Contrasts of Scandinavia and Russia

Day Six – 28 May 2010

Weather: Cloud and fog in Helsinki and low/mid teens. Cloud, little warmer in St. Petersburg.

The wake up call was from the tv and I didn’t think it was loud enough, but when it does wake you, you have to get out of bed to turn it off.

No snoozing possible.

I put my bag out for 5:30 and went down for breakfast. Diego had arranged to have the restaurant open 15 minutes early, and as if to get him back for making them open early, they didn’t put out any hot food. I had to feast on croissants and banana.

We left the hotel at 6:15 am and it took us five minutes to get to the train station. It was pretty well empty. Diego said we were getting a Finnish train, not a Russian one and apparently that is good news. Still no plug in or internet.

Just a 2 hour battery in my netbook.

The train left on time and Diego passed out sheets that had to be filled out in duplicate for the Russian border (we had practiced on them in Copenhagen because the Russians like everything done out perfectly). He also said that the bathrooms get locked at 9:50 am because they don’t want anyone hiding in the bathrooms while crossing the border. The best part about crossing the border on a train is that the customs and everything is done while the train is moving. Those going to St. Petersburg via coach have to stop at the border and it can take up to two hours to process them. That could make it a very long trip (maybe 12 hours – I’ll see when we meet up with everyone from Malcolm’s tour).

The Finnish border guards came around and stamped our passports then at 11 am we picked up the Russian customs officers. They walked around and took our passports and our sheets. The train stopped after about 15 minutes and sat for about a half hour then the train staff came around and returned out passports. Diego walked around and collected the passports. They will be held at the hotel until we leave for Moscow.

We moved our watches ahead one hour and crossed into Russia. Once my battery died on my laptop, I took out my PSP and watched a movie. Six hours went by pretty quickly. We pulled into St. Petersburg at Finland Station at 3 pm. This is the same station where Lenin returned to Russia from Helsinki by train. We were picked up by our guide, Victor, who apparently was an interpreter for President Putin.

We think he’s KGB.

Never did get a pic of his face.

With such an early arrival in St. Petersburg, Victor started our included tour of the city.

And to start it properly, he went to the place where St. Petersburg started in 1703 – Peter and Paul Fortress. We walked into the fort until we could see the church then turned around and left. Apparently, it’s part of the optional.

We drove through the very heavy Friday afternoon traffic as Victor pointed out various spots.

The city is magnificent. It has more than 50 rivers and canals and there are no skyscrapers. Originally, the Emperor didn’t want anyone to have a building higher than his own and that evolved into laws that prevent buildings over a certain height. In fact, if someone buys a building, they are required to keep the façade. They can completely gut the interior and change it as long as the façade remains. For that reason, the city is just one amazing building after another – like a city of Buckingham Palaces.

During the war, St. Petersburg (then called Leningrad) was under siege for 900 days and managed to hold out. This occupied a lot of German soldiers and is credited with helping to win the war and preventing the Germans from taking Murmansk. More than a third of the buildings were damaged or destroyed but rebuilt after the war to keep it historical appearance.

I think the absence of skyscrapers is the most striking feature of such a large city.

Victor showed us various sites from the bus like The Hermitage, St. Isaac’s Cathedral, The Royal Winter Palace, The Admiralty, Chamber of Curiosities, St. Petersburg University including the building where Pavlov worked, the Church of the Savior of the Spilled Blood and Kasam Cathedral.

Just to name a few.

This weekend, St. Petersburg is celebrating its 307rd anniversary. There’s supposed to be a big party going on all weekend.

And why not? The sky doesn’t get dark.

We drove down the main drag called Nevsky Prospect. It’s a wide thoroughfare filled with shops and perfectly safe to walk down according to Diego. I’m beginning to wonder if we’ll get enough free time to even take a walk.

We arrived at the Park Inn Hotel at 5 pm. This is a new hotel located on Nevsky Prospect, right next to the railway station. The hotel opened only a few weeks ago and you can smell the “newness.” The room is quite comfortable. It has a flat screen (only news stations in English), safe and hair dryer. There’s no kettle or bar fridge.

It does have an escape ladder.

Like a lot of hotels in Europe, you have to use your key card to activate the electricity in the room. I changed quickly for dinner which was at 6:15 pm. We ate in the hotel restaurant and had salad, chicken with potatoes (everyone else had salmon) and apple strudel for dessert.

As soon as we were done, it was back on the bus for our cruise of the Venice of the North. Strangely enough, the bus did a circuit of a lot of things we had seen a couple hours earlier. I’m guessing we were too early for the boat and we saw a number of sites a second time. Gave me a chance to snap a shot of the Bronze Horseman on the second drive by.

We arrived at the boat at about 8 pm and were offered champagne, vodka and other drinks. I stayed up on deck to take pictures and wish I had taken my DSLR. My point-n-shoot just couldn’t do the cruise justice. The buildings are incredible and are just one after another after another. Nothing is new. Nothing is modern (on the face of it at least).

We sailed down past the Hermitage and Admiralty to see St. Isaac’s Cathedral from the water then turned around and sailed the canals until we returned to our dock.

Optional Opinion: Recommended. Dress warm if it’s cool out, bring a good camera and hope it’s one of the sixty days of sunshine that St. Petersburg gets. What a difference a clear blue sky would have made.