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Bussing to St Petersburg Airport
Getting back to London from Russia was one of our most taxing trips yet. Getting to the airport by taxi is an expensive experience. So being the budget tourist we are we decided to use public transport. However Susan and I were in utter confusion at the bus stop and ended up on the wrong bus. The conductor lets us get off at the next stop and gave us the correct bus number but we ended up on a teeming local bus with a broken rear door. So we found ourselves uncomfortably wedged in with our packs, apologising profusely to all the locals who has to squeeze past us to get out. We had no idea where our stop was. The bitter conditions outside and the sheer number of bodies meant the windows in the bus were steamed up. Luckily one of the men on the bus wasn’t too upset about having Susan’s pack in his face and made sure we got off at the right stop.

X-Ray Dramas
Our next drama was going through pre check in security in St Petersburg Airport. One of the straps of my pack got stuck in the x-ray machine. Try as I might I couldn’t pull it out. The stern airport security also were trying to eject my pack by reversing the conveyer belt. Susan started cracking up as I started getting a little apprehensive and about the amount of attention I was getting from the soldiers at the airport. After about 1 minute I was getting sick of being told not to put my arm in the x-ray and was just about to whip my pocket knife out of my pack and cut it free when if finally dislodged. We quickly scampered from the scene and got our bags checked all the way through to London

Stuck in Transit
Our final escapade felt like our own version of the movie the Terminal. When we arrived in Riga rather than going through the long customs queue for arrivals we gleefully went to the shorter transit lounge line. Susan and I both agreed this made sense since our bags had been checked through to London in Russia. What seemed like a good idea was an expensive 3 hour mistake.

Transit security happily let us into transit area A but we couldn’t find our flight on the list at this part of the airport we were in. We tried to walk though to the other area C but customs wouldn’t let us though and told us to go back though transit and into the main customs arrivals. Walking back, transit wouldn’t let us out they told us to call the airport staff on the transit phone and arrange a transfer bus to the correct gate. Not surprisingly airport staff told us to go through area C customs. A Catch 22 was developing.

Finally we managed to get a nice lady from customs to talk to the people from transit. Neither of them wanted us to go through their areas so they decided it someone else’s problem. The airport staff ended up needing to get us a bus to move us to the correct gate. This is where you would think we would be sorted…But alas no.
We were at the correct gate for our flight (leaving in 4 hours) but we had no boarding passes! After a little negotiation and quite a lot of waiting we managed to get someone from the airport take us back to the area of the airport we arrived in. We would definitely not be choosing transit this time. Of course by this time, all the doors of customs were closed. So with a quick look at our passport a door was opened and we were freed into Latvia able to check into our flight. Phew!

Not surprisingly due to it’s more northern position, St Petersburg is a lot colder than Moscow. The Poly props we rejected after being sunburnt there are definitely essential items up here.

For our second day in the old Russian capital we went to visit Peter the Greats summer palace called the Petrodvorets. The main attraction here is the dazzling gold fountains. Being next to the sea we were surprised to see the palace was still thawing out. However after meeting the northerly wind from the Gulf of Finland straight on, the ice next to the fountains made a lot of sense.
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Out last full day in St Petersburg was spent visiting museums. First was the Russian museum which had an interesting exhibit about the Leningrad blockades. This was during WWII when after blitzkrieg and bombings didn’t work, the Nazis tried to starve the Russian city into surrender. However they managed to live on sawdust and whatever else they could find, use and ice road to sneak supplies from Helsinki and build a few tanks and warships to boot. They stuck it out for over 400 days, which is more than just any old resilience or gutsy determination.

That afternoon we went to visit the Peter and Paul Fortress, there were a few interesting museums and a very orthodox church. However the highlight would probably be the Russian space exploration museum which is housed in a former rocket laboratory. There was a collection of prototype rockets space suits and even a space capsule. However most fascinating was the countries that had joint space missions with the Russians such as Cuba, Korea, France but also unusual nations such as Israel and Colombia
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St Petersburg (the former Leningrad) has a much more European feel than Moscow. There are plenty of Austrian inspired buildings, gardens and even some English signs to make us feel at home. We visited the Hermitage first which is almost certainly has the best single collection of art we have seen in all our travels. The amount of Picasso’s, Rembrandts, Monet’s, Van Gogh etc is outstanding. I guess it pays not too dwell too much on which Jewish family each painting was stolen from by the Nazi’s before the Russians acquired them. Perhaps the means of acquisition or worries about potential claims from rightful owners contribute to only a selection of their master pieces on display and the no photo rule in parts of the gallery.2496

Monday night we boarded the overnight train from Moscow to St Petersburg.
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Leaving at 8pm we weren’t due until 5am. Susan had insisted on a private carriage so we had to go first class. A grumpy middle aged train attended thoroughly checked our tickets and passports before letting us into our drab but functional compartment. It wasn’t really up to the standard I would expect first class but it did have two beds which was my main concern. Any other apprehension I had about our accommodation seem to ebb away after seeing the conditions many of the other standard passengers had. Most were shacked up in an open carriage where around 50 people were all bunked up together. Teenage girls, were playing cards around small tables next to elderly men with toe jam, crying babies and red army soldiers sleeping in their uniform. I tried to drift off to sleep and forget about the large knife Susan had seen our train attendant sharpening outside our room on her way back from cleaning her teeth.
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The sleep was short lived though when I realised I can’t handle the constant clunk of the train running on the tracks combined with the out of time squeaking of my bed. 4am as I should have been waking up, Susan was the grumpiest I have ever seen her. I could help but feel a little grateful that I wasn’t foolish enough to book us in for 2 weeks of Trans Siberian hell.

On our second day full day we realised Moscow wasn’t exactly the worlds best tourist destination. Struggling to find something to do, partly also because many sights are closed on Mondays we decided to do a tour of metro stations. The Moscow metro is extremely cheap and efficient (well at least compared the worlds most expensive and unreliable, London). Looking at the immaculate marble floors it’s was very scary to think how much money had been spent on stations alone.
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After meandering the metro we ended up above ground in the midst of a Red Army parade. I don’t know quite what they were marching about for but decided to take some pictures. Anyway this lead to an officer approaching me. He spoke sternly in Russian. However for all I know he could have been as easily asking me if I wanted to sign up. I was a little worried of loosing my camera so to be honest didn’t try too hard to communicate and instead slowly backed away and tried to disappear. According to the guide books the police and army have a tendency to be corrupt. I didn’t get followed or asked for a bribe so I guess it was all good.
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Later in the afternoon we dropped our bags at the train station in preparation for our train ride to St Petersburg and checked out where the trains for the Trans Siberian railway left from. Quite interesting to see this as I have always wanted to take the 2 week trip to China.
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Sunburnt at the Kremlin Sunday
Waking up early we navigated the Metro and the streets of Moscow in search of the only “famous thing” we knew of in Russia, Red Square. As usual Susan’s scepticism of my navigation skills meant she tried to take the map off me. However, after scrutinizing the map for some time and realising the street names of map in no way equated to the words on the street signs, she soon realised the map was of little use so left me to it to work on my principle of lets just go in the general direction.

It was eerily quiet at Red Square went we arrived. Very few tourists we up so early on a Sunday morning and only a few police were milling round which was quite unusual. The zealous ice cream stalls were being to be setup in the park outside the Kremlin. But at this time in the morning armed with my poly prop and woollen hat, ice cream wasn’t even a consideration.
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In fact the Kremlin cashier only just opened for us to get tickets without queuing. Conversely, getting into the Kremlin Armoury would test even the most patient people. We had to queue for nearly an hour after our allotted time only to find out that my backpack was not allowed in that entrance of the Kremlin so as I sprinted down the hill to check in Susan done her best to keep us at the top of the queue. Inside however the Kremlin Armoury everything was very gaudy. The Faberge Eggs, Sliver Platters, Gold and jewel covered books and Russian church icons all screamed that Russia had known a time of serious wealth.

Even now it’s apparent there is massive money floating about in Moscow. The sports cars, designer shops and opulent metro’s flaunt this clearly. In fact Moscow is said to be the most expensive city in the world to live in. Seeing the prices of everything I was surprised the Average Joe could get by. Perhaps this also explained copious soldiers and police we kept seeing throughout the city.

After visiting the rest of the Kremlin grounds and churches we sat in the park trying to recover from the 30 degree sun. Suddenly I had a realisation the people in the ice cream stalls weren’t so silly after all.

Later on our way to the tube that night while taking a few night shots in Red Square we were treated to an awesome fireworks display. I’m not sure why they were going off but it made for some great pics.
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