I'm sitting in the hotel lobby of the Courtyard Marriott in St. Petersburg and while I'm starting to get very sleepy, there's still another hour before the sun officially sets (it's 10:20pm) -- so I feel like I can't really go to bed yet....also, we don't have free wifi in our room and are too cheap (or thrifty?) to pay for it -- so my dad and I are down using the lobby's free wifi.
We are, in fact, successfully in Russia. I think my dad didn't think we would actually make it here. But we did! Before leaving Helsinki, I actually got up at went for a nice little jog. We had to turn around pretty quickly, though, to get to the train station on time. Our train for St. P left at 10 from the Helsinki station and it's weird how similar the countryside of eastern Finland is to that of Upstate New York. Unlike the train from London to Paris the other week where I was surrounded by kids, today we were surrounded by a tour group from India! Each of which was travelling with about 7 enormous suitcases and then they all started to sing what sounded to be like traditional Indian songs.....that was, uh, interesting.
We had to pass by both the Finnish border control and the Russian border control. I had expected the Russian one to be much more intimidating than the Finnish, but it was actually quite the opposite. The Russian border control turned out to be all women -- the customs officials were a little scary though. But all went according to plan, and our visas worked and we got into the country without any problems.
Our guide, Kira, met us at the train station, and we got into her car and because we hadn't had lunch, she took us to a cafe near the old part of the city. It was an odd environment and the waitress looked like she was perpetually in a terrible mood and every question that Kira asked received a definitive 'nyet.' I sort of fulfilled an American stereotype and ordered something familiar -- pasta carbonara -- rather than something of Russian influence. It was actually really tasty though -- and I had never seen it made with an egg yolk sitting on top!
We are, in fact, successfully in Russia. I think my dad didn't think we would actually make it here. But we did! Before leaving Helsinki, I actually got up at went for a nice little jog. We had to turn around pretty quickly, though, to get to the train station on time. Our train for St. P left at 10 from the Helsinki station and it's weird how similar the countryside of eastern Finland is to that of Upstate New York. Unlike the train from London to Paris the other week where I was surrounded by kids, today we were surrounded by a tour group from India! Each of which was travelling with about 7 enormous suitcases and then they all started to sing what sounded to be like traditional Indian songs.....that was, uh, interesting.
We had to pass by both the Finnish border control and the Russian border control. I had expected the Russian one to be much more intimidating than the Finnish, but it was actually quite the opposite. The Russian border control turned out to be all women -- the customs officials were a little scary though. But all went according to plan, and our visas worked and we got into the country without any problems.
Our guide, Kira, met us at the train station, and we got into her car and because we hadn't had lunch, she took us to a cafe near the old part of the city. It was an odd environment and the waitress looked like she was perpetually in a terrible mood and every question that Kira asked received a definitive 'nyet.' I sort of fulfilled an American stereotype and ordered something familiar -- pasta carbonara -- rather than something of Russian influence. It was actually really tasty though -- and I had never seen it made with an egg yolk sitting on top!
Lunch
Unfortunately, the weather was not on our side today. I guess we can't really complain though -- we've had nothing but sunshine up until today. Kira drove us to a few spots that gave us a good view at a few places across the Neva River. We learned a TON about Russian history -- which I find fascinating, but I wish it had been in the sun or even under the clouds instead of in torrential downpours.
View of St. P from across the river
We did go into the Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul which was pretty incredible -- the first Russian Orthodox Church built in the city under Peter I. It was PACKED with Russian tour groups, but it was a welcome break from the rain. Kira led us around and told us about all of the tombs and the tsars and tsaresses that were buried there and more information about them. All fascinating. Perhaps what makes her even more interesting is the fact that she can compare now with what Russia was like during Soviet times -- she's probably in her early 50s which means that she would remember it well.
Gate wih the altar behind
Outside
We spent most of the rest of the afternoon in the car -- she kept telling us about the city and drove us around to see different things. She took us to a souvenir shop before bringing us to our hotel -- which might sound tacky but it was really quite the experience. It was a huge workshop type place that sells the works of many different artists (along with the tacky stuff in a different section). They immediately offered us tea or coffee -- but really tried to push us tasting Russian vodka or cranberry liqueur. My parents tried the vodka and I tried the liqueur....it was sweet and good and didn't taste a whole lot like alcohol. But they couldn't have been nicer and truly didn't care if we bought anything or not -- they just wanted us to have a nice experience.
View from one of our stops!
And facing the other direction
I think that's about it for Russia Day #1 -- or afternoon #1. Should have much more to report tomorrow. The sun is finally going down so I think it's safe to say that I can start heading towards bed. We've been finding it so hard to go to sleep while the sun is still up -- which has made getting to bed early somewhat difficult.
Alrighty -- oh! Something exciting for me is that I've been looking at my blog page views and I've gotten over 4000 total page views since I started writing when I originally went to France. So thanks for reading! I'd love to keep getting that number higher -- it seems like 20-30 people have been looking at this daily which is great, and I really appreciate it! I think all through last year I was excited if I saw I got 10 views in a day. So please keep reading! And if you like it, pass it along!
A demain!
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