Having packed Charlie off to kennels and parked the van at a campsite on the outskirts of Helsinki, off we went to Russia!
With this St Peter Line trip from Helsinki you can stay in St Petersburg for up to 72 hours without a visa. If you want to read more about the practical details (the ferry, the hotel, van storage etc) take a look at europebycamper.com. Adam and Sophie posted tons of useful information on their blog following their trip - thanks again guys!
The Princess Maria left Helsinki at 7:30pm for the 13 hour sailing, with its slightly dated decor and DFDS shower curtains hinting at its former owner.
The boat was full of Russian and Finnish holidaymakers, and the announcements in Russian, Finnish and slightly dodgy English kept us amused – each one ending with the words ‘you are welcome!’ in a thick Russian accent.
After a few beers and a couple of games of cards we tried to order some food. The response to each menu item we enquired about was ‘is finished’, until we heard ‘is potato’ and quickly ordered before that also disappeared!
To keep costs down (just €38 each!) we were sharing a 4 berth cabin with a friendly American, who we’d bump into a number of times, and a mystery man who we only ever saw asleep!
From the second we docked at the brand new cruise ship terminal just outside the city there was so much to take in. We boarded the shuttle bus and were whisked past grey communist era blocks of flats on the outskirts of the city, and immediately noticed the crazy mixture of vehicles lined up at the traffic lights – clapped out old Ladas, brand new Porches, and a surprising number of stretch limos and Hummers!
We were dropped at St Isaacs Cathedral and, after a quick detour to the tourist information office and to wait for a ‘hop on, hop off’ bus that never turned up, we climbed to the top of the cathedral’s golden dome. The views over the city from the top were magnificent.
St Petersburg was founded in 1703 by Peter the Great, and was the capital of Russia for over 200 years. The city feels very European and is stuffed full of grand baroque and neoclassical buildings, many of them designed by Italian architects.
The interior of St Isaac’s cathedral is just as impressive as the views from the top...
We’d had pretty good weather that morning but just as we emerged from St Isaac’s, the sky went black and a huge storm blew in complete with torrential rain, thunder and lightning. Taking shelter in the cathedral entrance, we were a little surprised when the man next to us leaned over and said ‘we could have stayed at home for this couldn’t we!’ It turned out he was on holiday with his wife and on the same ship as us.
It was now 2pm so we headed to our hotel to check in and have a quick lunch (which largely consisted of things lifted from Princess Maria’s breakfast buffet!)
The SKY hotel is cheap and basic but it’s in a fantastic location, just off Nevsky Prospekt, and some of the city’s main attractions are just a few minutes away.
We headed next to the Church of Our Saviour on the Spilt Blood. Built on the exact spot where Tsar Alexander II was assassinated when a bomb was thrown at him in 1881, both the exterior and interior of this church are stunning. The interior is completely covered in colourful gilt mosaics and the exterior... well, it’s probably best just to show you the photos...
St Petersburg was built on a marsh and the river Neva, which connects Lake Ladoga to the Gulf of Finland, and a number of canals cut through the city.
Our next stop was the Peter and Paul Fortress and cathedral, just over the river Neva. The cathedral houses the tombs of nearly all of Russia’s emperors and empresses. The last tsar and his family were only interred here in July 1998. Nicholas II and his family were assassinated by the Bolsheviks in 1918 but their remains were only discovered in 1979, and officially identified in January 1998.
We continued our walking tour, stopping to admire the striking blue dome of the St Petersburg mosque, the battleship Aurora, St Peter’s Log Cabin, and the Rostral Columns.
By now our feet were complaining quite a bit, so we made our way back to the hotel via the local supermarket where we picked up a selection of Russian beers. We had been looking at what we believed to be Russian wine, when a fellow customer pointed at it and wagged her finger as if to say, ‘no, really, you don’t want to touch that’!
We spent the evening in a local Italian restaurant – not authentic Russian cuisine we know, but the food was good even if it was served with a snarl! This was in sharp contrast to the authentic Russian lunch we had the following day at the Soviet Cafe. We stumbled upon the place quite by accident but it was fantastic, and came complete with middle aged women chatting and knocking back vodkas at 3pm!
That night we pretty much passed out while watching American Idol dubbed into Russian!! This is perhaps one of the many signs of how Western, and particularly American, cultures have moved in over the past few years.
The next morning we were up early and happened to visit the Kazan Cathedral during mass. The sound coming from the small group of singers on a balcony high above the congregation was beautiful, and made the whole thing quite magical. It’s certainly an experience we won’t forget in a hurry and was one of the highlights of our trip.
The Hermitage is one of the world’s greatest museums. It’s an immense collection of art and historical artefacts, first collected by Catherine the Great and now housed in a huge complex which includes the Winter Palace.
We should probably say at this point that we are not particularly into art, but when in Rome....
We spent 3 and a half feet-aching hours getting lost in the maze of corridors and highly decorated rooms, which are just as impressive as the art itself.
So what were the highlights? Well it all becomes a bit dazzling in the end and you do get a bit blasé about it - ‘oh, it’s another room of priceless Picasso’s’ etc!
We did see the grand 18th century Peacock Clock ‘do its thing’, which only happens once a week!! And we were trying to find the exit when we stumbled upon a fantastic exhibition of Annie Liebovitz photos.
With only a couple of hours left, we wandered around a bit more of the city hoping to cram in as many sights as possible!
It’s fair to say the most dangerous element of our visit to Russia was the shuttle bus trip back to the ship. Ladies clung to their handbags for dear life as we were swung around corners at breakneck speed!
Once onboard we watched the other cruise ships set sail before settling in to enjoy the ships colourful and slightly strange cabaret show.
The energetic dancers were great, but after each number a curtain would slowly open to reveal an ageing saxophonist who would anaesthetise the audience with his renditions of cool classics! We particularly enjoyed the singer whose accent made for an interesting interpretation of some songs; our favourite being Shakira’s, ‘Un Denise Yor Closs’!
So that was Russia in a nutshell – a crazy and amazing whirlwind visit. It took a couple of days for our feet and brains to recover!! To anyone thinking of making a similar trip – do it; you certainly won’t regret it.
In the next post we eat some Rudolph, experience a proper Finnish sauna, and are completely baffled when a Turku traffic warden tells us we’re parked upside down!!
1 comment:
So glad you guys enjoyed it! :)
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