St. Petersburg

At the beginning of December, it was time for the next trip to St. Petersburg. This time, the focus was on culture - attendance at a KHL game was on the itinerary.

The usual suspects cheerfully set off on the Allegro train. Sesse managed not to lose her ticket and the only excitement was caused by Peter being singled out for extra thorough checking at the border - the only person in the whole carriage. Yippee!

We stayed at the usual hotel, Hotel Dostoyevsky, and the trip began with shopping for art supplies for H-M. Then it was time to head off for dinner, which Tiina had decreed would be in the fine restaurant, Stroganoff Steak House. The food was excellent. I enjoyed the Baikal omul, well, at least until I found out it was a somewhat endangered species, and the local sausages, and the others enjoyed the signature stroganoff (the adults) and the less-signature burgers (children). After dinner, we met up for a quick chat with Viktoria.

The breakfast at the hotel is really nothing to write home about and the ladies decided they wanted something rather better. So, we went off on a search, ending up at the Jazz Bar 48 Chairs, where the ladies had their breakfast and the boys a cup of coffeee (Peter) and orange juice (Thomas and Henry).

Sesse with her tea, but waiting for her omelette.

Interior of the jazz bar.

Suitably fortified, we went on our way into a rainy city, with Sesse, as usual, being an excellent guide. We were in Russia at the time of the parliamentary elections, as can be seen by the hoarding promoting the United Russia party. United Russia is the ruling party and did less well than anticipated. My feeling is that the people were upset with too many manifestations of the arrogance of power, in particular the decision to change the time, meaning that in St. Petersburg it doesn't get light until nearly eleven in the morning.

Electoral poster on Nevsky Prospekt, St. Petersburg's main thoroughfare.

The weather was not too friendly, but nothing to stop intrepid tourist like us.

Rainy St. Petersburg.


Rainy St. Petersburg (Singer Building on Nevesky Prospekt).

After a bout of sightseeing, it was time for a trolley bus ride, followed by lunch at a Japanese-Italian restaurant, Yakitoriya, where Thomas was a little disappointed with his portion, but Tiina and Henry were much happier with theirs.

Thomas eyeing his rather meagre lunch.

Henry and Tiina looking much more content.

Poor Thomas needed a snack immediately after eating his meal! Henry was very helpful and used his Russian skills to get him a meat pie (pirozhki). Thomas certainly does not need to slim!

Then it was off to the ice-hockey stadium to see the KHL game, CKA Saint Peterburg vs Spartak Moscow. The place was rocking, the hockey was good, and a fun time was had by all - except maybe the supporters of Spartak, as their team took a bit of a hiding.

Henry with his fan 'tattoo'.

Tiina and Henry

Building up the atmosphere.

Changeover.

A post-game snack - blinis at a Teremok kiosk.

The next morning it was an early start and the train back to Finland.

Of course, no report of a trip to St. Petersburg is complete without the obligatory photo of a church.

St. Isaac's Cathedral at night.

St Petersburg

With the exception of H-M, who feels uncomfortable in Russia, Elk's Street is now in possession of multi-entry visas for the Russian Federation. Living so close to the border, it is a pretty poor do that it took so long for us to get organised, although the eye-watering cost of the visas is a reasonable excuse.

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.

View from Cafe Singer, Nevsky Prospekt

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.

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!