After an amusing overnight train to St. Petersburg (see Moscow video), we arrived in the "Cultural Capital" of Russia. We started off with a city bus tour and got the lay of the land. The highlight for me was the Hermitage, the 3rd largest art museum in the world. The Hermitage was the tsars winter palace from 1762 to 1917 and the magnificent 1057 rooms are nothing but ostentatious and grandiose. We were there for about 3.5 hours and our guide whipped us through the "great works" of Monet, Rembrandt and Matisse. I could have used another day but was satisfied by being in the presence of such artwork.The travel agency, Aikamatkat Oy, coordinates these Russian tours f
or students and 
therefore they are not void of parties. One night we enjoyed a Russian dinner, with Russian performers singing and dancing, a lot of Russian vodka, and a lot of crazy spanish students. Another night we went on a river boat cruise complete with Russian champagne and vodka, many got sick after doing shots of vodka followed by champagne chasers, they call this the "Polar lights". We checked out the nightlife in St. Petersburg and the adventurous part of the evening came when hailing a taxi.There is no ove
rsight of the taxi business, in fact anyone can be a taxi driver to make extra money. So
, you simply hold out your hand to any car that drives by. They stop, you negotiate and hope that this ride will get you home with your 
money and your pride in tact. Luckily, we got home safe. However, there were a bunch of scams that other students experienced; the cops stopped the "taxi" and demanded money or a night in jail, and the "taxi driver" demanded more money than negotiated and slapped the 
A bus took us back to Finland and through the long border formalities (my passport was checked 4 times.) We said goodbye to our new friends from the Uni of Jyväskylä and headed home to Tampere.
6 comments:
So Russia was all you expected and more. Glad you saw all the sites that are always talked about. I bet it is different than when your father went there several years ago. The Bubble parade looked fun. Did you participate? So you got an exciting night train ride. Enjoyed your video!!!!!
Well, the bubble parade came as a surprise and we were lacking any sort of bubble making apparatus. None the less, it was fun to be on the sidelines watching it play by play. Some people were wearing fun costumes and the air was filled with bubbles, a convival atmosphere for sure. It made the Russians seem more jovial, because they were actually smiling and being playful which is something you don't see very often, they are normally so serious.
Hey, I was just checking your blog and saw that picture from on the cruise where we are holding out our champagne and noticed the look on Jason's face ;)
Greets from the Belgian guy
Hey Leasa, I enjoyed your Russian posts. No video for St. Petersburg? :-)
Did you go to Catherine's Palace? Just that I checked your program and it's included. It wasn't included in our program last year and we went to Peterhof instead, which I also enjoyed. Like in Moscow, I haven't seen so much gold on buildings in my life!
Was it the same for you, that the border officials were much more strict for people going to, not coming from, Europe? Somehow they feel responsible for people going to Europe, not the ones entering their country!
Catherine, I didn't do Catherine's Palace because too many tours are not my idea of traveling. I would rather spend my time wandering around the city and people-watching...which is what I did instead. Yes, the border control was insane LEAVING Russia, I showed my passport 4 times. It took about 2.5 hours to get through border control on the way out but on the way in it was a quick 45 minutes. An amazing trip!!
I just want to clarify for my friend Dieter and everyone else that the look on my face in that photo is one of pure awe. St. Petersburg is a beautiful city and I was just overwhelmed at that moment, nothing else. ;-) Thanks for noticing Dieter.
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