Examples of services available from me, the owner of this site:

Transportation, with me personally behind the wheel.

Translating and interpreting

Reserving hotels and other small errands

Ex-Tver tickets at local prices

Last-minute arrangements

Procurements and deliveries

Inspections, interviews, reports

Anything else I can do on your behalf in Tver, Staritsa, Rzhev,Volokolamsk, Istra, or anywhere else the area between Moscow and St. Petersburg?

In most cases fees are based on $25/hour rate plus direct expenses.

Write to paul_voytinsky
@yahoo.com or, if the matter required immediate attention, call +7-910-932-5546

A random selection of Tver photos

The City of Tver
where / accommodation /  internet / banking / vegetarian food in Tver / safety / Russian brides / travel agencies / what to do / Learning Russian in Tver / Tver in the Internet /

Tver free associations: Prisons & prison folk songs, peat bog fires, crime, poverty, prostitution, heroine, dirty politics, rich pastries, "The Story of Stupid-Town", streetcars, Russian brides, Gypsies, railroads, STD... I confess Tver is NOT my favourite place. But Tver is the nearest business center from my dacha and I have no choice but to promote it.... As of recent: big business, Moscow politics, land sales, highway construction, railroad carriage factory.. 

Where is Tver? Right on the Moscow to St. Petersburg highway, about 180km (120 miles) from Moscow, about an hour after Klin if travelling in the direction from Moscow to St. Petersburg.  From Tver you can easily get to Staritsa and then Rzhev, Klin, Torzhok, and Valday (near the Valday National Park).

Maps of Tver and the region

Accommodation

          Private apartments in the $15-20 per night range

Hotels where I and/or my clients did

• Hotel Yunost. 170026 Tver, Komsomoslky prospekt 12, tel. 8-4822-316904. $10/night beds, rooms from $18 to $50. Just follow the main road from the train station to the end. Taxi ride will cost you $3.50 at most from the train or bus station to the Yunost hotel. Reservations accepted at no extra charge. Only one out of three receptionists speaks any English. More info & photos of Hotel Yunost in Tver.

• Motel Tver. In the early spring of 2004 I stayed in the Motel Tver (part of the Soviet-era Intourist system) just outside of Tver as you exit the city going to St. Petersburg for $25 or so, and was happy. Very quiet. Said to be available even when others are booked solid. The food is lousy, especially if you are a vegetarian, and there are no stores nearby. Exact address: 170036 Tver, St. Petersburg Highway 130. Tel.: (0822) 55-5650 / 55-4544 / 55-5768. Fax: (0822) 55-5650. E-mail: motel@rvcom.ru
   

• "Room of rest" at the Tver train station. 500 roubles ($17) will get you their best suit the size of a small apartment. Private bathroom, refrigerator, and good furniture.  A bed in a shared room will be 150-200 roubles ($5-7). As of late fall of 2004 these are excellent deals even without hot water, which is often the case. You can call 8-0822-426547 to reserve a room but you'll be charged 50% extra, which still give you a fair price. Rooms free up at noon, which is the best time to call to make a reservation or to just show up. Their best ("Lux") room is right to the attendant's desk, which further enhances security. 7-10 minute streetcar ride to the center of Tver. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, ESPECIALLY IF YOU TRAVEL BY TRAIN

  

  Train station as seen from the "facade" end of the city. The famous "Room of Rest" is to the right when you enter.

• Park Hotel. A solid 3-star, perhaps 4. Good vegetarian-friendly restaurant. The bill for a light supper with two beers was 400R ($14).  Clean, functional, efficient and QUIET. Calls answered on the first attempt, and the girl at the reception even spoke English! It is by the entrance to Tver if you drive from Moscow, 4km from the police post, very easy to find, and 9km (6miles, $5 taxi ride) from the center of Tver. Good if you travel from Moscow by car but not by train. Rooms are in the $40-70 range. Credit cards accepted no problem. Surrounded by a park, seems like a good place for a morning jog.

  Tver 170032
  Moskovskoey Shosse 14 (by the Chemistry Institute)
  (0822) 49-77-22, 49-77-23, 49-77-80
  fax (0822) 49-77-24
  park [at] tvcom [dot] ru
  www.parkhotel.ru
   

• Camp "Sputnik". If travelling from Moscow to Tver, consider staying at the "Sputnik" campground, 149th kilometer of the Moscow to St. Petersburg highway, 30 km north from Klin, no more than 20 km left till Tver. Double: 800-1000 roubles ($28-35). Originally that was a tent camp and you can still put up a tent. Access to facilities will cost you around 100 roubles ($3-4), and they will feed you for not much more than that. Tel.: +7-0822 - 56-8474. Managers: Tatyana Vladimirovna Bylova and Yuri Nikolayevich Vinogradov. [MORE]

   

• Zarya ("Dawn"). Simeonovskaya 30/27, at the corner with Tresvyatskaya, near the Tver bank and the Gertsen Library that has Internet access. 800-1500 rouble ($30-55) rooms. Great location. This hotel serves the needs of the Tver city administration and thus has none of the usual casinos etc.  Foreigners no problem, visas registered. Tel. 8-0822-342129, fax 34-71-34.  RECOMMENDED IF YOU DON'T HAVE A CAR.   MORE ABOUT ZARYA & THE NEIGHBOURHOOD

The amount of business activity seems to be growing faster than the number of hotel beds. At times nearly 100% of what's available seems to be booked. Regular travellers to Tver make a note of this nearly complete list of telephone numbers of Tver hotels:

Yunost:  8-4822-316904. Komsomolsky prospekt, 12, tel. 8-0822-316904
Osnabruk: 8-4822-358433
Tourist: 8-4822-346178
Volga: 8-4822-348100
Zarya: 8-4822-342129
Seliger: 8-4822-340753
Berezovaya rosha: 8-4822-497722
Motel Tver: 8-4822-555692
Tsentralnaya: 8-4822-489093

The numbers shown are as you would call them from anywhere in Russia, including from a Moscow-registered mobile phone. If calling from a municipal phone, eg. from the lobby of a hotel that can't offer you a night's stay, dial the last six digists only.

Taxi

Volga-Lux, 431000, 364860, 8-910-646-1000.
No English-speaking drivers.

Good coffee. During my recent visit I was pleased to discover a coffee shop in Svobodny Pereulok ("Free Lane" or "The Lane of Freedom") near the bridge, on the west (main) side of the city from the Volga, by the City Park. Despite my peasant uniform I received good service.  Two cups kept me awake most of the night without increasing peristaltic, which I take to be a sign of good coffee.

Milano Pizza on the other side of Svobodny must also be noted. Vegetarian option is available, and the staff seems to be used to foreigners. I recommend eating at Milano or Ali?? (an Arab place that offers, among other goodies, a semblance of falafel sandwich), and then proceeding to the coffee shop. All within one minute's walk and easy to find too.

Vegetarian food. While Tver is a profoundly sausage-and-potatoes type city, vegetarians should suffer no major inconvenience. To-fu and fake soy meat is available by the Derby Store by the Race Tracks, on Solyanoy Pereulok that runs parallel to Chaikovskogo, the main street that starts at the railroad station.

Safely. Tver needs to be rated "be on your alert". Heard of a few robberies here. Large heroine addict population. Lots of prostitutes. Doing a prison term seems like a must for most of Tver men. Prison folk songs are heard everywhere.  I would not call Tver "dangerous" but do not relax. Beware of petty scam. I'm experienced a disproportionate amount of shit from the Tver people I hired or otherwise transacted with both in Tver and in Moscow.

Russian brides from Tver

Travel agencies that specialize in Tver

• Committee for Tourism, Resorts, and International Contacts of the Tver Region. 33 Sovetskaya, office 312, 170000 Tver, tel./fax: 8-0822-320171 (just last 6 digits from Tver, +7-0822-320171 from abroad). E-mail: komtur@tvcom.ru

• The Comme Il Faut Travel Agency  markets the Moscow - Klin - Tver -Torshok - Vyshny Volochek - Vypolzovo - Valday - Novgorod - St. Petersburg route under the slogan "Golden Thread of Russia". Some examples of programs outside of the standard routine: helicopter flights, turkey farm, Tver brewery, medieval Russian weapons and fighting etc. Their office is in Tver at ul. Novotorzhskaya 23. Telephone numbers as dialed from within Russia: 8-0822-426277, 8-0822-343719, and 8-0822-345962. If you are already in Tver just dial the last six digits. From abroad it will be +7-0822-local number.

What to do in Tver

A list of galleries and exhibition you can fully enjoy without knowing a word of Russian

Speaking of Russian, Catherine F. of Rutgers State University sent me this link to a Russian language school in Tver http://www.delta-ic.net/studyrussian Please note that I may soon be reanimating language teaching / interview preparation, and  Catherine may soon be joining our outfit as an English teacher.

Learning Russian in Tver

• http://www.uppervolga.ru/old/index.html   [test request send May 2005]

• http://volga.net/introduce/

See also Tver links below.

Tver in the Internet, in English

• Map of Tver: www.map.tver.ru

• Academic and cultural life: http://www.russiatrek.com/r_tver.shtml

• Tver English Club: http://www.engclub.newmail.ru/home.htm

• Tver Icons: http://kyyim.com.ne.kr/icondetver/ This site is in French but I'm listing it there on the assumption that French can be understood by an intelligent English speaker.

• Tver Soccer club: http://www.angelfire.com/ks2/volga/

• A Finnish travel agency with specialization in Tver region: http://www.monasterytours.com/e_tver.html

• Tver Center of Women's History and Gender Studies: http://tvergenderstudies.ru/ . Lots of women-centered activities in Tver, from feminists to Russian brides - eg. see http://www.womnet.ru/db/russian/organiz/contents/area/area0048.html )

• A collection of Tver links: http://www.gates96.com/cam/europe/Russia/Tver/ LOTS OF PICTURES

• Another women's page: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/2533/ona.html  SEEMS TO BE A BIT STALE

• Russian-American Chamber of Commerce on Tver: http://www.russianamericanchamber.org/regions/tver.html

• A comprihensive compilation of resources on Tver, including maps, in English:
  http://www.russiatrek.com/r_tver.shtml

   

   

   

[Sketch of Tver, showing the places mentioned]

Report prepared December 3, 2004, while I was sitting in the village of Dubrovki with winter ennui that is as unavoidable these places as diarrhea in India.  Updated January 25, 2005

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More-or-less between Moscow and Saint-Petersburg:

....Istra & New Jerusalem, Klin, Tver, Volokolamsk, Yaropolets, Staritsa, Stepurino, Bortenyevo, Rzhev, Torzhok, Vyshny Volochek, Kashin, Valday, Ostashkov, Staraya Russa, Novgorod...

The Golden Ring:

Vologda, Sergiev Posad & Khotkovo, Pereslavl-Zalessky, Yaroslavl....

Other:

Ryazan, Moscow to Chisinau, Collective farm/propaganda art

WINTER IS THE SOUL OF RUSSIA

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