Half a Day in Helsinki, Suomi

Between leaving Russia and travelling to Poland, Chewy and I had a brief several hour stint in Helsinki, Finland.  We barely had any time here, and after a long night on the ferry, and one too many of the happy hour cocktails, we didn't see all too much unfortunately.  As we got in really early at about 7am, we just dropped our bags at our friends' hostel and went out for a coffee. 

^^^ That bad boy was taken by our very talented photographer friend Jay.  And yes, we were actually snoozing.

With the help of two lovely local ladies we made it to this market, and tucked in to all sorts of delicious food!

Helsinki was lovely, albeit expensive, and I would love to return to Finland and explore more of the country.

St Petersburg in 72 Hours: Part III

Our last day in St Petersburg was spent visiting the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography, the city's oldest museum.  Amongst the treasure trove of items, there is also a ghoulish collection of mutant babies.  Obviously no photos are allowed to be taken in that section, and it is difficult (but interesting) viewing.  It took Chewy and me a long, long, long time to find the museum, I'm not even sure why, but we eventually did and it was well worth it.

Above is just me and Voltaire hanging out.

Remember our lovely little find, Zoom Cafe, that I told you about in the first St Petersburg post? Well, we visited it again.  I had to have the vegetarian Borscht, along with the potato pancakes, both classic Russian dishes.

Now these next two photos won't make much sense to anyone.  Chewy and I were hunting down a post office to send off our postcards from, and believe it or not, this post office was actually open! Seems silly, but it looked completely shut, and the heavy iron door wasn't exactly what you would call inviting.

St Petersburg was absolutely incredible, and I am so thrilled that I was able to see it.  I cannot recommend going there enough, and remember that you don't even need to organise a visa for 72 hours if you enter with St Peters Line ferries! St Petersburg was a 10/10.

72 Hours in St Petersburg: Part II

Our second day in St Petersburg was a gloriously sun drenched one, and we enjoyed every minute of it.  Being great little tourists we embarked on a free tour, led by the loveliest girl, and it was absolutely worth every minute of it.  Details of the tour can be found here.  Having visited The Hermitage the day before, we embarked on a veritable feast of sights today including one of my favourites - the Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood, as well as the Palace Square, Peter and Paul Fortress, and the Nevsky Prospect just to name a few.  The list is endless and there are hundreds of things to see in St Petes.

So without further ado here are the photos!

Above is our lovely tour guide! And below follow six photos of the Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood, I went a bit snap happy because it was one of the most incredible churches I've ever seen hands down.

And below I'll leave you with the entrance to our lovely hostel (details here). Looking very Soviet, and not exactly welcoming. I for one accidentally walked past this door on several occasions whilst trying to make it home.

72 Hours in St Petersburg: Part I

Did you know that you can get into St Petersburg without the dreaded process of applying for a Russian visa? Jump over to St Peter Line and book yourself in for a 3 day extravaganza of museums, sightseeing, eating and drinking in one of the most beautiful cities in the world!  That is exactly what we did. And Chewy and I were lucky enough to completely coincidentally be over there at the same time as six of our friends from Perth - the world is crazy small.

After a night time crossing of the sea from Helsinki in Finland to Mother Russia, you arrive in St Petes in the morning.  We went straight to our hostel (Cuba Hostel for those of you that are interested) to drop off our things, in the pouring rain, and then headed straight for the world famous Hermitage Museum.  It really is something else.  The sheer volume items in the Hermitage is mindblowing.  Give yourself at least 3 hours to be able to take some of it in, but don't expect to be able to see everything as we found that our brains sort of turned to rubber after a while.  It is absolutely beautiful though, and although the entry fee was a little pricey, it was definitely worth it.

 

 

The above number is a sleigh, and portrays St George slaying the dragon. Macabre, but somehow amazing, and at the very least incredible craftmanship!

 

Oh the rain on that first day, it was truly miserable.  It was cold and wet, and none of us were really prepared for this sort of weather.

Luckily for us, our friends at Tripadvisor had a killer cafe recommendation that we hunted down.  We waited approximately an hour for a table - yes, it was that popular, but boy was it worth it.  The food is all incredibly fresh, very delicious, and reasonably priced.  Oh and the apple pie is one of their most popular numbers.  I completely forgot to tell you what it was called, Zoom Cafe is what you're after.  I've given you the link to the Tripadvisor site purely because their actual website in only in Russian and I can't find the button that translates it into English, but I don't think there even is one!

I've kept the best until last - at Zoom Cafe they give you A3 sized bits of white paper and colouring pencils to draw on while you wait. Ah-mazing!