2009 - Scandinavia - Day 10 - St. Petersburg, Russia

We left Helsinki at 7:00 am. and began our drive to the Russian border. We arrived at the border a little after 11:00, or 12:00 Russia time. Along the way, we finished our introductions, and we read and slept. The border crossing took about 45 minutes. They had to inspect our bus and under it and our passports twice. We then drove another 4 hours into St. Petersburg. Along the way, Mike talked to us about Russian history and the beginning and ending of the Czars. I found it fascinating. I really didn’t know much at all about Russia. He also told us a few Russian fairytales, since they are found all over in paintings and on the lacquer boxes. Once here, we went to see the Peter and Paul Fortress that the Czar Peter built in 1703, after he had won this part of the land from Sweden, and then he built this city, St. Petersburg. It is the 2nd largest city in Russia, with 7 million people living here. Inside the Cathedral at the Fortress is where many of the Czars are buried. It was a beautiful church. The sarcophagi are inside. After we left the fortress, we had a short bus city tour, saw a ship from WW2 called Aurora, and the first small palace that Peter built in 3 days. Traffic was thick and slow. The guy behind us made a joke that this was “Russian hour”. We had a stop at a cathedral that was built in memoriam for one of the Czars that was assassinated, the church of the resurrected Christ, or Mike called it the church of the over spilling blood, because it being where the assassination took place. It is no longer a church today, it is a museum. It was incredible from the outside. We didn’t go inside. We then went to our hotel. Mom had worn her pants on inside out all day J Everyone was so tired from the long bus day and were happy to arrive at the hotel. Mom and I ordered some dinner through Room Service. It was called chicken pozharsky. It was SO good! One thing I wanted to mention, it hasn’t been dark at all on our trip. Being this far north, as soon as the soon sets, around midnight, it comes right back up, so it goes from dusk to dawn, just like that. It was interesting.