From Russia with Love

Dear all,

After the wedding, we went for a short honeymoon to Saint Petersburg, Russia. We had planned the travel many months before, and it was not easy to arrange, especially for the visa in our passports, but we did it, and it was worth it!!

We arrived to Finland's Station by train and stayed at Dostoevsky Hotel, not far from Nevsky Prospeckt in downtown. The hotel is huge, but new and confortable and it is located in the same building of a shopping center, which included a grocery store open 24 hours. Many other shops, Change Offices and pharmacies in Saint Petersburg are open 24/24h and 7/7 days.

First day we walked about 13 km in down town. We were partially following the Lonely Planet guide of the town and we missed only a few of the important monuments. We passed by the Winter Palace, last residence of the Tzars and witness of the October Revolution. Then we walked along the channels and visited the church of the Spilled Blood, which contains innumerable and very beautiful mosaics.

The town is really great and monumental. Tidy and cosmopolitan. Every now and then you can still see some vestige of the old soviet era, especially buses and trucks. Once you learn to decipher cyrillic alphabet, getting around gets way easier. At first impression, people might be serious and not smiling (shopping, for example) but as soon as you try to speak a bit of the language, they radically change and become very friendly and willing to help. They surely appreciate your efforts to communicate.

We also visited the Hermitage Museum. It is said that there are Museums, there are the Great Museums and there is the Hermitage. Situated in the premises of the Winter Palace, offers an extraordinary collection of world's master pieces... and 80% of the total collection is stored in its vaults. We were lucky enough to be in Saint Petersburg during the low season, therefore we found very little tourists. For example we entered in the Hermitage without queuing, strait in, and we stroll along the beautiful ball halls and corridors often totally alone.

The other thing we appreciated a lot was the food. We eat with delight delicious and cheap meals, handsomely served.

We came back to Finland also by train, very happy with our visit to old Leningrad. The train is nice, except for the annoying customs and passport controls at the border. Not so hard, but very long.

A selection of pictures of the town can be found here.

Cheers,
-Manu & Nina-