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Tags: Russia Travel / Russia / → All Tags

Discover the "Real" Russia Amid the Modern Glitz of Moscow

Everybody has their own favorite travel memories, transcendent moments occurring far from home that spawn a new awareness and perspective on life. For me, a snowy trip to Moscow in January, 1993 is one of the fondest, as it was a moment that awakened in me the idea that the world is there for the taking, and all that is needed to visit somewhere exotic is simply to get up and go.

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Tags: Obama-Around-The-World / Presidential Travel / Barack Obama / Moscow / Russia Travel / Michelle Obama / → All Tags

More Museums For the Obamas As They Take Moscow

As President Obama continues to tour the world, we love that he's including his family and allowing them to be cultural ambassadors while he's tied up in meetings, like today's talks with Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev over arms control.

While Obama conducts business in the Kremlin, Michelle and the girls are literally down the hall with first lady Svetlana Medvedev, who took them on a tour of famous tourist sites within the palace, such as the Cathedral of the Assumption and the Amory Museum and its 190-carat Orlov diamond. The girls even took tea in the Winter Garden; we are so jealous.

According to the Russian paper Pravda and USA Today, the Obamas might however be sleeping outside of the Kremlin walls at the Ritz-Carlton, since the hotel has suspiciously blocked off reservations for July 5 thru 8. There's yet another clue as to the Obamas' hotel sleeping arrangements: "In its lobby, the Ritz-Carlton installed an over-sized, chocolate statue of an American Eagle and a Russian Bear in honor of the visit." Our jealousy sees no end.

Related Stories:
· US first lady Michelle Obama tours Moscow's Kremlin as summit talks kick off [LA Times]
· President Obama's likely hotel choice while in Moscow: The Ritz-Carlton [USA Today]
· Presidential Travel Coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Stringer / AFP / Getty ]

Tags: Worlds-Coolest-Pools / Moscow / Russia Travel / Communist Travel / → All Tags

No Need to Russian This Moscow Pool

Last one in's a rotten egg! We're finding the best places in the world to stick our toes in this summer (or next winter) for our World's Coolest Pools map. Know of any pools we must check out? Let us know.

Ah, life is short and time is fleeting! We didn't get to Moscow in time to use one of the world's largest public pools—it closed in 1990—but its traces are still readily apparent on the site. Besides, we don't know of any other pools which later became houses of worship.

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Tags: Guidebooks / Cellphones / Maps / Conde Nast Traveler / → All Tags

Technology Gets Smacked Down by Old-School Guidebook in Moscow

The folks over at Condé Nast Traveler recently sent three writers on a mission to Moscow and gave each of them a different tool to use in completing some touristy activities. One writer was armed with an iPhone, the other was given a new BlackBerry Bold phone and the last writer was left with an old-school guidebook from Eyewitness Travel.

Interestingly enough, the writer saddled with the guidebook ended up completing the required tasks much faster than the other two with the internet at their disposal. And here's why:

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Tags: Airport WiFi / Airport-WiFi-Map / SVO / → All Tags

You Don't Know How Lucky You Are With Free Internet

The reviews of Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport have to be some of the most dismal we've ever seen on the Internets. Having never been there, we hesitate to believe that "everything on the airport is a rip-off" in "The Airport That Time Forgot". Hope springs eternal?

There is one silver lining to traveling through Sheremetyevo, and it's not the opportunity to pronounce its name for your friends in a drinking game: WiFi access is free in pretty much all areas of the airport. So at least you'll be able to complain about the lack of seats, the ill-defined smoking areas and the long line at passport control to someone who cares.

Got an International Airport WiFi tip for us? Send it forth!. And you can always whine to us on Twitter, wherever you are.

Related Stories:
· Airport Connections: Improving at Moscow's Sheremetyevo [Jaunted]
· Room with an Anti-View: Novotel Moscow Airport is Forgettable [HC]
· Airport WiFi Map [Jaunted]

Tags: Amazing Race 13 / Amazing-Race-13 / Chasing Racers / Television Travel / TV Travel / → All Tags

You're Gonna Get Me Killed

Chasing Racers is back, with a brand new Amazing Race 13 mashup. This map will update the morning after every new episode. Send along tips, rumors, gossip, locations and spoilers to our map editors, become a member and comment on the stories below and add to the Jaunted-Flickr photo pool to get in on the fray.

Remember to zoom in, out and around on the map--with so much happening in each episode, it's easy to miss a map point.

After last week's non-elimination, there are still four teams competing for a coveted slot in the final three, and all bets are off. Toni and Dallas powered through to finish in first. Will they be able to hang onto their lead?

Will Nick and Starr be able to recover from their terrible luck with taxis, and will Andrew and Dan be able to rebound from their upcoming Speed Bump? With $1 million dollars on the line, the stakes are high and the tension is even higher. Who will be eliminated next?

LET'S FIND OUT!

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Tags: Amazing Race 13 / Chasing Racers / Television Travel / TV Travel / → All Tags

That Is Studly

Chasing Racers is back, with a brand new Amazing Race 13 mashup. This map will update the morning after every new episode. Send along tips, rumors, gossip, locations and spoilers to our map editors, become a member and comment on the stories below and add to the Jaunted-Flickr photo pool to get in on the fray.

Remember to zoom in, out and around on the map--with so much happening in each episode, it's easy to miss a map point.

Well, race fans, it's that time in the show cycle where the faces on the opening credits seem only vaguely familiar. We're down to four teams, and the race is definitely heating up. Nick and Starr have pulled off four first place finishes, and are hoping to keep the streak going, but will Dallas and Starr distract each other from a very competitive race? Will Ken and Tina lock step to edge out other teams? Can Andrew and Dan manage to keep focused, or will they continue to bumble their way around like blindfolded hobos?

LET'S FIND OUT!

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Tags: Magazines / Sky Express / Low Cost Carriers / LCCs / Airlines / Russia Travel / → All Tags

Russian LCC Travel: Sky Express Launches Express Magazine

Just as other airlines are ditching in-flight magazines because they weigh too much (and secretly, we think, because they know they're full of rubbish), the colorful Russian low-cost carrier Sky Express is just starting one up.

We don't know too much about Sky Express, which flies from a Moscow hub to 11 other Russian cities. Given our own experience with non-low-cost Russian airlines, we're not sure we want to know much.

But in case you want to fly on the cheap around Russia, you'll now be able to read Express Magazine as you do it. The big plan is to revolutionize the Russian in-flight magazine market. If they're talking revolutions, perhaps they're in the right place.

Related Stories:
· Sky Express [Official Site]
· Ink Connects with Sky Express [Peanuts]
· This Week at Emirates: Whither the In-Flight Magazine? [Jaunted]

[Photo: Sky Express]

Tags: Worlds-Best-Train-Trips-Map / Train Travel / Russia Travel / Videos / → All Tags

World's Greatest Train Travel: The Grandest Babushka of All

This week, we're mapping some of the world's greatest train trips.

We'd be crazy if we didn't include the Trans-Siberian Railway on our list of the world's best trains. The Moscow-to-Vladivostok luxury line, the third-longest continual service route in the world, was one of the first to intentionally connect across borders (via the Beijing spur, technically known as the Trans-Manchurian) and to allow its posh clientele the opportunity to see areas of the world that even now are considered dangerous.

As the only route we covered that gets its own Lonely Planet volume, the Trans-Siberian is still influencing the direction of international train travel: Russia, China and Germany announced this year that it would collaborate on a Beijing-to-Hamburg route.

We get a little stir-crazy thinking about being on a train that long but with a little vodka, it just might be bearable.

Related Stories:
· Not a Real Trans-Siberian Trip [Jaunted]
· Travel Films: Transsiberian Is an Ice Cold Thriller [Jaunted]
· Ulan Bataar To The Russian Border [The World Is Not Flat]

Tags: Trains / Train Travel / Russia Travel / Airport Transportation / → All Tags

Airport Connections: Improving at Moscow's Sheremetyevo

Moscow might be a blossoming tourist destination with pricier hotels than nearly anywhere else, but until now getting into the city from any of the airports has been a bit of a nightmare. But things are looking up.

With a tongue-twister of a name, the Savyolovsky Station--Sheremetyevo Airport Rail Link has just opened, whizzing travelers from Sheremetyevo into downtown Moscow in just 35 minutes--half the time it used to take on the bus.

Of course, now you miss out on sitting on that smoggy gray traffic jam known as Leningradskoye Highway, but don't worry, it'll still probably take you ages to get through the immigration line.

Related Stories:
· Moscow Sheremetyevo Gains New Rail Link [Business Traveller]
· Moscow Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: jystewart]

Tags: Russia Travel / Accidents / → All Tags

Russian Weather Control Planes Bomb Moscow House

A house in the suburbs of Moscow was hit with a nearly sixty pound bag of cement after the Russian Air Force dropped it in an attempt to control the weather. The house-bombing accident occurred while planes were trying to secure good weather in advance of Russia Day celebrations on June 12.

No one was injured by the falling concrete, but the house was badly damaged. Russian Air Force officials told Reuters:

A pack of cement used in creating ... good weather in the capital region ... failed to pulverize completely at high altitude and fell on the roof of a house, making a hole about 80-100 cm (2.5-3 ft)

The accident was apparently the first mishap in over twenty years of Russian weather control activities.

Related Stories:
· In Russia, Sometimes It Rains Cement [Reuters]
· Moscow Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: IMDb]

Tags: Celeb Travel / Amy Winehouse / Roman Abramovich / → All Tags

Artsy Travel: Winehouse Warbles for Moscow's New Museum

Amy Winehouse said yes, yes, yes to a private gig at a new gallery in Russia this weekend. The "Rehab" singer was paid a reported $2 million to sing at the opening of the Center for Contemporary Culture, a new art museum in Moscow operated by the wife of entrepreneur and football team owner Roman Abramovich.

In its past life the CCC was actually a bus garage designed by famous Russian architect Konstantin Melnikov, before Daria Zhukova saw its potential as a loftlike gallery space.

We bet Amy's powerful pipes rang out from there to Odessa--unfortunately, after the singer's return to London she ended up making an unscheduled trip to the hospital amid rumors of a collapse.

Related Stories:
· Russian Capital Gets New Gallery in Melnikov Bus Depot [The Art Newspaper]
· Amy Winehouse Was "Very Happy" at Gallery Performance [ICYDK]
· Celeb Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: The Superficial]