"Never Mind"
 

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.....

I believe it was Emily.

I believe you've made a wise decision.

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).

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.

You were young and you are living forever.

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

That trip was 50 years ago!

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?

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?

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

Well, not everyone is as brilliant as you NewBe. Did you turn down your McArthur this year?

Now go into your passive/aggressive mode and pretend you did not insult Peg. Three, two, one.

I would think that following the news from a country you are actively attempting to visit would be a priority. This isn't late breaking stuff, nor is it obscure information.

And if the purpose of this board is sharing advice and learning things, then I can't see why my urging tourists to inform themselves about current events in the countries they are planning to visit is an insult.

Actually, while I appreciate the information you gave me, I do feel a bit miffed, if not insulted.

I learn about countries I'm interested in. I am not interested in Belarus. My plan was merely to get through it on the way to Smolensk.If I'd planned to stay there I would have bought a guidebook and learned something about it.

I have found that I often become interested in the history and government of a country once I have visited. I've read about the history and culture of the Baltics since I've visited them, and I am now reading another book about Poland.

I know nothing of Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, etc., either. I don't think I have enough years left to visit them, so I doubt that I'll ever learn about them.

From the chatter on the Polish travel sites, travelling to Russia through Belarus on the PKP Intercity train "Polonez: is not recommended. Russia considers that to be an "internal" border and foreigners are supposed to cross "international " border. How that rule is enforced appears to be at the Russian agents discretion, but that has ranged from arrest, deportation or heavy fines.

If you decide to spend more time in the Gdansk/Tricity area you might be interested in Piasnica Forest https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massac..._Pia%C5%9Bnica

and the Gdansk Post Office
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defenc...fice_in_Danzig

Near Gdansk there is Stuthoff
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stutth...entration_camp

On a lighter note, Frombork is definitely worth a visit
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frombork

Mark

Peg, my point was not that you should have bought a guidebook about Belarus, but that you should have read a couple of news headlines about the route you planned to take. Sorry if that sounds harsh, and sorry indeed if it miffs you. You are a scholarly person, so it surprised me. And because I know people whose lives are deformed by Belorussian politics, it also miffed me, that a well-read and well-traveled American would be all, wow, you mean I can't just take the trip I planned?

well bully for your, NewBe. I doubt if many people here, even the best informed, have had the situation in Belarus on their news horizon, unless, they, like you, they have some special interest or knowledge.

yes this is a place to impart knowledge, but there is really no need to do it with a sledgehammer.

Hardly a sledgehammer. And the news about the Belarus and its dispute with Russia has been top headline news, as it threatens at any moment to become a shooting war or at the very least another opportunity for Russian aggression.

But we're not talking about random well informed people, we're talking about a person who was planning to go, planning quite actively.

Shall we be sweet and pretend that's just fine?

Thanks, annhig.

Now I'm getting mildly irritated.

NewbE, perhaps you should just drop this subject. I do read the newspaper every day, as well as newsprograms on TV and on the internet. I've seen nothing about Belarus.

Nobody else has, either, Peg, even those of us who live in Europe and read European newspapers and watch European television. Al Jazeera has had a documentary on Montenegro recently, but zip on Belarus. Nor BBC World, nor CNN Europe, nor any of the French channels.

Ignore NewBe. She lives to irritate and incite. It's not you.

I can't agree that russian airlines are not safe. They are fine, but you can use any other airlines to get to Moscow. Then you can get a train and very soon, in a couple of hours (train called Lastochka) you will arrive to Smolensk.