Gingerbread hued cottages line up the streets in this country where modern infrastructure and comfort still preserve the age old architecture and feel. If you want to feel what contemporary and rustic creativity truly looks like, this is the place to be. If you are looking to get inspired, this is the right place to be. Tread in the footsteps of those great writers and artists who inspired the world, like Tolstoy and Pushkin, amid their personal country estates. Go skiing on the Caucasus and enjoy white-water rafting at Altai. Enjoy the vistas of Lake Baikal and scale the slumbering volcano of Kamchatka.