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 11th or 12th
centuries, but there is no proof. There is proof of people being here
in the 13th 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 13th 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 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 1st 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.
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