St. Petersburg - Part 2

Tiina, who is currently working in St. P., met us at our hotel, Hotel Vasilievsky, to the delight of the boys. Part of the visa-free deal was that we had to use one of the hotels which had a contract with the St. Peter Line.

Tiina was ready to whisk us off on a first sight-seeing tour of St. Petersburg, but with the shambles on the boat and in the harbour, none of us had had breakfast so we were rather hungry, although the men in the group had managed to snaffle quite a few of the rather good sweets in the bowl at the hotel reception.

Finding somewhere for a snack proved more difficult than anticipated, although we found somewhere in the end. The food took an extraordinarily long time to arrive; maybe because we ordered different things - blinis for some, soup for others, or perhaps to give us time to admire the decor. Tempers were getting a little frayed and smiles a little jaded when something to eat finally arrived.

Hungry customers waiting.

St. Petersburg is a metropolis and full of things to see and do, although transport is a little difficult at times. The metro is very efficient but the stops are far apart (because the metro is so deep underground as a result of the city having been built on swampy ground) meaning that there are long walks to get anywhere. The city is full of churches, some of which are shown below.

St Isaac's Cathedral.


A church near our hotel.


Another church.

Tiina, of course, did her best as a guide, including introducing the little boys to Russian-style hot chocolate.

Tiina keeping her tour group focused.


Thomas discovering that in Russia hot chocolate means just that.

Day 2 in St. Petersburg started with Hotel Vasilievsky's excellent breakfast, although with so many Finns in the hotel one had to be quick if one wanted to benefit from the Russian 'champagne' available. The morning's next target was a children's circus performance. The place took a little finding but we got there in the end. Unfortunately, Thomas's stomach started acting up so Thomas and your correspondent spent a large part of the performance in the gents. It was decided that going to Tiina's flat would be the best course of action, and the day's activities were rearranged; in true Russian style, everything that has been arranged is always open to re-negotiation.

Peter and a sickly Thomas stayed in Tiina's flat to eat porridge while Henry, Tiina and H-M went to the Korova Bar with two of Tiina's colleagues. Afterwards the girls went to the Marinkskiy for a concert while the boys spent the evening in the hotel.

View from Tiina's flat.

Although our evening was not as cultured, we boys had lots of fun.

What do little boys like to do in hotels? Spend time in a bath tub with a huge amount of bubbles. The problem? No bubble bath. So Peter and Henry set off in search of bubble bath. The local supermarkets only seemed to sell sausage and alcohol, so we went to a chemists'. There were two people there, one young women in her twenties and one older lady in her sixties, who panicked completely at being confronted with non-Russian-speaking foreigners. Peter's miming skills, plus Henry's Russian knowledge, meant that we left the shop with bubble bath, although there are probably a couple of Russian ladies still shaking their heads at the antics of foreigners.

But the evening's fun was not to end there.

Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, announcement in Russian. What's that? A fire alarm! Everybody out of bed and down to the lobby, to find it was a fire drill, so back up to the room again - cursing a little, although not as much as the Norwegian guest who had been caught in the bath.

But the evening's fun was not to end there.

Ring- ring, ring-ring. Call from the other room (we had two double rooms not a family room). H-M: Is there water in your room? Peter heads off down to the reception to find out what is going on - no water because of some technical problems with a water pumping station.

We love Russia. A world superpower but, in Churchill's words,"a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma."

H-M examining a Russian fruit stall.

Our stay was all too soon over and we had to get on the boat and head back to Finland. This time everything was very well organised; check-in - 10 minutes, booking a table at the à la carte restaurant - easy, service - swift and good-humoured.

Leaving the port. Note that the sign says Leningrad.

Henry in the jazz bar.


Sunset on board.


Sunset over the icy Baltic Sea.

St. Petersburg Trip - Part 1

At Easter Elk's Street went for a quick trip to St. Petersburg, Russia. Although it is only a few hundred kilometers from Elk's Street HQ, it was the first trip there for many of us. The reason: Visa requirements make crossing the border a pain in the neck, not to mention quite pricey.

To avoid the visa hassles, and because Elk's Street was too disorganised, we went on a visa-free trip with St. Peter Line from Helsinki. This is very easy - one night on the boat, two nights in a hotel, and one night on the boat on the return trip.

The little boys waiting in Helsinki harbour with St Peter Line's vessel, Princess Maria in the background.

As the sharp-eyed will notice, MS Princess Maria is a former Silja Line vessel, MS Finlandia, which used to ply the Helsinki-Stockholm route. The ship has quite a colourful history, which is described here. Elk's Street noticed that the vessel had been part of the DFDS fleet because some of the fittings were labelled DFDS and some of the signs were in Norwegian.

H-M slightly flummoxed by modern technology.

The start of the sea journey did not go smoothly, with two hours of crowds, chaos and confusion at the check-in. When we finally got on board, the passengers were fed-up, the staff rude, and the evening buffet food expensive and poor-quality. Elk's Street were of the opinion that perhaps they should have gone by Allegro train after all.

Our rather cosy cabin.

Entering the Port of St Petersburg in the early morning .

Morskoy Vokzal Ferry Terminal in the morning mist.

On embarkation the lack of organisation continued, although in a friendly manner. As the photo below shows, for some people waiting on a bus going nowhere can be quite trying.

Aaaaaarrrggh!