How long was your flight?

[Tnic 5]

Just shy of 10 hours JFK-SVO

A 6 1/2 hour wait.

Then a 15 hour train ride to Yoshkar Ola. Total of 31 1/2 hours not counting the check in and wait time at JFK.

One of these days we're gonna get a deluxe berth, but we've had nice roomies so far and the dinning car is great.

Any reason you didn't fly SVO - Kazan? IIRC, the flight is pretty inexpensive, and I think less than 4 hours. Then it's less than a few hours by taxi.

Well, because she said "we take train". There's actually air service direct to Y/O from Moscow. We saw the schedule at a travel service around the corner from mama's last year and Virginia Agency (part of maxim) has the same think posted on their site, but we would have to book through them from this end. I've searched until I dropped, but can't seem to find any airline website that posts that info. Maybe the girl Friday could help with that next trip. I have to say thought, that I slept like a baby on the train and only woke when we pulled into a station. We arrived fairly fresh and relaxed. Our berth was clean and comfy so no complaints there. The other issue with the flights is that they only go back and forth three days a week and there's no easy connection same day. I'll look at the SVO to Kazan thing though.

And speaking of the Russian Girl Friday, I have her booked to handle Irina's logistics (transport from train station to room to SVO) when she returns next month. The price she quoted me was more than satisfactory.

[slim 1,533]

I went to Moscow one time and that's the only time I've been to Russia. Since my wife's been here, she hasn't been back. Our life is here. We're not financially well-off to the point where we can spend a couple months of the year jet-setting around the world and not working. That said, we're tentatively scheduled for a 2010 trip to see mama and 'nem but with the current state of affairs here in our household (she's f'king nuts) coupled with the economy, and relative ease in obtaining tourist visas for Russians now, mama and 'nem may just have to come here and see us.

I left Cincinnati in the afternoon, flew to JFK and left there late that evening, arrived at SVO next afternoon. I wanna say crossing the pond was only about 8 hours. And really, it only took one good afternoon nap and I was on Moscow time. Well, that and the fact that my buddy and I hit up the Propaganda club that first night. A few drinks, a few more, boom! Moscow time!

My wife met me there a few days later at DME. She'd flown for something like 11 hours overnight from VVO. She actually flew farther than I did to get there.

AKguy, next time you go, you may want to consider routing through either SEA/SFO/LAX to SEL/ICN/NRT to VVO/KHV to your destination. I believe Anchorage actually has direct flights to Seoul and/or Tokyo and maybe even Beijing. Once you're in the Far East, the rest of Russia is less than 12 hours away! (I said that all enthusiastically like it was really going to help you out or something.) At least it'll keep you out of shitholes like Amsterdam and Prague - which I'm sure were the shitholes of your trip when compared to places like Chicago, Newark or Laguardia.

[Jonathan Matthies 1]

Denver->LAX 2.5 hours

2 hour layover

LAX-ICH (Seoul)->13 freaking hours

2 hour layover

ICH->VVO Vladivostok -> 2.25

On the way back it was 2.25 again, 11 hours across the sea to LAX, and 2 more to Denver.

When Katya flies here, she'll go from VVO->Moscow for the interview and then, hopefully, Moscow->NY->Denver - or something similar

[AKguy 1]

AKguy, next time you go, you may want to consider routing through either SEA/SFO/LAX to SEL/ICN/NRT to VVO/KHV to your destination. I believe Anchorage actually has direct flights to Seoul and/or Tokyo and maybe even Beijing. Once you're in the Far East, the rest of Russia is less than 12 hours away! (I said that all enthusiastically like it was really going to help you out or something.) At least it'll keep you out of shitholes like Amsterdam and Prague - which I'm sure were the shitholes of your trip when compared to places like Chicago, Newark or Laguardia.

If I was flying to Russia during the summer I'd take the Condorair routes. They fly straight from Anchorage, over the pole, and drop into Frankfurt. I think it's a 13hr flight, then onwards to Moscow and then south.

I'll look into the Asian routes in the future though.

Yeah, Amsterdam and Prague were just #######....

[BTalley 0]

When Svetlana came here from Saint-Petersburg, I thought I had it planned as good as possible.

Only 14 hours total, with one stop in Paris.

But there was a mistake on Svetlana's dog's boarding pass on the trip from Paris to Miami. That's right ---her DOG's boarding pass. By the time everything was straightened out, she missed the flight, and Air France had to put her and the dog up in a hotel.

So she arrived the next day.

I hate Miami airport --- so when I traveled to SpB I always left from Fort Lauderdale. But there are no one-stops from FLL. , so it always took me about 22 hours.

[Tnic 5]

Hmm. Unless the flights to YO are new, as of a few years ago the airport in YO was completely shutdown.

Anyway, it's always best to do what your girl suggests, so the train was probably a good idea for reasons you or I don't even know.

Actually IIRC she was surprised to see it was an option so I think the airport is only recently (as of 2008) open. The problem is the infrequency of the flights. It would entail an overnight in Moscow both ways. Taking the train we get into SVO in plenty of time to clear passport control grab a cab (or have one grab you) and get to the train station with a few hours left to kill. Coming back it's an overnight stay.

Also the airport is about 9 km from the city center while the train station is a five minute walk from Mama's house.

YO used to be a major missile base (I think ICBMs) and was not shown on any maps. The airport was an airbase if my info is right.

[Steve S 2]

I hate Miami airport

Yuck, me too. The only one I have hated more was Athens.

Actually, Sheremieteva-1 is pretty much a dump, but I have such fond associations with it - the golden road to see my love.

T- minus 36 hours! Will be back with trip report in a couple of weeks.

[bobb 0]

Trip past January:

SFO - Chicago - DME - Train to Izhevsk -> 37 hrs with 7 hours of non-traveling time.

Trip this August:

SFO - Chicago - DME - Izhevsk -> 25 hours with 8 1/2 hrs of non-traveling time.

Returning August with Luba:

Train to Moscow - Taxi to DME - Chicago - SFO -> 40 1/2 hrs with maybe 7 hours non-traveling time, which includes taxi to DME from Kazansky Rail Station.

[slim 1,533]

YO used to be a major missile base (I think ICBMs) and was not shown on any maps. The airport was an airbase if my info is right.

Still is. There's a big area just outside the city limits that's fenced off and guarded by lots and lots of guys with lots and lots of guns.

If you head over to Google, click on the maps, punch in YO and then switch to the satellite mode, you can see a HUGE weapons storage area to the west of YO adjacent to the area called "krasnooktyabr'skiy."

What's really neat about this map is it's green and summery in the expanded mode but once you zoom in a little, it switches to winter mode! Awesome for aerial recon because it's a lot easier to see "the path less traveled" when there's snow covering it. When you can see roads with tire tracks on them, it's pretty much a given that it's being used. Same with clear parking lots, etc. Cars with snow on them haven't moved in a while. Clean cars have. Fencelines are easily recognized as a straight white path through the brown trees. Pretty simple, huh?

If you look at this particular piece of satellite imagery you'll notice certain things right away about this place. First of all, there's an awesome triple fence all the way around the area, complete with perimeter lighting and fighting positions, outposts, even a few guardshacks. A nice paved road, too! Many of the buildings have berms built around them, and we all know what those are for! And for some reason, there are more than a few long trucks/trailers. Some are snow covered, some are not. Hmmmmm.

To really grasp the size of this place, check out one of ours that's just up highway 83 in Minot, North Dakota. Can't believe all this stuff is on the freaking internet? Neither can Al Qaida! "Thank you Mr. Bush."

[Brad and Vika 129]

About 14 hours in the air from Kentucky to Odessa. About four hours layover, then four hours driving to Kherson.

[Tnic 5]

Yeah, we drove past the scary men/guns/fences on our way to Cheboksari, and it seemed pretty damn big. Couldn't really see much from the road, but it was pretty obvious that this is a high-value target installation. I'll have to go check out the Google satellite pics, thanks for pointing that out!

We went to Chebasary two or three times last year. I didn't notice the fences as I was bracing for the high speed head-on that I was sure would happen, but my future SIL had everything under control. Plus I was trying in vain to convince them that there were much better places than McDonalds, but I lost.

There is however an HQ compound just around the corner from Mama's house.

[Tnic 5]

YO used to be a major missile base (I think ICBMs) and was not shown on any maps. The airport was an airbase if my info is right.

Still is. There's a big area just outside the city limits that's fenced off and guarded by lots and lots of guys with lots and lots of guns.

If you head over to Google, click on the maps, punch in YO and then switch to the satellite mode, you can see a HUGE weapons storage area to the west of YO adjacent to the area called "krasnooktyabr'skiy."

What's really neat about this map is it's green and summery in the expanded mode but once you zoom in a little, it switches to winter mode! Awesome for aerial recon because it's a lot easier to see "the path less traveled" when there's snow covering it. When you can see roads with tire tracks on them, it's pretty much a given that it's being used. Same with clear parking lots, etc. Cars with snow on them haven't moved in a while. Clean cars have. Fencelines are easily recognized as a straight white path through the brown trees. Pretty simple, huh?

If you look at this particular piece of satellite imagery you'll notice certain things right away about this place. First of all, there's an awesome triple fence all the way around the area, complete with perimeter lighting and fighting positions, outposts, even a few guardshacks. A nice paved road, too! Many of the buildings have berms built around them, and we all know what those are for! And for some reason, there are more than a few long trucks/trailers. Some are snow covered, some are not. Hmmmmm.

To really grasp the size of this place, check out one of ours that's just up highway 83 in Minot, North Dakota. Can't believe all this stuff is on the freaking internet? Neither can Al Qaida! "Thank you Mr. Bush."

That is definately a Weapons Storage Area. I used to have business at the old one in Bangor, ME when I was in the ANG there. It was used as our rifle range after the AF left and some of the guys I worked with had some very interesting war stories from when they kept Genie Nukes there for our alert fighters. Dow AFB was a small SAC bomber base in it's day.

Did you check out the Airport to the north (about 9 km) of YO? A lot of planes parked in nice neat rows.

[slim 1,533]

That is definately a Weapons Storage Area. I used to have business at the old one in Bangor, ME when I was in the ANG there. It was used as our rifle range after the AF left and some of the guys I worked with had some very interesting war stories from when they kept Genie Nukes there for our alert fighters. Dow AFB was a small SAC bomber base in it's day.

Did you check out the Airport to the north (about 9 km) of YO? A lot of planes parked in nice neat rows.

I have many good stories from the WSA up in Minot. A lot of fun times, a lot of, uh, not so fun times. Either way though, good experience and I wouldn't trade it for the world. There's nothing like digging through six feet of snow to expose a manhole cover to ensure it hasn't been tampered with. As if the six feet of snow on top wasn't proof enough. That's Uncle Sam for you!

Bangor ANG still looks like they're working. There's a C-141 and two C-130s on the south ramp, three KC-135s on the west ramp, two more on the north ramp along with another C-130. And is that an F-101 Voodoo up on blocks in front of the squadron?

I didn't check on YO's airbases last night after seeing that FREAKING HUGE WSA, but I did tonight. The base due north near "shoybulak" seems like it has a relatively low priority since there are several breaks in it's perimeter fencing and not much activity on the ramps. It does have a plowed runway though so it's at least a little bit important! The only aircraft I could see were a few old Colts and some smaller fighter trainers. All looked to be pretty old. Maybe two Bears sitting on the south ramp near the helo? Anyway, the only thing modern I saw was the big Antonov cargo plane. I'm guessing that's their training base.

There's another strip to the east of town near "Savino" but I couldn't zoom on it. It looks to be a bigger runway with more access so maybe that's where they keep the good stuff. I'm too lazy to research it right now, but I'm sure a trip over to globalsecurity.org, fas.gov, or any of the tinfoil hatters favorites, like the CIA factbook website would quickly shed light on which cookie jar holds the pichinushki.

I still can't believe the amount of unclassified ####### that's out there today. Reminds me of a "SECRET/NOFORN" briefing I had several years ago where the "intelligence" officer came in and told us about our deployment location, etc., etc., etc. When it came time for pictures, she said, "OK, these were taken a few years ago during the construction phase of the base." I pulled out a few pics I'd downloaded from Google, held them up, passed them around and said, "yeah, these were from like three days ago." She told me to put them away and not to show anyone else as they were now "CLASSIFIED." WTFO? Classified? They were downloaded off the freaking Internet. You know, the thing that has world wide access for anyone and everyone? She seemed quite irritated, and not at the fact that my intel was better than hers and there was something inherently wrong with that, but just irritated by the fact that I'd beaten her at her game.

I just wanted good info. I'm a visual person, so before I go anywhere I like to check maps and stuff to make sure I know what I'm getting into. My buddy recently graduated from intel school and he's assured me the information out there is so much better now. "We get it like 10 minutes after CNN now. It used to be like 20, but now it's only like 10. We're making improvements!" Without getting into details, let's just say he calls me for "confirmation" on all things FSU-related before he produces his briefings. It's not that his super-secret classified network is ineffective, it's just that TV1 shows it on their news several days before it appears on his computer screen.

I think Obama just fixed all that with his recent trip, right?

[Thomas-n-Elena 0]

.

I think Obama just fixed all that with his recent trip, right?

Yeah he had to hook up the digital TV converters in our stations over there. They were still broadcasting in analog.

[johnj 0]

.

I think Obama just fixed all that with his recent trip, right?

Yeah he had to hook up the digital TV converters in our stations over there. They were still broadcasting in analog.

Do we really believe the Russians are that stupid to believe that Obama fixed anything between these two countries? I love it when the news said the two Presidents saw "eye to eye" on many issues but that Putin and Obama had major differences, duh

It is like to featherweights going up against one heavyweight. Sure, they will get in a couple pretty good swings but they do not have a prayer against the big guy. Don't kid yourselves, Putin has the final say in any treaties, togetherness, etc.

Edited July 10, 2009 by john and natalya