[Asick]

Originally Posted by Przemolog

Unless you have to transfer to another airport....

Oh, yes, this is a problem. However, it's often used to be the only international airport per a city for most of the connections, isn't it?

Originally Posted by Przemolog

Yes, I realise that, but you mentioned travelling by train from Russia to Turkey. Then you must travel via Romania and Bulgaria paying an international train tariff - it's not that low even in eastern Europe now.

Look, the direct train to Istanbul would be expensive, you are right. However, here's a great layer of very popular cheap tours, which are half bus half train. It means the train part is used to cross exUSSR (cheap train tariffs) and then they use buses to finalize the route (buses are usually rented at border cities, such as Brest, Lviv or Cisinau). It's usually 2 times cheaper than a plane tour, which is significant.

Originally Posted by Przemolog

Yes, it seems crazy to me that I can travel without visa not only to most Europe but also to countries so distant as Japan, New Zealand or Argentina but I can't cross the border with Belarus 100 km from my home .

For Russians it's a bit strange situation too. We have visa free traffic with some really distant countries such as Columbia or Marocco, but do not have it with almost all the non CIS neighbours. We can cross freely to some exYugoslavia states (Bosnia and Montenegro) and using vouchers to Croatia. We can enter Turkey with 'at-the-border' visas valid for 2 months etc., but EU is quite closed. There are some simplifications, though. For example, Cypriot visas are free and easy to get, and people of Russian North-West may apply for a Finnish visa (usually multiple entry 30 days per 6 months or even more) without any invitation. That's why the Finnish border seems to be unlocked from here, and you can see MUCH Russians and Russian cars in South-East Finland. Some people use these visas to enter other Schengen countries, they are valid for it with some specific restrictions. However, these are rather exceptions. A private visit to EU is always a headache for a 'normal' Russian. I guess they should quit the inhumane practice of giving visas just for the duration of your visit, I mean if you shows no problems for EU (normal travel history, place of work, salary etc.) you should get a 1-2 years valid or may be more multiple entries visa on auto basis. This is what Finns in fact do for St.Petersburg inhabitants, but it's still an exception. And, which is for sure, the same should be with Russian visas for EU citizens. This is what would decrease the visa headache dramatically, while visa free regulation is still not possible. However, it seems that embassies just like huge lines at their doors and grabbing money for every travel a person does.

Originally Posted by Przemolog

despite freshly regained freedom and democracy it was possible to travel without visas, vouchers or invitations only to Hungary, Romania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and... Argentina . Also 24-hrs transit was allowed via Czechoslovakia or the USSR.

Well... visa regulations in fact more depends on economics and crime than on politic state. Unless there's a country that specially block their borders, the level of democracy is not seriously considered there. For example, a country might be perfectly democratic, but EU or USA would never allow visa free traffic with it's citizens if their salary is about 50-100 Euros/month average. From another hand, people of Paraguay or Bruney may enter the Schengen territory without visas. Real democracy, eh?.. Russia has 300/month average and normal 1000/month in Moscow or St.Petersburg, but I guess they more consider problem of crime and North Caucasus than 'so-so' democracy.

Originally Posted by Przemolog

Yes, they had better living conditions than we did. E.g., my aunt who lives in Świnoujście (the north-west "corner" od Poland) used to buy Polish toilet paper in GDR (because it was permamently missing in Polish shops)

Oh, this is funny! I believe the money allowed to exchange was quite enough to buy all the toilet paper your aunt needed. By the way, I have a bit strange memory. You know, in late 80's rumor had that Poles were buying lots of Soviet hi-tech (mostly TVsets), so that were them who created global deficit in this layer of goods in USSR, especially in big Soviet cities such as Moscow or Leningrad. Although I'm sure it's exaggeration, is it somehow correct?

Originally Posted by Przemolog

However, even more Poles have emmigrated since the EU accession - but at least they are only economical emmigrants - not political ones.

I understand it. Here we had few political emmigrants till the late 80s (few because most of them were sent out by KGB as very 'annoying' persons, they could not emmigrate by themselves). Then it was really intensive wave of emmigrants, both political and economical. There was another wave after the crisis of 1998. Currently I guess just a few emmigrate from here since salaries are acceptable and most of the political emmigrants have already left.

Originally Posted by Przemolog

There used to be a Dorohusk-Jagodin railway crossing on Warszawa-Lublin-Kiev route in the 1950's but it was closed and reopened only in 1988 or 1989. There were no border crossing with Lithuanian SSR and Kalinigradskaya oblast'.

Oh, it's in fact seen on old Soviet maps, but I thought it was just not all the information shown. Now I see there was as it was shown. So, the road crossings at Mamonovo and Bagrationovsk (Kaliningrad area) and at Grodno are 'new'? I crossed through them in 90s and some of them looked a bit 'used'.

Originally Posted by Przemolog

This fear was so great that Czechoslovakia opened it's borders only in 1991 when it truned that Czech and Slovaks buy more in Poland than Poles in Czechoslovakia

From another hand, it was almost visa free traffic between Czech republic and Russia since 1993 or about that, so they seemed to change their view completely fast enough. I crossed Polish-Czech border a few times in middle 90s, I can hardly say the traffic was intensive and goods oriented. No, it was rather people going for a day walk and back, sometimes by feet and no goods carrying.

Originally Posted by Przemolog

They were source of precious convertible currencies - it was more important than ideology

Oh, yes, although I guess it was not that much comparing it with the oil money that USSR was getting in late 70s and early 80s.