So the whole “maintaining this blog weekly” thing didn’t quite pan out. To be fair, the last couple weeks haven’t been super exciting but here’s a quick rundown. I released my last post in the middle of the night from the Oulu Airport as I awaited my flight back to Toronto to attend my brother’s wedding. About 12 hours later I was back home catching up with family and showing them pictures of my travels. Thursday to Monday was full of wedding related activities, from ceremonies we perform at our house before and after the wedding, to the wedding, and the reception. Everything about the wedding was amazing, and the entire week was so much fun. Huge congratulations to my brother and his wife (if either of them end up reading this)! Sadly, by Monday night I was back on a plane to Oulu, where I arrived Tuesday evening. I spent the next week catching up on sleep and classes, and the following week getting back into the routine of things. I planned two trips for this month, and last Tuesday, I departed from Oulu to begin the first trip to St. Petersburg, Russia.
As it always has and always will, the journey began with a 9 hour overnight bus ride to Helsinki. I arrived at Helsinki at around 10am. Having already explored most of the city in my last trip, and not wanting to lug my backpack around too much, I spent most of the day walking around the mall and checking out the Helsinki City Design Museum. At around 4:30pm I made my way to the West Terminal in Helsinki to check in, go through passport control, and board the ferry to St. Petersburg. On board I met my roommates, spent some time socializing with others onboard the ferry, and called it a somewhat early night.
Normally we would all have required visas to visit Russia, but it is possible to visit the country for 72 hours if you take a ferry to St. Petersburg. The guided tour trip was only a day and a half, so we were all eager to leave the ferry Thursday morning. Unfortunately most of our group ended up waiting quite a while in the terminal since two members of the group were held up in passport control for about two hours. Despite the late start, we managed to see everything as planned that day.
We first took a bus to our hostel which was located conveniently in the middle of the city center near some of the major attractions. We claimed our beds, dropped off our bags, and headed out again. We then stopped by the bank to convert our Euros into Russian Rubles at a rate of 1 EUR = 68.5 RUB, for those who are interested. We stopped by a Russian fast food place for lunch where we had Russian pancakes or dumplings.
The first attraction we visited was the Hermitage Museum. It was founded in 1974 as a collection of pieces chosen by Empress Catherine the Great. With over 3 million pieces in 6 buildings, it’s the second largest museum in the world after the Louvre. Although it’s probably impossible to cover everything, we managed to see quite a bit in the couple hours we spent walking around.
After the museum we walked over to St. Isaac’s Cathedral and walked up 199 steps for an amazing panoramic view of the city. With it’s flowing water, churches, and various famous monuments, St. Petersburg has quite an incredible skyline.
After getting down from the cathedral we walked around the city and stopped at some monuments of Peter the Great. Born in 1672, Peter the Great was a famous Russian czar who is highly regarded for his work in establishing Russia as a strong nation. Today, numerous monuments of Peter the Great can be found around the city of St. Petersburg.
We then went to the Kazan Cathedral which was very close to our hostel. Following the cathedral we got dinner at a local restaurant and were dropped off by our tour guide at the hostel. Since the night was still young some of the girls in my tour group and I stepped out again and walked down the main street towards a local pub recommended by our guide, stopping in souvenir shops along the way.
The next morning we left the hostel and walked to the nearby metro station named Admiralteyskaya. At 86m below ground level, the St. Petersburg metro is one of the deepest in the world. We stopped at a couple other important stations as part of the metro tour and then got off at the end of the line, where we proceeded to catch a local “bus” (quotations because it was really a kind of concerning looking shuttle van). A half our later we arrived at Catherine Palace. Located 30km south of St. Petersburg, the initial palace was constructed for Catherine I in 1717. The original building was much smaller than what you see below, so in 1733, Catherine’s daughter, Empress Elizabeth, reconstructed a much more impressive palace. Unfortunately, much of the palace was destroyed during World War II, and most of the reconstruction was completed only in 2003. The Palace is surrounded by an equally beautiful garden and two lakes.
On the way back we stopped by the Monument of Lenin, and then took the bus and metro back to the city, where we ate traditional Russian pies for lunch. We concluded the trip by going to The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood. The church was built at the location where Emperor Alexander II was killed, and the cobblestone on which his blood was spilled is exposed within the floor of the shrine in the exact place of his death.
That evening we dropped by the hostel, got our stuff, and went back to the city to catch a bus back to the harbour. While it was a short trip, I was really happy with everything that I got to see in St. Petersburg and had a great time overall. That night on the ferry we watched a show full of various performances and fell into bed exhausted from our two days exploring the city. The next morning we got off the ferries and said our goodbyes as we departed for our own cities. I caught the 12pm bus back to Oulu, and was back in my apartment by 10pm.
I’ll be spending the rest of the week studying for my upcoming exams this Thursday and Friday, and will be heading back to Helsinki on Friday night to catch a Saturday morning flight to Copenhagen. More on that trip in the next post!
As always thank you, or Спасибо (pronounced “spasibo” - Russian for thank you) for reading!
-Pallavi
P.S. As an apology for missing a couple posts please enjoy this video compilation of my previous trip to the Baltic countries here. Also please note that I’m by no means a professional videographer!