You need to do it on your own. Good luck! Those were the parting words β said in Polish β of Andrei, a Lithuanian taxi driver, as he dropped me at the Russian-Polish border checkpoint at Bagrationovsk.
Of course, I could have flown from Moscow to Warsaw and then jumped on a bus or a train and spent some five or six hours but I thought I could fly to Kaliningrad, visit the oblast and then just cross the border β a shorter and more comfortable trip, and new sites to see. All very well on paper, but reality had other plans for me, and Andrei really had no clue how much luck I would actually need. I grabbed my suitcase and started approaching drivers to ask if they could give me a ride across the border.
This was hookup apps were not yet a thing. It took almost 20 attempts until I found Romek, a young Polish guy who crossed the border every week to buy cheap gas, booze and cigarettes, and who agreed to smuggle me across the border.
I was relieved. Where are you going? But I am sure she was equally confused when she checked my documents. I must have been the first Brazilian citizen crossing the Russian-Polish border since the fall of the Soviet Union. She told Romek to stop the car and disappeared.
At this point I was already feeling sorry for the poor guy who just wanted to go back home to his vodka. Alas he was stuck with me. Some 40 minutes later a male officer arrived and asked Romek to go with him.
