19-Jan-2012 History The Stalin Museum in the Georgian city Gori was opened a view years after Stalin’s death. The museum was build as a shrine to Stalin continuing the personality cult that started during his lifetime. Khrushchev denounced Stalin in 1961, statues were taken down, streets and cities were renamed. Gori however was allowed to keep glorifying their most famous son. Comtourist visited the Stalin Museum in 2011 and were happy to discover that nothing seems to have changed here yet. More: Photos Stalin Museum
13-Jan-2012 History Comtourist visited the small village of Sanahin in Armenia this summer. Sanahin is the birth place of the famous Soviet aircraft designer Artem Mikoyan and long time Politburo member Anastas Mikoyan. A small Soviet era museum is dedicated to the brothers so we visited the museum and shot some photos. The museum has an intersing collection and is well worth a visit when in Armenia. More: Photos Mikoyan Brothers Museum
23-Dec-2011 Media A couple of popular blogs have started threads called "Kim Jong Il looking at things". The North Korean leader is always wearing the same grey jacket, shades and Mao suit and looking at something for the camera. He tries to do his best to look interested but fails most of the time. Comtourist went on the web an tried to collect as much images of Kim Jong Il looking at things as possible, enjoy the collection! More: Kim Jong Il looking at things
22-Dec-2011 History The Dutch Island Terschelling is an unlikely place to find anything relating to Soviet history. The most famous ship wreck however is the OKA-18, a Soviet coaster that sunk in 1966 after a collision with a Liberian ship. Many items have been recovered from the wreck and are now displayed in the local Wreck Museum. Comtourist took the boat to Terschelling and checked out the history of the OKA-18. More: Photos Terschelling wreck museum
21-Dec-2011 Travel Comtourist regularly passes trough Krakow since Zakopane is one of our favourite ski resorts. We visited the communist model city Nowa Huta three times already while staying in beautiful Krakow. We had rainy days on every occasion so Nowa Huta looks a bid grey and dull on our photographs. More: Photos Nowa Huta
20-Dec-2011 History The Comtourist Skoda 105 named Catherina was a fun car to drive with stunning looks. It has a powerful motor in the rear providing excellent driving characteristics. We do not own the Skoda anymore but remember it by looking at the photos. We also collected some dealer leaflets of the Skoda 105 from the late eighties promoting this quality vehicle. More: Photos Skoda 105
19-Dec-2011 Travel Krakow is probably one of the most beautiful cities of Poland and even Eastern Europe. Comtourist has visited Krakow on many occasions usually combined with some days the in the ski resort Zakopane. Look at our photos of Krakow; a city steeped and often named the cultural, political and religious capital of Poland. We also visited some places around Krakow like Auschwitz Birkenau, Zakopane and Nowa Huta. More: Photos Krakow
18-Dec-2011 History The Lenin Mausoleum on Red Square is probably one of Moscow’s best known tourist attractions together with the Kremlin and St. Basils Cathedral. Here a photo collection with images we shot ourselves, Soviet era postcards, historic photos, and actual pictures of Lenin’s body in his tomb. We also included some pictures of other famous communist mausoleums and the Kremlin Wall Necropolis. More: Photos Lenin Mausoleum
17-Dec-2011 Travel The trip to Kaesong and the DMZ was one of the highlights of our 2004 North Korea tour. In Kaesong we could see a bid more of ordinary North Korean life then we did in Pyongyang. The Demilitarized Zone with the Joint Security Area is probably one of the scariest places on earth where millions of troops face each other. We had stopovers at Mt. Kuwol and the West Sea Barrage on the way back to Pyongyang. More: Photos Kaesong and the DMZ
16-Dec-2011 Travel The first excursion we made from during 2004 North Korea journey was to Mt. Myohyang North of Pyongyang. Here we stayed in the pyramid shaped Hyangsan Hotel, made a hike up mountain via the Piro Peak route, visited the Buddhist Pohyon temple and finally the incredible International Friendship Exhibition. More: Photos Mt. Myohyang