Hey everyone! We’re having such a great time that I haven’t had much time to write. I’ll update you all on St. Petersburg with this email and then send another on Helsinki. As of today, we are in Amsterdam but are just starting to see the city – I’ll send that one later on in the week.
On Saturday, Michelle and I took the train from Moscow to St. Petersburg. The trip was a nice break from flying- the whole process much easier with no check-in, security, limits to luggage, safety speeches, etc. We waited about 15 min on the platform and then boarded our car. The seats were more roomy than on an airplane and we slept some, read and ate dinner in the dining car. The dining car seemed like a throwback to a 50’s diner. It was about a 5 1/2 hour ride, and then we arrived into the middle of the city in St. Petersburg. Even though it was 10:00 p.m., it was still light outside.
We had limited directions to our hostel (that’s right, hostel – not hotel) and found ourselves walking in circles for a bit (carrying luggage) trying to figure out where to go. It was very frustrating b/c we had no map, nothing written in Russian for us to be able to ask for directions and the street signs (if they existed) were all in Cyrillic which looks like nothing we know. The funny part was that our hostel was literally just around the block from the train station! But eventually through trial and error and a very helpful lady in a bar with a guidebook, we found the brown door that would lead to our room.
Hostel Entrance – unfortunately the inside matched the outside
The hostel was clean and safe – but you may disagree after looking at the pictures. We decided we wouldn’t send the pictures until after we left safely because we knew you all would worry! It seems like youth camp revisited. It was quite the adventure for two hotel snobs. Mr. Tony (Michelle’s dad) said he thought the hostel sounded like my idea and that Michelle should just slap me!
We both brought pillow cases but the pillows are big and square so we just laid our cases across them to act as protection for our heads. I had to sleep with the eye mask I took from the Delta flight to keep the light out – very attractive! The mattress springs are just lovely AND we didn’t have any hot water on the first day. Needless to say, the experience have been very interesting and one we will never forget.
The good thing is the hostel is right in the center of town. When we checked in the lady at the “reception desk” said it was museum night and that all the museums were open. I asked if the Hermitage was open too – that’s the most famous museum. She said yes so we left the hotel at 11pm to check it out only to find out it was closed. Oh well – the city was absolutely beautiful at night and so different than Moscow. It is definitely a “night” town because the streets are so busy with cars and people into the morning hours.
On Sunday morning we ventured out to take the Metro by ourselves for the first time so we could purchase our tickets for Finland. It may seem easy but there are no words in English – only Cyrillic so we tried to go with numbers and colors. We managed to make it happen with only one mix-up and actually found our way very well. We happened to talk to these two girls who spoke limited English – they were going to the same stop we were, so we followed them. They were returning from a month long trip back from Finland!
We walked a million miles all around the city. We saw Peter and Paul’s fortress, the Summer Gardens, the Cathedral of the Spilled Blood, the outside of the Russian Museum, the Kazan Cathedral, Alexandrovskiy Gardens, St. Issac’s Cathedral and much more in between.
Monday morning, before we left for Helsinki, we had planned to go to the Hermitage again. We got there only to find out it was closed again. Apparently it is closed on Mondays. It was disappointing to go to St. Petersburg and not see the Hermitage but I guess that gives us a reason to return.
Hope you are all doing great!
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