Tretyakovskaya Museum

According to Wikipedia, The State Tretyakov Gallery (Russian: Государственная Третьяковская Галерея, Russia: ГТГ), in Moscow, Russia, is the foremost depository of Russian fine art in the world.

My friends and I have talked about visiting the Tretyakovskaya Museum for a few years now, but then since none of us are particularly interested in paintings, we never made it there. However, Hajar and Nat went there recently and said that it is a nice place, so Puspha and I thought that we would give it a try.

We left the hostel at about 10.45am. We had everything we would need – student card (discounted entry), camera, water and a how-to-get-there-from-metro-station-map drawn by Hajar.

A short metro ride, and we were at the Tretyakovskaya metro station. From there onwards, we followed the map. Our first stop was the first landmark that is in the map. It is a church, not a very big one, but we took a few pictures with it anyway. I don’t know if the whole church is accessible or not ‘cos I saw a group of people praying in one small section (the cylinder shaped part) of the church, and it seemed rather crammed to me. What’s in the other part, I wonder?

We continued our ‘journey’ according to the map, and arrived at the 2^nd landmark- a small fountain. A couple of photos each and we were on our way again. A few minutes later, we saw the Tretikovskaya Museum. We knew early on that photography inside the museum is not allowed, so we took a few pictures outside the building and then went in.

The tickets were 50 rubles each (Russian student price) and we had 2 floors of exhibit to explore. A museum plan was given, in English. We followed the plan, and took our time exploring the whole of the 2^nd floor.

It was filled with beautiful portraits and pictures painted by Russian artistes dating before the 20^th century. There were also bronze sculptures and marble busts, which I found more interesting (as I told you, I am not a painting lover). By the time we finished the 2^nd floor, we were starting to feel hungry. We proceeded to the 1^st floor – the paintings here were more modern, early 20^th century and I did not find it nice at all. I can appreciate paintings that look life-like, but then give me a modern painting and I am at a loss- how can that be a piece of art when it looks like something a tadika kid draws? We breezed through the 1^st floor of the museum and by 1.30pm, we were out of the museum, thinking where to satisfy our hungry stomachs.

On the way to the metro station, we saw a few restaurants and after checking them out, settled on one that offered a business lunch. I wouldn’t say the food was great or that there’s a large variety of food, but it was OK. After we started to eat, the tables around us started filling up, and even when they left, we were still sitting at our table (‘cos Puspha is a slow eater :P). After lunch, we decided to call it a day and headed back home, arriving at the hostel at 3pm. Not too bad an outing, really. Looking forward to more such days before I go back.