Where to stayand eat

The old Hotel Rus in Serpukhov (2/20 2nd Moskovskaya Ulitsa, 4976 76-09-97) has a long tradition of hospitality. A comfortable triple room with breakfast costs 2,850 roubles. The best thing about staying here is that the hotel's restaurant, the fabulous Postoyaly Dvor, has its own micro-brewery producing three different real ales. A pint costs 80 roubles.

For a change from Russian cuisine, the Pazzo Pizzeria at 130a Ul. Voroshilova does very reasonable pizzas in a relaxed atmosphere.

There are numerous hotels and restaurants in Tula. One of the newest top-end offerings is the History Hotel, out in the eastern suburbs (24 Ulitsa Shukhova, 4872 41-93-23). A two-room suite (sleeps three) costs 4,000 roubles.

The wood-cabin Preshpekt Café opposite the entrance to Yasnaya Polyana is a great pit-stop for hungry Tolstoy fans. The walls are hung with patchwork quilts and the daily business lunch is a bargain.

Visit Elbrus, Europe’s tallest mountain (4,604)

"No true mountaineer will ever refuse to recognize the unique majesty of the monarch of the Caucasus," wrote noted British mountain explorer and writer Douglas Freshfield. The landscapes of the Caucasus Mountains of Russia are considered even more beautiful than the European Alps. Deep forests, alpine meadows carpeted with wildflowers and dramatic glaciated peaks, including Europe's highest, the twin summits of Mount Elbrus are the reason for thousands of people to come repeatedly to Elbrus for years.

The high season for all kinds of ski and snowboarding hype is in full swing. Along with famous Alpine resorts Russia, indeed, does have something to offer for extreme sports lovers and mountaineers. Elbrus, Europe's tallest peak at 5,642 m pierces the sky in the Western Caucasus on the border of Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia regions. A dead volcano that has been dormant for about 2,000 years has two tops and enough flat slopes that can be enjoyed not only by professional climbers, but also by people with little mountaineering experience and skill. Apart from being the highest peak in Europe, Elbrus has an old story of its own. According to Greek myths it was there that Prometheus was chained to a rock as a punishment for stealing gods' fire and giving it to the people. Still Elbrus and the adjoining area remains something special: savagely uncivilized on one hand and wildly hospitable on the other.

Travel to the Europe's roof for an inexperienced and toffee-nosed tourist can present a great challenge and a cultural shock as well. First, do not believe the US government when it says America is populated by some 200 million Caucasians. The term, coined by the explorer Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, derived from the mountain area and came to refer to all white people. The term has not been in scientific use for centuries. Also, take into account that in Russia the inhabitants of the Caucasus are sometimes derogatorily called "black" in contrast to ethnic Russians.

Elbrus presents a good opportunity to get to know not only magnificent nature, but also the true Caucasian spirit. Be prepared for a little adventure from the very beginning when you find yourself in a motley crowd loaded with skis and snowboards in the airport. Fortunately, regulations limit drinking and ban smoking aboard. Your destination is the strangely named airport of Mineralnye Vody (‘Mineral Waters' literally, but after the flight it seems Fire Waters would be more appropriate here). After paying the 500 rubles you enter a ramshackle bit of a "marshrutka" for a 3.5-hours' rollercoaster ride on a rundown highway spiral with occasional stops at traffic police stations, where a traditional bit of homage is paid. Tradition must be observed to cast away the road demons, so to speak. Certainly, for a larger sum you can hire a taxi. Remember that absolutely every car is a possible taxi (the militia may even stop to give you a lift!). Just raise your hand to signal.

Perhaps, the best place to settle down is Terskol, which provides the happy medium of civilization (to the extent it is possible) and proximity to facilities and mountain paths. Housing facilities are mainly modest, both official tourists' camps and lodging in private flats and houses are available (the latter option is better, but is completely self-service). Places to eat are generally represented by moderately priced restaurants with Caucasian cuisine which can be no chef d'oeuvre, but simple, fresh and delicious. Caucasian shashlik and wines cognacs are a definite must. Skiers and snowboarders ind their paradise in mountains and sometimes hell in chairlifts and aerial tramways. The most popular and functional ski lifts are situated in the villages of Cheget and Elbrus; the former is a chairlift and the latter a tramway car. Those not afraid of heights and colds are advised to go to Cheget, but in this case it is always better to have your personal seat than to feel yourself a sarine in a tin inside of Elbrus' packed tramway. You can of course buy a ski pass, but a hundred ruble banknote to the operator will also suffice.

Anyways, the chairlift will take you up to 3,750 m above sea level to the so called Bochki (Barrels) mountain base, which is enough already to get a brief impression of the awesome scenery. If it fails to satisfy then take a short trip by snowcat up to Priyut 11 at the height of 4,100 which used to be the most highly placed hotel in the world before it burnt down 10 years ago as a result of negligence. Those not on a tight budget can rent all the necessary equipment, hire a guide and conquer the summit. The majority of visitors to Elbrus seem more than satisfied with skiing in the virgin snow and enjoying peaceful scenery and life.

IMPORTANT

The Elbrus Region is a border zone between Russia and Georgia, all foreigners must have a permit to be in any area south of the Baksan valley. This is obtained at the military head office of the border guard in Nalchik (Kabardinskaya Ulitsa,192). Passes are issues between 9.00 and 13.00. You should have the following documents:

- a stamped letter of application from an organization;

- passports of all participants:

- it is helpful to have a route sheet if climbing to the top.

It is also possible to arrange permits through numerous Russian travel companies.

Foreigners must also register with local authorities which is easy if you stay at an official hotel which makes it for you or you can register for additional payment at Mineralnye Vody airport.

Perm region: Province of the North (3,622)

Although Perm by itself has little unique to offer for an experienced tourist, the region is still a breath of fresh air. A distant and rather cold region, it was poorly explored even by the beginning of the 20th century. Now, it has lots of natural and man-made treasures to show.

About 100 km away from Perm, around the town of Kungur, is an ice cave, one of the largest in the world. The icy underworld presents tourists about 1.5 km of tourist friendly paths, but take warm clothes as it is always cold inside. The cave has 48 grottos and more than 60 lakes. In 1914, the cave became popular among tourists. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was even visited by Princess Louise of Battenberg (the Queen of Sweden in 1950-1965) who injured her leg in one of the grottos, which is now called Dame's Tears.

Today, tourists visit ice grottos of different nicknames, like Brilliant, Polar, Sea Bottom. The largest, "Giant," is over 30 meters high and 100 meters wide. In 1999, a fir tree was brought to the grotto and thanks to a consistent temperature and dampness it is still going strong. Moreover, female needles do not seem to age; legend has it that people can enjoy the cave's health benefits as well.

Stalactites and stalagmites are scattered all about the cave. The deepest grotto (80 meters below the top of the mountain), Meteor, was given its name due to a rockslide that resembles a large comet against stone ceiling background.

Another feature of the grotto is the absolute darkness that occurs when the lights are switched off.

Khlebnikov grotto (named after the first keeper of the cave) boasts of an exotic species of prawns that thrive in an underground lake. They are white and have no sense of sight after thousands of years spent in absolute darkness.

Guided tours into the cave last about 2 hours. The best time to visit the cave is certainly in winter when its ice looks to the best.

The town of Kungur can be interesting as an old former merchant place which used to be one of the centers of trade in the Russian North. Strolling along the streets note former luxurious shops, reach wooden houses and churches. Kungur used to have its own Kremlin but with years as the town grew more and more provincial it was gone.

About 50 km to the West of Kungur there is another landmark, Belogorodsky Monastery in the village of Belaya Gora (White Mountain). Topping a huge hill the monastery is worth visiting if only for the view of the picturesque landscape. Now the monastery is under slow reconstruction after the Soviet years of oblivion.

The most impressive building of the monastery complex is its Kresto vo sdvizhensky Cathedral, the 7th largest in Russia and quite comparable in size with Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior. But the amazing structure is situyated high on a pedestal in the middle of nowhere with only woods and hills surrounding it.

Those interested in traditions and the way of life of the Russian North are advised to visit the village of Khokhlovka, which is actually a museum of traditional wooden architecture in the open air. It lies about 40 km northwards of Perm. Situating in a picturesque place the museum present a dozen of traditional houses and churches collected from different spots of the region and reconstructed there presenting not only the architecture but also showing interiors and way of life. Peasants' traditional houses, wooden churches of the North (which are quite different from the churches of the heartland), shops, a guard house, a mill, even a small fire tower, all are assembled in one place and form a village that could really have existed in the 18th or 19th century.

Finally, the last peculiar place to visit when you happen to have a day off in Perm is the so called Perm 36, the former prison camp ITK-6 and now the Museum of Gulag. It is situated 250 km away from Perm in Kutchino village and used to be an ordinary typical distant prison keeping a thousand people behind the bars. Abandoned in the last Soviet years it stood dilapidated and useless until the middle the 1990s when it was decided to turn it into a museum which opened for the public in 1996 and is under development and reconstruction up to now. It is very special, takes considerable time to reach and is recommended to those interested in Gulag life, Soviet time or particularly curious persons.

Yekaterinburg: between Europe and Asia (4,272)

If you ever decide to visit Yekaterinburg, I've got some very good advice for you: Neither your ticket or train ticket will feature the name of this fair city. Yes, one of Russia's few millionaire cities seems to deliberately hide itself under various pseudonyms. But in the case of air travel, passengers do not fly from one megapolis to another, but rather they depart from some quaint ‘village' like Sheremetyevo in order to reach an even smaller village, Koltsovo.' This is all general practice in the aviation business. But if you are going by train to Yekaterinburg, you will not see this name in your ticket. Instead, it lists ‘Sverdlovsk,' which was the name of the city during the Soviet era.

Even the Russian railways website does not show any matches for Yekaterinburg, redirecting browsers to Sverdlovsk without any explanation. But perhaps there is a far more intriguing question: doesYekaterinburg lie in Europe or in Asia? The best answer is neither, as the borderline is drawn along the Urals where Yekaterinburg is situated. Thus, if you leave the city and drive a bit westwards (Perm-Moscow highway) after about 20 km you will come across a rather pompous monument that allegedly marks the border between Europe and Asia. Stop there and do not drive further unless you want to get disappointed as you will find yet more border monuments and obelisks. There are rumors that the borderline was designated in the city center simply to attract tourists.

Yekaterinburg, which was founded in the 18th century, is relatively young; it mainly developed in the 19th century. In the year 1723, an iron works was commissioned on the banks of the Iset River. At this time, competition for Siberia's reserves was strong and the founder of the iron works, Vasily Tatishev, faced severe opposition from the side of the Demidovs, another family with an interest in Siberia's iron reserves. Upon the advice of George Wilhelm de Gennin, an expat of His Majesty, so to speak, the new settlement was called Yekaterinburg in the name Saint Catherine (Yekaterina, in Russian) which - let us consider it to be mere coincidence - was also the name of Peter the Great's wife and future Empress, Catherine I. The city developed more smoothly afterwards, and in Soviet times changed its name to Sverdlovsk.

Despite being one of the largest cities in Russia in terms of population, Yekaterinburg remains one of the most compact, thus, almost everything is close.

Better start your walk in the very heart of the city, which consists of the Historical Garden and the so-called Plotinka (‘small dam'). This is the place where the old iron works used to be. The dam separates the Iset River from the City Pond which is actually the same Iset but much wider. You can have a look at this small waterfall and have a very short walk down the main street, Lenina Prospect, up to the 1905 Ploshad (‘square'). A typical Lenin statue protrudes from the center and points to a newly built mall. Lenin holds a coat, as if advertising: "Nice coats! Buy them here," as the locals jokingly say. Walk a bit farther and you will reach the pedestrian street Vainera Ulitsa, sometimes called Yekaterinburg's Arbat. This is the place for souvenirs, shops, cafes, calm strolls and all other types of entertainment. The street is decorated with statues standing just in the middle of the road as if they are part of the crowd. The statues represents friends, lovers, a banker and a peddler, which the locals believe brings luck. But nobody seems to know exactly how both rubbing his worn, shiny nose while depositing coins into his tray will do anything.

Return back to Plotinka and proceed farther up to Truda Ploshad. The square's eclectic look features the monument to founding fathers Vasily Tatishev and George Wilhelm de Gennin. The other landmark is Saint Catherine's Chapel. Erected in the 1990s, it stands on the place of the huge Cathedral that was built in the 18th century and then demo lished in the 1930s.

Don't miss the metal plate that shows the ‘zero point' of the Sverdlovsk region (the re gion was not renamed) in front of the post office on the opposite side of the street. Then, walk up Tolmacheva Ulitsa to visit the city's ultimate must-see and the symbol of Yekaterinburg's renaissance, the All Saints Church on the Blood.

By the way, the house where in 1918 the last Russian Emperor and his family were executed stood exactly on this spot. Demolished in the late 1970s, it returned in the early 2000s in the shape of a magnificent church worth seeing and visiting.

Other featured sights of Yekaterinburg include the old railway station built in a bright Russian tradition and the newly opened unique monument to computer keyboard. It is located to the south of Historical Garden on the bank of the Iset. The monument itself consists of huge concrete blocks in the form of buttons with corresponding symbols.

While being an ordinary Soviet to the bone city at first glance, Yekaterinburg does have something to offer curious tourists. Long standing industrial traditions and creative thinking come with good ideas.

Local fashion goes global (4,613)

Moscow is fast becoming the new Milan, according to Mario Boselli, president of the prestigious Milan Fashion Week.

He believes the Russian capital is fast joining New York, London, Paris and his home town as a major international fashion centre, and mimics the Italian couture capital with its marriage of business and fashion, a home of high-class prêt a porter.

"In some ways, Moscow is closer to Milan," he said. "Like Milan, Moscow has a strong base of Russian designers. It's still a new sphere, still in its growing stages, but very dynamic. I haven't had much time to follow all the collections, but I saw Vassa, and it was fantastic.

"Also, last time, two young Russian designers participated in Milan Fashion Week, Lena Karnaukhova and Maria Kravtsova. Karnaukhova has a younger, easy style, while Kravtsova is more French-minded, more like haute couture. It shows that Moscow has many designers going in different directions, which is a good thing - it creates a wealth of fashion."

Boselli admitted that it was almost impossible to pinpoint the birth of a new trend. "While it is the textile industry which first offers and promotes their new products to designers, the designers also ask the textile industry to make changes, the designers also choose what they want," he said. "But in the end, it's the young people, the consumers, who decide. Whatever the designers or industry promotes, if the people don't like it, they don't buy it. So it's the consumers who have the final deciding power."

In his role as the Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana president, Boselli has worked closely with Russian Fashion Week and plays a key role in the "Italian Day", which brings top Italian designers to the catwalks of the World Trade Centre.

This year's star turn was Ennio Capasa, designer and founder of C'N'C Costume National. Beyond dressing movie stars, he also designed the latest Alfa Romeo 149 model and a Ducati motorcycle.

In an interview with The Moscow News, Capasa said he had been a creative rebel since his schooldays. On his first day of elementary school, he put on his mandatory school uniform, a boring affair in black, and promptly wriggled out of the aesthetically barren garment. No, this was not for him. Every day for a week he took off his uniform, until his schoolteacher called his mother in for a talk.

The upshot of it was that his mother took the boy to a psychologist who, after a month-long observation, wrote a paper saying that this child cannot be made to wear a uniform, lest it have adverse effects on his psychological development. Capasa alone went to school in his own clothes, while the hundreds of other children wore their uniforms. "I felt absolutely great - with my clothes!" he says.

Asked what the key to success in the fashion industry is, Capasa said "Work very hard".

"It's also important to have a unique style. There's so much fashion out there in the world, it's not enough to make a beautiful jacket. You must make a beautiful jacket which can be recognized as yours. It must make people say, ‘Wow, this is Ennio Capasa', otherwise I don't think a designer would have a long life."

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 872