Experience the Russian Riviera
Ok, so, there will be three! official mascots:
1. The Leopard (28%)
2. The Polar Bear (18%)
3. Zaya the dore hare (16%)
4. The Dolphin (12%)
5. The Bullfinch (10%)
6. The Little Sun (8%)
7. The Matryoshka dolls
8. Brown Bear
Percents are the poll results they announced.
Russian Paralympians chose Sunlight and Snowflake as mascots for the 2014 Paralympic Games. The poll for the Olympic mascot is going on right now.
Within next two hours Russia will pick the official mascot for the Olympic Games 2014!
Concert, with nationwide phone, SMS, and internet poll in the end, I guess, has already been started. If you’re in Russia, you can watch it live at http://itv.1tv.ru/. I’m not sure you’ll be able to see it if you’re outside of Russia. Trying won’t hurt :-)
Here’s what we’re choosing from:
Except for left-most — Uncle Frost. Russia has decided to pull him from the poll because International Olympic Committee will have all rights for the mascot. Uncle Frost is Russia’s Santa, so it would cause some issues in the future.
Anyway, you can find more information and pictures at talisman.sochi2014.com
Which one would vote for?
I should’ve blogged about it a couple of months ago, but I was traveling, and changing to a new workplace.
There’s an ongoing public mascot contest organized by Sochi 2014 Olympic committee. It started on September 5th, and a month later they announced they are accepting international entries.
Their idea, as they announced it, is to get some ideas from public, and then they’ll give popular ones to the pros to complete them. So, when you see the pictured in their gallery, don’t jump to conclusions :)
Official website of the contest: talisman.sochi2014.com
On June 26th Russia and Abkhazia resumed passenger train services between Adler, Sochi and Gagra, Abkhazia. The train travels twice a day – at 7:05 AM from Adler’s train station, and back at 17:57 (5:57 PM) back the same day. The over two hours trip includes two ten minutes stops for passport control on both Russian and Abkhazian sides. Passengers do not leave the train for this procedure. More trains are expected to operate on this route in the near future.
The passenger train service between Sochi and Abkhazia was active in years 2003-2004, back then around 400 people traveled during each ride. It is hoped that resuming of the Sochi-Abkhazia train service will help to unload automotive Russia-Abkhazia border crossings, which increased in the recent years, and reaching 35000 people per day.
Web surfing takes me places…
Yesterday I found out there’s a computer virus Virus.DOS.Sochi.703, which apparently was dedicated to Sochi’s 2002 Olympics bid — the virus contains the text *Ks&I* Sochi Olympic Games 2002.
While trying to get more information on this I stumpled on a real biologic virus called Dobrava-Sochi virus (DOBV-Ap) – separate lineage of Dobrava virus found in and around Sochi.
And then on the same search I stumbled on a fun club mix by DJ Virus — Sochi 2014. I liked it, so I’m embedding it here :)
In this week’s government’s decision all tourism infrastructure in Russia – that includes hotels, ski resorts, beaches, and other tourist and recreational venues – will go through mandatory classification. And it will all start with hotels in Sochi.
Hotels in Russia are not in a hurry to get classified, as the procedure can be expensive, but the benefits are not always clear. Currently, only 5% of all Russia’s hotels went through classification. Meanwhile, Sochi’s commitement to the Olympics is 57 000 hotel rooms ranging two to five stars. Mandatory classification of all hotels will help to understand what is currently missing, what needs to be built.
How soon all this will start rolling wasn’t annouced.
On unrelated (well, related to hotels) news, Hilton will open Doubletree by Hilton Sochi-Adler hotel in the year 2012.
Turkish Airlines announced launch of flights from Istanbul to Sochi this summer season. Flights to Sochi will be three times a week.
Formula One chief Bernie Ecclestone said he aims to bring the motor-racing series to Russia by 2012 and New York by 2013, in a move to have up to 20 events in the Grand Prix calendar.
Formula One will most likely be held in the Russian capital of Moscow or in Sochi, site of the 2014 Winter Olympics, while at least three places have been identified for a circuit outside Manhattan, Ecclestone said.
This info is from Bloomberg.
Formula One is quite popular in Russia (my brother is huge fan, and doen’t miss a single qualification or a race), and Russian fans have had hopes for Moscow to get onto the F1 series calendar for years. The location for the stadium outside of the city has been selected, and, if I’m not mistaken, even the construction has been started. However, no finalized plans and dates were ever stated, and I don’t know where this project is. There have been talks about F1 and Moscow’s government not agreeing on how to split the profits.
This season, for the first time ever, a Russian pilot, Vitaliy Petrov, is participating in Formula One, as one of the Renault drivers. Btw, if you are flying Aeroflot this April, check out his interview in their onboard magazine.
Formula One has already been to Sochi, last year with exibitory race. It was Renault who brought it’s cars to Sochi. Here are some pictures from that event.
(c) shuriksochi
I’m sorry, this picture is probably a little aggressive. But that’s what jumped into my head when I read new Sochi mayor’s initiative: all waiters and cab drivers will have to learn English or loose their jobs.
I recognize that it’s extremely important for services to be available in English by the time Olympics hits the city. And it’s really great that there will be free opportunities for everyone to learn it. But the ultimative tone of the mayor with which it was announced during his press conference irritates me a great deal. Let’s look at this straight – it’s really hard to learn a foreign language, and it’s harder yet to keep what you’ve learned if you don’t use it. Along the fine improvements promised, which should improve live in the city, come real problems to many when their lives come across anything related to the Olympics – people loose great living locations, property, businesses, or will be relocated quite far from where they lived all their lives. And now you intimidate them with possibility to loose their jobs? That’s just not right.
Well, this is the the twist in the news of the day, which is apparently, soon, English language courses will be available to all Sochi residents – free. No dates have been mentioned, it just been revealed that the money for this are allocated for in the target-program «Sochi — hospitable city».
And this is the good news!
Because stuff like this is embarrassing: Read the rest of this entry »
Sochi native Alexey Voevoda (Алексей Воевода), and his teammate Alexandr Zubkov won Olympic bronze medal yesterday in two-man bobsleigh event in Vancouver!
This is Alexey’s second Olympic medal – he won silver in the four-man bobsleigh event at the 2006 Olympic Games in Turin.
Congratulation Alexey!
Alexey Voevoda
Vladimir Putin, working as a prime minister of Russia these days, said today during live video call with Vancouver, where the Olympic Games will take off in a couple of days, that preparations for the next Olympic Games (to be hosted in Sochi, Russia) have already attracted 500 billion rubles ($16.5 billion US). He also confirmed that so far we are on time financing and time vise.
Горно-туристический комплекс “Лаура” (Газпром)
About:
“Laura” (name came from the name of the local river) ski resort was built by Gazprom company, and is second most popular ski park in Krasnaya Polyana. Today they have 16 trails, and more (higher up the mountain) are under construction.
Pros: new resort – modern lifts and infrastructure.
Cons: during warmer days there is no snow, while on «Alpika» there could be snow on the highest trails. It’s also popular among VIP persons, so parts of the resort can be closed during their visits.
How to get there:
Public transport doesn’t go directly to «Laura» resort, as far as I know. But it is located very close to the “Alpika Service” resort, which is is final stop for all public transportation going to Krasnaya Polyana. So, there could be some shuttles going to the Laura.
When driving, make left turn 400m before Alpika, Laura only 500 meters down the road.
Public transportation to Alpika
From Adler’s Center:
From Sochi (Central district) and from Airport:
Bus № 105 goes from central district’s bus terminal every hour, and makes a stop in the airport in Adler.
There’s also minibus from from central district’s bus terminal – 65 rubles ($2.2)
Taxi prices:
Taxi rides to get around Krasnaya Polyana are 200-350 rubles ($8-$12). There are no taxi service firms in Krasnaya Polyana, you’ll have to catch a ride with private taxi cab.
Prices (2009-2010):
Ski lifts/passes (weekdays/weekends/holidays, 9:00 – 17:00):
There’s also Evening rates (17:00 — 23:00 : ~ -$10) and Day + Evening (~ + $10).
Read on to see trail map and photos Read the rest of this entry »
Sochi administartion introduced ban on smoking in public areas – all educational, healthcare, and cultural establishments are declared smoke-free zones. Smoking is no longer allowed in parks and beaches as well.
Smiking is allowed in open-air cafés, though.
There already are similar federal laws in effect in Russia limiting smoking in some areas. But they are seldom enforced, and same thing will likely to happen to this piece is local legislation.
