I know matryoshkas for as long as I can remember. My grandparents had some in their dining room - safely stored behind glass. But from time to time I was allowed to get them out and to disassemble them till I found the baby matryoshka.
The idea behind is to place several wooden dolls inside each other, meaning, you can actually open every doll just to find another, smaller doll inside, which also has another figure inside and so on. My grandparent's matryoshkas contained five nested figures (which is traditionally the minimum), but in Russia, the matryoshka's birth place, you can actually discover very well crafted examples with several dozen figures inside each other. I was clearly impressed when I found this matryoshka stall in Saint Petersburg; not only did the outer dolls contain more than 4 other figures, but they looked simply beautiful in their traditional Russian dresses.
Another thing I kept in mind is the smell of these dolls - a combination of wood and colour. I just love it! If you got curious and would like to know more about the favourite Russian souvenir (honestly, I have hard times to believe the wooden dolls beat Russian Vodka, but who am I to judge?) please have a look at this interesting article about Matryoshkas - Soul of Russia...
Also, have a look at all my other travel snapshots...
