Pegontheroad

Which Gilda Radner character on SNL used to say, "Never mind"? after a long, complicated and confused speech? Was it Emily Litella or Roseanne Roseannadanna?

After all the fuss I've made about visiting Smolensk and the Katyn Forest, I've decided not to go.

I'd been thinking for a while that maybe this wasn't going to work out and reluctantly deciding that maybe I should just forget it when I got an email today from the travel agent in Warsaw. She said that crossing the border at Belarus and Russia is just too complicated for foreigners right now and that perhaps I should fly to Moscow and then get a driver to Smolensk.

I don't want to fly on a Russian airline. I am not sure that it's safe, as their safety record isn't that good.

So, as we bid fond adieu to Smolensk.....

Dukey1

I believe it was Emily.

Bedar

I believe you've made a wise decision.

Odin

Not all Russian airlines are created equal, Aeroflot and S7 for example are very good and I would not hesitate to travel on them (I have travelled on SU several times).

Pegontheroad

I traveled on an Ilyushin 18 in 1967. We called it "the rattlesnake" because it rattled so much.

I was young and thought I'd live forever.

WoinParis

You were young and you are living forever.

Pegontheroad

WoinParis: LOL! Given my age now, I guess I am pretty much living forever.

That trip was 50 years ago!

PalenQ

I don't want to fly on a Russian airline. I am not sure that it's safe, as their safety record isn't that good.>

How many deaths or crashes? An irrational decision based on that as I bet you have a much better chance being involved in a crash in any taxi or crossing any street in a busy city- or on your way in U S to airport - right?

annhig

Peg - I know what you mean. nearly 40 years ago we went on a Jugoflot flight [that may not have been its exact name] to Yugoslavia and it was clearly a troop plane that had been roughly converted for paying passengers. That shook, rattled and rolled quite a lot too.

I don't blame you at all for changing your mind, whatever prompted it.

Where are you going to go instead?

Pegontheroad

Annhig: I'll just visit various places in Poland that I have missed in the past. Places in Gdansk, such as Westerplatte, where the Germans invaded Poland, starting WWII and the WWII museum there, Nowa Huta, the suburb of Krakow where the government of the time built a Communist city to house the workers of the steel mill they built. Schindler's factory, Gestapo Headquarters. I want to do a Communist tour in Krakow.

I was too tired to do justice to the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, so I want to spend more time in it. I also want to visit a synagogue and a Jewish cemetery. I also want to see Malbork castle.

I do want to find a museum or at least a monument of some kind to those murdered by the Soviets in the various "Katyn" massacres.

I'd love to visit the Katyn Forest, as I had originally planned, but it's just not in the cards.

thursdaysd

Aeroflot's recent safety record looks OK to me:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aero...ncidents#2000s

But then, I flew Uzbekistan Airlines last year.

annhig

Peg - I think I mentioned before that you should see the two churches in Nova Huta, especially Cardinal Wojtyla's ark:

https://www.inyourpocket.com/krakow/...rds-ark_55453v

apart from anything else the stained glass in both is outstanding.

As well as the more standard sights, we also enjoyed a self-guided tour of the ghetto [if enjoyed is the right word] and the pharmacist's shop, and the jewish quarter of Kazimierz, where we had a lovely lunch in one of the restaurants there:

https://www.inyourpocket.com/krakow/kazimierz

plenty to fill several days I should think.

fourfortravel

We flew Aeroflot to/from Moscow in 2015 and found it to be just fine. A year ago we flew Egypt Air to/from Cairo and never felt safer.

We have been to Krakow and Warsaw, and I am trying to convince one of the children that Gdansk would be a worthwhile long weekend outing this summer. That said, I look forward, as always, to your travel writings for inspiration.

Happy Travels!

Pegontheroad

I read the comments on plane crashes in Lonely Planet Russia. The president of Poland and 90-some others were in a plane that crashed in 2010 at an airport in Smolensk. The article in LP said the problem was mainly with aging Tupolev aircraft.

There were other airline crashes in 2013 and 2016, with considerable loss of life.

Ironically I received an email this morning from Polrail listing times and costs of trains from Warsaw to Smolensk, the day after I'd finally decided I couldn't go. Aside from considerations about problems at the border, the information doesn't tell me enough about the trains--their schedules, facilities, etc.

Oh, well.

NewbE

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-ru...-idUSKBN15I1K8

That border is politically unstable and will be for the foreseeable future.

Pegontheroad

NewbE: Thanks very much. That report will stop me from backsliding about taking the train.

NewbE

It's unfortunate! I'm sorry your plans have been scuttled.

IMDonehere

We were going to visit Belarus this year but changed our mind for other reasons. We were going to hire a guide who knew about bribery and other quaint local customs.

Here is the Fodor's discussion about it.

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-expediton.cfm

Pegontheroad

Wow! That was also my comment after I read IMDonehere's link. I had no idea!

NewbE

How is it possible to be entirely unaware that Belarus has been a dictatorship for over a decade, and embroiled in serious border and gas disputes with Russia, while planning a trip there??

I wouldn't expect the man on the street to know this, but... a simple Google would have revealed a great deal, before travel agents were called. And these stories have appeared in the news (NPR, Guardian, NYT, WaPo) pretty prominently.