mall old towns in Russia are full of churches, small houses and calmness: Veliky Ustug, Troitzko-Sergieva Lavra, Vologda, Kaluga, Uglich. Each town has its own unique history, architecture and character.
Vologda is one of the most ancient Russian towns, dating back to 1147. Vologda is northwest of Moscow. If you board a train at 8:00 p.m. in Moscow you will arrive in Vologda at 4:00 a.m. the next morning. Since 19th century Vologda is well known for its lacemakers, and fairy-tale Vologda lace is handmade and always unique. Lacemaking has a big impact on all the aspects of city decoration, and you will find a lot of houses and fences decorated in a "lace" style, with wooden details matching the most famous lace ornaments of Vologda.
Kaluga is south of Moscow. You can get there in 2 hours by car from Moscow. Kaluga is staying on the picturesque banks of the Oka river for more than six centures and dates back to 1371. The architectural image of city is known for its harmony with nature.
In 1892 a school physics teacher K.E.Tsiolkovsky had settled in Kaluga. That scientist-inventor was the founder of the modern cosmonautics. Kaluga was the home of Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, and is known as the "cradle of cosmonautics. The museums of city are situated in the beautiful ancient detached houses, which are also valuable architectural monuments. Regional museum of local lore has unique collections of the archeological godsends, acient weapons, russian porcelain, etnography, goods of the local factories. The rich collection of the painings of russian and western artists is presented in the Art museum.

oscow is my native city, I was born there and I like it best of all, even despite mine adoration of St. Petersburg (which I consider to be the most beautiful city in the world) and despite my feeling so good here in Chicago with its light and space buildings. Moscow is much more Asian city than St. Petersburg (which is almost all-European and westernized). In my mind Moscow consists of many different small towns united in one. In Moscow I would advise you to walk downtown a little, visit Tretyakov Gallery, Pushkin museum and museum of Oriental Arts. Tretyakov Gallery is one of the greatest art museums of the world. The museum's collections include only Russian art, just as it was collected by its founder, Pavel Tretyakov. His collection of paintings included the works of every 19th century Russian artist of note. For this, Pavel Tretyakov and his brother wore named Honorable Moscow Citizens. The Tretyakov now has more than 80 000 paintings, icons and other works of art, but it can only display about a third of them at any one time. The precious "Our Lady of Vladimir", brought by Kiev princes from Byzantine in the early 12th century and Andrei Rublev's "Trinity" are also here. Nikolaly Gae, Ilya Repin, Mikhail Vrubel, Konstantin Korovin, Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, Shagal, Kandinsky, Malevich are fully exhibited here.
Pushkin museum of Fine Arts is located southwest of the Kremlin and almost across the street from the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, and a few minutes on foot from practically anywhere in the down-town. The Pushkin Museum contains about half a million works of ancient, Oriental, classical and Western European art on two floors. Cezanne, Gauguin, the French Impressionists are on the second floor. For me the most fascinating was always the Egyptian rooms of the museum, there is couple of authentic mummies (very truly horrible) and a mummy of a cat (you can clearly see the expression on the face of the very aged animal). Egyptian jewelry is also a thing to look at.
The "Sphere" (Сфера) theatre is a small and unusual theatre with new and interesting performances. I love this theatre best of all in Moscow. Surprise! - the price of theatre tickets in Moscow starts at 3$ and seldom overcomes 8$ (except the Bolshoi theatre, which seems to me too narrow and suffocating inside, with its walls covered with too much gold).
Do you like classic music?! Plan a visit to Moscow Conservatory! This building is rather ancient and specific, with bright acoustics and faces of composers stuck high in the walls inside of it. I do not know why, but when I am inside the place, I always have the clear impression of being in the 19th century - the feeling is unusual and very strong. May be you will be so very lucky, that they will play music of Georgian contemporary composer Gabeli (Georgia is a country near Russia, close to the Black Sea. By the way, Georgian wines are really, really good - ask for "Gru'sinskoe vi'noo" - "Грузинское вино", try to find "Hvanchkara" or "Kindzmarauli" - these red table wines are delicious and superb. Mind that nobody will really care how old are you when you are buying this stuff), so Gabeli!: I believe you have never heard such unusual, cosmic and classic music before!! The tickets are cheaper then a lunch at McDonald's. If there is no special event you will be able to buy tickets right before the concert. Take the most unpopular and far-away seats - you will be able to take any seat you want (even at the 1st row!). Remember that some people (O-O!) say that the best seats for listening to classic music at Conservatoires are in the middle of 5-7 rows. And they play wonderful music of Gershwin there as well!!
I do like nightclubs in Moscow!!, especially Galaxy (Галактика), which is close to subway station "University" - it is flyaway and wild club. If you dare to use public transportation in Moscow (even once!), you'll get the unforgettable impression of everyday life of average Russian. One of my friends from Australia (where are you now, Greg?!!) used to call it Russian exotica - so, be brave and begin with a tram!!

f you want to see almost all Russian crafts and buy something nice and Ruse(!) to your friends - welcome to Moscow Vernisage. It is a huge outdoor exhibition of everything: wood hand-painted spoons, military forms, belts and watches, warm knitted hats, traditional Asian and modern jewelry, thin Russian porcelain pieces and some paintings of underground artists. You will be able to find just everything here (in sphere of souvenirs and some Russian stuff especially). The exhibition itself is a very bright and nice place, you will probably see here some women in traditional Russian dresses, singing old songs. On the other hand if you are feeling homesick and wish to talk to some Americans/Englishmen/Australians(!!) you will be able to find them all here, though this fact does not influence at all on the Russian spirit of the place. To get there you should take subway to the station "Izmailovsky Park" ("Измайловский Парк") turn left and walk along the street (about 4 minutes) which will lead you (if you are lucky!!) to Vernisage. It is opened on weekends.


Recently I have been told that the expression "Feel yourself" means something dirty in English. Is it really so?! ..How many times I have probably used it!!.. So do not be frightened to hear from Russians the phrase "Feel yourself like at home!!", it is just the exact translation of the Russian idiom
njoy yourself!!!



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