From Russia With Love

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So, it’s taken a while to get this written and typed up for you guys. Last you heard we were in Tallinn getting ready to leave for St. Petersburg. We’d stocked up in Rima, a large hypermarket in Tallinn with supplies for the journey. We let our hotel in Tallinn know in advance that we would be leaving before breakfast and they made us each a packed breakfast for the journey. They also called us a cab to be there at 6:30.

We came downstairs right on time to check out and catch our cab but some bloody Russians took it before we could get out the door! The girl on reception called us another one and luckily we made it to the bus station for 7.

Our tickets said seats 8 and 9 but once on the bus it became obvious that everyone had just grabbed whatever seat they could find. There were a couple together so we grabbed them and dumped all our stuff there. Looking up at the clock it showed the time as 9:00. Bit weird until we realised that was the time in St Petersburg so the bus was probably running on Moscow time. Panic over, we tucked into our breakfast boxes before passing out as it was still dark outside. An hour or so later (probably more) we woke up as the bus was pulling into one of the few stops between Tallinn and St. Petersburg. The commotion as Russians and Estonians stampeded off the bus for a quick fag was incredible, even worse was the smell as they got back on.

A bit later we got to the Estonian-Russian border. As we sat on the bus, a tiny girl in uniform came on and collected our passports. We them proceeded to sit there while they were processed by the Estonians. Due to boredom we looked out the window at the nearby park and laughed as we realised that human behaviour was the same the world over. As we watched, a small child decided to throw themselves into a massive pile of snow to create a snow angel. Shortly afterward we saw a guy start a snowball fight which he promptly lost. Thankfully after about 30 minutes the girl gave back our passports and we proceeded over the river to the Russian border post. Here we were made to get our luggage off the bus and walk into the border control centre. Then, while we were processed and I made friends with the grumpy Russian border agent, the bus was examined, I presume for illegal immigrants or contraband. We were then allowed back onto the bus for the rest of the journey to St Petersburg.

We were dropped at St. Petersburg Baltic train station. Walking inside we spotted a couple of ATMs at the entrance to the metro and tried to withdraw some roubles. To my utter shock and panic the machine kept saying it could not complete the transaction. The same process was tried with the other machine with the same result. Freaking out, we went into the main train station to find someone to help us and found that very few people knew any English at all. My Russian was very, very limited and pronunciation was a problem as what I knew came from a phrasebook. The security guys couldn’t work out what I was saying and pointed me in the direction of an information lady who decided she couldn’t help me either. Feeling very, very frustrated and completely panicked that we had no money I turned away.

We spied another ATM and decided it couldn’t hurt to have another go. It gave us money!! Woohoo!! Dave deduced it had something to do with needing either Maestro or Cirrus logos on them. Whatever, we now had a fistful of roubles with which to get metro tickets.

We purchased some tokens (zhetoni) from the cashier and hopped on the metro (line 1) to Mayakovskaya. The best thing about the Russian metro system is that it doesn’t matter how far you ride the system, it’s still just one token/ticket to enter for as long as you like.

Getting to Mayakovskaya which is next to the Moskva train station (train station to Moscow), we took a few moments to get orientate then headed to our hotel. The streets were so icy we had to be quite careful where we put our feet.

The girl on reception at the hotel was really nice and had amazing English. There was a bit of initial confusion as to whether I had prepaid the room or not (I had) but we got it sorted out in the end. Once the room was sorted we dumped our bags and headed out to find food. One of the guidebooks had recommended a place called Pirogi just off Nevsky Prospect so we wandered over there and strolled down to the next bridge where we turned right and found the restaurant in a basement bar. Score one for finally deciphering a bit of Cyrillic. At the bar we ordered a couple of the local beer which was a very light lager-y type thing which went down like it was water. Our excuse is that we may have been a bit dehydrated.

Moving to our table we realised that none of the antismoking laws had really taken off in Russia as we were surrounded by people smoking and the place was packed. We ordered some local food. Dave had a meat pie thingy which is known as pirogi while I had pelmeni (basically meat tortellini in broth), we also ordered chips and garlic bread which when it all came was far too much for us to eat. We asked for the bill using universal sign language and were pleasantly surprised at the price. Absolutely stuffed we decided to walk back to the hotel after a quick stroll along the river.

The next day we decided to visit the Hermitage museum which is located in the former Winter Palace. As we approached the metro near Moskva station we found an information kiosk and loaded up with some free maps. We descended into the metro (and I mean descended, the stations also doubled as bomb shelters during the Second World War) and headed to the Hermitage. We must have arrived in a lull as it didn’t take long to get in and check our coats. Having absolutely no idea what to see first we headed up a beautiful staircase nearby to the first floor and into one of the temporary exhibitions. As I was a bit dishevelled I quickly redid my ponytail only to find myself being yelled at by an old Russian lady. Apparently I should have gone back to the cloakroom to do this! One thing we had noticed was that every room had an older lady sitting in a chair just waiting to yell at you for doing something wrong. I believe it’s some sort of employment scheme.

After my reprimand we quickly moved into the next room where we discovered an information terminal where we could have a look at what we wanted to see and plan a route between them with some other things highlighted on the way. I’m not going to describe each and every thing we saw but suffice it to say the place is huge! We spent at least 5 hours traipsing all over the place, our feet hurt like nothing else and we completely forgot lunch. Eventually we were all museumed out and headed for the exit.

A couple of school age Russian girls approached us speaking French to which we replied that we were English. They quickly switched languages and asked us for an interview for a school project. Not having any pressing plans we agreed. I think they regretted it as soon as they started asking us questions like “When did you arrive?”, “What’s your favourite place in St Petersburg?” and “Which city does St Petersburg remind you of?” Having only been there one day, we really hadn’t seen much of it yet and felt a bit silly answering their questions.

Next, we headed over the River Neva to a central island to find a couple of Egyptian sphinxes. Sure enough they were there sitting on the riverbank along with a couple of guys selling souvenirs.

A bit shatter we found the nearest metro station and headed back to our hotel. On the way we decided to drop into a sushi place for dinner. It was ridiculously cheap and after a bit of pointing we finally managed to order a couple of noodle dishes and a massive amount of sushi. Only after everything arrived did I actually manage to find out that I’d actually ordered salmon when I thought I’d ordered pork. Not to worry, it was actually quite good. We took one of the menus with us and later used Google Translate to find out what was on it. As a side note, the Russians are absolutely obsessed with sushi and everywhere you go seems to have some sort of variation of it. I guess because it’s everywhere it’s really cheap.

Monday, otherwise known as Russian Orthodox Christmas Day (7^th January), was a day for us to make our own way through the city following a walking tour we had found in a brochure at the tourist information office.

First we headed to the station to exchange our ticket vouchers for tickets for the train between St Petersburg and Moscow. That done, we started to walk along Nevsky prospect, following the tour route. We soon found a Christmas market and decided to try some Meд (a warm honey beer) that was really tasty. Sort of like a Russian/St Petersburg version of warm winter drink. Continuing on, it soon started snowing so we decided to duck into a cafe next to the Kazan Cathedral to warm up. Eventually it let up and we continued on. I must admit it was incredibly cold and about -8 or -9°C which made us start worrying about how we were going to handle Siberia.

Don’t ask me to describe the walking tour in the cold as I was starting to lose feeling in my fingers (through gloves!) and legs (jeans may not have been the best choice) but I will say that St Petersburg is a beautiful city and very majestic with wide city streets and stunning buildings. Highlights of the tour were the Church of the Spilled Blood (just one of many different translation of the name) and the Bronze Horseman statue. One thing that did frustrate us was the many buildings that had scaffolding and false facades but I guess that’s the risk you take travelling out of peak season.

Famished we decided to check out Teremok, a Russian fast food chain. Here, Dave had his first taste of borsch which he really liked and we tried some Russian blini (pancakes). One of the blini was just like a Big Mac but in a pancake rather than a bun. Wandering back from Teremok towards the hotel we saw our favourite sushi place and couldn’t resist stepping in for a few more rolls. I mean, at the price it would be rude to not visit.

Our last day in St Petersburg was nice and clear so we packed up the rucksacks once again wondering why they seemed lighter and lighter and headed to the station to check them into luggage storage. That done we descended into the metro and headed over to the Peter and Paul Fortress. This fortress on an island in the middle of the Neva was the first part of St Petersburg built and at times has had a prison, cathedral, the St Petersburg mint and was a garrison for the Russian army. The fortress itself was free to walk around but you needed a ticket to get into the exhibitions and cathedral so we headed over to the ticket office to get one. The cashier sorted everything out and then proceeded to tell us in Russian which order we should see everything in. Lots of historical information later and with really sore feet we left the fortress and headed back over the Neva to Nevsky Prospect for some food. Spying a nearby Teremok we decided to have double helpings of pelmeni each (yes, pelmeni are that good), borsch, mushroom soup and some Teremok medovar which is cold honey beer and damn tasty. Next, needing to connect to wifi we went into CTOKMAHH (Stockmann, yes, the same department store as Helsinki) and visited a cafe with free wifi. It’s funny but you find yourself looking for free wifi wherever you go. I can’t believe I’m this reliant on technology. Dave posted the blog about Tallinn and I needed to check out all the social networking that had been going on.

We headed over to the station to reclaim our bags and then had to wait for a couple of hours for the train to Moscow, the Red Arrow (Krasnaya Strela) which left at 23:55 to the sound of classical music from the station.

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Comments

[Helen]

hi
Being tourists can be hard work. Loving the blogs and hope you are handling the cold. Love us