Day One:
Our trip officially started when we boarded the ferry headed to St. Petersburg. I took a similar ferry to Tallinn, Estonia, but due to the distance between Helsinki and St. Petersburg, the ferry was overnight. We boarded in the evening and nothing of real importance happened on the boat, but I always find it fun wandering around the sun deck and see what the ship passes.
Day Two:
By the time we all woke up, we had arrived in the port. Since Russia is not a member of the Schengen Zone, we had to go through passport control. If you didn't know, the Schengen Zone is an agreement between some European nations that abolishes passport controls between the borders of member nations. Now, normally to get into Russia, especially for a US citizen, you would need a visa from the Russian government, which could take several months. There is a small loophole with the rules, if you are a passenger on a cruise and you have a tour set up while in the country, you can stay up to 72 hours with no visa. Unfortunately, someone forgot to tell the people that were at passport control that day. There were about 60 students from Aalto, and most of them had no issues getting through, but there was one group that did, the American students. When my turn came, I handed the employee the documents that I was told I would need, but that wasn't enough. Someone, I'm guessing the captain, came into the booth demanding to see my hotel reservation. I don't speak Russian, and they didn't speak much English. I tried to explain that I was part of a tour group and even told them where I was staying, but they persisted that I needed a hotel reservation. After calling both the hotel and the tour guide leader, I was finally let through. Thankfully, this was the only trouble I had while I was in Russia.
After everyone made it through customs, we began our tour. Normally, I prefer to just explore and learn on my own, but in a city that nearly has the population of Finland, getting information from a local perspective was great. The first stop we had on the tour was along the Neva river to examine the authentic Egyptian Sphinxes that adorned the side of the road. We then continued to the first building constructed in the city, the St. Peter and Paul Fortress. It was originally built to protect from Swedish invasion, but the fort never saw combat and later became a church (pictured below).
After the fortress, we had some time to get some lunch and explore the main street in St. Petersburg, the Nevsky Prospect. I happened to meet a Finnish student from KY who studied in the city last year and he took me and a friend of mine to a local spot to catch the "business lunch" deal. The place was this small Italian restaurant that served some Russian classics like borsch. I ended up getting the borsch and a pizza for 200 rubles, which is under four euros.
After having some free time, the tour bus dropped us off at the hotel and we had more time to explore. I spent most of my time on the Nevsky Prospect, along with the Finnish student, Ville and an Australian student named Alyssa. The entirety of the street is about four kilometers and takes about two hours to walk the whole thing, if you go stop every so often. We stopped by one of the biggest malls in the city and saw what the Russian people buy and for the most part, the prices are either cheaper or the same as other Western countries. Since the tap water wasn't safe to drink, we also stopped by the grocery store in the mall and bought some. Food prices in St. Petersburg are a lot cheaper than in the US or Europe. A large two liter of water only cost about 50 cents. Ville then took us to this small little coffee shop specializing in something known as "Soviet Coffee" and homemade doughnuts. Since the USSR didn't have coffee as a readily available good, "Soviet Coffee" was a substitute.
That night, we went to a traditional Russian dinner and folkshow. To be honest, I have no idea what I ate besides a blini (Russian pancake), but it was all very good. The folkshow was also very entertaining with a small group of three performers showing off traditional songs and dances from Russia. They would have our guide translate instructions and they would sometimes pull members of the audience into the show (myself included....twice). All in all, if it wasn't for the Cyrillic (the name of the alphabet Russia uses) everywhere, you would think you were in a normal European city like Stockholm.
Day Three:
Our Third day on the trip started with us getting on the bus and heading to the small town of Pushkin to visit the tsar's Palace (pictured at the top of this post). The palace was constructed during the reign of Peter the Great. Peter hated opulence, but his wife did and while he was away fighting, she was constructing the palace. Peter never really used it, but the subsequent tsar's did, most notably, Catherine the Great. The palace is huge and even after the Communist Revolution, the USSR used the palace to represent the palace at Versailles in France. The interior of the palace is filled with bright rooms lined with gold and porcelain ovens and shows how much wealth the Russian royal family actually had during this time. There is also an interesting room made almost entirely out of amber. I would show how beautiful it was, but the employees at the palace don't allow photos of the amber room.
The Palace remained in good condition until World War Two, when St. Petersburg (then known as Leningrad) was destroyed by the Nazi military. The Nazi forces looted the palace, taking almost everything that had left there after it was evacuated and destroyed most of the building. Even today there are some rooms that haven't been fully restored.
After touring the palace most of us went back to the hotel and spent most of the night walking around the city. I ventured onto the Nevsky to see what it was like while I was alone and there was no issues. I spent most of time going in and out of souvenir shops to see what I would want to take back. I also would stop and watch what people did. The streets were reminiscent of New York City with all the pedestrians. I also noticed something strange about how they cross the street. When crossing, almost no one ran. They all just walked, even if the light had turned green while they were crossing. The traffic in the city was also very crowded most of the day. It would get even worse if there was an accident. Apparently when drivers in St. Petersburg get into an accident, they are required by law to leave everything in place, which could block quite a few lanes until the police came.
That night, those of us who signed up for it, took a nighttime limo tour through the city and stopped at the different churches around the city. The tour ended with some people going to a popular street for clubs, with others, including me heading back to the hotel for the night.
Day Four/Five:
This was our last day in the city, and we started by checking out of the hotel and heading to one of the most famous art museums in the world, second only to the Louvre itself, the Hermitage Museum. The Hermitage is located within the complex of the Winter Palace used by the tsars in the winter to be closer to the city. The museum houses paintings from some of the most renowned artists including Peter Paul Ruebens, Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael Santi. During the reign of Catherine the Great, the Russian royalty became interested in expanding the family's collection of art and thankfully most of the artwork survived the siege of Leningrad. It is absolutely amazing to see pieces of art that were made by some of the greatest painters in history. The museum contains millions of exhibits and it is impossible to see all of them. The collections range from ancient Egyptian, Roman and Greek to the modern period with original Picasso's housed within the walls.
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| The Hermitage/Winter Palace |
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| painting by Da Vinci |
The next stop of the tour was exploring three of the major cathedrals of the city (all the cathedrals will be pictured below): The Church on Spilled Blood, St. Nicholas Cathedral, and St, Isaac's Cathedral. The first was the Church on Spilled Blood. The church is similar to the one seen in Moscow, but was built much more recently. During the late 1800's, tsar Alexander II was on his way to a meeting when he was assassinated by radicals. While the Russian people resented most of the tsars, Alexander II was loved by most and was expect to create a constitutional monarchy the next week. As a memorial, the church was built on the spot he died, and an altar inside the church preserves the original cobblestones where the tsar died. Most of Russia identifies as Russian Orthodox, which has a heavy use of mosaics and icons as decoration, as opposed to the protestants that use almost no decoration inside.
The next church was the St, Nicholas Cathedral which was meant to be the church for those working in the harbour. Of the three churches we visited, this was the only one that was active. This meant that men were not allowed to wear a hat (same in the other two), and women were expected to cover their heads. The interesting thing about this church is that the outside colors are blue and white, while the interior is mostly green.
The final church was the St. Isaac's Cathedral, which is one of the most well known in the city. It is one of the few buildings in the city that survived the siege in World War II, mostly thanks to the Nazi forces using the cathedral as a marker for the artillery during the war. Unlike the other two churches, the beauty of this one lies in how the different types of stones were brought together. Overall, the church is one of the biggest domed churches in Russia and is considered a top 5 in Europe.
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| The Church on Spilled Blood |
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| St, Nicholas Cathedral |
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| Altar of St. Isaac's Cathedral |
After that, we headed to the port and boarded the ship. Thankfully, I had no issues leaving Russia, though some of the other Americans did have a few issues. Not much happened on the boat and the next day we disembarked and went on with our days.
Homesickness:
To be honest, I didn't think I was going to feel homesick at any point during this trip, but the day we got back from Russia, it happened to me. Back during the first week of my exchange, I broke my glasses and asked my parents to mail me my spare set at some point. They did, but the package was stopped by customs and I had to show up to the office to take care of it. I only know that because I had a few Finnish friends I've made look at the letter that the customs office sent me. After trying to take care of it through the website, and thinking I had, I realized it had not worked and the last day I could get it was when I came back from Russia. So once I got off the boat, I went straight back to my apartment and dropped off my luggage and looked up where the office was. I found the address and went by train to the office in an area called Pila. I found the office and when I showed the clerk the letter, she handed me another paper telling me that I had to go to one of two other offices. One in a district called Vantaa (near the airport) and the other in an area called Vuosaari. I chose Vantaa because it was closer, but after realizing I had no access to the internet to look up the address, I was forced to take another train to the city center of Helsinki and search for a hotspot. At this point I was feeling pretty stressed because on top of this I had to meet with my group for a case my professor had suddenly assigned. After 20 minutes, I finally got a signal and found the bus I needed. When I arrived in Vantaa, there was nothing there, just a few industrial buildings and a couple roads. I set off in one direction, and at this point it was about 12 pm,and I needed to find the office by about 3:30 since that was when they closed. After walking down one road for about an hour, maybe 80 minutes, I found out i was going the opposite way and had to turn around. I was feeling really stressed out at this point and all I wanted was to go home, where everything was familiar and I knew how things worked or I at least could talk with someone easier. I finally made it back to my starting point and set out in the right direction, but the map I had was not very clear and I got lost for about a half hour before finding the right way. I finally found the office I needed, but I still felt homesick and didn't know what to do. I talked with my family a little and that helped. I went to sleep and while I was still homesick, i just kept reminding myself that being in Finland was a great opportunity and that I would be fine. In the end, I am feeling better now and I am ready to continue my adventures.
Sorry for the long post, but there was a lot to talk about, and starting next Tuesday, I leave on another trip, this time to a country that hasn't been around for very long. Here is the photo that I will use as your hint:
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| photo courtesy of Google image search |
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