John_d Posted October 27, 2005 Share Posted October 27, 2005 Thought this may be of interest to a few people. Some pictures of Volgagrad (formerly Stalingrad)taken recently that I found: Pavlov's House: http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/p/m/129f2e/ http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/p/m/163be9/ http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/p/m/398c8/ Stalingrad Memorial on Mamayev Kurgan: http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/p/m/163b80/ http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/p/m/163bd6/ http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/p/m/163bce/ http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/p/m/163b96 Pavlov's house has been left as it was after the battle. The memorial is pretty impressive- apparently the tallest free standing stone statue in the world. A fitting memorial to those who died there 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grisha Posted October 27, 2005 Share Posted October 27, 2005 And made of concrete and steel. the holes in the sword are for aerodynamics as the wind used to cause it to oscillate. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PzKpfwIII Posted October 27, 2005 Share Posted October 27, 2005 Motherland was in the news a few years ago because - like the war memorials of many nations - it had started to deteriorate and was in need of refurbishment. It must be awe inspiring to see it in person. Good find john_d - I've never seen the Pavlov's House photos before. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Runyan99 Posted October 28, 2005 Share Posted October 28, 2005 Is it safe to travel to Russia? How are things there for tourists, really? It would be...interesting to visit the places you show here. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sergei Posted October 28, 2005 Share Posted October 28, 2005 Yes, it is safe. Of course, if you like to wear clothes made out of dollar bills and a fun holiday for you is to get drunk and go harass prostitutes in dark alleys at midnight... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim crowley Posted October 28, 2005 Share Posted October 28, 2005 Originally posted by Sergei: Yes, it is safe. Of course, if you like to wear clothes made out of dollar bills and a fun holiday for you is to get drunk and go harass prostitutes in dark alleys at midnight... .....it's just the place 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpitfireXI Posted October 28, 2005 Share Posted October 28, 2005 But seriously, Russia is rather safe to travel if you have your wits about you. Nothing to crazy if you have travelled abroad. I was there this summer and was pleasantly surprised how easy and modern most things were. Now travelling within Russia gets a little rougher but since Volgagrad is major city this makes it totally doable. Hoping to get there in the next couple of years myself. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RCHRD Posted October 28, 2005 Share Posted October 28, 2005 It's not Pavlovs house. It's the mill on the Volga shore. Pavlovs house is across the street and only a tiny corner of it is preserved (and covered in graffiti) The rest of the structure has been rebuilt and is now, as it was, an apartment building. Also called the House of Specialists back then. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigduke6 Posted October 29, 2005 Share Posted October 29, 2005 I am going to generalize here. Russia is safe enough for a westerner to travel to, but it is ridiculously expensive for the standard of living of the country, and the service industry there sucks. Not many people in the big cities speak English, and outside the big cities, ferget it. I would not recommend any one travel there on his own without a good knowledge of Russian and how Third World countries tick. It's been done, but that sort of expedition is not for the faint-hearted. The tourist industry does its very best to lock you into package tours that take you to a series of historical sites, and traisping off on your own (like to visit a battlefield not on the itinerary) is usually prohibatively expensive. Also, there are plenty of rip-off artists that prey on tourists, and the police often are corrupt. The way to visit Russia is to be friends with a real person over there who knows the ropes and can run flak for you. Russians are as a group far more friendly than westerners, and if you are interested in their history usually there are enthusiasts who are delighted to take you under their wing. If you have scads of cash Moscow can be the party city to end all party cities, of course. Wild parties, wilder clubs, gorgeous women, and cheap vodka. There are plenty of prostitutes but there also plenty of normal young women who will be quite happy to talk to you, if you are just a bit polite. And if you are more moderate in your wishes, the country's rail system is cheap and efficient. But the visas are outrageous. Any one going to Russia these days needs to be a very seasoned traveler, rich, or pretty durn adventurous. For more info Google Lonely Planet and Russia. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ant Posted October 30, 2005 Share Posted October 30, 2005 Originally posted by Bigduke6: I am going to generalize here. The way to visit Russia is to be friends with a real person over there who knows the ropes and can run flak for you. Russians are as a group far more friendly than westerners, and if you are interested in their history usually there are enthusiasts who are delighted to take you under their wing. That's the way I did it, twice. Had a thoroughly fantastic time. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Runyan99 Posted October 30, 2005 Share Posted October 30, 2005 Why is Russia so expensive to visit, while the economy is so underdeveloped? I thought the country was cash poor. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ant Posted October 30, 2005 Share Posted October 30, 2005 Originally posted by Runyan99: Why is Russia so expensive to visit, while the economy is so underdeveloped? I thought the country was cash poor. Russia isn't expensive. It's only Moscow that's pretty expensive, and St Petersburgh too; even then it's only really the metropolitan centres. The rest of Russia is pretty cheap. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
von Churov Posted October 31, 2005 Share Posted October 31, 2005 Pavlov's Huse or not, it looks exacly like in the Call of Duty FPS game. Well done. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigduke6 Posted October 31, 2005 Share Posted October 31, 2005 Russia can be incredibly cheap, if you are willing to live like a Russian and put up with the hassles that Russians put up with. If you are from the West and want a familiar comfort level, you are going to pay an arm and a leg. At minimim. Decent hotel rooms in one of the oil regions will go for 150 bucks a night, and in a poor region, there are no decent hotels. Same deal for food, most transport, you name it. Factor in the corruption, bureaucracy, lack of English, etc. etc., and you really need to be a dedicated tourist to visit Russia. My free and unsolicited advice, if you want to visit the former Soviet Union, go to Georgia. It's poorer and cheaper than Russia, just as corrupt, there are more power outages, and frankly Russian women are prettier. But Georgia's climate is better, the geography is often spectacular, the food and wine are incredible, and the people have got to be the hospitible on Planet Earth. You can walk down the main street in a village, and villagers will come out and compete with each other, to decide which one gets the honor of inviting the western foreigner into their house for wine, bread, and cheese. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SpitfireXI Posted October 31, 2005 Share Posted October 31, 2005 Russia is cheap, even Moscow is if you know what you are doing. I stayed in a hotel that was the former Olympic village for 40 bucks a night. It was clean, quiet, safe and right next to the metro. Also, eating out is about the same as most vacationy places I have been to. The confusion is that people expect Russia to be dirt cheap so when the find food and stuff that is the same price they would pay at home they think it is expensive. But their visas are really expensive, but definetly worth it to go there. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ant Posted October 31, 2005 Share Posted October 31, 2005 As well as Moscow I stayed in Rostov. Good hotel, dirt cheap and lots of stuff to see and do. I found eating out in Moscow was very cheap too, but then we usually ate out well away from the city centre in one of the suburbs, where we were staying in an old soviet era appartment block. Even in the centre of Moscow the food was only about the same as I'd pay at home. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt May Posted November 2, 2005 Share Posted November 2, 2005 Originally posted by Runyan99: Is it safe to travel to Russia? How are things there for tourists, really? It would be...interesting to visit the places you show here. It can't be much more dangerous than the run-down areas of most of our large cities (sadly). 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M1A1TC Posted November 6, 2005 Share Posted November 6, 2005 My granma still lives in Volgograd, Ive been there several times, seen both the Mamaev Kurgan, the Traktorskiy Zavod (Factory), the Pavlov's house, and other monuments. There is also a need panoramic set up in a WW2 museum. She was a nurse during the battle for Stalingrad, and saw capture of Paulus BTW, Volgograd has the largest river port in Europe 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grnt25 Posted November 10, 2005 Share Posted November 10, 2005 Hey there, What ever you do, do not go to Georgia. That is just not smart. If you want cheap entertainment to Ukraine, especially Kremean Peninsula. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bigduke6 Posted November 10, 2005 Share Posted November 10, 2005 How dare you insult Georgia! Such gall! Such lack of taste! I bet you come from a big country! May you be sentenced to drinking sticky sweet German white wine for the rest of your natural life! May you never know the joy of sulgumi goat cheese, consumed on flat bread under a fresh mountain breeze! May your moustache grow thin, fuzzy, and an object of permanent derision for women and small children alike!! :mad: :mad: :mad: And not "Kremean." Crimean As to cheap, a nice high season room at the Oreanda in Yalta goes for more than 200 bucks a night. :eek: This is a country where the average salary is about 100 bucks a month. Economy traveler-friendly, I wouldn't call it. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Denwad Posted November 11, 2005 Share Posted November 11, 2005 or Krim if you're german 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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