Krasnodar

[JackFish]

Hi all,

 

Swansea fan here... we've been drawn against Kuban Krasnodar in the group stage of the Europa League, and I'm just wondering if anyone on here managed to make it out there for your game? The best option at the moment looks to be flying there with Austrian Airlines via Vienna, other than that I can only see flying to Donetsk and getting a train down, but since the train takes ~11 hours, we're not very keen on the idea.

 

Did you have any problems getting your visas sorted? I've heard a lot about the Russian embassy losing passports and photos and generally taking forever to process the enormous form.

 

Finally, what's Krasnodar like? I'd never heard of it before but looks like it's actually a pretty big city - any decent bars or hotels there or are we better off trying to stay on the black sea somewhere and just going up there for the game?

 

Cheers

[Andy_P]

Hi JackFish, welcome to the forum.

 

There are a few threads on the Club Chat forum that will give you most of the information you need.

 

Briefly though, some of our fans had the visa element taken care of through travelling with MFC on the charter but plenty arranged the trip themselves, including the visa element, without too much difficulty. From memory some did the trip via London and Moscow and then down internally although they may well have stayed a few days to do that.

 

From those that returned you'll have a ball and will be well received by the majority - although there were reports some of some chancers trying to pick off flags and the like as "trophies" from 'Well fans on the day of the game.

 

I'll leave it to those who were there to give you a more in depth answer but as I say look through the threads or do a search and you'll find all you need - with plent of photos to go with them.

 

EDIT: PS If you are old enough - Mon the Cusack!!!!

[Special aka]

Message Mightywellscott .............. he took his son via Heathrow and Moscow with BA. Had an awesome time, locals were excellent apparently. To expedite the Visa process, he went direct to the Russian Consulate in Edinburgh. All details must be 100% accurate else you risk being turned back at Border Control.

 

However, one word of warning, spread it round your fellow Jacks not to openly display flags outwith the stadium on matchday. Apparently its deemed highly disrespectful and will only attract gangs who will steal the flags and post pictures of them upturned or in other disrespectful manners. It's their culture apparently, and our guys who fell victim had no advance heads up ----------------- you do now.

 

Best of luck.

[KirkySuperSub]

Apparently its deemed highly disrespectful and will only attract gangs who will steal the flags and post pictures of them upturned or in other disrespectful manners. It's their culture apparently, and our guys who fell victim had no advance heads up

 

I must have missed all that when I was away on holiday over the 2nd leg. Never could figure out what those comments were talking about, regarding flags getting pinched.

[daver]

To be fair, it seemed that some of the Krasnodor guys who had been corresponding on here managed to get hold of the flags and return them to their rightful owners.

[mightywellscott]

hi, as specialaka said, I went with my son, flew BA via Moscow (and Heathrow), some others also went via Moscow with Easyjet (and then siberian airlines). Local were very friendly, check out some of the other posts on this site relating to Kuban Krasnodar.

 

We stayed in the Hilton on Krasnaya Street, which is the main street with lots of key buildings, war monuments, shops, bars, etc. It's a big city I think around 750K people, pleanty of history, locals only too happy to try and speak English and talk about their city.

 

Best pub is Harats (Irish Bar) on Krasnaya Street, where some of the Kuban fans hang out. You will see some of their comments in the other threads, some of them posted so you could reach out to them. We were in Harats every night till around 2-3 in the morning, great time. Just beware the prices for drinks can vary wildly, some pubs it was £6 for a beer others £3.

 

I submitted visa via an approved Russian visa agency in Edinburgh, I took the one week service, cost around £72 each, but you also need a letter of invitation to attach to your visa application, you can get these on line for a few pounds each and they will send them directly to your e-mail within a few minutes. If stuck for time, you can pay extra for express 3 day or 24hr application, but its much more expensive.

 

FC Kuaban have a fan site 'the green mile', search for it and log onto that and post that you are coming over, tell them you spoke with Scott and Louis and they should look after you. We stayed for 4 nights and had a great time. Was tempted to stay down at black sea but glad we ended up staying in Krasnodar (it's about 2 hours drive to Black Sea, traffic dependant)

 

Please don't call them Krasnodar fans they are FC Kuban fans, Krasnodar are their main rivals, also as specialaka mentioned, dont be temped to display banners and flags as the 'young team' will take offence and try and steal them.

 

anything else give me a shout

[mightywellscott]

hi, as specialaka said, I went with my son, flew BA via Moscow (and Heathrow), some others also went via Moscow with Easyjet (and then siberian airlines). Local were very friendly, check out some of the other posts on this site relating to Kuban Krasnodar.

 

We stayed in the Hilton on Krasnaya Street, which is the main street with lots of key buildings, war monuments, shops, bars, etc. It's a big city I think around 750K people, pleanty of history, locals only too happy to try and speak English and talk about their city.

 

Best pub is Harats (Irish Bar) on Krasnaya Street, where some of the Kuban fans hang out. You will see some of their comments in the other threads, some of them posted so you could reach out to them. We were in Harats every night till around 2-3 in the morning, great time. Just beware the prices for drinks can vary wildly, some pubs it was £6 for a beer others £3.

 

I submitted visa via an approved Russian visa agency in Edinburgh, I took the one week service, cost around £72 each, but you also need a letter of invitation to attach to your visa application, you can get these on line for a few pounds each and they will send them directly to your e-mail within a few minutes. If stuck for time, you can pay extra for express 3 day or 24hr application, but its much more expensive.

 

FC Kuaban have a fan site 'the green mile', search for it and log onto that and post that you are coming over, tell them you spoke with Scott and Louis and they should look after you. We stayed for 4 nights and had a great time. Was tempted to stay down at black sea but glad we ended up staying in Krasnodar (it's about 2 hours drive to Black Sea, traffic dependant)

 

Please don't call them Krasnodar fans they are FC Kuban fans, Krasnodar are their main rivals, also as specialaka mentioned, dont be temped to display banners and flags as the 'young team' will take offence and try and steal them.

 

anything else give me a shout

 

Flight time from Moscow to Krasnodar is about 2 hrs 15mins, taxi from airport to hotel was about £16, you can book and pay in airport, its common for cars to stop and act as taxi, just make sure you agree price upfront.

 

As I said previously the Kuban's are really good guys, we stayed for a couple of extra days after the match and they took us sightseeing, had a barbeque for us and even came to our hotel and drove us to airport on way back.

 

Many thanks to Andrey, Ilya, crazy Goodvin and Roman and many others friends we made for making a great trip for Louis and myself.

[East_Stand_Al]

 

 

Best pub is Harats (Irish Bar) on Krasnaya Street, where some of the Kuban fans hang out. You will see some of their comments in the other threads, some of them posted so you could reach out to them. We were in Harats every night till around 2-3 in the morning, great time. Just beware the prices for drinks can vary wildly, some pubs it was £6 for a beer others £3.

 

 

Louis was certainly having a blast in Harats on the Wednesday night to be fair we all were Shoes off