.

Kaliningrad is a very unique place. While it is on the up and up and street shoot outs no longer occur in the center of the city the outskirts, where we stayed, I might add, were a bit...how to say...ugly as sin.

More of beautiful Kaliningrad.

Holy dilapidated industrial building, Batman!

Naval museum as seen from the bridge.

Downtown, which is you see isn't as decrepit as the outskirts.

Myrto standing in the city center on a monument for something or other.

The new orthodox church in the center of the city.

A Kaliningrad shopping plaza. Please note the Sbarro sign with Sbarro written in Cyrillic.

Obligatory street named after Lenin!

A trip to Kaliningrad just isn't a trip to Kaliningrad without signing karaoke at a Japanese restaurant. Look how into it Philipp is.

Håvard and me signing "Friday I'm in Love." We rocked it.

Fred may not readily admit it, but he is a rock star.

A lovely duet by Myrto and Rana.

I think this is the boys singing "Imagine."

Rana and I really got into "November Rain." Rana has some serious air guitar skills.

Fred singing "Last Christmas." It was truly spectacular.

One day in Kalingrad was set aside for sightseeing. This day included a trip to Baltiysk, the naval base in Kaliningrad.

Look at the ships in Kaliningrad bay!

More boats! Sorry Colleen, I don't know any more information about them.

Louisa, Rana and me enjoying the Russian naval base fun.

One of my favorite pictures from the entire trip. "Proletariat of the world unite." I love Russia.

Still more boats.

A memorial to the Baltic fleet with the Baltiysk lighthouse in the background.

The memorial to Elizabeth something or other on the Baltiysk shore.

The Baltic!

The Baltiysk beach. I was not expecting something so pretty.

Kevin, me and Mathieu getting our feet wet in the Baltic. I can assure you that it was quite cold.

Fred running down the beach away from Nike.

And who can forget the stripper pole that was in the hotel restaurant. I love Kaliningrad!