Russian search engine giant Yandex is rapidly expanding a new service similar to Google Street View, making it possible to see what certain buildings look like or even take a tour through city streets.
Most regional centers and even some CIS capitals appear to be covered. Simply click on the “panorama” button on the mapsyandex.ru site, and available streets will be highlighted in purple.
Yandex also unveiled beautiful birds-eye-view panoramics of St. Petersburg, with several high-resolution images good enough to print out, for example: bit.ly/smolny
Some long-distance trains outbound from Moscow will have WiFi installed by the end of the year, Russian Railways has announced. Specifically, the free connection will be available on trains to Sochi, Yekaterinburg, Murmansk and Klimov. Authorities at the Moscow metro have also promised WiFi access points in the vast underground network, without saying where these points will be located.
Two cafes have opened in Moscow that use a novel way of charging their guests: by time. The venues offer tea and small nibbles, along with board games, WiFi, and comfortable couches or tables where one can relax or hold a meeting. The idea was pioneered by poet and activist Ivan Mitin, who launched Tsiferblat (Clockface) on the city’s central Pokrovka Street (pictured). For every minute you spend there, you pay 1 ruble.
Tsiferblat also organizes movie screenings (they showed every installment of Back to the Future one weekend), master classes, and lectures. Every guest receives a vintage alarm clock when they enter, used to count their time in the cafe. clockfacer.ru
A similar venue, Local Time, opened near Moscow’s Komsomolskaya Square, the city’s main train hub. vkontakte.ru/localtime
A new hostel has opened in Moscow with overnight rates starting at just R600. Guests have a choice of a 10-person dorm, a female or male room for four, and a separate room for two. Called Dom (Home in Russian), the hostel is in the center, not far from Kursky Train Station. Booking is available through the airbnb.com and booking.com websites.
facebook.com/domhostel.ru
A museum of execution and torture recently opened in central Moscow chronicling and displaying Russia’s medieval instruments of justice. The museum grew out of the private collection of Valery Pereverzev, and started with simple handcuffs, then grew over a span of ten years to include more elaborate torture mechanisms, including those once used on Moscow’s Red Square. pereverzev.su
A series of four seasonal English language guidebooks has been launched by the Russia-based Moscow News daily. Autumn and Winter are already out and available at select Moscow stores.
The books were written by British expat Phoebe Taplin, who previously wrote about the best pedestrian routes on her website (phoebetaplin.com) and organized guided tours for expats and visiting foreigners. Her walks feature overlooked Moscow sites like Krutitskoye Podvorye, as well as neighborhoods beyond the city, such as the Moose Island forest.
The books are available directly from MN or via a selection of stores (at a markup): bit.ly/moscowwalks
Moscow authorities want to add another Pushkin address to the already sizable list of places where the famous poet lived, read poetry, or stayed as a guest. Researchers are finishing their studies of a house inhabited by Pushkin’s uncle, Vasily Lvovich, on Staraya Basmannaya street, just east of center. Pushkin’s uncle was believed to have exerted great influence on the young poet and pushed him to attend the Lyceum in Tsarskoye Selo. But the house is also a historic building, built after the great fire of 1812 and having housed everything from communal flats to a marriage registration office.
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