russia: moscow: state tretyakov gallery

I've lived in Moscow for over a year and a half, but the list of museums and other places to visit never seems to get any shorter. To figure out where to go each Wednesday afternoon I've been using a combination of my Moscow and Russia guidebooks, social media, and Wikitravel. At times I feel like I can never leave Moscow, because there is still so much to be seen.

This particular Wednesday afternoon I decided to go to the State Tretyakov Gallery. According to Wikipedia, the collection was started in 1856 when a Russian merchant decided to collect works from Russian contemporary artists, thinking of a future museum of art.

In 1867 Pavel and Sergei Tretyakov started the Moscow City Gallery, which displayed mostly Russian artists but also had a few international artists for viewing. In 1892 he presented his collection of over 2000 pieces of art to the Russian nation. I don't know who from the nation accepted the pieces.

The original collection was housed in a mansion bought by the Tretyakov family in 1851. As more and more art was included in the collection, it began to take over the residential part of the house. (Maybe they could've done an episode of Hoarders back in the day?) Additions to the building were made in several years to accomodate all the art.

The building in which the current gallery is hosted was finished in 1902-1904, with the front facade designed by Viktor Vasnetsov. Over the years other buildings have been used for offices and administration of the museum.

Electricity was added in 1929, something I've never thought about when visiting an old museum. How did people visit before electricity? Putting that many candles around priceless work (and your home,) sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.

As museums do, the Tretyakov Gallery grew, and over the years took over the buildings nearby, including a church. (I didn't visit the church during this visit, I'm debating whether it is worth going back to see it and other areas I missed.) Wikipedia tells me the gallery now has more than 130,000 pieces.

My entry fee was 500 rubles, which I thought was more than reasonable. I checked my coat and backpack, and went about finding the entrance to the exhibits. Since I'm writing this after I left, I'm pretty sure there are at least two entrances to the exhibits, neither one of them right or wrong. Both of them have ticket checkers just after you walk through the entrance.

I wandered through the rooms for about 90 minutes, trying to make sure I went through every room. I'm pretty sure I failed in that aspect, but oh well. Not surprisingly, some of the pieces caught my eye more than others. Some are huge, some are quite small. A few sculptures were sprinkled around, but great majority of the displays were of paintings.

One thing I really enjoyed was the listing of names and materials used being in both Russian and English. I feel like that isn't as common as I want it to be. (And yes, I realize how self centered it is for me to want explanations in Russian museums to be in English.)

When I left the museum, I was full of art for the day. Even so, I definitely missed a few rooms, so it probably wouldn't be a bad idea for me to go back.

russia: st petersburg and the ice fantasy

At some point during the fall I found a list of ice festivals around Russia, one of these festivals was supposed to take place in St. Petersburg. Since I knew I'd be happy to go back to that city, I told Claire about it and she was keen to join up.

We had a hard time finding information about the festival, as it wasn't mentioned in my guidebook. Not only was it not in the guidebook, there was no current information online. We ended up choosing the dates for the trip based on the listed dates of previous years, and hoped the festival would be taking place. 

The train I booked arrived at 0615 Saturday morning, at a train station closer to the edge of the city. It was quite a bit further out than the station at which I'd arrived for my first trip. Since we'd arrived pretty early, and we both like walking, we didn't mind a long walk to our accomodation.

We were rather surprised by the weather when we arrived. It was the end of January, but there was no snow on the ground, just the occasional patch of slush or mud. So far I was totally disappointed by my first Russian winter, it hadn't been nearly as cold or nearly as snowy as I'd been led to expect.

As we walked we took the occasional night photo. My favourite was while we crossed a bridge, I was able to capture some of the ice on the surface of the river.

Eventually we arrived at our hotel, and were able to check in straightaway. This ended up being a good thing and a bad thing. We warmed up and relaxed, but spent far too long doing so. Oh well. It was during this time that I figured out what I'd forgotten to bring along for this trip: a plug with which to charge my electronics. Argh. I always forget one thing, sometimes that thing is more important than other times. 

When we started walking, we walked along one of the city's many canals, arriving at our first sight of the weekend: the Hermitage. It was originally a royal palace, and still looks it. This particular building sits on one side of a huge platz, an important gathering place for people of the city. We noticed that buses are not allowed in the platz, which I think is awesome.

The Hermitage is the second largest museum in the world, with a LOT of display space. It was established in the mid 18^th century, so it is already more than two centuries old. The (main) ticket covers the whole museum, which is spread out quite a bit.

We arrived early enough in the day that there was no queue, yahoo! We bought tickets from the convenient vending machines in the front courtyard, then went in and put our coats into coat check. Everything I'd heard and read told me that the number of items on display in this museum is huge, and it isn't worth it to try to see everything in one visit. We decided to set our limit at three hours, whateva we'd seen during that time would be enough for this visit.

I'd tried to do some research ahead of time, but there was just too much to see. The one place I would've loved to have a team photo was the way most people enter this building, so I knew it would never be empty. 

The Jordan staircase has mirrors and red carpet and gold and columns, and is generally stunning.

Each time we got to a place where we could go in different directions we made a random decision. Some of the rooms through which we walked were truly stunning. Others were simply okay. Every room had smaller works of art and larger works. Some were sculptures, some were paintings, and sometimes it was the room itself was the main thing on display. There were chandeliers and lamps in each room, everything was well lit.

I also noticed the floors. Mostly made of wood, each room had different patterms, some of them very intricate. I have no idea how they keep the floors in such good shape, considering the number of people who walk through this museum.

After three hours we were well and truly arted out, but knew we wanted to come back for another visit in the future. After getting our coats, we exited the museum, onto the platz in front. Across the way was a government building, with a series of arches running through the middle. It's a really photogenic walkway.

We walked through there, and followed the streets until we arrived at our second sight of the weekend: St Isaacs Cathedral. I mentioned this church during my first trip; since I loved it so much I had no problem visiting again. Claire liked it too.

Unlike the Church on Spilled Blood, St Isaacs Cathedral functions only as a museum. As far as I know, no religious services take place in the church. The current building is the fourth church to stand on this ground, and has been around since construction began in 1818.

After the church we took a break in a cafe, we were hungry. This served as dinner, even though it was basically a bunch of snacks. After eating too much, and debating what we wanted to do for the rest of the evening, (the weather hadn't been great, and if it was raining we didn't want to be outside for that much longer, but if the rain had stopped, we were keen to keep going,) we walked again.

By this point the rain had stopped, so we decided to do/see the main reason we'd scheduled this trip: the ice festival. After a lot of googling, I'd figured out that the Peter and Paul fortress was hosting the festival, so we walked in that direction. 

We crossed a bridge or two, and the water in the canals was still enough that I was able to take a couple nice reflection photos.

We entered the fortress, hoping to spot the ice straightaway. That didn't happen. When we finally found the location, we were more than a little surprised, as it was inside a tent that was almost hidden in one corner of the fortress. It was NOT a big tent, not nearly big enough to be called a festival.

The sign said it was called Ice Fantasy, and we knew just from the size of the tent that it would not be a fantasy of any kind.

We paid the ridiculous entry fee, and went inside the tent. There were probably around 20 ice sculptures on display, some better than others. There were characters from movies, as well as a castle, and a few animals. We took pictures of everything, because of course.

Near the end there was an ice throne, with a queue of people waiting to take photos while sitting on the throne. We joined the queue, pretending we were royalty.

Since it wasn't super cold outside, there were a number of air conditioners running inside the tent, trying to keep the sculptures from melting.

Basically, it was loud, and small, not a fantasy in any sense of the word.

After leaving the ice 'festival' we stopped at a grocery store to pick up breakfast and snack foods for the next day. When we got back to our hotel we were able to put the food just outside the window, on a ledge, as a natural refridgerator.

Late the next morning we packed up and checked out. We opted to walk around 'our' neighborhood a little, going whicheva way caught our eye. One of the closest buildings had a small fountain on the side, and had some newly laid flowers for a memorial of some kind.

Across a canal we found the entrance to the Summer Gardens. 

Since it wasn't summer, and we couldn't see anything on display, we weren't keen to explore. Still, we saw a sign that said there was no entrance fee, so we stepped inside the gates just because we could. I wonder how long the 'no entry fee' season lasts.

Our next sight was the Church on Spilled Blood. I loved it just as much this time as I did during my last visit. The scaffolding on part of the roof was still there, I made a mental note to find out how long the renovation was scheduled to last. (Side note, scaffolding will be there a while, until 2025, argh.)

After that church, we walked to another church, the Our Lady of Kazan Cathedral. I loved the outside just as much as previously, and was as unimpressed as before with the interior of the church.

We walked past a Roman Catholic church and stepped in just because it wasn't an Orthodox Church. In comparison, this church was rather plain, but still felt like a holy place. We saw a sign that said masses take place in Russian, English, and Polish. Impressive.

Our next sight was the Faberge Museum. I'm guessing all three of my readers have heard the name Faberge, and automatically think of very fancy decorated eggs. 

This is what the jewelry house is probably most famous for creating, though the museum showed us they actually made a whole lot of very intricate jewelry and useless kitsch.

There was a time when owning a Faberge egg was a real sign of social importance, as these eggs were first created for the Russian Tsars. The jewelry house has been around since 1842, having been founded by Gustav Faberge.

Not surprisingly, there was a bit more security in this museum. Each item was under a case, sometimes by itself, sometimes with other items. There was a security looking person in each room, keeping an eye on all museum goers.

We loved the museum. We got to see eggs, cigarette cases, tableware, and more.

After the museum we found a cafe in which we ordered tea. We were not happy to find a service charge on the bill, good for an extra 10%. I asked for the menu, and found it listed, on the back side of the menu, in fine print. 

When I mentioned this later in my review of the cafe, they responded and said it was noted. In my head I said yes, it is, but on the back side of the menu, where there is no other information, and in very small print. I hate feeling cheated that way, I was glad we hadn't ordered more food.

After the cafe we decided to explore the metro system a bit. I'd looked at photos ahead of time and made note of some of the stations that I thought would be interesting to see. Many of the stations in St Petersburg were just as gorgeous as some of those in Moscow. Russians take their metro systems (and decor,) seriously.

Dinner was at an Indian restaurant called Namaste. It was so good that we planned to come back during our next St Petersburg visit, even though we didn't yet know when that would be. SO GOOD.

As we were leaving, it started to snow. It was wet snow, almost like rain/sleet. Not fun to walk through, we were glad it had started only at the end of our trip. We walked back to our hotel to pick up our bags, then to the train station (not the far away station,) to catch our train.

The next morning we arrived back in Moscow, already dreaming of our next trip up north.

ukraine: kyiv: two weekends/sights in the city

This post is a combination of two weekends/sights in Kyiv. 

Since I've been here six years, I've been thinking I should see more of what is in Kyiv. Plus, knowing I'm going to see something in the city keeps me motivated to get out of bed on weekends I'm going to travel. 

During my first year here, one of my cousins came to visit me when I'd been here just two weeks. We tried to do the walking tour mentioned in the lonely planet guidebook, and succeeded for the most part. Howeva, there was a place listed that we never found. The name of the place was Chocolate House. At the time, we figured that was a nickname, and wouldn't be listed anywhere. We also didn't have a specific address.

In the past year I've started following a company called TourismUA on Facebook. Every now and again they post a list of somewhat unknown places in the country, or the city. 

A couple weeks ago I saw a list that included the Chocolate House, and it included an address. Yay! 

It took me a while to get going on a Saturday, even though my original plan was to get up early. (Story of my life: I'm awake but don't actually get moving for too long.) I took the metro to the city center, and walked from there. Google maps told me exactly where to go, it made everything easy. 

I got to the building, which was painted chocolate brown, the colour made me wonder how we had missed it years ago. There was a small sign on the exterior wall, describing some of the history of the building. 

The Chocolate House is now a museum of Russian art. When I walked in, there were three women sitting behind a desk, they all looked up. From the expressions on their faces, I don't think they get many single, one off visitors. 

My ticket price was only 25 griven, less than a dollar. I also took advantage of the cost check, which is typical in museums of this country. Everything is quite cheap compared to western prices.

There was a small temporary exhibition of art on the first/ground floor, so that's where I started. I liked the pieces, they were filled with blocks of color. If I ever have a permanent place to live this is the type of art I'd love to put on the walls. 

Up the stairs to the second floor is where the interesting area is for most people. This building was originally a private residence, and some of that architecture still remains. The stairway up to the second floor was elegant, I loved it. 

Upon entering the first room on the second floor I looked up. I've grown to love ceilings, so that's where I look first. This ended up being my favourite ceiling in the place. Something about the colour variety, combined with the light of the chandelier. Back in the day was there such a thing as an interior designer? 

The room itself was also interesting, though there was another set of art arranged on easels. I loved the room, not so much the art. Or at least not the way the art covered up the original beauty of the art. I wanted to carry the easels and tables out of the room, then take my photo of just the room.
Each room was beautiful. Each ceiling was unique, and one of them had a large chandelier hanging down.  I definitely spent more time looking up than around. 

The next 'sight' was the following weekend. 

I had to get up early on a Saturday morning for a doctor's appointment. After the appointment was over I decided I might as well take advantage of being out and about 

The first was a place I'd heard about several times, once even in international media. A stairwell, believe it or not. The article had described the stairwell, including a couple photos. 
When I see a photo I know it means I'm not the first to see it, but at the same time, it's usually the photo that catches my eye and makes me want to go see a place. When guidebooks have photos of various places I'm much more likely to go see those places, as opposed to the places for which there is simply written information. 

I found a photo of this stairwell in the same group of photos mentioned by TourismUA, also with an address. Since it was in abnormal residential building I didn't know if I would be able to get inside, but I figured it was worth a try. 

I rode the metro to a nearby stop, then walked. I should make a correction here, it wasn't really nearby, it was just the closest. I had to cross the street to walk in the correct direction, which wasn't super easy. After walking for about 45 minutes, (with a stop for snacks along the way at a supermarket,) I found the building. 

It turned out to be a type of building built in great quantity here back during the communist years. 8 or 9 stories tall, with multiple entrances to different areas. Each entrance requires a key code or magnetic key to get in. My apartment building is just like this one, though perhaps with fewer entrance doors. 

I was a bit dismayed when I got there, not knowing which entrance I would need to find this particular staircase. The information I had gave me the floor numbers, but not the entrance number, and I could see at least 8 entrances. 

To make a long story short, I got lucky. I happened to be really close to one of the entrances when a woman came out, so I ducked inside before the door closed. From the bottom of the stairs I couldn't see anything exciting, but I decided to climb anywho. 

It was worth it!! After I got a few floors up I could see I'd gotten lucky, and found the correct entrance on the first try. Yahoo!

The man who decorated the two levels of the stairwell is a city employee, working in transportation. From what I learned, it took him 15 years to do everything. I wonder if he will do more? Most everything is painted green, yellow, or white. There is gold trim, portraits, and fancy carving. It really is incredible to think this is in a regular residential building, by a normal guy. Even the elevator doors and surroundings were decorated. 

I'm not sure what I would've done if I'd been wrong. I don't think I would've had the patience to stand by each door in turn, just waiting for someone to come out.

Walking back to the metro was a bit shorter, since I knew where I was going. I love sights like these, it's always good to know the city in which you live.