This is actually pretty cool – few days ago archeologists finished digging up Byzantine church from 10th Century in Lesnoe Village in Adler district of Sochi – that’s were my father was born! :)

Archeologists believe this church was build by Greeks who were trying to convert locals to Christianity. However, when Byzantine Empire got weaker, the church was abandoned. Looking at the video clip by local TV agency «Kuban» there appears not much left of it. However, archeologists, and students from Sochi colleges who are helping out, have found some remains and ancient objects which were turned over to specialists for study.

The locals were visiting this church (or whatever was left of it, anyways), which they call Church of Saints Constantine and Elena, for a long time, and on the big holidays priest comes over for church services – this is not surprising, as Lesnoe is all Greek village. Archeologists started working on this location a year ago.

New Sochi – Novorossiysk sea route has been recently lunched for summer season. It will operate daily, except Mondays, between June 15th and August 31st. The hydrofoil (called Kometa, or Comet, in Russian ) trip lasts approximately 3 hours, and the ticket prices are: adult ticket is around $60 (1365 rubbles); kids older than 5yrs old – around $45 (1023 rubles), and kids under five with parents ride for free.

Here’s scheduler for Sochi/Novorossiysk route:

From Novorossiysk to Sochi, daily except Mondays:
Leaving: 9:00 (9:00am)
Arriving: 12:15 (12:15pm)

From Sochi to Novorossiysk, daily except Mondays:
Leaving: 18:00 (6:00pm)
Arriving: 21:15 (9:15pm)

Phone numbers in Novorossiysk port (probably only in Russian):

Ticketing in Novorossiysk Sea Port: (8617)-60-22-84
General Information: (8617)-60-23-24
Information in Novorossiysk Sea Port: (8617)-60-23-47

Btw, there are also daily buses going from Novorossiysk to Sochi, two leaving in the morning (7:50 & 10:50), and one at night (21:50). Information phone number: (8617)-64-42-79.

The Times article from 1960’s, the copy of which I posted couple of days ago, brought some nostalgic memories :) and desire to elaborate on it and compare to present day. The article is rather good, so, these are not the notes of critique. To follow the read below you’d probably want to read the original article first.

I was born in Sochi in late seventies, and growing up there in eighties I have to note, that not much was changed since the times described by the Times’ correspondent to my childhood days. There were still putevkas, trip vouchers of a sort, and savages, the people who traveled to the Black sea resorts on their own. “Savages” (dikari in Russian), because their lodging was not civilized — or rather not luxurious, by Soviet standards, as stay of people settled in Sochi spas.

The source of the problem

The city of Sochi was established Read the rest of this entry »

As you may have heard, UK’s Times newspaper has opened free access to its complete archive — all papers since 1785! I’ve searched articles on Sochi, and found a few that mentioned the city — confrontation of Reds and Whites in the beginning of the century, bombings by Nazis in 40x, travel ads in 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s — but found only one article all about Sochi. It is “Contrasts on Black Sea Riviera” published on November 28, 1961.

Even though I wasn’t around in 1961, I was growing up in Sochi during 80’s, and have to say it was mostly the same as described in this article. The article is rather long, so I’ll post only the copy of the article itself here for now, and my comments on it will come later in a separate post, along with some old postcards scans, so you can get a feel of what Sochi was like three-four decades back.

So, follwing is the “Contrasts on Black Sea Riviera” Times article about Sochi from 1961: Read the rest of this entry »

19th Open Russian Film Festival Kinotavr 2008 will take place in Sochi on June 7 – 15 this year. The official website is kinotavr.ru (Eng), and you can read my article with photos about last year’s «Kinotavr 2007» here. If interested to go, shop around, at least for the air fair, as prices listed on their tour website are pretty crazy.

During the same time — June 5-10 — Sochi will host 75-th Russian international cinema-market (Kinorynok or Kinorinok). This biggest event of the Russian and xUSSR republics’ film industry takes place three times a year, twice in Moscow (March & December) and in Sochi. It attracts over 1000 representatives from film studios, distribution companies, film producers, creative groups, movie theatres, and companies producing wide range of equipment and services for the film industry.

The official website of the event, with programme, floor layouts, photos, etc., is kinorinok.ru (Rus)

Geographically, these two events will be happening very close to each other, right in Sochi’s center.

Here are a few photos from previous Kinorynok events: Read the rest of this entry »

Russian page of Austrian Airlines lists special price for roundtrip direct flighs to Sochi — 13.655 RUB which is around 370€. This doesn’t include taxes and other fees, so you should check with Austrian on the details. The announced prices are valid through the end of July.

Here’s the link to announcement (in Russian).

MTS, Russia’s largest mobile telecom company, announced few days ago that it’s “technically ready” for commercial launch of 3G network in Sochi, as well as two other cities – Yekaterinburg and Kazan.

With the new 3G network, MTS will allow users to benefit from faster data transfer speeds (up to 3.6 Mbps) as compared to the current 2.5G EDGE network. Also, special 3G services will be offered, including video telephony, 3G roaming and mobile TV.

Read full press release »

The only other company I know that launched 3G in Russia is MegaFon, the third largest Russian carrier. Though right now, if I remember correctly, it is only available in St.-Petersburg, and they haven’t announced what other cities they are planning to expand it to next.

Finally!!! After 15 years, Russia is ice hockey World Champion again!!! :-)

Thank you, guys, sooooo much for the emotions and pride!!!

photo (c) iihf.com

photo (c) AP

World War II museum opened in Sochi this weekend. According to vesti.ru, the museum is featuring one of the most complete collections of WW2 awards. All Soviet medals and decorations were donated to the museum by owners or their heirs, and the awards from the foreign countries were purchased in auctions. Among other items are ammunition and paintings from the collection of the businessman Victor Baturin.

The museum is located on the territory of the Sanatorium «Krasmashevsky».

In front to the museum is new statue of Churchill, Stalin, and Roosevelt meeting in Yalta (another Black Sea coast city, now in Ukraine). The author of the statue is Israeli architect Frank Meisler. Here a couple of pictures from the rian.ru and a video news clip (in Russian) from ntv.ru

Read the rest of this entry »

With rising interest for the Eastern European destinations among Australian tourists, Expedia Australia (Expedia.com.au) compiled a list of top 10 ‘hidden corners’ of Eastern Europe. I’ll just quote #2 on that list:

2. The resorts of the Black Sea Coast – The Black Sea Coast washes up on the shores of Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine and offers a warm climate, sandy beaches, historical monuments, vineyards and luxurious resorts. Entertainment facilities and sanctuaries; home to hundreds of bird, fish and plant life, also line the coast offering an exciting yet relaxed seaside holiday. With entertainment, food and accommodation at reasonable prices, the Black Sea Coast provides a cost-effective alternative to the well-worn French Riviera. Worthwhile Black Sea resorts include Varna (Bulgaria), Constanta (Romania) and Yalta and Sochi in Russia.

Source: prleap.com

As reported by Russian news agency ITAR-TASS about a week ago, Russia and Ukraine have reached the agreement to build a bridge connecting Russia’s South and Crimea. I’ve written an article about plans for the Kerch Strait Bridge when they were announced by Ukrainian officials last year.

That announcement came short after Russian gov’t officially pledged to develop Sochi as round-year resort no matter how the Olympic bid goes. Many believe having this bridge will help Ukraine get some of the money Russia will pump into the south over the next decade. Anyways, both Russian and Ukrainian prime ministers have confirmed the agreement, and Ukrainian PM, Yulia Timoshenko, announced that the work on this project will start within days.

The first Kerch Strait Bridge connecting Krasnodar Krai and Crimea was built back in 1944, but was destroyed within a year by sea storms, and was never rebuilt. There are several projects for the new bridge in existence, valued between $700 million and one billion dollars.

As a separate, transportation related, piece of good news for Russia’s south – Russian government allocated extra money for reconstruction and maintenance of Russia’s roads. And the largest part of it – 86.7 billion rubbles ($3.7 bln), instead of originally planned 27 billion ($1.1 bln) just this year alone – will go into “Olympic” roads: М4 “Don”, connecting Moscow and Novorossiysk, and М27, Dzhubga – Sochi.

A year ago, around the time International Olympic Committee’s visit to Sochi, several direct flights from Austria were launched to Sochi mostly to “impress” the IOC members. Now, when Sochi has become an official 2014 Olympic host city, Austrian Airlines launched regular direct flights from Vienna to Sochi.

The schedule Vienna-Sochi-Vienna:

* Sochi mayor Viktor Kolodyazhny resigns to become head of «Olympstroy» corporation owned by state which will control all Olympic related construction in Sochi, and, of course, the money flow. You can read more on this in The Moscow Times. The acting mayor for now will be Vladimir Afanasenkov — Vice Governor of Krasnodarsky Krai. He too was previously involved in Sochi’s Olympic bid.

* Russia launches Olympic brand protection campaign:

“Sochi 2014 Organising Committee and Russian authorities today began the first ever mass intellectual property protection campaign to safeguard the Olympic brand in Russia.

Quick fact: The population of Sochi is around 400,000 people. The surrounding, Krasnodar region (aka Krasnodar Krai), is home to 5.1 million people, and is the third largest Russian region.

This is continuation of the photoset from the Gazprom’s new ski resort in Krasnaya Polyana. These photos are from the top of the ski-lift first stage at the Psekhako Ridge. You can find photos of resot’s base here.

Mountain Resort (second stage)

Gazprom carries out engineering and preparation for the second stage of Mountain Resort construction. The second construction stage includes pistes, ski stadium and other facilities at the Psekhako Ridge. Said facilities will be used during the Olympic Winter Games in 2014. Construction of the Olympic Ski Stadium with operating facilities will be finished in 2010.

The second construction stage also includes 4 ropeways, ski lifts, summer sports facilities, multilevel car parking, 300 and 180 room hotels, Cultural Center with waterpark, conference halls, restaurants, cafes and trading area.
– from press release

So, here we go, the photos: Read the rest of this entry »