Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
9
•
Vodka:
Russky Standart and Flagman
are two top-quality choices rarely avail-
able outside Russia.
•
Nesting Dolls:
Matryoshka
dolls can be
tacky or tasteful, and kids love them.
Adults like the political ones portraying
Russian or U.S. leaders stacked inside
each other.
•
Stones from Siberia:
Malachite, cha-
roite, and rhodonite are set into jewelry
hard to find anywhere else in the world.
9
BEST ODDBALL ATTRACTIONS
•
Lenin's Mausoleum
(Moscow): The
red-and-black granite mausoleum on
Red Square is no longer the pilgrimage
site it once was, and its future is in
question—which is all the more reason
to go see Vladimir Lenin's embalmed
body now. A visit allows you access to
the graves of all the other Soviet leaders
(except Khrushchev) along the Kremlin
wall. See p. 142.
•
Art MUSEON
(Moscow, behind the
Central House of Artists; 10 Krymsky
Val): A collection of Lenin heads and
other Soviet monuments toppled in the
early 1990s lay abandoned in Gorky
Park until the pieces were unofficially
resurrected and lined up in a garden
behind Moscow's modern art museum.
The place is a fitting commentary on
Russia's political tumult of the past 15
years. See p. 146.
•
Kunstkamera
(St. Petersburg; 3 Uni-
versitetskaya Naberezhnaya;
&
812/
328-1412
): Peter the Great's museum
of 18th-century scientific curiosities is
not for viewing after lunch. Among
exhibits of the foremost technical devel-
opments of his day, the museum boasts
pickled animals and human heads. See
p. 257.
•
Buran space shuttle in Gorky Park
(Moscow): The amusement section in
Gorky Park is fun for kids but feels
generic—until you bump into the
Buran. This space shuttle abandoned
during the Soviet Union's waning years
has been turned into a ride along the
Moscow River, with gyrating chairs
meant to make your stomach lurch as in
a real rocket blastoff. The effect is
mediocre, but the up-close view of the
shuttle is worthwhile. See p. 150.
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