Xiao Yayun wanted to buy something with Russian characteristics, and Catherine took her to No. 27 Arbat Street, saying that this is a must-see Arbat shop for tourists.

When you walk into the store, you will find that the store has a wide range of products, from art spoons worth 15 roubles to matryoshka dolls worth 5,000 roubles.

Looking at these matryoshka dolls, I suddenly remembered a witty saying I once heard - Russia has three treasures, and the matryoshka parade takes an ice bath.

When it comes to Russia, nesting dolls seem to be an unavoidable topic. Matryoshka dolls are wooden toys that are special to Russia, generally composed of multiple hollow wooden dolls with the same pattern, up to more than ten, usually cylindrical, with a flat bottom and can stand upright. The colors are red, blue, green, purple, etc.

There are about three legends about matryoshka dolls, the first is that the Russian nation has two cousins next to each other, the cousins grew up with each other in childhood, and later the cousins left the country, because they missed their cousins in their hometowns, they made wooden dolls every year, and the dolls became bigger and bigger every year. A few years later, he returned to his hometown and gave the doll to his cousin, which was imitated and rumored to be called a nesting doll, also known as an auspicious doll.

Another theory is that the matryoshka doll represents the mother, because the mother is the same as the matryoshka when she is pregnant - the fat wooden doll has so many little dolls hidden in its belly.

The last theory is that matryoshka dolls were introduced to Russia from Japan in the early 18th century. The predecessor of the matryoshka doll was a Japanese doll in the image of a Buddhist saint on the island of Honshu, Japan. However, modern Japanese believe that the first person to make such a doll on the island of Honshu was a Russian monk.

The matryoshka dolls sold in the shop are rich in images, from sports stars to national leaders, and the outer layers are painted with a variety of brightly colored paints or paints to give a healthy and beautiful impression. Xiao Yayun bought the most popular one, which is the image of a rural girl with a round face, wearing a pink floral shirt and a long silk golden vest, a white apron around her waist, a blue scarf on her head, and a big rooster in her arms. There are eight in a set, with different colors and patterns, showing the unique ingenuity of the maker.

Good things are naturally not cheap, this set of nesting dolls is 3,000 rubles, when I was gloating and saying that Xiao Yayun directly put all the money for selling art into it, and had to post a lot upside down, Xiao Yayun, who was standing in front of the cash register, suddenly turned her head to look at me, looking pitiful, "Richard, can you bear to let me take out that big handful of coins to pay in this kind of place?" ”

I gritted my teeth and took out three thousand rubles from my wallet and handed it to the clerk, and the moment the money was taken out I felt a kind of sadness.

It felt like two people went to Miss, and I paid the money, but Miss was not lying in my arms but in someone else's arms.

Looking at the young lady in Xiao Yayun's arms, no, it's a nesting doll. Looking at the nesting doll in Xiao Yayun's arms, I held my forehead and said, "Hurry up and put it away, I don't want to see this thing, my heart hurts." ”

After leaving the shop, Catherine pulled Xiao Yayun to go to the gem store, only to see her say to Xiao Yayun: "The gem shop is located at No. 35 Arbat Street, which is a large store specializing in selling jewelry from the Russian dynasties, especially the former Soviet era. ”

I listened to it in horror.

Xiao Yayun didn't know whether it was intentional or unintentional, and after glancing at me, she smiled and nodded at Catherine.

When I walked to the door of the gem shop that Catherine said, I noticed that the exterior wall of the store was very interesting, and the wall suddenly seemed to be full of graffiti, messy lines, and intertwined colors. But when I look at it again, I find that the rhythm of art is swirling in lines and colors.

Of course, the first half of the sentence is my feeling, and the second half of the sentence is Xiao Yayun's feeling. Because of this difference, I was ridiculed for not having an artistic element.

Ekaterina smiled and said: "This wall was specially opened in the gem shop to commemorate the famous rock singer Victor Tsoy. Every year, many admirers come to this gem shop from all over the world to pay their respects to the pop singer. ”

Xiao Yayun nodded again and again, and I was confused.

After Catherine entered the store first, I grabbed Xiao Yayun and whispered, "Don't rush in first, you tell me who is Victor Tsoi?" ”

Xiao Yayun glanced at me, "You ask me, who do I ask?" ”

"What the hell am I doing, and you're still nodding?"

Xiao Yayun grimaced at me, "Just because I nodded doesn't mean I know." ”

I was dumbfounded, "I can't argue with what you're saying. ”

Xiao Yayun didn't pay any attention to me, but walked directly into the gem store.

The gem shop is said to be a shop, but it actually looks like a museum, with a variety of necklaces with a strong Soviet color, bracelets and amber brooches engraved and printed with red stars and red flags, all of which are full of the atmosphere of the times.

"Compared to the gem shops, the other shops on Arbat Street sell more fashionable modern tourist souvenirs, many of which are taken from Western Europe, and few are actually handicrafts," says Ekaterina as she selects her jewelry. And most of them target customers to tourists who are in a hurry and don't know how to get around. The contents of the store are luxuriously packaged, so that many tourists think that they have bought a cheap and high-quality Russian authenticity. ”

When I heard this, I couldn't help but muttered in my heart, I thought that the pedestrian streets in Russia would be a little better than in China, but it turned out that the world was as black as a crow.

Xiao Yayun was shocked when she heard this, "Then my nesting doll will also be fake, right?" ”

Ekaterina smiled and said, "Don't worry, the things in that store are still guaranteed." ”

I watched this scene from the sidelines, wondering how I felt that Catherine's last sentence was deliberately said to comfort Xiao Yayun.

After walking around the gem store for more than 20 minutes, Catherine bought two bracelets, and Xiao Yayun surprised me to buy none of them.

After coming out of the gem store, Xiao Yayun stretched, "The street is also shopping, and it's getting dark, I feel like we can go back." ”

I couldn't help but complain: "Hey, let me take a look at Pushkin's former residence first, okay?" Anyway, this is a writer that I like very much. ”

Xiao Yayun glanced at me and suddenly came up to me, smiled and said softly: "How did I not know that you like Pushkin?" ”

I said disdainfully, "What do you know other than knowing that his life has deceived you?" Ignorant humans like you can't understand it, and by the way, caviar has a taste. ”

Xiao Yayun stood up straight all of a sudden, glared at me and said coldly, "If you say another word, I swear that I will send you to see Pushkin, whom you love, right now." ”

I immediately shut my mouth.

Ekaterina laughed, and the little trickster in Xiao Yayun's arms was suddenly overjoyed.