We took a visa free cruise to St. Petersburg from Helsinki. The visa for Americans cost 125 euros at that time. For countries that were part of the European Union, their visa's cost around only 45 euros. We were thankful that Cayle found this trip online. With talking to my flat mate from Russia, Victoria, we realized that if you arrive to Russia by boat and you only stay 3-4 days, you are allowed to not have a visa. However, if you arrive by plane or train or bus, then you need a visa. Our university, TAMK (Tampere University of Applied Sciences) recommended a trip, but it was by bus to the city. So, Cayle, Madison, Cody and I booked a different trip by boat, but luckily the TAMK students had the St. Petersburg trip the same weekend as us...... and guess what?!.....We were in the same hotel!!! This was super exciting! We didn't know we were in the same hotel until we got there and it was a great surprise.
So we went to Helsinki to catch the cruise boat. We spent one night on the boat, 2 nights in a hotel in St. Petersburg and the last night on the boat to Helsinki. The boat ride was interesting and fun. We saw a Russian Dance/Musical show. There were dancers with traditional Russian attire and singers. All the songs and music were in Russian.
Near the Cathedral on the spilled blood there was a small bridge. There are many bridges in St. Petersburg! On this bridge was a lock in the shape of heart and it reminded me of what Victoria had told me about Russian Weddings. Russian weddings have the tradition to go to a bridge a put a lock on the bridge and engrave the couple's name on it. This is part of the busy wedding day.
That night (this was still the first day) Cayle and I went on a river boat ride. It was so much fun! There was music playing on the small boat and it was beautiful to see the city lit with lights at night....from the water. It was cold on the boat, but still very enjoyable (I apologize for the blurry pictures. The boat ride was not so smooth).
On the next day, there was alot of sight seeing planned. We took a bus trip to see Catherine's palace. I liked Catherine's Palace because of the bright gold and blue colors. I remember the tour guide saying the colors were chosen after Catherine's blond hair and blue eyes. The tour guide also mentioned that buildings in St. Petersburg were bright colors to help the mood of the people since it is cloudy and gray most of the time.
That day we also saw the ballet, "The Nutcracker." This was the first ballet I had ever been to and I really enjoyed it.
That night we also went on a limousine ride around the city. They asked us if we wanted the small limo or the Hummer limo and I am not sure why they had to ask. We made periodic stops around the city to take pictures.
The next day was our last day in St. Petersburg and we visited the famous Hermitage. There are so many rooms and so many pictures and artwork! The tour guide said it would take 7 years to see every single piece of art and exhibit. This is assuming you went everyday that the museum was open.
The St. Petersburg trip was very eye opening. I had never been to a city that had so much color and culture. Everywhere you looked it was something to behold. I had the biggest culture shock in Russia even more than Finland. In Finland, I was at least able to order food because the people that worked at the restaurants and stores spoke English or had an English menu. In Russia, this was not always the case. Thankfully, Vicroria has a friend that lives in St. Petersburg. She met us the first night we were in Russia and helped us order crepes! Being in St. Petersburg was also different because of the language. Since the Russian alphabet is different it was hard to make out any words. However there were some things in Russian we just knew what they said, such as "McDonalds". Thankfully, the travel agency took very good care of us and we were about to see alot in only three days and two nights!
No comments:
Post a Comment