One time, they gave me a Russian visa- Part 1

In case you've just stumbled across my blog, let me fill you in.  I was in St. Petersburg and Moscow last week, and it was pretty great overall.  There were a couple little annoyances with some of the immature people in our travel group who only wanted to party, but fortunately the trip itself was still good.  Let me break it down a little- I'll do a couple posts on the different places I went, and I'll just post a couple pictures of highlights from the trip, and you can find the rest on facebook or wait til I get home.


Monday (the 17th)
We met on campus and took a couple buses to Helsinki.  It was the first time I've left Jyväskylä since I got here and it was nice to see some of the Finnish countryside.  It reminded me of everywhere from Michigan to Colorado to Maine, but there were also some distinctly European features, like the houses, which were small and cute and all different from each other- no cookie cutter subdivisions here!  Once we got to Helsinki we had about an hour to wander before our boat boarded.  Erin and I set off to find a really pretty building we had passed, and found that the downtown of Helsinki is ridiculously cute.  

I found a pet reindeer

Then we found the building we were looking for. Not sure what it is, but it's nice (although in retrospect it's nothing compared to anything in St. Petersburg)

Eventually we made it back to the docks, where our boat to Russia was waiting.  They finally gave us our passports back (Erin and I were 2 of 5 Americans, so it wasn't hard for the tour guides to find our blue passports among all the red European ones) and we went through customs-my worst nightmare.  Seriously, I get nervous just doing Canadian customs, and this is Russia!  But they let me through, and we boarded the boat.  

It was a pretty uneventful night, although we did see a really fantastic variety show that included some Russian dancers, a Russian singer, and a saxophone player who got assisted by a very persistent amateur dance couple from the audience who refused to leave the dance floor.  Then we settled into our hot and tiny room that was right over the engine for a good nights' sleep.

Tuesday

Woke up and had a wonderful breakfast on the boat as we watched the sun rise.  Then headed out to the upper deck for the first scenic views of Russia.

Once we got off the boat we went through more customs, which made me want to pass out again.  Erin and I made the mistake of going through the same line, and the 2 of us combined probably took about 10 minutes, while 20 European passengers probably could have gotten through in the same amount of time.  But we got in!  We met our fantastic tour guides, who made the week way more entertaining, then we went straight to a bus tour of the city, which was really interesting and a little overwhelming.  We hit the biggest sights and stopped at a couple places.  The one I found most interesting was the Fortress of Peter and Paul, which was built as a fortress but never actually used as one.

The Cathedral of Peter and Paul (more on that later)

Yup, it was a fortress

We saw lots of palaces, lots of cathedrals, a couple lighthouses, and a battleship as well.  This was also the first time that St. Petersburg was introduced to me as "the Venice of the North."  I had never heard that before, but I've certainly heard lots about it since then.  It's a little true though, St. Petersburg has lots of rivers and canals, and its pride is all the drawbridges running through the city.  I was probably less impressed by that than I should have been, since Chicago also has lots of drawbridges (is that not normal for cities?).  As we drove through the city, we got a history lesson on Russia and the dynasties of Tsars, which was helpful because it's been a while since I had a world history class.

St. Isaacs' Cathedral- PS sorry about the random black smudges on any pictures that I used the zoom on; my camera is on its last legs and has something permanent on the lens.

Lighthouses done in ancient style, with the fronts of conquered boats attached (well that's how they did it in ancient Greece anyways; these were just models)

the cruiser Aurora, which was a functional battleship but is now a museum.  That you get yelled at by scary Russian guards if you try to take pictures in.

Smolny Convent. Used to be a palace (like most other buildings in the city). Pictures can't do justice to the beauty of these grounds, even on one of the 50 sunny days of the year in St. Petersburg

Then, thank goodness, we went to our hotel, and I will continue the adventures in my next post.