russia: vyborg, st petersburg, and peterhof

Claire found the focus of our next weekend trip: a city called Vyborg, way up near the border with Finland, not too far from St Petersburg. I don't remember where she learned about it, but I'm glad she said she wanted to go.

I know I've written it before, but the cities along the western border of Russia have a lot of fighting in their histories. All of them have been part of more than one empire/country during their pasts, I like learning the different names they've had because of the different languges of their rulers. The different rulers of Vyborg include variations of what is now Russia, Sweden, and Finland. 

The Swedes were there first, then there was a lot of back and forth between Finland and Russia, with Russia winning out.

Vyborg is 38 kilometers south of Finland and 130 kilometers northwest of St Petersburg, with a population of about 80,000 people. Legends say there was habitation here as early as the 11^th or 12^th centuries, but there is no proof. There is proof of people being here in the 13^th century, so that's the accepted date.

The reason the city exists now is because of Vyborg Castle, which was built at the end of the 13^th century. 

The town was originally on the island along with the castle, but was eventually moved because there wasn't enough room on the island.

Wikipedia tells me the city produces paper, has a facility for the exchange of electricity between Russia and Finland, and the Nord Stream offshore pipeline starts at Vyborg.

We chose to fly to St Petersburg, then spend the rest of the night in the airport, as it was cheaper than taking the train. I'm not sure how I feel about us making that decision because it wasn't better environmentally, buuuut.... We spent most of the time in Starbucks, dozing on and off and chatting.

Around 0530 we got a taxi to Finlandskiy Train Station, where it was easy to buy the next tickets toward Vyborg. A 2.5 hour ride and we were there. The train station in Vyborg is small, but grand. Even better was the city sign on the other side of the parkplatz out front.

It was easy to walk toward the city center, with a couple things to see along the way. One was a sculpture of an octopus, the other was an abandoned ship. Maybe a Viking ship? I don't know what kind of ship it was, but I do know it was abandoned. The view across the water from the abandoned ship gave a hint at the castle we wanted to see.

Instead of heading straight for the castle, we chose to walk through another section of town. This brought us to Red Square with a Lenin statue in the middle of an otherwise wide open square. We also strolled through a park with a statue of a moose. Since Angela is from Canada she said the moose made her feel like she was home, hee hee. Near one end of the park was a tree that had been carved with indigenous designs on one side, and a face on the other. Beautiful. I admire people who can create such beauty. I do not have that talent. 

We found the stelae designating Vyborg as a city of military glory. Considering how much fighting has taken place in and around the city, that's not at all surprising.

More walking brought us to the area that has sections of the old city walls. We got on top of that area, but it wasn't impressive. Instead of sticking out, the area near the walls has been filled in with dirt, so a walkway has been created; along the pavement were a bunch of statues. The lineup was nice, but I kept thinking it looked out of place. The statues should've been inside, or in a park. 

After coming back down from the wall section, we kept going until we saw a church, the Transfiguration Cathedral. The outside was yellow, not very interesting. The inside was beautiful, with a lot of colour. As we were leaving we realized a baptism ceremony was starting, so we stayed as quiet as possible.

Nearby was the Lutheran Sts Peter and Paul. The 'moody' gray sky and ruins out front made the exterior photo of this church far better than anything I took inside.

At that point we were a bit cold, and a little hungry. (Maybe it was just me who was hungry.)

We found a small cafe where the girls had coffee and I ordered 'grilled' vegetables, I'm sure the waitstaff thought I was crazy. (Who doesn't?)

We headed in the general direction of the castle, passing the city market on the way. We didn't need anything, so all we did was a quick walkthrough.

One of my apps said a clock tower was a sight, but when we saw the tower we were less than impressed. Part of it is under renovation, and the bottom is covered with scaffolding and rubbish. It was in a small courtyard, so there was no good viewpoint.

What was more impressive was City Hall. The building was nice, and there was a statue of Torgills Knutson in front. Maybe he was the founder of the city? City Hall was on one side of a small platz, the bridge to the castle was on the other side. The edge of the bridge provided a great viewpoint to take a photo of the castle with a perfect reflection in the water. That was by far the best part of the entire castle visit.

As we got close to the ticket desk we got to see all the scaffolding around the castle up close. Not at all pretty, I hope it all finishes soon. When we got to the ticket desk we discovered the all too common practice of charging foreigners more for entry. This time it was double the price for Russians: 700 rubles versus 350.

We insisted on paying the local price, using our work visas as proof that we live here. It definitely wasn't worth 700 rubles. The museum inside was three floors, with each section focusing on different aspects of the history of Vyborg. 

There was the flora and fauna section, the Finnish section, etc... The section about life when Viipuri was Finnish was my favourite area, especially because there were quite a few photos.

After leaving the castle we kept going over the bridge, to the other side of the water. There was a statue of Peter the 1^st over there, as well as another set of old city walls. These were far more photogenic than the first walls we had seen.

At that point we decided we were done with Vyborg. It wasn't getting any warmer, and we got lucky with train timing when we got to the station. After arriving back in St Petersburg we went straight to Namaste (our favourite restaurant in the city, an Indian place,) for dinner.

The next morning we slept in, as we always seem to do on the Sundays of weekend trips. Eventually we packed up and checked out, I'm ashamed to admit we ate breakfast at Starbucks. We got on the metro, exiting at a station called Moskovskaya. I was hoping to see the 'main' Lenin statue of the city, and take a team photo, but that did not happen. Instead we discovered a construction fence surrounding the entire platz, argh. If we read the sign correctly, it wasn't going to be finished for at least 6 months. Sigh.

Since Angela still hadn't spent much time in St Petersburg, Claire and I decided she should see Chesme Church. 

It isn't big, and the interior is boring, but the outside is nifty. Pink and white stripes. It was easy walk from the Lenin statue, and for the first time Claire and I noticed the cemetery behind the church. Since the church is dedicated to a military victory, and most of the graves were copies of each other, I'm pretty sure the dead and buried were from the battle. Or military at the very least.

That ended up being the end of our city touring. We discovered it would be the same price and heaps faster to take a taxi out to Peterhof, than to make our way to the train station and take an elektrichka. Yay for taxi apps. Well, sortof. 

The driver wanted us to cancel the ride, then pay him the same price in cash. I said no.

Claire and I had seen the gardens of Peterhof during an earlier visit, but we hadn't seen inside the palace itself. Angela was pretty stunned when we walked into the gardens, she said they were the kind of thing you imagine when you think of royal gardens. The take your breath away kind of beauty. Yay!

Entrance into the palace was more than double for foreigners than for Russians. ARGH. 1000 rubles versus 450 rubles. We showed our work visas, but the ticket lady said we also needed a document showing we were properly paying our taxes to get the lower price. ARGH.

There are signs all over saying it is okay to take photos and videos, but to turn off your flash. When we got to the first staircase it was super impressive and I asked Angela to take a photo of me because there was no one else around.

About 3 seconds after she took the photo a docent came running and started yelling at me, saying no photos allowed. I was completely confused, as all the signs had said photos were okay. She said something about photos not being allowed in areas where traffic flow was restricted, meaning small rooms and stairwells. Since there was no one else in sight I didn't understand, especially since there was plenty of room for plenty of people to go around me if those imaginary people all came rushing at once. The lady threatened to call security, I said go ahead. She didn't, we kept going.

Walking through the palace was a workout for my neck. Many of the floors were beautifully patterned in wood, the ceilings were painted and hung with chandeliers, and most of the rooms were very very extravagant. Way too much gold, heaps of mirrors, etc... 

The room I found most fascinating had portraits all over the walls, with very little blank space. It felt as if all those paintings were looking at me.

Somehow we got stuck between a couple tour groups, argh. One docent yelled at us for not moving along more quickly, even though we were not in anyone's way, and not holding up a tour group. We stayed near a couple doorways until a room cleared, then took photos, which somehow was the wrong thing to do? Maybe these people just don't like independent foreigners? We weren't the first people to wait by these doorways to take these photos, so being yelled at when others hadn't been yelled at was really frustrating.

After being totally blinged out in the palace we decided to walk around the gardens a bit. It wasn't summer season yet, so there was no entry fee for the gardens. Pretty, and much less crowded than the last time we'd been there. There is a view of the back side of the palace and main fountain (which wasn't running yet,) which is iconic, I wish I had a camera that could capture it properly.

We also walked to the area where the property borders the water. Gorgeous, as always. There is a lighthouse out there that is quite photogenic, though not extravagant.

Our taxi back into the city took a lot longer, but that was because we wanted to go into the city center. We started dinner with gelatto, which made sure we had plenty of room :) From there we walked to Namaste and ordered food to go.

Next up was a quick metro ride, followed by a bus ride back to the airport. Checkin and the flight were easy, we arrived back to a snowy Moscow.

I will be back to St Petersburg.

russia: leningrad on its birthday

When we came back from Suzdal, Tyra and I went back to my flat where she picked up her full pack, then we went straight to another train station in Moscow. I made sure she got on the right night train to St Petersburg, and said I'd see her there the next weekend.

As I said in the previous post, Tyra put a lot of thought into the scheduling of her Russian trip. She ended up spending about a week in Moscow and the surrounding area, then another week in St Petersburg and the surrounding area. 

She stayed with me in Moscow, then went up to St Petersburg. Claire and I arranged to meet up with Tyra for her last weekend in the country. It is never a bad weekend if I'm going up to St Petersburg.

After running to catch our train, we arrived in St Petersburg on time, bright and early at 0450. We'd already arranged to meet up with Tyra around 0630, so we killed time in the train station until then. Tyra's hostel wasn't far from the train station, I used the stairwell of her building to change clothes.

Claire and I left our bags with Tyra's stuff, then all three of us headed to a metro station. We rode the metro to another train station and caught an express train to start a day trip. Our destination was Peterhof.

The train station we pulled into was quite nice, though it didn't look like it got very much traffic. We left the station and started walking, heading into a park straightaway. We were following the crowds, it wasn't hard to figure out where to go.

In the middle of a park was a pond, with a church on the other side of the pond. 

The church was a listed sight in town, but it was completely closed for renovation. Unfortunately it was closed AND completely covered with scaffolding and other stuff, so there was no possibility for a decent photo. Argh.

We walked through the gates to the upper gardens of Peterhof Palace, there was no entry fee to this section of the gardens. Even though we thought we'd arrived fairly early in the morning, there were already plenty of people wandering around, most of them trying to take the perfect instagram photo. The area looked recently landscaped, the flowers were quite pretty.

After wandering a bit, we found the ticket machines. Trust me when I say Peterhof is not a cheap place to visit. We bought tickets to the lower gardens, which were 900 rubles!! That's more than I've paid for anything else I've seen in Russia. We decided to wait on anything else, and see how the day went.

The gardens were crowded, even at that hour of the morning. We started our visit by looking down at the gardens from the patio area on the back side of the palace. There is a waterfall type of fountain here, with a number of layers. 

Quite a few people were waiting around, not moving on, so we decided to wait too.

The wait was worth it. At some point the fountain water started flowing, and we realized the water was flowing in time to music. Pretty cool. We didn't go in the fountain museum, which had been one of the other options on the ticket machine. After a while, we started walking again, aimlessly wandering and hoping we'd see the whole gardens.

We ended up wandering for a few hours. Throughout the gardens there are fountains, some big and some small. 

There are statues too, some bigger than others. There are plenty of trails, none of which were too crowded. The back side of the gardens leads onto a waterway, which was pretty.

We thought about getting food at one of the cafes/food points in the gardens, but the prices were way higher than we wanted to pay.

Instead of paying for food, we chose to pay for a ticket to ride the hydrofoil back to the center of St Petersburg. I think the ride was about 30 minutes, but I'm not sure since I fell asleep. 

Tyra and Claire were kind enough to remind me that I look amazing when I'm sleeping by taking selfies with me. Sigh ;)

The boat dropped us off really close to the Hermitage, which was a great location. From there we walked through the platz in front of the Hermitage, which is normally a great place for people watching. On this particular Saturday a stage was being set up for a concert, which meant the platz was filled with temporary construction.

The sun made it feel like it was still just mid or early afternoon, but our watches said it was a little later than that. We wandered for a little bit, just soaking up the atmosphere of the city. Not only was the weather fantastic, but the city was celebrating it's birthday, so there were people everywhere.

As we walked we accidentally walked into an outdoor exhibit of the transportation museum. It was neat to see the old buses and trams, even if they were somewhat overrun by kids and parents. I love old school stuff.

We went to our favourite restaurant in the city (Namaste,) for dinner, and walked out totally stuffed. Even though we were stuffed we went for the second half of our eating habits in St Petersburg by going to a specific cafe for gelato.

From there we walked back to Tyra's hostel to pick up our bags. At that point we looked at our pedometers and realized we had walked quite a bit that day. It was all worth it, but we could also feel the sunburns from being out in the direct sun all day.

It took Claire and I a while to find the entry to our hostel, but once we were inside, we crashed fast. I'm pretty sure I slept like a rock that night.

The next morning we were up slowly, as usual. We'd arranged to meet up with Tyra again, so we packed up and checked out, left our bags behind, then went to the metro. We found Tyra again at the House of Soviets. Since it was the city birthday weekend, there was a whole lot of decoration all over the platz in front of the building.

The statue of Lenin was surrounded by the decorations and festival stuff, so we weren't able to get close. The fountain was big and actually turned on, yippee!! I love fountains, especially when they run in time to music, as this one did for a little while.

We watched people and took in the fun, then started walking. We didn't have to go far to get to one of the most moving WW2 memorials I've ever seen. This one was in the middle of a big traffic circle, and honoured the city as it fought through just short of three years of seige during the war. For nearly 1000 days, the citizens struggled, but they won. 

The monument is a nearly completed circle, with an obelisk off to one side.

There was a museum under the street as well, which was also fantastic. Surprisingly, the entry fee for foreigners was less than that for Russians, I've never seen anything like that before. The museum had photos and information and items, all related to Soviet life, with the war being the main focus. (Of course.)

After leaving the museum we walked to a church. This one was unusual on the outside, in that it was dark pink, with thin white vertical stripes. 

The inside wasn't as neat as the outside, but not every church can be amazing.

The metro took us back to the city center, then we walked to St Isaacs. Claire had seen it before, but this time we wanted to go up to the walkway around the rotunda, hoping to see the views over the city. With the amazing weather, we couldn't resist. The views were indeed really nice, but we didn't love all the people trying to take selfies. The walkway around the rotunda is big enough for 1.5 people, so if someone is taking a photo, or having a photo taken, there isn't enough room for people to go around. 

From there we went back to our hostel to pick up our packs, then head to dinner. We went back to the same place as the night before, because we love it that much. We also got some of their dishes to go, we really do love it that much.

We ate gelato on the way to the train station, where we found souvenirs for the upcoming World Cup tournament. As usual, we boarded on time, departed on time, and arrived back in Moscow on time.

I will always be happy to return to St Petersburg.