Mar 31st, 2013 at 11:00AM:
Berlin is a city that harbors its share of ghosts. As Germany's premier city marches ever further into the future, shiny new government buildings and designer lofts rising on vacant lots across the capital, vestiges of Berlin's infamous role in two World Wars and a Cold War can still be found if you know where to look. A prime example of this 20th-century legacy is Teufelsberg, an ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
Soviet posts
Teufelsberg: A Photo Tour Inside Berlin's Secret Abandoned Spy Station
Mar 31st, 2013 at 11:00AM:
Berlin is a city that harbors its share of ghosts. As Germany's premier city marches ever further into the future, shiny new government buildings and designer lofts rising on vacant lots across the capital, vestiges of Berlin's infamous role in two World Wars and a Cold War can still be found if you know where to look. A prime example of this 20th-century legacy is Teufelsberg, an ...Estonian Art And Literature: Big Ideas In A Small Country
Feb 25th, 2013 at 12:00PM:
For a country with only 1.3 million people, Estonia has a hell of an art scene. There are several good museums and galleries and a lively round of readings and exhibition openings.
One of the biggest names in the Estonian art scene is Raoul Kurvitz. He's been big for a few decades now, producing a steady output of installation pieces, experimental films and paintings. Right now KUMU, the Art ...
A Vintage Submarine And Icebreaker In Tallinn's Seaplane Harbour
Feb 22nd, 2013 at 10:00AM:
Tallinn has been an important port and Estonia's connection with the world since before recorded history. Because of this, the city has not one, but two museums dedicated to the sea. The Maritime Museum is housed in Fat Margaret, an old cannon tower that once protected the harbor. It has the usual assortment of old photos and gear, along with a very cool exhibit on sunken ships.
The other ...Photo Of The Day: Happy Cosmonauts Day
Apr 12th, 2012 at 6:00PM:
Today marks the 51st anniversary of manned space travel, and if you happen to be in a former Soviet country, you may be celebrating Cosmonautics Day. On April 12, 1961, 27-year-old Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first human in space, orbiting the Earth for nearly two hours. The USSR beat the US in the space race by just three weeks, and two years later, Russia would send the first woman ...VIDEO: Ride The Moscow Metro
Apr 8th, 2012 at 3:00PM:
If you've traveled to Russia, you've probably ridden on the amazing Moscow Metro with impossibly deep and fast escalators, Soviet-realistic sculptures and mosaics, and constant flow of passengers. If you haven't been, or just want a refresh, you can take a virtual ride with this video. It combines beautiful images, clever editing and dramatic music for a powerful travel video. Sčastlivovo puti! ...
First woman in space turns 75
Mar 13th, 2012 at 4:00PM: Last week, Russia marked the 75th birthday of Russian space pioneer Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space. In 1963, Tereshkova orbited the earth 48 times in three days, logging more flight time than all the previous American astronauts combined, and becoming the first and only woman to travel solo in space. Before launching into space, Tereshkova exclaimed, "Hey, sky, take your hat off!" ...Soviet Yerevan
Nov 3rd, 2011 at 12:30PM:
The architectural influence of the Soviet years cannot be missed in Yerevan. Two examples in particular viscerally embody the grandiose massive-scale drama associated with Soviet architectural projects: the Armenian Genocide Monument and the 50th Anniversary of the Soviet Armenia monument. The latter can be reached from central Yerevan via the Cascade stairway.
The Armenian Genocide ...Museum of Socialist Art to open in Bulgaria
Aug 25th, 2011 at 2:00PM: A Museum of Socialist Art is opening next month in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. The museum exhibits statues of Lenin, paintings of Bulgarian Communist Party leaders, and other artwork from Soviet times.
The former Eastern Bloc country is the last such nation to open a museum to its totalitarian past. The socialist government fell in 1989 and Bulgaria had its first free elections the ...Dive Communist plane off the coast of Bulgaria
May 27th, 2011 at 11:00AM: Fish are pretty and shipwrecks are cool to explore, but how would you like to dive a
Communist airplane in the Black Sea? A 1971 Soviet-made Tupolev-154 was submerged this week off the coast of Bulgaria to create an artificial reef for SCUBA divers. Orlin Tsanev, chairman of Black Sea Dive Odesos association, told Reuters: "The submerging of the plane aims to make it an attraction and (a place) ...Warsaw, Poland: an up-and-coming European museum destination
Mar 16th, 2011 at 9:30AM:
As an EU member with a good exchange rate and low prices, Poland is becoming a popular tourist destination in Eastern Europe. Most of the love goes to Krakow, with its original architecture and "new Prague" charm, but capital city Warsaw has plenty to offer as a European museum destination. While much of the old town was leveled in World War II, the restorations have been painstakingly done and ...Travel then and now: Travel to the USSR and GDR
Mar 1st, 2011 at 3:30PM: This year is the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Soviet Union and 21 years since the reunification of Germany. While citizens of the USSR and GDR were unable to travel abroad and restricted in domestic travel, foreign travelers were permitted under a controlled environment. In the early nineties, if you were a foreigner looking to go abroad to the Eastern Europe or Central Asia, you called ...Weekending: Sofia
Oct 5th, 2010 at 2:30PM:
Since moving to Istanbul, I've gotten the chance to travel to a lot of interesting destinations, from Beirut to Bosnia, that are much easier and cheaper to access from Turkey than America. For my first long (more than a weekend) trip, I went to Bulgaria for a week over US Labor Day and Turkish bayram (end of Ramadan holidays). Over the week, I traveled from the capital city Sofia to medieval ...Hop on the Stalin bus!
May 6th, 2010 at 1:30PM: A lot of visitors to Russia like seeing some Soviet-era nostalgia, but old monuments and ugly apartment blocs now have to compete with the latest kitsch--a bus painted with the likeness of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.
The bus is the initiative of Stalinist blogger Viktor Loginov, who raised money for the project in order to celebrate the upcoming anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany. ...Journey to the dark side of the moon
Oct 7th, 2009 at 1:30PM: On this day fifty years ago, humanity got to see something it had never seen before. On October 7, 1959, the Soviet space probe Luna 3 orbited the moon and took photos of the "dark side". Of course, everyone already knew that the dark side isn't really dark. It gets just as much light as the side we see, but since it always faces away from Earth we've spent the last hundred thousand years ...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 ...Stumble down to Budapest's underground labyrinth
Mar 10th, 2009 at 1:00PM: Hungary's capital city, Budapest, has always had a "split history." Everything from the town's name (which is actually a combination of two distinct cities along the Danube, Buda and Pest) to its incredibly diverse architectural styles, to a range of ruling powers from the Ottoman Turks to the Soviet Union after World War II speak to Budapest's unique dichotomy of influences and history. ...Super Secret Soviet Submarine Base opens for Tourism
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Jul 17th, 2007 at 8:06AM:
It's very rare in life, but occasionally some of those super-secret, underground complexes that house submarine bases or other military facilities are actually opened to the public.
A regular diet of James Bond movies while growing up has always made me excited to seek out and explore such villainous lairs despite the fact that they were merely the dreams of scriptwriters.
The reality, ...
