Conquest of Saint Petersburg

As czar Fredovich still needed few days to finish negotiations with Russian bourgeoisie, czar Martin Madonovich and Hudyslav Bonegovich set off to Petersburg to conquer former headquarters of their imperial predecessors.

They entered the city discreetly by train covered in the darkness just before the first soft rays of dawn illuminated wide streets of Petersburg.

Allied undercover agent in the local bar provided the czars a secret code to the door of camouflaged hide-out from where the short expeditions were starting in the following two days.

The czars mapped the underground passages so they could travel between distant points of the city without a necessity to expose themselves to the watchful eyes of local militia.

They also successfully penetrated into famous Hermitage and evaluated its astonishing art collections.

After such an attention-demanding mission the czars have moved to relaxing gardens of Peterhof where they spent a sunny afternoon.

Of course they couldn't leave the city without counting the military forces of Petersburg, especially examining the Aurora ship and its big guns.

More adventures are on the way ...

Long live the Czars! :)

Royal warm-up in Moscow

The main part of the Czars Reunion is going to take place on the unpredictable Transsiberian Railway - therefore the Czars needed decent preparation before setting off... they spent almost 5 days in Moscow and did a 2-day trip to Saint Petersburg.

The first two days, Saturday and Sunday, were spent by all three Czars and Sasha together - they were exploring the Red Square in the main city center, enjoying traditional Czar Russian architecture and having fun in clubs, sauna etc.

Monday was more like a working day - czar Fredovich went to earn some last roubles, and czars Bonegovich and Madonovich needed to take care of many administration tasks. Especially the so-called tourist registration was a tough part, but they all managed (with essential assistance of Sasha), despite spending the whole day dealing with the business. More details coming later on. Hopefully.

Two days spent in St. Petersburg was a deserved holiday for czars Madonovich and Bonegovich. At the same time it was their first chance to prove their Russian communication skills, as they were travelling on their own. There is going to be a special report describing this expedition.

Thursday and Friday of the last week were dedicated to the second round of Moscow sightseeing - this time focused more on the ordinary-Moscow-life experience, in order to adopt more features of native Russian behavior that could be benefitial on the approaching trip.

Last but not least, some pictures are to be found below...

Long live the Czars! :)

The Czars and Sasha in the Moscow city center

Saint Basil's Cathedral on the Red Square

Sightseeing continues...

Good habits never die - the Czars posing

The Czar's suite is located in the left wing of the residence (on the right), two floors below the blue neon rooftop ring. It is only 12-minute walk far from the Kremlin (just across the river, in the left dark part of the picture).

Second round of Moscow sigtseeing: outside the center

Moscow metro, the world's second biggest metro system.
It is well known for majestic design of its stations.

Czars reunited!

The Czars eventually got reunited!! :)
On Saturday August 29th, 2009 Zdenik Fredovich, Martin Madonovich and Hudyslav Bonegovich all met in healthy mood in front of the Beloruskaya (Белорусская) metro station in Moscow.

Michal and Martin were particularly surprised by the specifics of Cyrillic alphabet (yet unfamiliar & soon to be mastered), as well as by the high ratio of non-English speakers in their transitional homeland. Despite these damnable facts, they managed to reach the Moscow city center without cash, and on their own. They were thankful to Zdenik Fredovich and Sasha Tyavovna (Саша Тявовна) who took care of the navigation and secured the generous welcome packages.

In front of the Cathedral of Saint Basil the Blessed, Moscow, Russia.

...it really happened!

The last time the Czars were enjoying themselves together was in Stockholm, Sweden at the end of March 2009.
Long 6 months ago!

The Czars: Expecting unexpectable.
Long live the Czars! :)

Action is inevitable! Let’s begin!

The day of the Czars’ reunion is approaching!
Preparations are culminating!
And the Czars are full of expectations!
The Reunion is taking place tomorrow in Moscow!

The Czars discussing at the lunchtime.
From the left: Martin Madonovich, Zdenik Fredovich, Hudyslav Bonegovich

Zdenik Fredovich is fighting the bureaucracy in Czars headquarters in the heart of Russian kingdom and dealing with final quests of obtaining missing transportation documents, supervising preparation of Czars hotel suites, and keeping an eye on the Czars treasury.

Martin Madonovich is setting forth to Prague already today, on Friday August 28th, for the final mission – to reacquire all passports of the Czars crew that have been kept by foreign ambassadors for the purposes of thorough security clearance. The operation needs to be successful at any cost.

Hudyslav Bonegovich is taking command of backup units in the undisclosed field office in central Moravia and executing the tough selection and prioritization of essential survival tools and other Czars equipment required for the Reunion. Besides, he is gathering power for prompt embarkation on Prague-Moscow royal plane on Saturday morning.

As of now, most of transportation documents are ready.

During the last days, some of the critical operational landmarks including time codes leaked out to public. Let’s examine the files:

Aug 29th – Czars’ royal plane from Prague touches down in Moscow & celebration of Czars reunion
Aug 30th – Sep 4th – Moscow and St. Petersburg proceedings
Sep 5th – Sep 10th – transsiberian journey to Mongolian borders (Moscow > Ekaterinburg > Omsk > Novosibirsk > Bijsk > Tashanta)
Sep 11th – Sep 21st – expedition over northern Mongolia (Tsagaannuur > Ulaangom > Moron > Khövsgöl Nuur > Amarbayasgalant Khiid > Bayangol > Ulanbaator > Sükhbaatar)
Sep 22nd – Sep 24th – Lake Baikal adventures
Sep 25th – flying back to the Moscow headquarters & Czars crew disunion
Sep 26th – reaching the Czech lands again!

The journey of more than 15 000 km is about to start.

You can follow the exact journey on Czars' secret interactive map.

Long live the Czars! :)

Of the bandits of the Kingdom of Bureaucracy

So far the most fierce enemy of the Czars have been the hostile, evil and cruel bandits of the Kingdom of Bureaucracy. In order to proceed with their plans, the ally czar armies had to fight for special royal entry permits (sometimes also called "visas") for both kingdoms laying in the way of their mission.

Russian and Mongolian royal entry permit peripetia

• Besides several other things, a special invitation is needed to have at least a chance to obtain any kind of Russian visa. Fully fair way of obtaining this invitation can take up more than one month and assumes good contacts in Russia and their willingness to assist. With support of special entities (and some financial compensation) however, it can be done in a matter of hours with no contacts whatsoever. So where is the point...?
• In order to obtain a double entry Russian visa, a return flight/train ticket from Russia to another country has to be presented. Nobody cares whether it makes sense within travel plans to buy such ticket (i.e. flexible travel plans etc.). Furthermore, this ticket cannot always be bought (as in the case of the Czars: train ticket from Ulaanbaator (Mongolia) to Ulan Ude (Russia) cannot be bought in Russia nor anywhere else besides Mongolia)
• When train tickets for double entry (that are - as mentioned above - almost impossible to obtain) are finally obtained, they are declared "unnecessary" and refused at the embassy. Those time and money-intensive tickets then become a very fancy decoration.
• To obtain a visa for period longer than 3 months, an HIV-negativity certificate has to be provided. Wrong. Even if this certificate (after all hardships) is provided, only a 3 month visa is issued anyway. The certificate can then accompany the useless train tickets at the hall of shame.
• Russian embassy in Prague is impossible to contact by telephone nor by any other modern way of telecommunication.
• Prolonging a Russian visa (especially the business one) is impossible, even for a few days. Furthermore, obtaining one business visa severely limits the possibility to obtain another business visa for another 6 months. Only possibility how to be allowed to stay longer is to go around the system and apply for another visa, most likely a different type.
• To apply for another visa, passport has to be presented at the embassy of home country. Travel costs to do this might become "a bit" meaningless. Sending passport home is costly and/or dangerous. Staying in Russia without passport is not encouraged, since no proper document to confirm own identity and authorization to stay would be available.
• A special letter describing planned itinerary of visit has to be written to the Mongolian ambassador in order to qualify for the visa granting process.

Looking at those ridiculous requirements, obtaining a double entry visa for all Czars + a single entry Mongolian visa seems rather impossible (at meaningful costs). A few battles have already been won, so let's keep our trust in tactical skills of all armies!

Long live the Czars! :)

First victory

Although tha Czars have led their kingdoms bravely through dozens of cruel winters and drove back countless legions of bloodthirsty invaders, the most dangerous threat standing in the way of their reunion was an unexpectedly obscure thing - a stamp. More precisely, vast amount of irrational stamps, papers and tickets required for an entrance to kingdom of Rossiya and Mongolia.

Nevertheless, even these treacherous challenges couldn't bring down the fearless Czars and with mutual support Martin Madonovich and Hudyslav Bonegovich finally obtained Russian visas (Mongolian are on the schedule for the next week). In the meantime they have also refined their royal plans so the reunion finally got quite a clear shape after more than 300 e-pigeons sent among their kingdoms.

The official dates are set: 29.8.2009-26.9.2009

In the picture: One of four heroically obtained useless train tickets the Czars had to buy in order to get the visa. It proved to be double useless as Russians throw it away at the embassy. Never mind. Thanks czar Fredovich for one week of early wake-ups, quarrels at Russian train stations and numerous calls to travel agencies.

Long live the Czars! :)

First royal plans

Right after the memorable royal visit in March 2009, all three kingdoms got heavily involved in planning of the mission. The Czars had to agree on issues such as:

• Time-frame and duration of the mission
• Code name of the mission
• Amount of taxes paid by their peasants that should be utilized for the mission
• Steps to be taken to tackle the unfriendly border bandits of the kingdom of Rossiya
• Means of communication with their vassals during their absence
• And some other...

Since czar Hudyslav Bonegovich has been trying to enhance the power of his empire, czar Martin Madonovich is on a trade mission in the far kingdom of India and czar Zdenik Fredovich has been preparing the grounds for the reunion, all communication has been done mostly through e-pigeons.

Nowadays, at the end of July 2009, the Czars have decided on a concrete course of their mission - starting in a village Москва (Moscow), continuing with trans-siberian horse train through Екатеринбург (Ekaterinburg) to Новосибирск (Novosibirsk). They plan to hire a group of donkeys there and continue through the territory of herdsmen called Mongolia to the magnificent Озеро Байкал (Lake Baikal). With the help of local magicians, they intend to be transferred through the air back to their starting location.

The royal gardener has eternalized the first draft the following way:

There are still various saboteurs to be eliminated.

So let's cross our fingers!

Long live the Czars! :)