Curious things you can do In Europe

11/10/2015

Hello! In this post I will write about some funny and curious things related to our continent, Europe. If you are from abroad, this will shock you even more, as you may have never heard about such things, for example, did you knew that you can be inside Turkey in Belgrade (Serbia)? Or that you an actually be send to jail by KGB in 2015? If you are curious now lets get started:

1) You can park over Hitler's deadplace

Yes, you read well, Hitler supossedly died in a bunker under Berlin streets, funny thing is, this bunker is almost in the centre of the city, but although there is no bunker as building no more (Soviet Union destroyed it), there is still a signpost which points the place where it used to be... to prevent any kind of neo far-right apraisal, German authorities turned the place to a simple parking lot, so If you go to Berlin, why not park over it?

2) Visit the part of Soviet Union that still exist in 2015

This may shock you, many people think that Russia (or Belarus)is the evolution of the old USSR, but you are wrong, there is a territory in Moldavia which still remains in 1989: Trandsnitria or Prednistrovie, It became de facto independent from Moldavia when Soviet Union collapsed, citizens in Moldavia became two majoritarian groups pro independence and pro russian, Soviet officials seized the opportunity and captured the eastern side of the country, declaring it an independent republic (Proudly recognized by the "glorious" nations of Abkhasia, South Osetia and Crimea).

So... why is so special? Well, coming here is not traveling to another country, but to other time, you will see all USSR icons alive such as Ladas, Tanks in squares, huge Lenin statues and tons of Comunist propaganda, they even have their own coin. To go there, you should go either from Moldavia or Odessa (in Ukraine), and you may need to pass the "country" borders, and be given a visa. Funny fact: KGB STILL WORKS THERE.

3) Visit historical country that dissapeared

For young people maybe the name Prussia is totally unknown, specially if you are not German, but what if I tell you about Kant? Yep, you remember him right? What if I told you that the country and city he was born in is totally faded from the surface of the earth? Because this is what happened in the XX century.

If you study the history of Europe, you will see that there used to be a coastal country close to Germany and Poland, in the Baltic sea, its capital, Koningsberg, used to be such cultural place that gave the world known philosophers like Kant, and had so many famous composers and artist. It became part of the German Reunification in XIX century, but still was the jewel of Germany. All those years of history became to an end during the World War 2, Soviet Union, after winning the war to Nazi Germany, decided to keep that territory for them, not giving it to Poland or Lithuania as they did with other parts of Germany, so... what did the Soviets did here?

As a price for their victory and hate for the Nazis they decided to remove almost any trace of German history in the territory, they planted explosives in most churches, castles and govermental buildings they found there (some still remain), and when they had a grey flat land, they decided to build the Soviet Brutalist model city, with Masterpieces such as The house of Soviets (I know it hurts when you see it, and surprise, now it's abandoned).

They also changed the name to Kaliningrad and right nowadays is part of Russia, causing it troubles with neightbour countried due to the fact that they store nuclear weapons there... also is full of military territory, which locals doesn't seem to respect much, giving funny situations like this
This territory, explains the next part:

4) You can cross the Russian border from Lithuania through... A DESERT!

Going back to Kaliningrad, you will think that this place is all but desert, come on! Is covered by snow many months! So close to sea! Is impossible! Well... This picture proves it wrong

No, it's not Sahara or Gobi, it's Lithuania and Russia, but ok, why? As you can see on the map, Kaliningrad and the neighbour part of Lithuania have some part of land with snake shape, this is called the Curonian spit, it's a geografical formation which splits the Baltic sea and the Curonian lagoon, funny thing is, nearby the border, this land stops beign a forest to become a full desert, actually are sand dunes, but as it has quite some width, pictures seem like a desert.

I don't know about the Russian side, but you can easily walk here from Lithuania, go by ferry and bus to Nida (Lithuania's most beautiful village) and just walk 5 minutes to the dunes, once you reach them, you can walk towards Russia for 40 minutes, and take very nice pictures.

5) You can be in Turkey inside Serbia

And not, I'm not talking about embassy, If you know a bit about Serbia and Turkey, you will know they are not best friends, (maybe because Serbia was occuppied by Ottoman Empire for several centuries). Still, Serbia keeps a part of Turkey in the very heart of their capital. In the Belgrade fortress there is a Ottoman mausoleum, the funny thing is, that thanks to an agreement between both countries, that construction belongs to Turkey (as well as it's soil).
Also, when I was in Czech Republic I was told by a guide that there is a similar thing in Prague, where a chapel counted as Italy territory and was guarded by italians, but I couldn't find more information about it.

I hope you learned something new today, do you know any other curious fact? Write about it in the page!