Coastal cluster Olympic park.

“Bolshoy” ice dome – Men’s hockey arena.

“Fisht” stadium – ceremonies, and football stadium for WC2018.

“Adler arena” – speed skating stadium.

A few recent photos…

Read the rest of this entry »

I a few amazing lightning-over-the-sea photos taken by other people in Sochi, and wanted to share with you.

The photos are clickable, and lead to the large size originals.

Taken in Dagomys district of Sochi (c) v_kryukov53

Taken in Adler district of Sochi (c) pmirosevic

More amazing photos » Read the rest of this entry »

A hotel in Adler’s center.

Central Post Office in the Central district.

Orthodox church in Adler.

Here are a few more: Read the rest of this entry »

Hey guys! I’m sorry i haven’t written anything in a while, but there is a little change in my life — after thirteen years living in the USA I’m back in Russia giving it a try :-) Unfortunately I’m not in Sochi, as it’s tough to find an IT job there. I’m in Saint-Petersburg. And I’m a lot closer to Sochi now, plan to visit it more often, and for sure will keep this blog going!

I did go to Sochi a month ago, and you can find some photos from my trip on my Flickr account. Unfortunately, I forgot my notes on what I wanted to blog about in NY. I’ll try to remember, though, at least about the Investment Forum and how it’s organization affected people there.

Couple of hours ago, though, there was a little scare here in Russia when news agencies reported SkyExpress flight from Sochi to Moscow was being seized by unknown person, and that he demands for the plane to turn to Vienna, Austria. However, the flight safely landed in Vnukovo airport in Moscow, and the person who tried to “seize” the plane was arrested. Turns out the person who started the whole thing is a 30+ yrs old man who was released from psychiatric hospital, where he spent last six years, several hours prior to boarding the plane. On the plane he passed a written note with his demands and a bomb threat to the pilot via flight attendant. It’s all over now, though.

Oh, btw, good news for those of you who are in Moscow right now, or plans to be there real soon — SkyExpress has a good deal on Moscow-Sochi flights right now. Check it out on their website »

Anyways, now back to the happy stuff :-) Below are some of the photos from my trip. You can see the rest of them here: photos of Sochi – 12 pages + 8 pages from my friend’s wedding in Sochi which includes many photos outside.

My sis on Krasnaya Polyana

Sochi - where Past meets present: Vladimir Iljich looking over new buildings

Area near airport in Adler's center

Sochi sea port

My friend's wedding

Remember the recent post about Cosmopolitan-Russia getting hundreds of girls on a Sochi beach for the Guinness World Record? Well, they finally updated their official blog with a lot more photos and videos from the event! Go check it out :)

Photo (c) Cosmopolitan-Russia & Alexander Popov

I also found great set of photos from this Bikini Boom in Sochi event on Flickr, you can see it here: Bikini Boom in Sochi.

Photo (c) simam @ flickr

An event organized by Cosmopolitan-Russia magazine has set new Guinness World Record on «Riviera» beach in Sochi! Around 2000 girls in bikini have formed huge “COSMO.RU” for Cosmopolitan commercial just yesterday, on July 19.

With this event, Cosmo-Russia took relay passed to them over by Cosmo-Australia, which set previous record of organizing 1010 women to spell out “COSMO” on one of the Austraila’s beaches, and creating a new category in the Guinness World Record book.

Some early reports last night talked about 1602 ladies and “ruCosmo” being spelled out. But the official CosmoRussia blog says that around 2000 ladies were registered (exact number will be announced after all lists are compared). All girls who participated in the event received gifts —  red bikini and bag with a letter they were part of during this event.

Here are a few photos from the event posted on the CosmoRussia.ru, and you can find a lot more in hi-res on their official blog.

Photos by CosmoRussia.ru
And if you here only for photos of girls in bikini, you can check out Austraila’s event photos here.

Tornadoes are actually quite common in Sochi, though are not as large as the ones destroying whole towns in USA. However, in Sochi they often cause havoc as well. Twisters in Sochi usually form over the Black Sea during stormy weather, then coming down crushing at the city. Two years ago in August, strong tornado came in destroying residential houses (our family friend’s house was almost completely destroyed — and these are brick houses!), part of «Youzhnye Kultury» park, and many buses on overnight bus parking, causing public transportation interruption in Adler for the next few weeks.

I Found these amazing photos at 50hz.ru by Alex A. Bel. , I’ve never seen one this big over there! They have more, check ’em out. These photos are from Adler district.

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 »

Here are several photos from brand spanking new «Laura» resort (official name “The mountain-ski center «Gazprom»”) launched this winter season!

At present Gazprom constructs a Mountain Resort in the Achipse River valley and at the Psekhako Ridge. Gazprom finishes the first stage of construction including 8 ropeways, ropeway lower station with utility rooms, ski lifts, 220 room hotel, 32 villas, guest house for official delegations, volleyball playground, tennis courts as well as energy supply, security, communication facilities and other operating and auxiliary facilities. In the end of 2007 Gazprom plans to commission all facilities of the first construction stage.

– from Gazprom’s press release

See map and all 15 photos: Read the rest of this entry »

My friend Arkasha, who works in Krasnaya Polyana, sent me recently a few photos he took there with his mobile phone. Check ’em out:

Larger images inside. Also, “Aibga” Hotel fire photos » Read the rest of this entry »