So, visas in hand, we were ready for a trip to Russia's second-largest city.
After a good breakfast a snack at Cafe Aleksandra, the happy travellers set off to Vainikkala to catch the Allegro to St. Petersburg, a journey of a couple of hours. Sesse was on this trip as our guide and interpreter.
Thomas the packhorse.
Waiting at Vainikala station.(From left to right: Henry, Thomas, Tiina, Sesse.)
Note that Sesse has her train ticket, which she conveniently mislaid when the guard arrived for the ticket inspection. But, as the Aussies say, "no worries, mate." Somehow, Sesse managed to travel both ways without showing a valid ticket.
Three generations of Russian train at Finljandski station.(Apologies for the poor photo quality, these photos were all taken by mobile phone.)
From the station, we set off, with Sesse in the lead, to the metro and our hotel, Hotel Dostoevsky. The hotel is very conveniently located and not ludicrously priced. Having a supermarket in the basement under the hotel certainly makes shopping for souvenirs to take home very easy, although Peter, not being the world's most enthusiastic shopper, only bought a 2.5kg jar of pears.
The entertainment for the first evening was a trip to the St Petersburg State Circus. Russia has a very long circus tradition and the performers were very talented, although there were perhaps a few too many animal acts for my taste. And I felt rather sad for the bears.
Henry tucking into his starter at the Korova Bar.
Sesse's starter was a more sensible size.(Although I don't think anyone went to the circus hungry.)
The next day, after a hotel breakfast, it was on our feet and off; first stop - the St. Petersburg Ice Palace, to get tickets for our next trip, to see a KHL game - St. Petersburg SKA vs Spartak Moscow. Having completed the serious business of the day, we had the rest of day for sight-seeing, so it was back into the town centre and Nevsky Prospekt.
After refreshments in Cafe Singer, upstairs in the Dom Knigi shop, we decided that the weather was too wet and a change of plan was needed. So the afternoon was spent on a minibus sightseeing tour - a nice way to spend a rainy day, although the Russian commentary by the guide (non-stop for nearly 2 hours) was a bit beyond my Russian vocabulary of about five words.
After a rest in the hotel, it was off to meet Tiina's former colleague, Viktoria for dinner, at Da Albertone, located, perhaps rather inaptly for Elk's Street, on Millionaires Street. The food was very good, and even Thomas approved.
The next morning there was time for a short walk, some shopping, a quick visit to Teremok, and then it was back to the train station and back to Finland.
No post about a trip to St. Petersburg is complete without...
... the obligatory photo of a church.
