Thurs & Fri,--Our trip to St. Petersburg Russia

Thursday we unpacked and repacked our smaller travel bags with what we'd want this weekend, and then left the bach about noon to head to Helsinki to catch a boat to St. Petersburg, Russia.  Six months ago the St. Peter Line started a 2-night/1-day travel package round trip from Helsinki that doesn't require a visa.  The Princess Maria is a small, older cruise-style boat, nothing fancy but sufficient for our needs.  We departed from Helsinki about 7pm under clear skies and had smooth sailing to St. Petersburg, arriving about 8:30am.

 

The above pictures are taken from the boat as we left Halsinki Thurs. eve.

   To book this trip, we had to sign up for the City Bus Tour, which we thought would be a good way to see the city anyway.  Laura had gotten in touch with some of our friends, J. W (England) and S. T (Montana), who are in St. Petersburg, and we hoped to be able to meet up with them at some point of the day.  Well, things got a little interesting at first.  Ruth was quite used to ship excursions that are very organized, monitored, guided... However, for this, we were never given any information, tickets, etc., so we got off the boat about 9:15, saw a sign for the city bus tour, stopped at the kiosk and told the girl we were to take the tour, she pointed us to the small white bus that had a city bus tour sign in the window, and we boarded, where many others were also sitting waiting for a driver.  The driver hops on and off we go.  No comments, no documentary, (and no English!) just stops at a hotel and a bunch of people hop up, some with suitcases, and they get off.  He asks, "Soko, bridge?"  Several people say yes, so off we go to the next hotel and everyone but the three of us and one more man gets off.  Off we go, and downtown in front of the Winter Palace he stops and the only other couple left on the bus get off, and I said "I think we need to get off too--  The man said something, and the bus driver says to get off here, pointed to the city bus tour sign on the other side of the road, and said he'd be back at 2pm, 3pm, 4pm, 5pm to pick back up.  We're like "huh?", and he says the times again that he'd be back.  So, the three of us got off too, and the last man stayed on.  Some city bus tour -- dump 'em off to find their way, pick 'em back up later if they find their way back! Luckily, before departing ship, Laura had picked up a map of St. Petersburg with points of interest highlighted, so we were able to orient ourselves with that.  Luckily, Laura had a phone that would work there (the Swedish one did, the Finnish one would not), and she immediately sent a message to Stephanie.  It wasn't too long and the girls  were there to rescue us!  They were very surprised to hear we were just left on our own, because when they first heard of this travel trip being put together, they heard it was to be very monitored, very restricted, since no visas were to be required.  Hah!  We walked off the boat on our own and had the day to ourselves to do as we pleased.
  We all walked from the Winter Palace along Nevskiy Prospekt, a main street, to the far end.  (Sorry, I don't remember what that area was called and it doesn't show on my map.)  We had a nice long walk on a beautiful day, admist crowds of people, along the traffic-jammed street.  Interesting!!  J. knew of a good place near there to get authentic Russian cuisine, so that's where we stopped for lunch.  Laura & Ruth had pumpkin soup, I had cheese soup that had sliced hot dogs and vegetables in it, and we shared a chicken & mushroom pie and fried cheese.  J & S had borscht, which Ruth had wanted to try but didn't get because we thought we'd get it on the boat at suppertime.

  (In front of the Winter palace)

Nope, we won't go hungry here either....can you spot Mc. D's?!!
The traffic situation was bizzare. Picture millions of cars every which way, maybe 3 lanes, maybe 2, cars parked on the sidewalk, behind another row going a different way, sticking out past the edge of the curb, stopping for foot traffic & blocking the other streets....

After lunch S had to leave for her Russian class.  She's been here one year, J has been for 18 years, but not a steady 18 as she's also been a few other places in eastern Europe during that time, too.  J took us to the Bread Museum, which gave a history of how important bread is to the Russian people.  A good thing J was along because nothing was in English except for just a few labels on some of the breads showcased in one area!  Then she took us on a short ride on the city train just for the experience, Took us to a city (indoor) Market and then pointed us in the direction of a place to buy Russian pancakes, from there to our stop for the tour bus pick-up, and then she said good-bye and departed -- eeks!  The little restaurant had an English menu -- hurrah!  The young cashier didn't really speak English, so make your menu choice and point!  Russian pancakes are like French crepe, and they have both savory and sweet.  Ruth ordered peaches & sweet cheese, I had  wildberries & cream, and Laura a savory with meat & mushrooms.  Then we all shared.

  We got back to the stop about 4:15pm, thinking we'd have to sit and wait awhile for the 5pm pick-up, but the bus came by in just a couple minutes, we hopped on, it was the same driver, and there was the Asian man who had stayed on when we got off!  We wonder, did he just ride back and forth from the ship to downtown all day with the driver, or did he really get off eventually and then back on somewhere else?  It would've been nice to have seen a few more points of interest in other areas of the city, but it was wonderful to have the time with the girls that might not have worked out so well if we would've been required to stay on the bus for 3.5 hours.

  Back on the boat we decided to eat at the buffet in the restaurant (food wasn't included in our ticket price, but there were a couple options of where to eat).  The food was okay but nothing extraordinary, definitely not worth what we paid, but we did have a seat with a decent view out the window to watch the sunset.  Ruth was disappointed that  borscht wasn't on the buffet, so she didn't get to try it after all!  We later realized we must've read it on the a'la carte menu we saw posted outside the other restaurant the night before.

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 (Sorry about the dirty windows....)

  Another clear night and smooth sailing back to Helsinki, arriving at 8:30 a.m.

(Thanks again to Ruth for her journal notes)