Goose-Cristal

St. International,
Gus-Khrustalniy, Russia

About 320 KM from Moscow to the east, in Vladimir oblast, lies a small city named "Gus-Khrustalniy". The meaning of the name in russian is "Goose-Cristal". I lived here about two months. I like this quiet place. People here are more friendly, than moscovite.

The city was founded in the 1770-s, because this place is rich in siliceous sand stone, water and forest, so people built here more than 10 glass factories. But, unfortunately, after the breakup of the Soviet Union, most of them got bankrupt. And many of them had fallen into a state of neglect, in the center of the city, and everywhere in the suburb.

In Gus has the only Cristal museum (The museum of glass) in Russia, many beautiful glass productions with a history more than a century are exhibited here. Anyway, the life in the city is better than majority small russian cities - convenience, jobs. But the average of price of food in Gus is rather higher than in Moscow! A cauliflower of medium size commonly worth 3 Euro - This is about one and a half times dearer, than in the most expensive city in the world.

The museum of glass,
Gus-Khrustalniy, Russia