This shifting of base occurred 2 months after we had moved to N.delhi from Ratnagiri..The details of which I had put up in the previous write up....This blog will account my experience of international travel during the peak of lockdown owing to the COVID infection, and how life here in this quaint city of Koenigsberg is for us...the local sight seeing that we have done so far...There will be a series of such posts that I will put up...since I am not here as a tourist and will be travelling on and off from Kaliningrad to various other places....
We started our journey from N.Delhi. We moved to Russia at a short notice . I will be describing the niceties of this evolution in our life point wise, along with some pointers to to help plan your own journey:
A. We hired the services of a good authorised international mover and packer service provider to pack all of our essentials. Things that are completely indespensable.
B. COVID test as a flying requirement within 48 hours of boarding your flight. The facility of express testing is also available at the airport at a slightly higher cost ; the results for which are obtained in half an hour.
C. Packed food for the baby and self. We had to take an Aeroflot flight from Delhi to Moscow and Moscow to Kaliningrad.
D. A stock of Masks, sanitisers, travel friendly liquid soap bottles, moisturiser, face cream.
E. We did regret not buying the ticket in advance but choosing to buy it at the counter. That highly delayed the entire procedure of checking by quiet a few hours and had to endure the wait all night. But the reason why we decided to buy the ticket at the counter because flights during the lockdown were not confirmed and it would have been a risk to book it in advance.
F. activities to entertain my toddler. She is deeply interested in books so I carried 5 books absolutely new that she had not read before. downloaded a few episodes of Our Planet & If I were an Animal series on Netflix that my daughter absolutely loves, the aqua magic paint brush book, doodle bard. These activities that i had not shown to her before kept her calm through out the journey...My daughter was surprisingly co-operative.
G. carry baby gear like strollers, baby wearing belts, bottles, pacifiers, etc whatever you need for your kids.
H. Carry double the baby necessities - diapers, wipes, polythene disposal bag, etc.
I. Any medicines for the baby and yourself that are absolutely imperative.
J. Focus on the happiness and comfort of your family, the haters must be ignored.
K. Carry frozen food and food that will last without getting spoilt..you could get them vaccum packed from outside..like stuffed parathas, rice dishes, idlis , dosas, chutneys..any dry vegetable..so that after you land you only have to concentrate on sleeping and resting your body..the food will be ready to eat for you and your kid. atleast for the first one or two days..
We arrived at the airport at 0100 hours and boarded the flight at 0630 hrs . We landed at Moscow sometime at noon on 07 Aug 20, extremely tired.
From the airport an officially arranged bus took us to Domodedovo airport. At 1500 hrs we boarded the flight to Kaliningrad from Domodedovo airport and landed at Kaliningrad in the evening..At around 1900 hrs on 7 Aug 20 we entered our house and that is when my 2.5 yr old showed signs of fatigue and crankiness. On that day i offered her milk in a bottle and she dozzed off immediately on comfortable bed that all of us had been longing for a journey that felt much longer than it actually was..We all retired to the bed caught up on the much required sleep....and woke up to start a new life..
My future blogs will give an account of Kaliningrad for tourists, things that I have done so far. Since I have set up home here, there will be a series of blogs from my end..about my travels in and around this area..i will also focus on the expenditure incurred and the beauty of this little known place..
Till then с Новым Годом , безопасные путешествия