Things to do in Altai
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A
Kafe Natalya
Cosy, with quiet good taste, this is by far Gorno-Altaisk’s nicest café. Delicious daily specials are displayed in the heated cabinet making point-and-pick an easy option. Omelettes (from R40) make a good breakfast.
reviewed
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FSB Headquarters
The FSB headquarters is worth a peek. The bearded dude in the courtyard is Felix Dzerzhinsky, the founder of the Cheka, forerunners to the KGB and the current day FSB. A much larger monument to Iron Felix was torn down in Moscow as the USSR collapsed in 1991, and he is a very uncommon face indeed in modern Russia. Be sure to check out the large Soviet-era ‘Workers Unite!’ mural to Felix’s left. Taking photos of the FSB HQ is not advised.
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B
Altai Arts, Literature &Culture Museum
The impressively eclectic Altai Arts, Literature &Culture Museum occupies a restored, furnished 1850s mansion in which piano recitals are held on Saturday afternoons. There are some fine icons, Rerikh sketches, and even the inevitable WWII room is imaginatively handled through cartoons and theatre posters.
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C
Imperator
Rapacious redevelopment has destroyed much of Barnaul's older architecture. Nonetheless, century-old remnants are dotted between the shopping malls of pr Lenina's tree-shaded southern end. A few splendid wooden-lace houses include the famous Imperator, now a nightclub, plus ul Korolenko 96 and ul Polzunova 31 and 48.
reviewed
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Firsova Ex-Department Store
From the market near the bus station take northbound bus 23 to see the tumbledown patches of once-impressive old town, which hide intriguingly behind a vast, unprepossessing curtain of Soviet-era concrete.The once-mighty, now decrepit Firsova ex-Department Store has crown-shaped corner domes.
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Altaysky Tsentr
Tthe Altaysky Tsentr comprises three Altai-style wooden ail huts with pointed metal roofs. One is an Altai library, another celebrates Churos-Gurkin’s ethnographic work, but most interesting is the traditional ‘home’ ail. Opening hours vary.
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Ioanno Bogoslavski Chapel
Across a small canyon to a craggy island in the Katun River on which is perched the tiny wooden Ioanno Bogoslavski Chapel, rebuilt in 2001 to the original 1849 design. Beside it, the rock miraculously shaped like a Madonna-and-child sculpture is supposedly natural.
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D
Polzunov Restaurant
Old copperware and wooden beams add appeal to this delightful upper-market restaurant. The imaginative menu (in English) includes tasty pork premyera with pineapple, walnut and mushroom sauce. Attached is a bakery-grocery and the excellent MasterFood Cafeteria.
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obelisk
Classical pl Demidov was once exaggeratedly dubbed a 'slice of St Petersburg'. Now the slice is itself sliced in half by the tram tracks of Krasnoarmeysky pr and is hardly memorable, apart from the 1825 obelisk which is still faintly bullet-pocked from a 1918 skirmish.
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E
Museum
A moustachioed standing stone idol welcomes visitors to the interesting museum. There’s a reconstruction of a 2000-year-old Pazyryk grave pit and some intriguing archaeological finds from the Turkic and Dzhungarian periods.
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F
Bliny Bar
Superb stuffed bliny made to order in a fast-food-style diner. There's another branch on the 3rd floor of the City Tsentr shopping mall which has a useful 1st-floor supermarket and whose Voskhod Bakery stand has great cheese strudels.
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Altour
Specialist for, as one reader put it, ‘really mad, high-adrenaline experienced rafting adventures’. Not for beginners in other words. Office entered through VIP-Tur at the rear of a big apartment block.
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Kafe Elegiya
The Kafe Elegiya is across the road at ul Sovetskaya 54. The attached supermarket is well stocked and is your last chance to stock up on luxuries before the wilderness begins for real.
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G
Regional Museum
Founded in 1823, the reasonably interesting Regional Museum is Siberia’s oldest museum. Top exhibits include intriguing models of various 18th-century industrial processes.
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H
Dezhavyu
Small but inexpensive meals served in an upbeat, youthful atmosphere where the déjà vu in question is the Eiffel Tower, a giant photo of which is echoed in ironwork motifs above the bar.
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I
War History Museum
In an old brick house, the War History Museum is simple and all in Russian but the moving understatement of its Afghanistan and Chechnya memorials is particularly affecting.
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Kavkazskaya Kukhnya
Understandably Biysk’s most popular dinner spot, with reasonable prices, huge portions, cheap Russian beer and the best shashlyk in town. It is near the glistening Sberbank building.
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Pozharka
‘Pozharka’ means ‘little fire’, and this friendly fire brigade–themed grill bar also does a wide range of sushi. Can get packed at weekends.
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Bars Travel
Runs various Altai tours for Russian groups with three-day hiking trips (R4685 including food, transport and two nights’ accommodation) departing most Fridays.
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Mu-Mu
Biysk’s own version of the popular Moscow chain of cafés, Mu-Mu offers mounds of pancakes, pelmeni, and fried potatoes for hard-to-beat prices.
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J
Altour/Class 5
Specialist for extreme white-water rafting expeditions. Not for beginners. Office entered through VIP-Tur at the rear of a big apartment block.
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Kafe Randevu
Behind a beautifully renovated old-town facade, this midrange café has the most convivial atmosphere of three options on Sovetskaya ul.
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Skazka Banya
A visit to the cute, fairytale-themed Skazka Banya, some 300m to the left after the suspension bridge is well recommended.
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Pokrovsky
The bulbous-domed, brick Pokrovsky is the most appealing of the city’s many churches with a fine, gilded interior.
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Museum
The excellent museum, housed in a grand, if dilapidated, 1912 merchant’s house has original art nouveau fittings.
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