Oct 22nd, 2009 at 1:00PM: The Russians may be able to tell us that Dmitry Medvedev is in charge of the country and get away with it, but rigging the weather is just too much. Come on now. It's obvious that you're up to something. This year, Moscow's Mayor Yury Luzkhov is putting forth the proposition of seeding clouds to prevent large volumes of snow from falling on Russia's glorious capital city. The project, which would ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
Russia posts
Expecting snow in Moscow this winter? Not so fast.
Oct 22nd, 2009 at 1:00PM: The Russians may be able to tell us that Dmitry Medvedev is in charge of the country and get away with it, but rigging the weather is just too much. Come on now. It's obvious that you're up to something. This year, Moscow's Mayor Yury Luzkhov is putting forth the proposition of seeding clouds to prevent large volumes of snow from falling on Russia's glorious capital city. The project, which would ...Bowermaster's Adventures -- Kamchatka v. Kodiak, What a Difference 225 Years Makes
Sep 1st, 2009 at 9:00AM: We sailed into Kodiak on a somewhat rarified day for this part of the world, one filled with sunshine rather than rain. The weekend just past had been its annual Crab Fest, an event dampened by typical summer weather: horizontal rain and temperatures just above freezing. But on a big, blue, sun-shiny day you'd be hard-pressed to imagine a more beautiful place, the entirety of Kodiak Island and ...Bowermaster's Adventures -- Russia's nuclear legacy
Aug 24th, 2009 at 9:00AM: Just around the corner from Petropavlovsk, ten miles by land or sea, located across Avachinskaya Bay on a small peninsula called Krasheninnikova sits Russia's largest nuclear submarine base. It is off limits to outsiders and a shell of what it was during the Soviet Union's heyday. Today – judging by a simple Google map search – there are just a half-dozen active nuclear subs sitting at ...Bowermaster's Adventures -- Kamchatka, Russia
Aug 21st, 2009 at 9:00AM: This land of volcanoes and earthquakes -- the western frontier of the literary "Ring of Fire" -- is still a month away from true spring. Dirty, crusted snow lies beneath the leafless trees and in the gutters along Petropavlovsk's main streets, which already look pretty grim, lined as they are by Soviet-era buildings. The only hints of color in town are the red-and-yellow hot dog-beer-and-coffee ...NASA focused on commercial space travel
Aug 11th, 2009 at 3:00PM: Crossing oceans isn't enough for you? Well, NASA is working to scratch the most extreme of travel itches. The organization is putting $50 million of economic stimulus cash from the feds into putting the average traveler into space. Companies eager to develop a commercial space vehicle have 45 days to submit their proposals, and the winner will be announced by the end of September.
The program ...Russians convert nuclear icebreaker into a hotel
Jul 16th, 2009 at 12:00PM: "Lenin" is the name of this ship, which was launched in 1957. It was the first nuclear powered surface ship and the first nuclear powered civilian vessel in the world. So what kind of ship is it? An icebreaker. Icebreakers can literally cut through permanent and seasonal ice in the water -- they are specially shaped for this and are actually rather clumsy in open water. This 134-meter long, 19 ...Flight attendants on hunger strike
May 27th, 2009 at 8:30AM: It's hard for most of us to imagine a situation so dire it would inspire us to go on hunger strike. Sadly, that is not the case for the Russian flight attendants who were not paid for eight months of work when their airline folded. According to United Press International: "KrasAir ceased operations last October when it ran out of cash, the news service said. Part of the AirUnion alliance, the ...Three travel ideas from the ITB Berlin Travel Show
May 11th, 2009 at 4:00PM:
More than 11,000 exhibitors from 187 countries tried to make their mark at the 2009 ITB Berlin Travel Show. They showcased wines, highlighted unique local attractions and generally tried to show that they are the best places in the world for tourists to spend their hard-earned cash. Travel+Leisure tried to describe the industry's hottest trends, but the article really came across as "here are a ...Barneo Ice Station Opens
Apr 5th, 2009 at 10:00AM: In another spring tradition, the Barneo Ice Station has opened for another season, providing the gateway for adventure travelers and explorers to make a "last degree" journey to the geographic North Pole from the Russian side of the ice. The ice station sits roughly 60 miles from the Pole at 89º N. Latitude, and each year it has to be rebuilt thanks to the shifting ice flows at the top of ...Should Russian airline S7 apologize to the blind passenger they refused?
Mar 25th, 2009 at 12:00PM: On February 18th, Pavel Obiukh tried to board an S7 airline flight from Moscow to Kazan and was unceremoniously denied. Why? Because he's blind. Hold your outrage a moment. According to the Moscow Times: "S7 rules are based on federal aviation regulations, which are dictated by the Transportation Ministry. The federal regulations say an airline is only required to carry a legally blind passenger ...Moscow luggage handlers lighten load
Mar 16th, 2009 at 2:00PM: What's going on in Moscow? If you have any valuables in your luggage, they may not be there when you get to the hotel! Well, maybe the odds are better now that police at the city's main international airport have arrested several luggage handlers suspected of sifting through bags and pocketing the good stuff. The thefts began in early January at Sheremetyevo Airport. It seems that a daily flight ...Will secretary Clinton help or hinder travel to Russia?
Mar 13th, 2009 at 11:00AM:
Travelers around the world are waiting for the day when the borders to Russia open wider to visitors. Although the formerly Communist country does and will accept tourists, the application process is long and expensive -- you don't just wander up to the border to Russia, get your passport stamped and mosey down to Red Square, no, before visitors to the Red State are even allowed to apply for a ..."Vodka Pipeline" Links Russia and Estonia
Mar 6th, 2009 at 2:00PM: An ambitious group of smugglers managed to build a 1.2 mile long pipeline across the Russian-Estonian border with the intention of pumping contraband vodka into the EU. According to this story from the Telegraph, they actually managed to get more than 1630 gallons across the border before their operation was discovered and shut down. It seems that vodka is far cheaper in Russia than Estonia, so ...Five More Places To See Before They Are Changed Forever
Feb 26th, 2009 at 8:00AM: Last week we posted a story from CNN.com that named five places to see before climate changed altered them forever. The destinations that made their list included the Great Barrier Reef, the city of New Orleans, Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado, the Alpine Glaciers in Switzerland, and the Amazon Rain Forest in Brazil. Here are five more amazing places that you should see before they are ...Heathrow annoying, Americans rude according to some social network
Feb 22nd, 2009 at 5:00PM: The members of social network Where Are you Now? have spoken! Heathrow is the worst airport in the world, according to voters, thanks to passport control lines and baggage problems. The Brits don't get all the glory, though. JFK in New York and Los Angeles picked up spots #2 and #3, respectively. The good news, for Heathrow and JFK, at least, is that both were at the top of the list for security. ...What is a "dangerous" travel destination?
Jan 6th, 2009 at 2:00PM: I've been thinking long and hard about what it means to travel to a "dangerous" destination lately because I'm in the process of planning a 2-month trip to Cuba. While Cuba is not considered "dangerous" to citizens of other countries, it does send a little shiver up an American's spine when thinking about the potential consequences of traveling there without a visa, which I might end up doing. I ...Russians predict demise of United States
Dec 30th, 2008 at 1:30PM: You had no idea, but the United States is on the verge of civil war. At least that's what Igor Panarin, a Russian professor and "expert" on American relations is saying. He's been saying it for years, actually, but just in these past weeks Russian media (and the Kremlin) has picked up his story and is running wild with it. According to the Wall Street Journal, Panarin's theory is that "mass ...Join the 13-mile high club in a MiG
Dec 25th, 2008 at 3:00PM: Incredible Adventures wants to push you through the sound barrier. Step into a MiG-29 and prepare to be thrust past Mach 1 in the fighter jet that caused Rocky to fight Drago. Or, find your way to the edge of space in a MiG-31. Find your way to Russia to get started, and then leave the Earth behind.
To pass the speed of sound, Incredible Adventures takes you to Nizhny and gives you a choice: the ...Travel read: Around the Bloc
Dec 21st, 2008 at 11:00AM: I stumbled upon Stephanie Elizondo Griest's writing on a stopover in New York City. She was reading from her third and most recent travel-related book, Mexican Enough: My Life Between the Borderlines, at Book Culture near Columbia University. I was immediately struck by her engaging use of language and her savvy presence. It's a pleasant sight to behold a young, female traveler and writer who is ...Russia's ties with Cuba
Dec 2nd, 2008 at 12:00PM: Russia's President, Dmitry Medvedev, completed a four-nation tour of Latin America late last week with a final stop in Cuba. The relations between the two countries appear to be strained and, at present, intense; however, Russia, like China, has an interest in drilling for oil off Cuba's shores and is seeking further military cooperation from the advantageously positioned Castro-ruled nation. ...
