Indonesia Travel 04: CNNGo.com

Sunday, August 26, 2012

CNNGo.com

Posted: 26 Aug 2012 09:10 AM PDT

by Joy Neumeyer

Moscow suggests that age-old cliche, "a city of contrasts:" onion domes and concrete, avant-garde and bureaucracy, Vogue-thin beauties and sour cream-smothered beets -- not to mention a populace as given to partying as it is to quoting Pushkin.

For visitors, the heavier side of the Russian capital has often outweighed the light, but in the past few years the best of Moscow has gained a serious spring in its step.

Now, disused factories host cafés and art galleries. Concrete-heavy parks sport free Wi-Fi and table tennis. Chefs whip heavy pelmeni and borscht into airy new concoctions. English-language signs guide visitors through ancient streets.

While this city of 11.5 million residents modernizes (some estimates place the population as high as 17 million), remnants of the Soviet past remain just below the surface.

Behemoths such as Stalin's Gothic Baroque skyscrapers have triumphed against the course of history. But treasured spots like bliny cafés, a proletarian palace, and other landmarks struggle to survive.