A Trip to St.Petersburg

Trip of a lifetime. Never in my wildest dreams ever did I imagine that I would visit Russia, even when I took up a job in Finland. So when Rakesh proposed, I immediately agreed.

The pics:
For ppl who wanna see the pics first, please find them
here

The group:
Rakesh, me and Carlo (we know him from JD)

The visa:
We had to apply for a separate visa to get to Russia. We just sent over our passports with application filled to our travel agency and then collected our passports directly from our tour guide on the bus.

The preparation:
I knew st.petersburg would be damn cold and so I made sure I had a nice pair of gloves and a dow-feather jacket in place. Apart from that not much preparations. We exchanged some roubles initially to keep us going and also carried euros (which was a very wise decision!)

The start:
It began on 24-12-2008. I had a sleepless night before from excitement. Got up, got ready and reached the place. Rakesh and I met up and we were waiting at the place where the bus was supposed to come. Lots of ppl were standing there and we realized all of them were old ppl!!! One guy came up and asked in perfect english "Do you speak finnish?". We said no and he just turned back and went away. We said "excuse me" but he did not turn back! What a group! and then there was another bus which was standing there. We called up carlo who informed that he was inside the bus! It bore a name different than the one we were informed in the mail and so we did not realize! The bus was waiting just for us and started immediately! Our guide, Vladimir, announced to the "new comers" that our driver was strict and would not wait the next time :D nice start!
It was the first time I saw with my own eyes landscapes fully covered in snow, like they show in the movies and it was totally fun! We stopped enroute in a couple of places to pick up more people. Then we reached the border.

The border:
Crossing the finnish border was an easy job. After that we proceeded to the Russian border. We were in the queue and I went up to the immigration counter. Then i recollected a scene from the movies where the lady would see the passport of a smuggler and immediately call up the police :D she was speaking russian into the phone getting frantic, shouting India into the phone and then asked me to wait by the side. Vladimir told her there are two indians! She was even more startled and asked Rakesh also to wait! Another guy of our group, a spanish, was also asked to wait. After all were cleared there were people moving all over that counter and then one some big authorotative guy came down and asked us a few questions and then we were stamped successfully! Initially it was surprising, but then may be they are not used to seeing Indian passports in that border and may be we were among the first in several years to actually come there :D We just smiled at that idea of it and proceeded to Russia.

The day:
We reached st.petersburg around 6 in the evening and checked in into the Hotel Moscow. It is a good hotel and I would recommend it to future travellers. It is also in the central location of all the tourist places and with just a hop into the subway (metro system) for a couple of stations and you can reach all the places!
So after checking in, we did not waste any time by 7 we were on the road. Carlo was really energetic and so we were walking a long way and managed to get a glimpse of the Hermitage, admiralty building, the beacons, the art museum, the neva river, used their subway all on the day of landing. After a looong walk and ended up in this nice cozy place called wunder bar where we had a nice drink to warm ourselves and then had dinner in another restaurant for authentic russian cuisine. Then we were back in the hotel. It was a nice start.
Every building in the old area of st.petersburg is special, nice architecture and we were awed by it. I instantly liked the city very much. Big imposing buildings with great elevations really excited me! With the new year approaching, there were lights, chirstmas trees all over the place and it was really wonderful!

Day 2:
I should say this is the day of maximum throughput. We covered today a few places within the itinerary and mainly a lots of them which were not.
We had a nice breakfast at the hotel and started on our guided tour of the city. Our guide here was a nice lady who could only speak russian and finnish :( we could not follow what she was saying and so we were just sailing past the city and gazing at the nice buildings. Then after some time we were told we would be accompanied by an english guide for three of us! We were happy about it and then Kate arrived.
We were surprised when she announced that she was our new guide! I really believe one has to be really lucky to have a young and really beautiful guide! Bcoz we were only three, our conversations did not go like the routine guided tours like "Please see to your left to find a ....." but were more informal and friendly. We had a chance to also talk a lot about their culture and history and ask a lot of questions. It was really nice.
We first went up to the Peter and Paul fortress. This was the first building constructed when st.petersburg was founded in 1703. The cathedral inside was nice and then we were in time to see that blank cannon shot which is fired every day at noon. I caught it in a perfect video too! The cannon I knew would make a big sound but I was surprised by the volume when it came!
So, after that we ended up in St.Isaacs cathedral. It is really beautiful. Nice. Kate had to leave us here bcoz she had an exam to attend and our guided tour would also end there. So we just jumped in by ourselves and marveled its beauty. It was big. It could hold about 14000 people at once. The architecture was really nice.
After that we had a nice quick lunch in a fast food center. We proceeded on foot for our next location, Kazan cathedral. We looked up the map, figured out the route and started walking but after sometime it was evident that we were on the wrong road. We had the map but did not know where we were on the map. It had all the street names in english and the signboards all had the Russian names in Russian script :(
So finally, we started using sign language and asking people on the road about the route. They were helpful and soon we found our way to it. Once when we asked a lady in sign language, she replied in english :D
Now this cathedral too was big like others, imposing pillars dominating the view. But it was in a kind of bad shape and lot of restoration work was on. The interiors were really beautiful and we took a lot of pics inside.
Just a few hundred meters across the road was the Cathedral on the Spilled Blood (Alexander 2nd, a great tzar, was assassinated there and this was constructed as a tribute to him. From outside, it looked more like a harry potter castle or what ever, with bright colorful domes and spikes. So we jumped in and again the interiors were really beautiful. All the cathedrals had this big paintings depicting the life of christ. This one had real huge pictures of that but soon we realized the they were not actual pictures but tiny pieces of colorful mosaics which were glued to create image. each mosaic was the size of a rice grain and to make a picture of 20X20 feet or bigger with a lot of such ones is a tough job! All the mosaics were natural in color so the artist would really try and finally manage to find the right color which would also give the shading affect and right color transition. It was really good.
After that Carlo pushed off to a ballet and Rakesh and I went back to the hotel. We were tired and wanted to relax for a while. Then Rakesh told that his TechLead back in helsinki, Vythali, hails from St.Petersburg and he was in the hotel lobby. So we started down to meet him. I thought it was just dinner and so kinda cool. We chatted for a while and he asked if we had visited the monastry right across our hotel. It was the 2nd most importhat for Russians and a lot of priests and bishops were trained there. Ok, it is just across the street and also we crossed the road and went in to see it. It was also a big cathedral and I again got to enjoy the nice ambience and imposing structures. Rakesh was very happy to have made it to 5 cathedrals that day bcoz it was 25th december, the christmas. But russians celebrate christmas according to the old calendar on Jan 7th. So 25th dec was a working day for them. So after that Vythali wanted to show us some places which the guides would not cover and so we started walking. We were walking and walking and walking and we saw so many places I almost lost track of them. We walked around the Nevksy Prospeck, the main downtown area for tourists which also houses many a tourists spots. We saw their school of ballet where young children practice after their school hours and if they are really good, join in for a full time program after schooling. We saw their theatres, monuments of greats emperors (and empresses), bridges of historical importance, the moscow railway station and a part of an industrial area. We were walking nonstop for 3.5 hrs and then we came to know that temparature was -7C. :D I suddenly felt very proud that I could actually survive in that cold for so long (I did not even have my thermal shirt on! just a shirt and jacket). Finally we hunted the roads for a restaurant which would sell Blini, a traditional russian item which was now also being promoted as a fast food. We have a limosine ride at 11.30 and so finally at 11 we gave up and went to a russian cuisine restaurant nearby our hotel. They close at 11 but then they had some food remaining and so negotiated with them keep the doors open for a bit longer :D food was real good and I finally got the taste of traditional russian vodka. It was strong but nice. I promptly fell in love with it :D So we managed to reach the limo just 2 minutes before it started. We really thanked Vythali for the time he spent with us and without whom, we wouldnt have seen so much of the city.
Now this limosine ride was also another thing which I never comtemplated, again even in my wildest dreams. The loooong car (it was a modified version of the Ford Excursion) and luxurious interiors. Wow! Kate was back with us now and our journey started. This was not kind of a guided tour but just fun. St.Petersburg by night in a limo with lots of champagne. Yes, there was lots of it. I did take care not to have too much. Just sipped it and left it there. This lasted for 2 hours and we saw some more cathedrals from outside and lots of other places. We stopped by at some places for a few minutes to take interesting snaps. But then we were walking along atleast half the route on the day before so it was a revisit for us but look at the contrast. That day it was people freezing in the cold and walking around on the roads. This day, it was in a limo with champagne with the chaffeur opening the door!
So after the limo ride we were back in hotel at around 1.30 and so dead tired that we immediately fell asleep. We knew that the next day was a big day and needed to have lots of energy for it.

Day 3:
The Hermitage museum. With about 2.7 million pieces in collection, it is one of the biggest art museums in the world. I was excited to see it. I am not an artist myself and know NOTHING about the art but then I do appreciate it :D
So for this Hermitage only we three were the subscribed tourists and so we took the metro along with kate and went in. Hermitage opens at 11 and we had an hour approximately to kill. So we decided to visit the Strogonavsky palace.
This is a kind of small place on the Nevsky Prospekt, but then it was really beautiful. We stepped in and two floors about we saw the ceiling very beautifully carved with designs. Later on we realized it was not carving but painting which is so real like! I was realy amazed. It was real beautiful piece. There were 11 rooms for display and though not very big, each room was unique and beautiful in its own way. It was a well spent 45 minutes.
Now we reached the palace square with its iconic tower in the middle. We took some good pictures of it and then moved into Hermitage situated right across it.
Now this hermitage is a real imposing building on its own. It has several sections which have been built over years by the yester year kings. Initially designed to be the winter palace its a real place of grandieur. Any golden color you see on the walls or ceiling is a gold leaf. I dunno how many kgs of gold really went into it! So its divided into 5 inter-connected sections, the winter palace, the small hermitage, the old hermitage, the new hermitage and the theatre. We did not step into the theatre but roamed around all the other buildings. We were provided a guide here who is a real historian and so the tour was amazing. The sheer grandieur of Hermitage is enough to take away the breadth of anybody. The art also was really good and I really saw the paintings of people whose names I have only read in books like Da Vinci, Piccasso and Goya among others. The guided tour was really good and after that we had some time to check out some more on our own. By 3 we were so overwhelmed and tired for walking that we decided to call it quits. Our legs were really paining since we were walking since morning and so we had a small lunch and lots of rest for about an hour. After that we went back to the Strognovsky palace for a museum there which we had skipped due to paucity of time in the morning. We were already introduced to the people there by Kate so we did not need a 2nd ticket :D This museum is about the organization which prepared like about 20K types of postcards of the history and copies running into millions. So it was again a flash back into the history of russia, only this time through old postcards :)
After that Carlo wanted to shop for some postcards which he could send back home and Rakesh and I decided to push off to see the Bronze horseman. Now this Bronze horseman is the statue of Peter The Great, who founded the city, mounted on a horse. It was there on every souvenir, drawn on every booklet but then not marked on the tourist map. We had twice before tried to reach is based on our approximate knowledge and failed. So finally we had Kate mark it for us on the map and then based on that we reached it. So after a brief photoshoot and a look at the it we went ahead to look at the other such artifact alluring us, the Sphinx. This is acutally 2 Sphinx carvings (small ones though) imported from Egypt set facing each other along the neva river. So we reached it and had a photo shoot there also and spent some time gazing at them.
Then we headed back to the hotel, rested for an hour and went ahead to a japanese restaurant nearby we discovered. Rakesh ordered an Octopus but I was not into it. We had a nice drink and really good food. We spent a long night chatting away and finally fell alseep at around 2.

Day 4:
This day we started off for the Catherine' palace at Pushkin, a suburb of st.petersburg. Pushkin was one of the greatest poets of Russia. He was raised in that place and so it was named after him posthumously. It was a long ride during which we saw the new part of st.petersburg which resembles any other modern city with big glass front buildings. We also passed through a set of hills over which the germans, during the WW2, had camped on and held watch over the city when it was under seige. Finally after an hour we reached the palace. I saw the big really good building and started taking pictures of it when Kate told that its not the palace but only servant quarters :D ok so we reached the palace and it too was built with all the pomp and grandieur. We went around the palace knowing more about its history and awing at the architecture. Here too anything golden on the walls is gold leaf! So much wealth and style. The amber from trees is also considered to be semi-precious stone and there is a room full of amber walls called the amber room in which photography is not allowed. The germans had actually sliced the walls and took away the entire amber layers and hid it for a long time before it was again brought back and the room restored. There was also a 10 minute singing by a group of russian musicians which was like the typical european singing in Operas I have seen on movies. This palace was also unique in that almost all the rooms here have a dutch style marble made big chimney which in itself was pretty artistic. I dont know how you differentiate between styles of various countries though :D I could just see that the chimneys were looking nice :D
After a tour of the palace, we just walked out through the back entrance and found a big empty space full of snow. Then we realized that its actually a frozen lake. Rakesh and I were immediately all out to walk over it while Carlo said hes not crazy enough :D So Rakesh, Kate and I went down to the lake and found that it was a bit thin along the border. So we walked further away and found a place where it was thick enough and started walking through it. Again, this was one thing which I never thought I would do. When my friend Ragz told about seeing a half water half frozen lake in Himalayas, I could only look at its photograph and say Wow! But now I was actually walking over one :) I was all smiles and happy and then after half way down the lake I just push off the snow to see the actual frozen ice of the lake :D We took some pictures of it and then started to walk back.
All this while I was looking for a real good souvenir which would represent Russia. I had decided that I would take the russian emblem of the two headed eagle. May it be engraved or as a parchment or painted or whatever it was going to be that. We toured around the souvenir shops there but could not find one and I could not settle for something less! So we then moved on from there and reached our hotel by around 3.
We just grabbed a sandwich and proceeded by subway to the Nevsky Prospekt. And then it happened. When we got into the train, suddenly there was a huge rush and pushing around. I then realized that someone was trying to take my purse out. I just slapped hard on the hand and covered my pockets. Rakesh went through a similar thing and he just warned me of pick-pocketing. As soon as he uttered the word, one guy behind us coughed and all became normal again. No more pushing. Meanwhile Carlo pushed his way through the crowd of thieves and standing a bit away and when he checked his wallet was gone. Meanwhile we reached a station where all people got off and went on their way. So we too got down and went to lodge a complaint with the police. We had to use sign language and after a bit of explaining things to them and finally calling up kate to do the translation over phone we were out of the police station.
Then we pushed off to the Russian Museum. Now, this also happens to be one of the world' finest museums showcasing the Russian art and artifacts since 10th century. We had a really nice time walking through all the rooms and again admiring the art. We were in the museum till the closing time when we were guided back to the entrance.
After this we wanted to get a taste of the traditional russian dish of Blini. We came to know of a restaurant where it would be sold and went there. This Blini happens to be like a version of sweet dosa we have in india with a curry being put in the middle like our masala dosa. In all it was a nice dish but then I did not expect it to taste like something which I already knew!
Now Carlo went back to hotel and we decided that we would do some shopping and find my souvenir. While walking to a mall we realized that we were out of money. So I went back to the hotel to exchange some euros while Rakesh went around the mall with Kate, who had joined us. I was back to the mall and behold! They had meanwhile found out the exact souvenir I was looking for! It was really beautiful and I really thank them for this. So now we just walked along some roads and meanwhile Carlo joined us and we headed to another authentic russian cuisine for dinner.
Here again we had a round of Blini and so real good food with a nice russian beer. We had a nice long chat about various cultures and stuff and finally after saying bye byes to Kate reached hotel sweet hotel.

Day 5:
Breakfast. Pack and leave. We were dead tired from all the touring during the past days and promptly fell asleep soon after leaving the city limits. We stopped around 1 at a place called Wyborg (or may be something else) and here lo! Blini again!!! I was sitting by the driver' side sometime and watching the nice scenaries and taking pictures and we reached the border. As I thought, they again made us wait till all were over, people moved around all over, a big officer came but this time there were no questions. After a round of discussion they finally decided to let us go over! So we were in Finland again and I took a small nap which ended when we reached Helsinki :D More bye byes to every one on trip and an hour later I was Home sweet Home!!!

A few points:
Well, st.petersburg has a population of 7.4 million, about 40% more than the population of Finland. So it is a mega city. Several times the size of Helsinki, the first time we had an insight into it was when we boarded the subway. Here each station was may be a minute or two away but in st.petersburg, we could be travelling upto 10 mins in some cases to reach a station. They have a very efficient and extensive subway without which the city may be considered dead. Wiki says that this subway serves about 30 lakh people every day. The Mumbai local serves 66 lakhs a day. Kudos to them.
I also noticed that some of the subway stations within the city were constructed at around twice the depth of their helsinki counter parts. Wiki says that they have the deepest subway in the world. Initially we thought its bcoz they have to crisscross the river. Well, we were partially true. But then Vythali explained that these stations were also meant to be a war shelter to the citizens and were designed to withstand a nuclear attack! It occured to me that we never thought in that perspective and may be even the Finns while designing their metro.
The traditional russian doll and the traditional russian dish, both were something we are familiar with in India, though with a different name. It does make me curious enough to ask if there is a reason behind it.

Can I write more? I dunno. At this point I have to conclude this document but then if something else comes up....