Authorities kindly recommend people to stay indoors or venture out only with gauze masks.

It is really terrible but carbon monoxide levels in the capital city were several times the maximum allowable limit.

The temperatures are still unbearably high – 42 degrees Celsius.

Poor Russia, hope everything will be fine!

• The Baikal Lake

One of the most beautiful lakes in the world, full of charming places to take fantastic photos. this lake was declared a World heritage Site by UNESCO, in 1996. The Baikal Lake is the deepest lake in the world, and it boasts almost 20% of the world’s fresh-water supply. According to scientists, this lake is more than 25 million years old, so it is the oldest lake in the world.

• Peterhof

Have you ever heard that Peterhof is commonly called “the Russian Versailles”? Well, this place with its amazing park and monuments is the most popular tourist attraction.

• Saint Basil’s Cathedral

The most beautiful cathedral in Russia and one of Europe’s most amazing holy places.

Don’t miss!

• skiing and snowman making;
• drinking of hot drinks: punch, tea, coffee, mulled wine;
• warmth of fireplaces;
• cozy cashmere sweaters;
• meetings in warm cafes )))

What about you? What are your fav winter pleasures???

Russia Holiday is not bad at all, because:

• it is not expensive at all (it is possible to buy a very nice tour starting as low as £425 pp.)  Sounds incredible, yeah?
• Russia offers a great selection of sightseeings: the Kremlin, Hermitage and the Mariinsky Theatre are just among of them.
• St Petersburg and Moscow. These cities belong to one of the most beautiful cities in the world.
• the Trans Siberian Railway journey is something you can’t miss. Incredibly luxurious train will take you from Moscow to Vladivostok, thus you will cover 10,000 km enjoying unexpected and breathtaking views. 
• Russian cuisine is one of the tastiest in the whole world.
• afterwards you can visit Lithuania…

Lithuania is a small country but it is rich in heritage, history, art and culture. I have never been to this country, but the only one thing I know for sure, it will be impossible to forget Lithuania Holiday, because it will offer everything even the most demanding traveller needs. Its capital Vilnius turns to be a Baroque Old Town, so-called the ‘New Prague’.

Also, you can think about Latvia Holiday, offering a huge variety of amusements and options. This country has even more than you need: coastal resorts, various activities, magnificent architecture, spa centers and friendly people.

Europe is big and popular among tourists, so European travel visas can be of great interest, but if you are travelling to more than one European country, you must think about  Schengen Visa.

Nowadays, Russia becomes more and more popular country and it’s opened to world tourism. Really and why not? Russia has  over 141 million inhabitants, diplomatic relations with 178 countries and approximately 140 embassies all around the world.  Its cities are full of fabulous architecture, churches and other places of interest. That’s why it’s useful to know more about Visas for Russia.

• Russian visas must be given in advance to travel, you don’t need Schengen visas to travel in Russia;
• a Russian Visa must be registered during 72 hours after arrival (in hotel, through business or immigration offices or a travel agency );
• to apply for a visa the following documents are necessary (a valid passport with not less than 2 clear visa pages, a completed application (1 page), a tourist confirmation and a voucher from a Russian travel agency/hotel and a cover letter with: full name, dates of travelling, means of transportation, travel rout);
• a visa can’t last more than 1 month.

Good luck and amazing travelling experience!

The 1st one was taken in Egypt – it tells us: “No diving!” Actually, it was no use to, ’cause it was seen with the naked eye, this swimming-pool was not more than 0.5 m deep.

And now, to your attention: “No Ball Playing!” sign. So, the rest of the actions with ball is possible…

Now, the turn goes to 2 unusual road sings. Apart from the circumstance, that there a few road signs in the whole Egypt, these signs made me laugh, the first one has incredible gentlemen on it (this gentlemen is only lack of a walking-stick) and the second one possesses a rather funny beep.

It really looks like a Russian language. Frankly speaking, while in Egypt I have almost forgotten what the international language is. They almost don’t know English and adore Russian. But, the funniest thing about this sign, its letters are cut from colourful paper. May be English still popular, but these people exert every effort to write all titles in Russian. Nice!

Let’s call it a day with Egypt and go on further with Belarus. It goes without speaking, I’m not perfect in Russian, but even my knowledge is enough to know the Russian language from the Belarusian language. So, just view…

Kangaroos are so nice and people must take care about them, so there are special signs in Australia and some other countries.

And the last sign is about Venice, a country of your dream and my dream and so on… It is so strange but, there are road sign for gondolas.

]]> http://travellingboard.net/sightseeings/world-strangest-signs-and-titles/feed/ 0 http://travellingboard.net/countries/glamour-snezhik-as-a-symbol-of-the-sochi-2014-winter-games/ http://travellingboard.net/countries/glamour-snezhik-as-a-symbol-of-the-sochi-2014-winter-games/#comments Wed, 14 Nov 2007 09:26:06 +0000 angel http://travellingboard.net/news/glamour-snezhik-as-a-symbol-of-the-sochi-2014-winter-games/  

The Sochi 2014 Winter Games is a chance for the Russians and the Russian Federation, to prove – they are able of achieving great successes in both economic  situation and sport. But, let’s keep our eye single, Russian sportsmen are not bad, and their school of figure skating is a legendary one.

So, the symbol of the Sochi 2014 Winter Games is still unknown. Some people claim it to be a Cheburashka or a Mammoth, others believe in Olympic Misha triumphal return. But, I want you to get acquainted with one more competitor – a glamour Snezhik. A father of this creature is Andrey Chesnokov, Snezhik is a non-official symbol of city Snezhinsk.

Snezhik is a close relative of a Snowman and a Big-foot. It was born in 1997 and occupied the 2nd place in the contest for the holiday symbol of Snezhinsk-city. But, this small funny white creature from snow, turned to be a very popular guy in Russia, so Andrey made cartoons about it and people even made a monument to Snezhik – people adore it. Snezhik  is a happy small boy with an irresistable smile. He makes people laugh and their mood definitely goes up. This small boy even has 2 own sites, the 1st one is devoted to Snezhik – his life, adventures and friends. Also, there everybody concerned can find cartoons about Snezhik. And the 2nd one is about Snezhik promotion. Many people want it to be the official symbol of Sochi 2014 Winter Games.

The official contest are reported to be announced late in November. According to Andrey, Mammoth advertising campaign is tough and covers almost of all mass-media means. But, the founder still believes he and Snezhik has some chances. Andrey has no money and no VIP-friends, but, Internet-voting is already opened, so choose, please!

1. North Yungas Road, aka “Road of Death”, Bolivia: This road cuts through the Bolivian Andes, running almost 70 km from La Paz to Coroico. It travels nearly 3,600 meters down and is comprised almost entirely of narrow hairpin curves. Unfortunately, their is no safety net below off the side of the road, and as you can see from the picture, the drop is quite severe. While you’re smart enough to read about this road before attempting to travel it, between 100-200 people a year over estimate their driving abilities, leading to their unfortunate death. Constructed in the 1930′s by Paraguayan prisoners, it would be easy to assume that they built it to be this treacherous on purpose. North Yungas Road is most frequently traveled by trucks and busses, which makes it’s span of merely three meters wide almost as terrifying as looking out the window when on it. If you still don’t fear the “Road of Death” be warned, these conditions are only what you would experience in the dry season. Let’s hope you don’t get stuck there in the rain.

2. Siberian Road to Yakutsk, Russia. If your looking to travel to Yakutsk, this is road is the only option you have. As you can see, you’ll be traveling on more mud than actual road so let’s hope you’re friends with a local tow truck driver! Expect traffic to come to a stop as many will wait for this 30 km long road to dry enough to considering driving on. But being a mud road isn’t the only thing that makes it dangerous. Many expects suspect underground gas leaks, supported by the reports from a majority of motorists who have survived car accidents on this road claiming that they can’t remember what happened. Perhaps Yakutsk isn’t worth visiting after all.

3. Guoliang Tunnel in the Taihang Mountains, China  Before May 1st 1977 the only hope of making it to the small village on the other side of the mountain was to follow the along the rock foot path. In 1972 workers began a five year process of creating this 1,200 meter long tunnel, spanning 4 meters wide and 5 meters high. Wear and tear over the years has caused this tunnel to become uneven, but don’t worry, the view from the thirty plus windows will make your journey on this road even scarier.

4. Taroko Gorge Road, Taiwan. While this road doesn’t offer the twists and turns you’ll find from those above, you’re still riding on a wide open mountain side. Although an absolutely beautiful sight to see, don’t take your eyes off the road unless you happen to have a car parachute. Your best bet to enjoy this beautiful scenery would be to take a tour bus across it, unless of course your looking for a more scenic grave.

Today, I would like to tell you more about a very interesting type of travelling – a quest-tour. It is a brand new technique of travelling. A quest tour is an adventure that contains a scenario of play , a so-called quest. Truly speaking, it is a new kind of an active tourism, but the role of sport plays a logic play. There are no analogues of this tour in the world!

As a rule, participants of a quest tour have to move a lot, think a lot, make various decisions, find answers onto questions and puzzles, dive under the water, climb the mountains, even struggle, thus, provoking extremely strong feelings and adrenalin. Participants of the game find themselves in a very unusual atmosphere, moreover, these games go in various foreign countries. Organizers try to make games in popular places and sightseeings, so in such a way, participants can play and simultaneously get acquainted with a culture of this or that country.

Main aim of a quest tour can be the following: looking for treasure, detective investigation, how to survive on the island, business creation and so on.

There are 2 types of quest-tours:

• regular quest-tour – a lot of travellers (sometimes unknown to each other participate in them), they are constantly changing and becoming better
• individual quest-tour – is developed in accordance with the preferences and wishes of a traveler. A person can make his or her own scenario and choose a place of its location.

Purpose of any quest-tour is to make lives of people interesting. There is a great number of people, who hates simply lying on the beach and catching tan, they adore having fun, adore adventures. We want to set talents of people free and show them another sides of their personalities. Every minute of a quest-tour is full with intrigue and risk, quest is almost like a real life. What is more, we are looking for special places, not known to public. Would you like to enjoy?

]]> http://travellingboard.net/news/new-type-of-travelling-and-tourism-quest-tour/feed/ 4 http://travellingboard.net/news/olympic-mammoth-will-be-cartoon-hero/ http://travellingboard.net/news/olympic-mammoth-will-be-cartoon-hero/#comments Fri, 28 Sep 2007 10:41:59 +0000 angel http://travellingboard.net/news/olympic-mammoth-will-be-cartoon-hero/ On the 26the of October was announced, that in Russia will be released a brand-new cartoon about Olympic Mammoth, though, the symbol of the 22nd Winter Olympic Games in Sochi is not officially announced, some people predict it to be a Mammoth.

This cartoon will be made because of the Organizational Committee request. Mammoth will be an official mascot of the Russian Olympic Games. The authors of the cartoon are sure, that it will help to make the image of mammoth popular and tell to rest of the world, that mammoths didn’t die, they just fallen asleep. Plot of the cartoon has strong connection to sport. “Even if our mammoth flies from St. Petersburg to Sochi on board the plane, he will be wearing skis, for instance”, said Ilkovskij (one of cartoon makers).

Animators are going to create more than 100 short series. The first cartoon is going to hit Russian TV screens in the middle of November. It will tell about mammoths in Russia and their sport preferences. Various music will be used it the cartoon and composer Oleg Popkov is going to write main song to it.