Thursday, December 18, 2008

Travel Thursday: Arbat Street, Moscow

Arbat Twilight Stroll

Arbat Street is the main tourist/shopping street in Moscow. It's not exactly Fisherman's Wharf tacky, but it comes close in some ways. It also has no small amount of charm and mystery, as most any street in any foreign country will to someone who is visiting for the first time.

More...

Arbat T-shirts

Punch Me

Evil Empire

Arbat Matryoshka


Moscow Pickles


Arbat Fire Dancers

13 comments:

Tom Hilton said...

Great pics! I so want that Lenin-flipping-the-bird t-shirt!

Generik said...

So did I, but they didn't make one big enough to fit a plus-size guy like me, unfortunately.

Donna said...

I want to travel NOW!!!!!
Had planned to go to Russia years ago but it was deemed too dangerous outside of going with an organized tour group and I'm just not a tour group kind of a traveler.

Donna said...

and I love the veggie pic!

ahab said...

Cool shots. I gotta get me one of those CCCP shirts.

Generik said...

Thanks, all. It was an amazing trip, the worst part about it being that it was much too short (only there one week). I'm hoping to go back when (if) I get my next sabbatical.

ahab said...

Have you ever been to Krakow, Generik? That's supposed to be spectacular. How about St. Petersburg? I'd like to go there too. And Kiev. And everywhere else. And the good places twice.

Generik said...

No, but I've heard Krakow is quite beautiful, too. I'd like to see that city and St. Petersburg -- also Budapest and about a million other places.

What's the other city (besides Prague) in the Czech Republic that everyone raves about? It's two words -- Cesny something-or-other, I think. That's another place I'd love to visit.

Donna said...

I was in Krakow eons ago (at least ten years ago) and it was amazing. No one knew any english and I didn't know any polish. I thought I'd get by with my, even then, fairly weak german. Nope, between my american accented german accent and there polish accented german...nope. At Auschwitz/Birkenau (one of my death tours) I met an australian (more ubiquitous than americans) and some Peace Corp Workers on holiday from Kiev. We did a polish whiskey crawl through every pub in the old part of town. I think I may still be hung over.
Most citizens were ungodly rude but I live in Boston -- I felt at home.

I understand that Buda is great -- Pest, not so much.

ahab said...

Donna, sounds like fun. ;)

Generik, you're probably thinking of Cesky Krumlov, which is a tiny, fairytale-like fortified castle town on a hill in an extreme hook of the river Vltava. It's not really a city. That's two hours south of Prague by car. About 30 minutes from there is Cesky Budjovice, home to the real Budweiser beer. Cesky Krumlov is much more beautiful and interesting and also much smaller than Cesky Budjovice.

Also of interest about two hours east of Prague is Kutna Hora, the ancient Czech capital. There's a spectacular cathedral there (of St. Barbara, which name I love -- church of the Roman barbarians!) and nearby is the bone church of Sedlec:

http://www.artgraphica.net/art-shop/prague-kutna-hora-bone-church.htm

Generik said...

Cesky Krumlov is the place I was thinking of, thanks.

And the link you provided reminds me of this.

ahab said...

Wow!

And that reminds me of this, from where I went to grad school.

Generik said...

Saints preserve us!!