Royal Palaces, Caviar, and Getting Ripped Off in St. Petersburg, Russia. Oct 20-22

Stop 2 - Vilnius, Lithuania

Stop 3 - Riga, Latvia

Stop 4 - Tallinn, Estonia

Stop 5 - Helsinki, Finland

Stop 7 - Moscow, Russia

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Day 2 - Peterhof

Day 2 - More of St. Petersburg

The highlight of the my first Eastern European trip - travel to Russia.  Western movies always portrayed Russia as the bad country due to the cold war and the KGB-CIA espionage tales.  Russian movies probably portrayed USA as the bad country.  But when I got there, I was able to validate that it was all Hollywood gig. 

The bad image made created by Hollywood movies was very unfair to the Russian people.  There was a recommendation that we needed to bring our original travel documents as we went around Russia.  But I left all my documents in the hotel and only brought photocopies. There were so many tourists and it would have been possible for Russian police to check each travel document.  Like any other country, since we followed their laws and were good tourists/guests, we were not flagged.  

On October 20, Peter and I took the very early Allegro train from Helsinki to St. Petersburg.  The travel was about 4 1/2 hours and the cost was CAD $111/trip/person.  The moment we entered the Russian border, the scenery became very different -old cars, dilapidated buildings and the place looked old and definitely closed out. When Russian immigration officials boarded the train for passport checks, Peter and I felt uneasy yet we consider ourselves seasoned travelers.  There were no issues with our passport and visa but the subconscious perception about Russia still lingered during the documentation check.

When we arrived at St. Petersburg, the train station was typical with lots of well-wishers and cab drivers waiting for their new batch of passengers.  The driver we picked spoke very little English but we understood each other the cost of the trip from the train station to our hotel, Grand Belmond. 

After settling at the hotel, Peter and I started our tour of St. Petersburg with Kazan Cathedral as our first stop.  It was my first time to get inside an Orthodox Church and the Orthodox Christians were the 2nd biggest Christian congregation, second to the Roman Catholics.  Their Orthodox practice seemed similar to the Catholics but there were distinct differences to their respective religious practices.

We continued our walk and ended up at the Winter Palace. The Hermitage Museum, which was behind the Winter Palace was closed.  The museum was always closed on Mondays.  We continued our initial venture of the city and went to Saint Isaac's Cathedral, another Russian Orthodox Church.  Unlike the Kazan Cathedral, Saint Isaac charged RUB 250 (CAD $7.00).  Also there was a big sign at the entrance to be careful with pickpockets.  Apparently, when Peter and his family went to St. Petersburg on the summer of 2014, his camera was stolen from him while lined-up at Saint Isaac cathedral.Passed by Starbucks for a quick break and hadn't been for the coffee company's iconic logo, I would not have recognized Starbucks spelled in Russian.  After the break, we went to Church of Our Savior on the Spilled Blood.  Another Russian Orthodox church with colorful exterior design.  Entrance was the same as Saint Isaac's at RUB 250 (CAD $7.00).

After all the walking and for being awake since 4:00am, we headed out to relax to a bar/restaurant.  Met some Russian girls and one of us got ripped off for about CAD$4,700.  Go figure who.

Day 2 - Peterhof

Day 2 - More of St. Petersburg