The place I have never dreamed of

Russia. There are so many countries I would like to visit in my life but Russia had never been one of them. Not until August when I saw that ESN Lapland organizes a trip to Saint Petersburg in each semester. I felt then that I want to visit it. Luckily, I was still at home so I could get a new passport I just got it in time, one day before my moving. So by the time I left Hungary I knew Finland is not going to be the only country I could visit during my Erasmus.

Saint Petersburg

I felt the trip was so far away when I booked it, it was two months earlier. I thought the first day of the trip would never come. Well, it was not true, time flies so fast by the time I realized I already was on the bus on the way to Saint Petersburg. Actually I was here more than I will be, my Erasmus is over the half of it. But this post is about the trip of Saint Petersburg.

So we left Rovaniemi on Tuesday evening, it took 12 hours by bus to reach Helsinki, you can imagine how bad was it even if we tried to sleep. I have some problems with my back and this bus trip made it so much worse as well. We reached Helsinki around 8 am, we had a half day in Helsinki before we got on the ferry. I would have skipped this part of the trip since most of the people have already been in Helsinki or are going later so most of us did not want to see a lot in Helsinki. Although we visited an underground church (yes, me 😅 ) , I doubt Tommi would be interested in it when we are going to Helsinki. We just walked in Helsinki after it, then we sat in a Fazer Cafe where I started the hot chocolate season. 😍

Underground church

Helsinki harbor

The first hot chocolate of this winter season

We had to be in the harbor by 3:30 pm so we could get on the ferry on time. The line was not so long when we arrived, so we were on the ship in a short time. Although we did not leave the harbor until 7 pm. Last time I used a ferry I was a little child and we traveled on lake Balaton so it was a new experience for me with its 8 decks, restaurants, bars and casino. There were four of is in a 9 m2 cabin, it was pretty uncomfortable but we only went to sleep to the cabins so it was okay. We relaxed a little bit before departure, we enjoyed the bed after the bus drive.

We took a look in the ferry when the ferry was on the way, we also went outside on the top of the ship but it was too dark to see anything. There was a show in the evening that we watched. It was quite good but I missed the feelings of the faces when they were dancing. It would be better with different feelings than with the big fake smile they had. We had a chance after the show to go to a party but I chose sleeping instead of it.

We arrived to Russia at 9 am, but we were not allowed to leave the ferry until 2 pm. We went without visa so we could spend only 72 hours in Russia therefore we could not leave the ship earlier. We had to leave our cabins by 1 pm so the last hour went pretty slow. It took 3.5 hours to get through the passport control, we could start our Saint Petersburg program with one hour delay. The bus was waiting for us at the harbor, we started the program with a short sightseeing city tour. We stopped only at few places to take some photos, we saw most of the buildings from only the bus.

Neva river

Peter and Paul Fortress

Getting darker

Church of the Savior on Blood

We finally reached our hotel after the sightseeing tour. It was a three stars hotel in the city centre, with rooms for two, breakfast and comfortable bed, so it was perfect. We had only a short time so we ate something and went to the night cruise.

It took an hour we were on the river Neva, every two people got a bottle of champagne as well, we listened to music and the city was amazing with its night lights. It was almost perfect, I just missed someone a little bit, since with the champagne, the cold and the night lights it was pretty romantic. 😁

Champagne time

We had a chance to go to a party after the night cruise but there were only a few people who got off the bus at the night club, most of us went back to the hotel to sleep after being on the road for two days.

Next morning, after my life saving coffee, we went to the Catherine Palace it took like an hour by bus from our hotel. We luckily got in soon to the palace but people from the other bus had some trouble because the staff of the museum did not want to let them in, they said they let in too many people on that day. Eventually they got in as well, I did not even understand since we had pre-bought tickets so they knew we were going. The palace was really beautiful although there was too much gold for me and I cannot imagine how people could live in this huge palace, if you forget something it takes an hour to go back for it. 😅 The park of the palace was breathtaking. I could walk all day with Bogyó here, he could even swim since there was a nice lake in the park as well.

My travelling buddy was with me of course

Sugar table

Gold everywhere

View to the park

Sunshine

 We had free time in the afternoon so my plan was to buy the souvenirs. Well, I did not succeeded since we went to the wrong direction where was not any souvenir shop. Although I bought new boots instead of it. I woke up in that morning and saw the first snow has arrived to Rovaniemi. I was pretty angry, Tommi even said few days before, that he did not know anyone who have would wait for the snow as much as I did, maybe only a 5 years old child. And I missed the first snow after it. 😒

We skipped the party again with my roommate, we just had a drink at the bar of the hotel and were amused by the view.

View from the hotel

 We visited Hermitage Museum on Saturday morning. I am not a big fan of museums, but it was included in the price of the trip and it is one of the most famous museums in the world, so I went to see it. It has more than 1600 rooms, we just saw few of them, luckily. We spent 1.5 hours in the museum, we went pretty fast to see everything important. It was pretty useful that we had a guide who knew what was worth to see and what was not so much. I think this 1.5 hours was just enough, it was pretty hard to get every information by the end. Especially that it was in English and even if I feel so many times that I cannot speak in Hungarian anymore only in  English, it is still so much harder to communicate in English than in Hungarian.

 My plan was buying souvenirs again after the museum, but I was prepared this time I watched from the bus where the souvenir shops are. So after another lifesaving coffee, we went to buy some souvenirs. My main goal was buying a teddy bear of course since Russia would be the 15th country I had teddy bear from. It was not easy since there were no teddy bears in the most shops. But then I succeeded, so I have the Russian bear as well.

15th country

Our guide mentioned on the first day that if we had time we could watch the Summer Garden as well so we walked in that direction after shopping. It was amazing, if I could not have the snow, we had sunshine at least. I could walk here all day as well.

 Saturday night was our last night in Saint Petersburg so we went to the last party. It was not so good, I did not like the dj and there were plenty of older men who were trying with every girl in the bar and I actually missed the personal space I am used to in Finland. I am not saying that if you are in a club with full of people in Finland than no one touches you but everyone is trying to keep the space from each other. No one cared about it here at all. So we did not stay so long, only one or two hours.

We left the hotel on Sunday morning and went to the harbor, we had to be on the ferry by 1 pm so we would not stay in Russia longer than 72 hours. Otherwise we would be illegal in the country, that is something I would not try in Russia. 😅

The ferry left the harbor only at 7 pm, so we had plenty of time again, but mostly we just relaxed in our beds. We went outside when the ferry was leaving the view was amazing again with the night lights and the huge harbor.

We watched the show again in the evening and we saw a proposal as well. I tried to sleep after the show but unfortunately my bed was broken or something so I could sleep only an hour or maybe two during the night.

We reached Helsinki by 7 am, the passport control took only a half an hour (not 3.5 like in Russia). We were on the way back to Rovaniemi by 8 am so we spent 12 hours on the bus again. Since then I feel like my back would be broken. Luckily, I got a massage which helped for a while. 😊

This post is pretty long with only the facts of the trip, so I will write about the feelings and impression in my next post. Keep reading. 😊