<p>International: Agree with jazzymom about Moscow museums, especially the Armory in the Kremlin–nothing short of jaw-dropping. No museum on earth (including the Louvre–sorry, JMHO) is in quite the same league as the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. Yet my favorite “museum” in Russia is the most plebeian: the Moscow subways. :)</p>
<p>Yeah, I thought of that, then immediately said Nah, not even that. Nothing can compare to the sheer audacious scope and volume of Russian wealth. We in the West know so little about Russia; that’s why it’s so utterly dumbfounding to come face to face with their great treasures in person. Things like an entire royal coach, meant to be ridden outside in the elements, encrusted with diamonds. Cathedrals with huge doric and ionic columns of malachite and lapis lazuli. An entire room constructed of amber in Catherine’s Palace outside St. Petersburg.</p>
<p>Sounds audacious! – and ostentatious, and tasteless – but then when were the Russians ever faulted for having good taste? Understandable, since Catherine the Great adopted “western” culture to bring her country up to date, as it were.</p>
<p>Reminds me of the “splendors” of modern Persia (I mean Iran!) – fabulous displays of wealth in the late shah’s dozen or so palaces he kept in the capital, but not one of them tasteful.</p>
<p>leanid: Ostentatious, obscene even, the excesses in lavish czarist spending that led eventually to revolution. Yet for us today, dazzling entertainment to walk through these rooms and view these objects. Interesting, even the communists valued Russian history and culture enough to preserve countless artifacts of that past way of life and to display them in magnificent museums. When I visited St. Petersburg years ago, they had just completed restoring the Amber Room in the Catherine Palace (the original amber panels were stolen by the Nazis and never recovered I believe.) Amazing to stand in that room and be bathed in amber light. </p>
<p>Mudder: I loved the Moscow subways too. We lived near Gorky Park on the Park Kultury stop but it was not as spectacular as others. I spent a lot of time in a museum right off that stop that showed mainly modern works, but can’t remember the name. How recently were you there? It was a long time ago for me. Really want to go back!</p>
<p>Jazzymom, DH and I fell in love with Russia. We were there about a year and a half ago. We will go back again. And again, probably. To sit in the Bolshoi theater, transported to heaven by the incomparable magic of music wedded to dance. Sigh. Leanid, not all Russians can be accused of the sin of bad taste. </p>
<p>We stayed in the southeast part of Moscow by a river near one of the subway stops. We purchased cheap subway fares and spent an afternoon and early evening riding the loop, getting off at each station, admiring the artwork, then boarding to ride again to the next stop, savoring each one. I’ve never seen anything like it, the grand art amid the bustle of heedless commuters. Amazing. It’s a fascinating country, and it’s fascinating for a Westerner to watch its evolution into the modern world. The “feel” is so much like the old Eastern bloc countries: The people are warm, charming, and ever wary in the lingering aftermath of their closed society and police state. </p>
<p>One can certainly understand how, in view of the tsarist excesses, revolution was fomented. Still, with the benefit of historical hindsight, one can’t help but wonder if the revolution would have succeeded (it very nearly didn’t) had the people known what form of slavery they were “trading up” for.</p>
<p>Jazzymom, you must have been at the palace when they still allowed picture-taking in the amber room; they’ve stopped that now. You are right; they are not the original panels but painstaking re-creations (the drawings survived). We went past Gorky Park. I wanted to stop, but there wasn’t enough time. I’m a longtime fan of the book of the same name. If you’re thinking of going back, I’d strongly encourage it!</p>
<p>I’ll PM you. I have lots of questions to try to get caught up on how the city has changed in 10 years (do the elderly pensioners still line up in a gauntlet outside the subways to sell odd things to stretch their incomes?) The Bolshoi was closed for renovation for most of the time we were there. But we attended the Moscow Circus with the boys a few times; I loved the little details like being able to buy caviar on toast at the snack bar there.</p>
<p>Well girls, I’ve been a long time fan of Russian literature but I’ve never been tempted to visit. H gave me descriptions of the Hermitage and the subways but nothing like the salivating prose above. Add Moscow to my list of places to go on Gap year!</p>
<p>cheers: Why gap year? Will your son be there or will you swing through on your way to visit him elsewhere? Actually, I’d block out as much time as possible for Moscow and St. Petersburg. Or do two separate trips to each city. Both are worth it. In Moscow, you can visit the house where Tolstoy lived and wrote. Not to mention the Pushkin museum. In different museums, you can find collections of paintings that take your breath away as well as the stunning opulent objects mentioned earlier. There are whole museums dedicated to the lacquer box folk art form. In St. Petersburg, there’s an extremely moving monument to the victims of the siege of Leningrad and of course, the palaces turned public museums. In winter time, you can walk out on the Neva River outside the Hermitage (go into a deep Dr. Zhivago fantasy.) Ten years ago, if you ventured even 30 minutes outside Moscow, people were still transporting goods in horse-drawn carts. I imagine that’s changed now. As you probably know from literature, Russians are at heart an earthy, country people. All but the poorest Moscow residents had dachas and would go there on weekends to grow their vegetables and hunt for mushrooms and then can and preserve them like, well, I suppose my great-grandmother did. It is a fascinating place and you will not be disappointed. </p>
<p>I assume this is an orphan thread now and can be hijacked with impunity.</p>
<p>Note: Do not read if hijacks annoy you. Sorry to the OP!</p>
<p>I’d planned to take a Gap year or semester in 2007-2008, but I don’t know if it will happen. The Paradise gig was meant to be a five year deal but we keep getting these fantastic projects which are huge and which have mulit-year building schedules. I might have to break it up into 6 week segments twice a year?</p>
<p>I have a couple of Russian friends and ‘country’ would be my last description! One is an artist, like her father before her, whose standard of craftsmanship must be somewhere just beneath Rembrandt. It looks extraordinary to my American eye–yet she claims she is considered a sub-par painter in Russia, a trainee.</p>
<p>The other woman is a former ballet dancer. Her children are so accomplished. They play instruments, they speak Japanese–they are truly cultured. Her knowledge history, politics, currency movement and current affairs is amazing.</p>
<p>I guess we’ve met different types of Russians. Those I knew in Moscow, even though they were city dwellers, were much in love with getting out to the countryside. You would walk into people’s apartments and find strings of mushrooms hanging from cabinet to cabinet in the kitchens. These were physicists and electrical engineers, journalists and teachers. Common Muscovites. Guess I didn’t meet any ballerinas.</p>
<p>Cheers, I just stopped by to cheer you on to visit Russia! [Adding my apologies for the hijack.] It’s a country full of surprises, big and little. Who would guess that the common big-city Russian women would be as fashion-conscious and -forward as those in any European city? I’m wondering if the modesty displayed by your friends in regard to their own talent is like that of people in so many cultures outside our own, a sort of natural reticence to refer in any way other than self-deprecating to one’s own accomplishments.</p>
<p>My limited experience with Russians more closely mirrors jazzymom’s. Most (nearly all?) city-dwellers live in humongous apartment complexes that are almost like cities themselves, containing grocery stores, furniture stores, cafes, etc. Dachas are very popular with everyone, especially now that many more people have cars so they can get to them.</p>
<p>It is truly a country for anyone who can appreciate great literature, music, architecture, history, religious culture (we never even mentioned Russian iconography!), the fine arts… well, everything. As jazzymom says, don’t neglect St. Petersburg. It’s the Paris of Russia, complete with street artists. (And I recommend a stop by the Baltic Sea while you’re there.) Moscow is the business/commerce center of the country as well as the seat of government. Lots to see in both cities, but St. P. is for lovers (in a Russian sort of way, of course). Best: Start in one and take the romantic overnight Red Arrow train or a cruise to the other.</p>
<p>Oh, I didn’t mean to imply that Russian women were bumpkins. Those who can afford it are very fashionable and they care about their appearance as much as other European women do. Moscow is now chock full of Fifth-Avenue/Rodeo Drive type stores.</p>
<p>My apologies for painting the Russians with such a broad brush.</p>
<p>No, obviously they have made many incomparable contributions to the arts. Their achievement in ballet, as was mentioned, cannot be denied. But, their classical music is among the greatest in the world and overshadows even dance.</p>
<p>I guess I am jealous that I have never been to that what sounds like a very appealing country. It has never beckoned me somehow. Could it be the climate that has leaves one “cold”?</p>
<p>Haha, leanid. We were concerned about the cold, too. Too many movie images of Siberia buried in the white stuff year-round, I guess. But we went for half of November, and the weather was fine as was the light (that far north, in St. P. especially, gotta be concerned about too much light in summer and not enough in winter). No snow or rain. The only time we really noticed cold was outside of our hotel in St. P. which was right on the Baltic Sea; sometimes the winds would pick up. Otherwise, I can honestly say weather was never a factor.</p>
<p>I will admit I had many of the usual Western prejudices going in. I can only say in my own defense that it’s probably not unlike foreign nationals who visit the US expecting everyday life here to simulate TV sitcom plots . We had always intended to get to the Hermitage but bumped it up a few notches on the travel list after meeting an American couple in Europe who described the Moscow subways. We did read up on Russian history first, and H even took a Russian language course before we went. It’s a country of extremes, both high and low, good and bad; you really wouldn’t want to drink the water in St. P., for instance, but pick up a local English-language newspaper and find both a vibrant arts scene and stinging political commentary. If you expect grocery stores with bare shelves, stop by a small suburban market and see an astounding collection of produce and prepared foods you rarely see in US markets. Travel outside the cities into the countryside and you can still see the litter of failed Soviet economic policy, just as you do in places like the rural parts of the Czech Republic or much of Slovakia. If you approach it with an open mind and your sense of wonder intact, though, it can be an amazingly rewarding experience.</p>
<p>Thank you. I am sure it is well worth a visit.</p>
<p>I must sound like a typical ignoramus with my preconceived notions. It just goes to show that despite having been raised in seven separate countries, from America to the Caribbean, and from Europe to the Middle East, I am still subject to such insularity!</p>
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If you’re thinking of going back, I’d strongly encourage it!</p>