Kalinka

Took a train to Vilnius today ... Having a business trip... I haven't taken a train for 20 years actually... I mean those Russian long distance trains going towards Moscow or St-Petersburg. I am not going that far, hopping off in Vilnius but still have a chance to notice that it is an experience in itself...a very special atmosphere here. Most of travelers seem to be familiar with routines on such a long distance trains. They are all equipped with slippers and mugs (to have them filled and refilled with hot water). Most of them change to home clothes, sports trousers or summer short trousers, lousy T-shirts or dressing gowns. They go back and forth along the corridor with towels hanging over shoulders and all that makes the whole train look like a collective accommodation or a sanatorium moving on wheels. It is really amazing that this is my first time on a long distance train in so many years. I assume that a great deal of these people take a train between Kaliningrad and Moscow or other Russian cities several times a year.. on business or to see relatives...maybe to see the rest of Russia.. Being 32, born and grown up in Kaliningrad an enclave separated from the rest of Russia by two borders I suddenly realize that I know my own country only by TV-news, newspapers and stories told by people who have been to or lived in "big" Russia. In fact I ve heard that many Russians coming to Kaliningrad say that our city is quite different from other Russian cities. I think they are talking about the surface, like some scarce architectural remains left over from German times. People are the same. They cannot be that different. Maybe except for attitudes related with an opportunity to travel abroad more often due to our closeness to Europe. However I don't know for sure what it is like to live behind those two borders...and it feels strange somehow. When you are abroad, you feel home sick but you miss places where you spent the most part of your life, you miss your friends, your relatives, you miss your homeland but it does not actually need to mean the whole country. A homeland turns out to be an abstract thing.