Imprisoned in Helsinki

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Yesterday was our last morning in Russia, and our driver was booked for 10.00am, to take us to Finlyandsky Station in Saint Petersburg to catch our train to Helsinki, Finland. Our Hotel provided us with an official document for Russian Border Control, confirming that we have stayed in their hotel all five nights whilst in Saint Petersburg. We also had with us our passports and a document provided by the Russian Consulate in Sydney, confirming receipt of a Letter of Invitation from our Hotel to stay at their place of accommodation. The young Receptionists at our hotel were all very friendly and helpful, and interested to hear about Australia. One of the Receptionists was very excited when Kim gave her some Australian coins as a gift for her helpfulness, with kangaroos on them.



Arriving at the station, we were greeted by a female guard who grunted for us to pass through a metal detector gate. We then sat in a waiting area outside of the Border Control gates, beyond which is a two floors high one way mirror glass wall, whilst we awaited the arrival of our Allegro High Speed Tilt Train. When it came time to board the train, we moved to the Customs Control desk, where we showed our passports and related documents. There was only a cursory perusal of the documents and we were allowed through to await the opening of the next set of gates, still unable to view the platform or the train, hidden behind the one way mirror glass. Finally the gates open, and we can see our high speed train to take us to Helsinki.



After finding our carriage and seat, we sat down and thought, that wasn’t so bad after all exiting Russia. Then the Border Control Guards boarded the train, and the doors of the train were sealed, and an announcement was made that no passengers would be permitted to leave the train before the border with Finland. A contingent of guards then began an extremely thorough sweep of the train, reminiscent of some Cold War spy novels that I like to read, carefully checking all documentation, wanting to ensure that we were not carrying any valuable Russian antiquities, checking the purpose of our visit to Russia, and where we had been. At Vyborg, near the Finnish border, all of the Russian guards exited the train, and a short while later the train stopped at Vainikkala, (on the Finnish side of the border)where Finnish guards boarded the train.



The Finnish guards were still very thorough in their checking of our passports, reasons for entering Finland, details of where we proposed to stay and for how long, however, their demeanour was much more pleasant. We did feel a sense of relief crossing over the border into Finland, but very happy to have had the opportunity to fulfil a long held dream to visit and experience Saint Petersburg.



The high speed Allegro Tilt Train was very smooth and apart from the extreme scrutiny by the Border Control Guards, we had a comfortable journey. We arrived at Helsinki Central Station, where we hailed a cab to our hotel accommodation. When we informed the taxi driver of the name of our hotel, he advised us that we are staying at a very good hotel. When we arrived, I wasn’t so sure, as the building was constructed out of older red brick, four storeys high, in the shape of a cross, with a high red brick fence surrounding the building. We entered through large gates in the wall. The entrance to hotel was very modern, and when we arrived at Reception, we were assigned our room, and were informed that the hotel was formerly Helsinki’s County Prison, operating as a prison between 1837 and 2002.



The prison was established in 1837 by Tsar Nikolai I (can’t shake the trail of the Romanovs, even in Helsinki) on a spit of land near the harbour. The building was renovated within the constraints of being a protected landmark and was re-opened in 2007 as a hotel. The architects and builders have done an amazing job to convert the former prison into one of Helsinki’s more upmarket hotels. We were allocated a room on the top floor, which was formerly one of the administration offices for the prison. The bed wand the room was luxurious. The photos will provide you with some insight into what proved to be the highlight accommodation of eight week holiday in Europe.



Woke up this morning to find it snowing and a little uninviting to leave the luxuries of our hotel. We enjoyed a sumptuous buffet breakfast, with GF bread specially supplied for Kim. After returning to our room, we decided we have one day only in Helsinki, and we have medium snow gear to keep us warm, so we braved the elements, and caught a tram into the centre of Helsinki, jus ten minutes away. We walked through arcades, shopping centres, and streets to try and get the feel of Helsinki. Our verdict is that we loved the city, the people are very friendly and we definitely want to come back there one day, to do a Scandinavian trip.



We returned to our hotel mid afternoon, to collect our baggage from the hotel and to await our taxi to Helsinki Airport. The taxi driver was a little late in collecting us, however, this was not unexpected, as the weather had deteriorated into a snow storm. It was an early arrival of winter snow, even for Helsinki, and it ended up delaying our flight to Doha in Qatar by one hour and a half. Prior to take off, each plane had to queue to have their wings “gernied” with a detergent to remove the thick snow and ice from the plane’s wings. This was carried out by an airport worker on a scissor lift vehicle with a robotic arm, spraying out detergent as directed by the worker. Meanwhile the snow on the airport runway was being constantly cleared by a fleet of snow ploughs.



Takeoff proved to be reasonably smooth, and we headed off from a freezing snow storm in Helsinki to the desert of Doha, where it was expected to be around 30 degrees at 1.30am, our expected arrival time.

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