Moscow Heat Wave

by Iva Skoch on

Now Moscow isn’t exactly the place to hit the beach these days, but it’s interesting to note that, today, Moscow hit an all-time high winter temperature with a whopping 47.48 degrees F.

I don’t think they’ll be whipping out the sunscreen, but this is a surprise, considering how long official temperature records goes back: 1879. And this compares with a December average high temp of 27 F.

Of course, this comes on the back of last year’s near-record cold snap, when temps hit as low as -23.8 F (January 19, 2006), coming within a degree of record cold.

Even more surprising? This weekend may get even warmer. But don’t feel too bad for the heat-plagued Russians, though: they can always cool off in Vostok, Russia, where the record world low temp of -128.6 F was recorded back in 1983.

Traveling Kidneys

by Neil Woodburn on

Medical Tourism is becoming a rather lucrative business as unhealthy travelers flock to Mexico to get cataract surgery, Poland for cheap dentistry, or a host of other countries around the globe to patch up or otherwise repair their failing bodies. In fact, yesterday kicked off a four-day, International Medical Travel Conference in Singapore addressing this very issue.

While most of Medical Tourism is legal, there is a secondary market which dabbles in organ transplants that is not so legal. You’ve no doubt heard the horror travel stories of hitchhikers waking up with a headache and a missing organ somewhere in Central America. Well, sometimes those organs aren’t always stolen; sometimes they are donated by unfortunate souls who are down on their luck and need some hard cash simply to survive. It’s a very screwed-up world when your only bankable assets have to be withdrawn by a scalpel.

One such place where this is a common occurrence is Russia. According to an article by Kevin O’Flynn in the Moscow Times, body parts are often advertised in the classifieds (sometimes even in English) by anonymous donors. Kidneys seem to be the organ of choice–a natural option since we were born with two of them and, coincidentally, they bring a hefty price on the black market.

So, if you’re looking for a kidney on the cheap and completely lack a set of morals, pop on over to Moscow and shop around. If I awake there one morning with strange stitches and a throbbing headache, however, I’m coming after you.

Blowing a Wad in Moscow

by Neil Woodburn on

Now that Moscow has become one of the most expensive cities in the world, local millionaires have plenty of opportunities to blow their hard earned rubles in the Russian capital.

A recent article in Go! Magazine takes the hypothetical challenge of spending 520,000 rubles (about $20,000) in a single day in Moscow without actually purchasing anything tangible.

Sure, it’s rather tongue in cheek, but the hypothetical day, which begins at 8 a.m. at the pricy Ararat Park Hyatt and ends at 11 p.m. with a private plane taxi to St. Petersburg, provides an audacious glimpse into the type of money thrown around these days by Russia’s uber-rich.

I don’t know about you, but next time I’m in Moscow I’ll be sure to engage in at least one of these pricy activities to see how the other half lives–perhaps scarfing down the $90 Black Iberian Pig at Los Bandidos. Mmmm…

Bizarre Russian Museums

by Neil Woodburn on

I wish there were more sites like this.

RussianMuseums.info pretty much lives up to its name. The site provides 32 pages of information about hundreds of museums across Russia.

Russia is home to some very fine museums, ranging from the Hermitage–one of the very best in the world–to obscure little ones honoring various oddities.

The Russians take great pride in their museums and RussianMuseums.info provides information about them all; brief summations, opening hours, locations, and links to websites when they exist.

It is quite interesting glancing through the list at some of the very strange museums included, such as the Vodka Museum, Permafrost Museum, Museum of Water, “Unsubdued Gangut” Museum, and the Museum of History of Limited Company “Yamburggasdobicha.”

Hmmm… think I’ll stick with the Hermitage.

Bizarre Gifts to Soviet Leaders on Display

by Neil Woodburn on

Some of the most ridiculous objects I’ve ever seen in a museum have been the gifts presented to communist leaders in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

Any time there was a birthday or state anniversary, kowtowing sycophants would trip over themselves trying to present some type of communist-themed gift to their beloved leaders, each trying to outdo the last.

The result was a bizarre hodgepodge of very strange objects indeed.

Today, nearly every capital in this part of the world has some type of communist museum that includes a few such gifts on display. If you happen to be in Moscow this month, however, the Kremlin Museum has designed a specific exhibit just for these presents. Gifts to Soviet Leaders showcases more than 500 presents received by every leader from Lenin to Gorbachev.

According to an article on BBC, one of the most bizarre is “a portrait of Lenin made entirely from human hair.” Other gifts typically include weird variations of the hammer-and-sickle theme, such as the telephone featured in the photo above.

I highly recommend this exhibit; it provides a fascinating insight into just how screwed-up and twisted this system actually was.