Tsars, Pierogis and Vodka

In front of the Winter Palace/Hermitage

 

 

I never thought in a million years that I would get the opportunity to visit Russia, but again, that is the biggest benefit of living in Finland on this expat adventure -- the ability to travel all over Europe so easily.

It turns out lots of other Areva expats from Rauma decided to visit St. Petersburg, Russia, over the long Easter weekend. Five other Americans and about 30 French also took the St. Peter Line ferry from Helsinki to St. Petersburg. The ship, a 1980s-era relic called the M/S Maria, left Helsinki Friday evening and arrived in St. Petersburg Saturday morning. There is a new way to get around the Russian visa requirement: If you arrive via a ship and book a guided tour, you can stay in St. Petersburg visa-free for up to 72 hours. This is a great and easy way to visit this beautiful and historic city. We stayed in a terrific hotel, the Sokos Palace Bridge for two nights, and spent three days in St. Petersburg, leaving for the overnight ferry ride back to Finland Monday evening.

The Church on Spilled Blood

When you've been on the nice, new cruise ships sailing in the Caribbean (like the Celebrity Eclipse we sailed on last year), boarding an older ship like the M/S Maria can be a shock. Our cabin was so tiny, we could barely move, let alone find a place to put our luggage. And don't get me started on the bathroom! The water from the shower sprayed all over the bathroom -- but at least it was warm water! The worst thing was the noise and vibration -- that and the fact that all night, you could hear the ship plowing through the ice in the Baltic. As everyone had been talking about the anniversary of the sinking of the TItanic, that made us all just a tiny bit nervous!

Arriving in St. Petersburg by boat is a little disappointing, because you enter through this huge industrial port area. Not very attractive. We had heard that it can be time-consuming to get through immigration, but we had no problems at all. Got that Russian stamp in our passports, and we were on our way. Took the "official" shuttle to the hotel, where our private guide and driver, Sasha and Sergei from Insider Tour, were waiting. We had a very busy tour of the city, visiting all the famous sights, then had a wonderful lunch at a traditional Russian tea room, and finished the afternoon with a tour of the Winter Palace and Hermitage Museum.


The next day, we wandered around, although the weather was really nasty. Tom didn't have a hat, so he was pretty miserable. It wouldn't have been so bad, but the snow was blowing sideways into our faces. Still, we saw as much as we could. We ended up at the Museum of Vodka, where we got to sample three vodkas from their collection of over 220 kinds! That's the way to warm up after walking around in the cold and snow! We later met up with some new Finnish friends we had met on the ship for dinner at a Russian restaurant recommended by the hotel, and it was lots of fun.

Lemon Pierogi

Monday was much better, still cold but gloriously sunny. I dragged Tom around to re-take photos of places we previously had  been to just to get better pictures! Did a little shopping, too.


Some things we noticed:


* English is not as widely-spoken in St. Petersburg as it is in other European countries. You can get by, of course, but the toughest part is reading signs.
* We felt totally safe walking around, even though we had read that you can get stopped by the police at any time. We saw lots of police and military walking around, but it was no big deal.
* The food was much better than we anticipated. Probably the best things we tried were the pies, or pierogis. I had a cabbage pierogi, and Tom had one with chicken. Then we shared a lemon one for dessert. Yummy! A pierogi is a yeasty dough baked around a filling. I also liked the Borscht soup, which is made with meat, beets, cabbage, carrots and seasonings. It is topped with a dollop of sour cream, which I could have done without.

Choose from 220 kinds at the Vodka Museum

* The vodka was very good, and we could taste the difference between the cheaper stuff and the good stuff. The duty-free prices on the ship actually were better than the prices in St. Petersburg, although we did buy a few mini bottles of brands that weren't available on the ship, such as Beluga and Imperia.
* The Church on Spilled Blood was my favorite place to see. This beautiful church was built on the spot where Tsar Alexander II was assassinated in 1881. The church was used as a morgue and then a warehouse during the Communist years. After 30 years of renovations, it was opened to the public in the late 1990s. A WWII-era bomb was actually found buried in the roof of the church not too long ago. It was carefully removed and detonated outside the city.
* The Winter Palace and Hermitage Museum on Palace Square are as magnificent as you would expect. I'm so glad we had a guide to lead us around there, or we could have been lost for days. We spent three hours there, but that wasn't enough. I would like to go back sometime.
* We also didn't get to the palaces outside the city, Peterhof and Tsarskoe Selo. Our guide said we should visit those in warmer weather, when the fountains are working and the grounds are in full bloom. She said late August/early September are good times to visit, as the weather is great but the crowds aren't as bad as June and July.


So, if any of you friends and/or family want to join me for a trip, let me know!


Here's a link to the pictures:


https://plus.google.com/photos/103069509757300719995/albums/5730100561241622161?hl=en