One of the coolest things about writing about something (my city in this case) is that while digging for more details you can learn so many things that you didn’t know before!

For example, today I found out that Sochi resident, and member of Russian National Bobsleigh Team Alexei Voevoda was once a professional arm-wrestler and he is the uncontested arm wrestling world champion among professionals for the 2000-2004 period!

Voevoda commented on his personal commitment to Sochi’s bid:

“I live in Sochi and I believe that my native city would host a once-in-a-lifetime Games. The unique climate, well-developed infrastructure and state-of-the-art sports facilities will provide comfort and convenience for athletes and guests. The 2014 Olympics is to leave a priceless legacy not just for Sochi and the Krasnodar Region, but for the whole country, acting as a powerful catalyst of winter sports development. We won silver at the 2006 Torino Olympics and I’m sure that at the 2014 Games in Sochi we’ll be inspired to go for the gold.”

February 11, 2007 around 580 000 people in 84 Russian cities will take part in traditional mass skiing competition «Ski-track of Russia». This year the competition will have two stages, first on February 11 in 84 cities, and second on February 21 in Sochi, in Krasnaya Polyana, where the winners of the regional competitions will participate.

The reconstruction of the runway for Sochi Airport should be finished this year and go into operation by the end of the year. After reconstruction it will be able to accept all types of civil aircrafts in any weather conditions.

The completion of the terminal reconstruction is planned for mid-2008, after which it will be able to service three times more passengers then it can now.

Ekaterinburg is located in Ural Mountains region and it is one of the biggest cities in Russia. It’s a magnet for investors, and if you one of them :), or if you will be traveling to this city in June-August, maybe you’ll be interested to know that you can purchase Ural Airlines tickets for Ekaterinburg – Sochi flights for June-August period for lower price. According to their press release price of one way ticket will be around US$150 if you buy it from February 1st to March 31st.

I haven’t had a chance to write about Sochi events in last few days, today too. So, today I’m just going to show you a few pics of Sochi I found on Flickr.com.

Today we’ll look at the train terminal in Central district. It is definitely one of the coolest architectural structures in Sochi. The main tower has a huge clock, which has signs of the zodiac instead of numbers, as you can see on one of the pictures. The terminal was recently reconstructed and now looks great. In front of this terminal is also Sochi’s main bus terminal, from where buses go in all directions, and also to other cities. However, many international buses operating by private companies do not leave from this terminal.

Here are lager photos: Read the rest of this entry »

Video recorded and compiled by a couple of guys paragliding over Krasnaya Polyana, with some nice shots of surrounding nature.

RuTube is a clone of YouTube

What happened

As I wrote in my last night post, power to most Sochi districts was cut off after powerlines went down in severe weather. It was interesting to see that the reports on situation in Sochi in Russian online media were coming in live with various details. I guess we should thank Information Age and Sochi’s Olympic bid for this.

So the timeline goes roughly like this: Read the rest of this entry »

Tonight, around 5 PM, due to the severe weather conditions many regions of the Black Sea coast from Tuapse to Adler (basically the area of “Big Sochi”) were left without power. Gusty wind at 25 meters/sec, wet snow, and sudden drops of temperature cut the electrical lines in the mountainous regions of near Sochi. By the midnight power to many parts of the city was restored, however some regions remain unpowered. All repair works are complicated by continuing bad weather conditions, but they still expected to be completed by tomorrow.

Unfortunately this kind of power outages sometimes happen in Sochi, because some powerlines go over the mountains, so during winter they can snatch under the weight of snow. And snow makes it harder to get to the places of damage for repair. Major power outages in previous years would sometimes affect heating too, in which case people try to stay warm by lighting their gas-stoves. However some buildings don’t have gas lines, and people, who live in these buildings and normally rely only on electricity, find themselves in a tough situation. But of course neighbours in Russia don’t let neighbours suffer in difficult times like this, people invite others they know from the neighbourhood to their apartments to stay warm and/or prepare food to take home.

A group of Russian mountain-climber is planning to raise Sochi city flag to the top peaks of World’s five continents. They’ll start with Aconcagua – tallest mountain of South America and all Southern Hemisphere, followed by expeditions to Kilimanjaro, Elbrus, and Everest. After that, they will bring the flag that was on the World’s top peaks to Guatemala, where, in July, IOC will name the official 2014 Winter Olympic host city.

First case of bird flu this year was registered today in Russia. Bird flu virus H5N1 was found in dead birds in the city of Lobinsk and two villages near it in Krasnodar Krai.

Last year during global bird flu scare the virus was also found in Russia in Krasnodar Krai, as well as in some places in Siberia. No human deaths contaminations were reported last year in Krasnodar Krai. There was a lot of things done last year in Krasnodar Krai last year due to this scare. Vaccine was developed, plans were designed on how to react to cases oc bird flu, and farms personnel and local population was trained, and additional amounts of disposable suites and tools were purchased to destroy infected birds. So, hopefully all those efforts will help to minimize any impact this virus may have in the region.

Labinsk & Sochi on the map: Read the rest of this entry »

A new well-room will be opened this spring in the Chvizhepse village in Sochi, where the best known mineral water in the Black Sea region is found. Here tourists will be able to taste real carbonic mineral water found in this region, healing qualities of which are known throughout Russia. This well-room will be located near Adler – Krasnaya Polyana road, and all tourists will be able to stop by here for a quick rest.

Sochi 2014 bid team has confirmed their plans to locate all Olympic athletes close to the venues. Here’s few quotes from the press release:

“75% of all athletes at the Sochi Games will be housed within 5 minutes of their competition and training venues, for the first time in Olympic Winter Game history.”

“Sochi 2014 promises a more manageable Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, with all elements taking place in a mountain cluster and coastal ice cluster, only 40 minutes apart. While the functional compactness of the Sochi 2014 plan will provide maximum convenience for the Olympic Family, the media, sponsor guests and spectators, it will also greatly enhance the Games experience for the athletes, usually exiled to the farthest reaches of the Village and often forced to spend hours in transit each day.”

“Sochi’s Games plan will allow spectators to easily view multiple events in a single day, and give athletes the unique chance to attend events that they are not competing in.”

Russian Railways is reconstructing connection branch in Moscow, this will decrease travel time from Petersburg to Sochi by several hours. The speed up will most likely affect train number 35/36 (#35 – from Petersburg to Adler, #36 back) and will begin with summer train scheduler, which becomes effective in the end of May.

Ministry of Transportation will allocate 16.2 billion rubles ($610 million US) for the construction of the alternative road around Sochi’s center between 2007 and 2009. Yuga.ru quotes the Minister of Transportation Igor Livitin saying that this road is one of the priority projects for the Ministry, and that in 2009 it will be completed. The road will be tied with city’s current transportation infrastructure. He also mentioned that more pedestrian underground crossings will be created under Kurortny Prospect.

As I mentioned several times in my previous posts, traffic jams caused by transportation infrastructure (which was never designed for current number of cars we have on the roads) in the city today is a major pain for both residents and guests. There are only two ways to get through the Center (for people going to Khosta, Adler, and Abkhazia) — drive though the main road, Kurortny Prospect, or take an existing alternate route, which is in a poor condition and is often overloaded with traffic as well. I don’t know if they are going to build another road or reconstruct existing alternative road. I think they’ll go with reconstruction, and will add several junctions. And adding pedestrian underpasses along the Kurortny Prospect should definitely help. I can think of several places where those are desperately needed.

Members of Russian National Anti-terrorist Committee will inspect southern resorts in April for safety against terrorist attacks. This planned inspection is part of government’s efforts to keep tourists safe.