Mother Russia- St Petersburg

 

Recently we decided that while we were here we would take a trip to Russia. for those who haven't tried to go to Russia before, getting a visa is a nightmare and not something we were prepared to do. Luckily they have one exception. visitors are allowed into Russia on a 72 hour visa free period if they enter the country via ferry, on an organised tour, from Helsinki... easy right...?

We thought so. There were lots of choices of tours online, unfortunately they all cost upwards of 1000 euro per person... then we stumbled across Select a cruise which was run over 5 days, 3 full days in St Petersburg, 2 days of guided tour, return cabin on the cruise, 2 nights in a 4 star hotel and breakfast every day... all for less than 500 per person... we were sceptical as to its quality and or legitimacy being less than half the price of the next cheapest option we had seen, but decided to give it a go. And as it turns out it was the right choice.

 

We left Helsinki at 1800 and headed straight to happy hour on the ship which included many mojitos. 

We woke up the next day to disembark in St Petersburg at 930.  We had no idea what kind of tour we had or what to expect of what was included really.  All we knew was that someone would meet us at the terminal to take us on a half day tour of the city... we expected to be put on a big bus full of Asian tourists and shuttled around for a few hours.  Instead we were met by a lovely Russian tour guide with our name on a sign.  She then took us to our private car with driver who took us to see the main sights of the city and help us get acquainted with the layout.  Much more fun that being on a massive bus with strangers.

 

 

Below are some of the first pics we took in Russia on our tour

 

Looking out over the Neva River towards the city centre

Rubbing the Griffin head for family luck or the wings for career luck-- there are many statues like this in St Petersburg, apparently the Russian thing they need more luck?

3000 year old Sphinx out the front of the national art school brought all the way from the Pyramids of Egypt   

The Hermitage Museum- housed in the Winter palace and several other buildings

Two monuments at Strelka on Novaya Gollondiya Island

Church inside Peter and Pauls Fortress

The church interior- Peter and Paul fortress- we quickly learned the Russian love of golden decoration

at the Neva Gate of Peter and Paul Fortress

Cannons inside the fortress



The main Gate to the Fortress- with the Russian royal symbol of the Double Headed eagle  

Peter and Paul fortress is on an island which translates to 'Hare Island'. Needless to say there are many hare sculptures around the island- the island is only called this though because of a Finnish man who use to own the land- his name translated to Hare... unfortunately the island was never over run by fluffy creatures... I asked

TRAM!

   One of our next stops was the Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood.  This beautiful church was built on the exact spot where one of the previous tsars was murdered- thus the name. We didn't go inside at this point, but on another day we did- those pics are a bit further down and you guessed it, it's very gold inside...

 

 

St Isaac's church - the surroundings were bombed during world war II and you can see where bomb fragments hit.  Very nice church inside and out. you can also climb up the colonnade which we did a little later.

 

Bomb damage on the column

 

Kazan Cathedral on Nevsky Prospekt- the main road in St Petersburg. This is still a functioning church. we went inside to watch for a while. Whilst the interiors are not as shiny and eye grabbing as some of the other churches we went to, they are no longer functioning and serve more are museums and tourist points. This one however was filled with locals lining up to pray and kiss different images. whilst I'm not up to date on the Russian Orthodox religion, it was interesting to watch.

 

For those sewing fans out there. This was the old singer factory

 

 

Hmm Exposed Wires- everywhere.... totally safe

 Some Sites we saw whilst walking along Nevsky Prospekt:

 And then on the way home after getting caught in a Massive thunderstorm that came out of nowhere. The roads became rivers and we took refuge in an Ice hockey shop :) and then had Indian for dinner. We have come to realise that we have eaten at an Indian restaurant in every single country we have been to so far... little crazy but the food is just so good :) The food here was amongst the best we have had so far!

nic pretending to hit a home run with the umbrella

DONT BLINK!!!

So creepy I swear they moved while we were here!

 Walking back to our hotel as the sun goes down along the Neva River:

The banks of the river are literally lined with beautiful houses that were all once upon of time different palaces of royals, important families and their favourites

 

In St Petersburg they raise all of the bridges along the Neva River at 1am every morning for several hours to let all of the river traffic through. this means that if you are on the wrong side of the river when the bridges rise at 1am, there is literally no way for you to get across until the morning. This is the centre of one of the bridges

 

Inside our tour of the Hermitage Museum. Day two

 

Here we see more of the love of gold of the Russian royal Family. The first pictures are the rooms of the former winter palace which now houses the first building of the Hermitage

pictures of all the military generals - the blank frames are because they died before there picture was painted

an old statue which looks surprisingly like their president Mr Putin- our guide said they actually call it Putin Dog. While I'm on the topic, at every souvenir shop in town there are t-shirts and other things all with Vladimir Putin's face on them... its just so strange- imagine if we did that with Tony.. it'd never work!

A very cool clock that moves and sings on the hour

The recreated hanging garden

People pushing to get a picture of a Da Vinci piece-Madonna.  its like the Mona Lisa all over again!

The dark corridor. It connects two of the Hermitage buildings and has no windows. This was built and used in a time without electricity- it would have been dark and creepy then.

The outside of the Winter Palace- some of the tourist shops hire old timey costumes for people to walk around and take photos in- we passed but enjoyed watching this tourist pose :)

Dvortsovaya Ploschard- The square outside the winter palace

We saw this everywhere around St Petersburg- two buses permanently parked and converted to toilets.

watching the world go by at one of the many canals. one of the previous Tsars had a plan to build hundreds of canals to rival Amsterdam as he had visited the city and loved it so much. unfortunately he died before putting this plan into action but locals still affectionately refer to St Petersburg as the 'Venice of the North'

Back at the Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood... and now for the inside:

The entire interior is filled with mosaic- top to bottom!

 

 

St Isaac's cathedral again- This time we went inside

 

Our Russian Migration cards with our names in Russian

 We also climbed the Colonnade which is 262 steps high and gives you amazing views of the city.

crazy parking job

We are watching you...creepy angels

Staircase to the top

 

another statue they rub for luck

Attack of the pigeons! a man dropped some crumbs and they came from everywhere! we almost got swept up in them

The brown building in the back middle with antennae is the former KGB headquarters... of course it isn't anymore as the KGB doesn't exist ;)

The Flying Dutchman ship restaurant

final touristy photo at Strelka

After all of our walking over 3 days in St Petersburg we returned to our hotel to have a beer, collect our bags and get the shuttle back to our ship.

eating our lunch in our cabin as we prepare to say goodbye to Russia

the view from our window

so we hit happy hour again... who can say no to 2 cocktails with 4 shots in each for 10 bucks? not us that's for sure...

Russia was crazy and it may have affected Nic... headbanging after happy hour :)


So that was our whirlwind trip to Russia! we had a great time, learnt lots and saw a very beautiful city. not to mention got terrified whilst sitting in driving cars.  All Russians seem to think they are in a race and any cars ahead of them need to be passed- not to mention the scary methods of merging which is either speed up and push the other car off the road or stop completely in an active lane and then wait for a gap...and then there is the parking--- anywhere is a car spot, even a lane where other cars are driving, just stop and then put hazards on and the previous driving lane becomes a car park...magic!


We arrived in Helsinki on Saturday morning and then spent out last 2 hours in Beautiful Finland (well in the ferry terminal anyway) before we got on another ferry to Tallinn, Estonia! and this is where we are now. we went and did a weeks worth of shopping (breakfast, lunch dinner, fruit, snacks and drinks) for 6 days for both of us and it came to 40 bucks... I love this country! we also discovered that they sell 10 packs of vodka in the supermarket, and that their alcohol section was almost half the size of the supermarket...they know how to live here :)

anyway, today we are having a rest day and doing a whole lot of nothing but we will be going to explore Tallinn tomorrow... Until then :)