Helsinki, Finland to Saint Petersburg, Russia--September 4, 2010

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Saturday, September 4, 2010



We caught the train the next morning at 7am. It was a Finnish train so all was clean and modern/up-to-date. We quickly left the city and went into forests of birch and pine of some sort and other evergreen trees. We didn't see as much farm land as we expected instead a lot of lumber cutting operations. (This is true of the cruise from St. Pete to Moscow also. The birch were cut into logs that were about 6 feet long and then loaded on trains, trucks and we saw them on barges on the same river system we traveled on the cruise.)

The trip by train was about 5 hours long. More time than was necessary was taken by passport control---a stop on the Finnish side and everything was checked before the train could continue. We watched as two young girls had to remove EVERYTHING from their packs, suitcases, purses etc. We don't know what kind of passport they had or what about the situation called for the search. They conversed in English and Valerie could hear the inspectors say they were sorry but were just doing their jobs.

We then went a few miles down the track and on came the Russian inspectors and did they ever fit the stereotype!!!! Large women in uniforms with no smiles nor much personality except "power." They actually TOOK/COLLECTED our passports which made us a tad (understatement) nervous. You could see that the rest of the passengers were reluctant to give up the passports to them also. We have no idea what they were doing with them but after some time a male inspector came through and handed each passport back to each person after looking at their passport photo. They all got off at the next station.

You could tell by the poor condition of buildings/houses/yards/farms/factories, etc. that we had entered Russia. If not for that, you could not tell by the land/forests/people's features from the land/forests, etc. of Finland. We did not see a wall/high fence or anything like that on the border. We are sure something HAD to have been there before 1987. The Russian/Finnish border was in the middle of a forest not on a river or anything else that we could see that marked the border.

The train pulled into the huge train station in Saint Petersburg and we were glad we traveled on a Finnish train. The other trains in the depot were rusty and old---looked circa 1940 with the rounded shape painted a sort of dark military green.

We were met by a driver from the travel agency who BRISKLY WALKED us to his car parked a couple of blocks away. His English and friendliness were non-existent. Traffic was horrible and he drove way out of his way to get to the cruise ship site we think trying to find a better route. Since he was paid by the agency we didn't say anything, but he put on many more miles and spent more time getting us there then if he had gone straight along the river.

Got on board, welcomed with a salt ceremony, checked in, and found our cabin. The ship is basically a Russian ship that is 4 stories high and cruises up and down the waterway from St. Pete to Moscow and then goes back up with another group. It does this every 11-13 days throughout the summer once the ice melts until it freezes again.

The picture you see of me and the girl in costume is called the "bread and salt ceremony" done for the tourists upon entering the ship. You were to take a pinch of the bread and put it in the salt as a welcome to my home gesture. The aboard ship photographer took many shots like this and posted them for sale. He took pictures throughout the trip and posted them on the walls of the hall you walked along to go to meals.

At registration, in addition to your cabin number, you were given a piece of paper with your table number on it. We had a table for four and our table mates were husband and wife teachers from Australia. In all, there were about 44 or so Australians on a tour from the same area, a bunch from France, 40 or so Norwegians, one family of about 10 from Mexico City, 4-5 Indians, 4 Belgium, 2 New Zealanders, 2 or so Canadians, and 3 including us, American born and 3 living in America but born elsewhere. It made the trip more enjoyable to have this mixed group. Valerie had fun speaking French and we both got by with others speaking hand language and with their broken or good English.

After getting to the cabin and sorting stuff out a bit we had dinner and then went to a meeting with all the other English speaking people and Polina who would be our guide for the whole trip. She gave out the plan for the next day's tours. We were to meet the buses at 8 and depart for a tour of the city of St. Petersburg.

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