The last week of October I went on a group trip organised by the Erasmus Students’ Network of Tampere. It was absolutely amazing. It was defiantly worth every euro cent I spent on it. But before I forget more details than I already have let me start into my story:
We started out early on Tuesday morning, and by early I mean 530ish. Luckily my friend Anne was able to drive us so Martin, Anne and I crashed at Meike’s house so that it would be easier in the morning. This did not allow for much sleep. We ended up staying up till around 2 watching episodes of That 70s Show and so we were not at all fresh in the morning. This meant that I pretty much slept my way to St. Petersburg on the bus and I can not say much about the scenery on the road out of Finland.
We had been told horror stories about the difficulties in getting through customs into Russia. This was not at all true. We had to wait in line a lot, but that was mostly because we were a group of 80 or so on the busses. So that just makes sense. And it was a lot of waiting in line: we had to have our passports checked upon leaving Finland and the guy was absolutely insane about examining each and every passport for 5 minutes to make sure they were not forged, but luckily I at least got a stamp for my trouble. The EU people got nothing.
On the Russian side we were checked upon crossing out of no man’s land on the bus. Then we got off the bus, had our visas and everything stamped. Then as we were leaving again we were going to be checked again on the bus. But the guy got lazy and just waved us through. So it was time consuming but not the torture people were expecting.
I slept pretty much the rest of the way to St. Petersburg so I remember flashes of rocks and trees and marshes, but it wasn’t too fantastic. Looked just like the Shield. I woke up when we were halfway into the city. It was cool, there were all these rundown building by these shiny new ones. And as we approached the centre you began to see all these really old buildings that were all restored and beautiful.
After checking into the hotel we showered and got ready to go on a boat cruise on the river. It was cool because the bus to the docks drove us around the city a bit so we were able to see it at night. And the boat cruise took us up and down, but unfortunately there was not any guide to tell us what we were seeing, just vodka and champagne. So I guess that means it was an authentic Russian boat cruise.
I was pretty much exhausted after this and decided to catch the bus back to the hotel, not the night club. Especially because there are no cabs in Russia and we figured we could party at the hotel. That did not really work out, a couple people came to mine and Martin’s room we hung out for a while and went to bed.
The next day started early with a bus trip of the city and then a guided tour of the State Hermitage Museum. On the bus trip we got to stop at the Cruiser Aurora, it is the famous ship that fired the shot that signalled the start of the October revolution. So that was a neat thing to go see. Then we went to the Hermitage. The museum encompasses the entire complex of buildings that was once the residence of the Tsars. So I got to see the Winter Palace in all its magnificence as well as the private museums (the Hermitage, the small Hermitage etc.) that made up the complex. I am not that much into art so that part didn’t excite me much. But the buildings themselves and the history were amazing. The throne rooms and everything was absolutely great.
After this we had an ‘authentic Russian dinner.’ Yeah. I know. But I went on a tour group so I got the grand pleasure of doing all the stereotypical tour group things. It was actually a lot of fun and was a great chance to have some great food and drink. After a fair bit of fun most of us proceeded to go to a club. It was pretty crazy and I am glad I got the chance to go to an ‘authentic Russian club’ as well as the dinner because it was pretty memorable. I had a good time but I felt pretty underdressed and common in that place. Wow. To get home though was the funniest thing. There is no real taxi company that operates well. So it is common practice to just flag down a car and get in after negotiating a rate. Basically it is hitchhiking, but with money. I think it’s hilarious. It is common practice to get in a car with a random stranger. But when in Rome….
I had chosen to go on an optional trip to Catherine’s Palace on the outskirts of the city as a friend had told me about it. So after checking out and dumping our bags at the railway station I got back in the bus and slept till we arrived there. Unfortunately, it was not as great as I had heard. Sure it was nice enough, but strangely enough, once you have seen one room where everything is covered in gold you have practically seen them all. And that was pretty much all there was. Even the fabled Amber room was not too great. It was cool how the walls were covered in amber. But in case you are wondering, amber covered walls actually look pretty ugly.
After this we just went back to the city and had a tour of the two main cathedrals of St. Petersburg. St. Isaac’s was big, but we didn’t get to go to the top so I was kind of disappointed, the Cathedral on the spilled blood was entirely covered with mosaics on the inside so that was pretty amazing.
After this we had free time to wander till we met at the train station. So Martin, Meike, Chiara and I decided to just wander up and down Novsky Prospect, see the sites and grab a bite before we had to meet up. We also went into the main department store of the city. It was actually quite the site worth seeing as the thing is absolutely massive. We walked the perimeter and it is kilometres long, it took us forever to get back to where we started. It just goes from boutique to boutique the entire way and encompasses an entire block. And a big block at that. I also tried to go to the bathroom there, but for a fancy store the toilets were something out of a bad movie. There was dripping taps, broken tiles, and weird Russian graffiti. I decided to go to McDonalds instead.
As we walked further down the main avenue we ended up seeing a car accident. Some lady misjudged her turn and started to get the side of her car stuck on the curb. So she decided to back up on the main road. As she did this she backed her shiny car into the side of another one. We occupied about 30minutes watching to see what would happen as this was on the main street of the city. No one showed up and cars just veered around them, so we got bored and left.
The main prospect was very nice. All the buildings had been restored and lit up for the 300th anniversary of the founding of the city so it was very beautiful. But all too soon we got on the train and headed for Moscow.
The train was nice; it was a sleeping train so we pretty much just went straight to bed. As we were arriving in Moscow at around 6, but as it was by the time we got settled sleep didn’t come till around 2. And for me, I kept on waking up thinking we had arrived and the bed was too small so I was squished into the fetal position, so I have had better beds. But it was still relaxing to feel the train rocking you to sleep.
After the hell that is waking up Moscow started off amazing. As we exited the station we got this crazy view of one of the old style Stalinist buildings, it looked like something off of Batman. And in front of it was a crazy old commuter train going by. This was all in the distance so it had a surreal quality of being somewhere totally different. I unfortunately didn’t get a picture. So you will have to deal with my poor imagery.
After this we proceeded to have a bus tour of the city as we were not able to check into our hotel yet. The tour was….well it was exhausting. Everyone was dead tired. And it was cold. I don’t know what was going on, it was only -1 or something. But everyone was freezing their asses off. It must have been the lack of sleep or the early morning, but it felt like -15. And the tour guide kept on having little ‘photo stops’ but really they were to freeze us so that we stayed awake. He was a clever one. But we got to have our first view of red square. And it was early enough that it was empty and we could take pictures. It was weird because St. Basils was a lot smaller then I though it would be. But it was still cool.
Then we proceeded to see some more things. There was a really cool monument about Adults vices destroying children. It had all these representations of War, Violence, Child Labour, Gluttony, Pedophilia and more. And in the middle were an innocent boy and girl oblivious to it all. Very disturbing.
We also stopped at some nunnery, but I was really cold at that stop and didn’t really know what was going on. That was when we figured out his plan because he said “ha, this’ll keep you awake!” Those Russians….
We also went to some massive Soviet monument about WWII. I don’t know how many hectares it took up, but it was big. It was funny though, well not funny, but awkward. There was a monument about the Holocaust. And half our tour group was German so it was one of those moments where you couldn’t just not talk about it. Actually, that happened fairly often in Russia: there are A LOT of monuments to WWII. And the tour guide kept on talking about the Nazis.
Then we proceeded to drive to the hotel. At this point I slept so I apparently missed row after row after row of grey apartment buildings as we went to the suburbs where our hotel was located. What a loss…..
I then slept and then we went on a tour of the Moscow Metro. It was pretty neat. I am not going to exaggerate though; it wasn’t as good as I thought it would be. Not crystal chandeliers, like the pictures make it look like. But when I stopped and thought about it, it is quite crazy. Because they are Palaces to the People. There are mosaics and paintings and statues, all 100 m below the ground. So I was probably being picky and was probably cranky because I was sleep deprived. The metro was also cool because it is really cheap and comes almost every 3 minutes at non-peak times. Every 30s at peak times!!!
I could have went to a club, but I chose not to, and our tour guide took us up to Red Square so we could view it at night, then he left after explaining how to return home. It was so much better. With everything lit up it was absolutely amazing. So so so cool. We must have spent 30 min just standing there and looking. And of course taking the required touristy photos. After a group of us just wandered around the vicinity of the Kremlin. We went to the eternal flame, saw the guards change, had our first passport check by some soldier, got a bite to eat, and then went to take the metro back to the hotel. We walked the long was so we could check out the KGB building. Not very scary actually, though I guess there is a joke that it is the biggest building in Russia: its basement extends all the way to Siberia. But as we proceeded to our Metro station we had the scary experience of it being locked. It was 12:30, and we thought we were told it closed at 1….After wandering around to find another station we were relieved to find that one open. It was almost quite the oops moment, trapped in downtown Moscow. We were just a cab ride away from home, meaning, of course, just a short hitch-hike away. A couple of us hung out in the room for a bit, and then we just tried to get some sleep.
The next day we woke up early in order to view Lenin’s Tomb and then went for a tour of the Kremlin. To see Lenin’s Tomb we waited in line for about 30 min. went through a metal detector etc etc. One has to be totally quiet when you are in the mausoleum, no talking, no hands in one’s pockets, no stopping, no gum. And of course no photos. Lenin looked like he was wax. But the mausoleum itself was just worth seeing. It is all black marble. When you go in you go down stairs to the left and it gets really dark. You are on this blood red carpet so it’s really creepy. Then when you are really far down you do a hairpin turn into where the tomb is. You can’t see him, just a marble base with a box on top and a beam of sunlight shining directly down on it... You have to march up some more stairs and you walk by the tomb, though it is a couple metres away. There were guards everywhere and they were like “SHH!!!” all the time in the scary way Russian soldiers have.
After we walked behind the tomb and right in front of the Kremlin walls is a monument to the Heroes of the Revolution, and other Soviet heroes. It was quite understated in Soviet terms, and I liked it better for that. You saw a lot of names and dates and the dead were quite young: my age or younger!
The tour of the Kremlin was interesting but I wouldn’t do it again. The Kremlin actually just means “Fortress” so the Kremlin is the oldest part of the city of Moscow, with its walls still intact. So the tour of it pretty much was a tour of 4 churches, as we couldn’t see any government stuff. I can now say I have been inside the Kremlin, but it was not exactly the best site to see in Moscow.
To get lunch was ridiculously expensive. It could have been cheap, but we were stupid. We went to a food court in an underground mall. Me and Simon, another Canadian guy, went to a place where they do it by weight. That was our first mistake. But in our defence it looked really cheap and we went for stuff like potatoes. Yeah, that didn’t help. His meal ended up costing 450 rubbles. Mine about 390, that is around twenty some bucks!! For nothing! The most expensive thing I bought in Russia was some potatoes, a juice drink and some vegetables. And it was cold.
Our program for the night was the circus. I paid the 15E because, well how often do you get to see a Russian circus in Russia? Right? It actually had its own building, with seating all around a central ring. The acts were pretty good. Everything in Russian of course. They even had one of those stages that rotated into an ice rink so we got to see some fancy skating. But it was sad. They had bears. I thought they wouldn’t cause a friend who had seen it said they didn’t. But nope. There was a bunch of sad looking bears being made to ride bikes, drive cars, and do a bunch of other weird stuff. You may ask “how the hell do you make a bear drive a car?” Well, I think the trick is to hit him, because one of the bears got really pissed during the show and ended up boxing the trainer in the head with his paw. So he was out of the show. That was pretty exciting. There were a couple of other screw ups as well: the trapeze artist fell so we didn’t get to see that. But all in all it was worth the money. Except I really had to go pee at the end. When it ended and I found the bathroom. It was pretty funny: such a dingy dingy room for such a nice looking building.
We just headed back to the hotel instead of going out to a club, and it’s a good thing we did. The people who went to the club ended having to walk 40 min because the first one wanted around 20$ cover (converted). Even the one they went to that was cheap still had 7$ drinks. Moscow is very pricey. We just partied in the hotel, much more economical. Though when I tried to buy a sandwich outside the hotel I ended up getting a big piece of cold chicken breast instead. Weird.
The last day had a lot of free time, which was nice. We got to sleep in at the hotel, check out, then we just dumped all our bags at the train station as a group then had free time in the city. Morag (Scotland), Seamus (Ireland), Alex (Germany) and a Finnish girl whose name I forget went to Arbat street to buy some last minute souvenirs. The street is just some pedestrian street. I don’t know why it’s famous. But it did have a lot of places to get souvenirs. I managed to get the lacquered box for Mom there, and for a pretty good price too.
This was just till we met up with people who went to the Art Gallery. We had chosen not to. Then we all went to All-Russian Exhibition Centre (VDNH). It is this exhibition park dedicated to the achievements of Soviet science and economy. Like all things Soviet it was big. Like really really big. It took us an hour and a half bit to walk in a straight line from the entrance to somewhere near the end and back. And that was not all of it. We saw just the central walkway. It was crazy though. All the pavilions that originally held who knows what had been converted to flea markets and pirated DVD shops and places to buy seeds. I was told there was a Spaceship there; I thought it was a shuttle. But it ends up it was a rocket type one. There were also airplanes and other giant things. It would be good to see in the summer when the fountains are on. As there were a lot of them too. And they were big.
The day was almost over at this point. We just went back to the centre, grabbed a quick bite. We had half an hour so I went to Red Square for the last time and took pictures for a while and savoured the moment. It was a perfect night, clear and crisp and as we sat there it started to snow. It was amazing to sit and think “wow. I am on Red Square.” The trip was worth it just for that feeling of seeing the world.
But then all too soon we took the metro to the train station early so we could buy all the cheap vodka, cigarettes, and wine that we could take back with us. This was only a litre of vodka, so we didn’t go too crazy. But it was hilarious. About 10 of us in the vodka aisle, yes there is an entire aisle to vodka in the supermarket, trying to choose which one. Too funny. After going through the checkout like alcoholics we headed to the train and had a last glimpse of Moscow as it started to snow heavily.
(as I read through this I noticed a lot of “and then”s and other bad grammatical structures, my apologies.)
