Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
tory, with examples of weapons dating all the way back to the Stone Age. The
centrepiece is Lenin's armoured car, which he rode in triumph from the Finland Sta-
tion. Even if you are not impressed by guns and bombs, who can resist climbing
around on the tanks and trucks that adorn the courtyard?
MMUSSEUUM
CRUISER AURORA
Sat & Sun; Gorkovskaya; )
Moored on the Bolshaya Nevka is the
Aurora,
a moth-
balled cruiser from the Russo-Japanese War, built in 1900. From a downstream moor-
ing on the night of 25 October 1917, its crew fired a blank round from the forward
gun as a signal for the start of the assault on the Winter Palace. During WWII the
Aur-
ora
was sunk by German bombs but was later raised and repaired. Now, restored and
painted in pretty colours, it's a living museum that swarms with kids on weekends.
It's possible to see the crew's quarters as well as endless communist propaganda and a
collection of friendship banners from around the world.
MMUSSEUUM
SIGMUND FREUD MUSEUM OF DREAMS
Sportivnaya)
This odd conceptual exhibition, based on abstractions and ideas, not
artefacts, is an outgrowth of the Psychoanalytic Institute that houses it. The two-room
exhibition aims to stimulate your subconscious as you struggle to read the display
symbolising what Freud himself would have dreamt. Illustrations of Freud's patients'
dreams and quotations line the dimly lit, incense-scented hall. English is spoken.
CHALIAPIN HOUSE MUSEUM
R100/50; noon-6pm Wed-Sun; Petrogradskaya)
Opera buffs will want to make the
journey out to this house-museum (a branch of the State Museum of Theatre &
Music) where the great singer Fyodor Chaliapin lived before fleeing the Soviet Union
in 1922. The kindly babushkas (clearly music lovers) will probably play some of the
singer's recordings for you as you peruse his personal effects.
MMUSSEUUM
