I made a short trip to St Petersburg while in Helsinki. I was just considering traveling on the St Peter’s Line ferry which gives a free 72 hour visa (on a fixed tour), but was convinced by Finnish friend to get tourist visas and travel freely. The visa process was daunting but upon reflection pretty straightforward once a hotel booking has been made. We travelled on the Allegro train from Helsinki in just over 3 hours and very good value at under €30. Once there I was amazed how easy it was to get around, how helpful the people were and how clean it was. Getting food was interesting, it tasted good but was unfamiliar. In the small eating places, it seems buffets are popular where you select the food to be served (which is then put on a plate and microwaved).  I’m sure we ended up with the wrong food (or rather the right food in the wrong order). Touring around was easy, no hassles and felt completely safe. We didn’t do (inside) the main sites but instead wandered the city, using legs, metro and trolley bus.

A few photos to give the feel of St Petersburg. The guide book suggested that the place names on the metro were only in Russian alphabet, the resulted with us going down into the metro looking for green line trains going to Pb16A4KoE, this would of worked but the signs are in both alphabets now which make things simpler.

The Erarta Museum (St Petersburg Musem of Modern Art) was excellent.