Vodka Tour to Russia Via Helsinki

Boy is it good to be back home again! I just got back from Latvia.... where's that, you ask? Well, that's another story. One trip at a time, please! I'd like to keep things in order and I guess I did drop the ball a little with not getting this blog written sooner. My apologies people! But I am here to study, you know? And believe you me, I had only a week between Russia and Latvia to recover and catch up on Uni work. Mate! It's hectic being a travelling Erasmus student.  So anyway, over the Easter break - I made the rather epic week-long voyage across the Baltic Sea to St Petersburg in Russia via Helsinki - Finland. We were a group of 40 - all international students from all over Sweden - travelling with Scanbalt and this was to be my first trip in Europe using a tour. I wasn't sure what to expect from the tour to be honest and all four of us were feeling slightly intimidated by the fact we were going to Russia! My travel buddies for this trip were the ever-present Mina (who I recently realised has been on every single one of my trips), Manon and Carter. Here we are, in Russia with a sphinx! That's right....

As we boarded the boat heading for Helsinki - we laughed at the contrast between this ship and the crazy epic, "new-ness" that was the brand spanking new ship we had for Tallin. This one was quite a bit older, smelt a little funny, and was not even a little bit shiny! Gosh. Still, it was a boat and as long as it didn't sink, I sure was not going to complain! One thing I can complain about though is the fact that our cabin was located on the 2nd deck! That's pretty bad. Why? Well, firstly... it is right down the bottom. I'm sure you guys all know from Titanic that that is where the lower class people go. Last time, we were on like Level 4 or something which actually makes a lot of difference! Secondly, it is down under and next to where the ship stores its cars and animals! Thirdly, it takes a really long time to get down to our cabins from up top where all the activities and entertainment are (Level 7,8, and 9) and involves lots of stairs. Lastly, it smelt like sewerage! But hey, we had booked a student tour and I guess when they said it was going to be a budget trip.. they weren't joking!

For us though, all disgust for our cabin location was abated when we entered our cabin to find that our room had an old school radio! Ha... it was pretty cool because the music the radio played was also very old style music. The kind that you would listen to in the olden days if you were fancy and on a boat. I also really liked the feel of the room... it was warm and had the wonderful mirror window which we all love! Here are some lovely photos of me and my cabin mates enjoying the warm ambience of the room....

During our walk around exploring the boat, Mina decided to take the reins as photographer and snapped happily away using my beautiful Nikon. Here are a few shots of the boat! Oh boy... slow start, already so many photos. This could very well be a long blog. But hey, I am only following orders!

Hello Sailor!

Mirrors!

Flying around on the boat....just so excited!

I went outside for a quick look... it was so cold! Brrr.... But I couldn't work out how to open the door! The handles don't work...you need to press a button next to it.... doh! Some things don't change...

In the Cuban Pub! (Boat had a Cuban theme...weird because we were going to Finland and Helsinki)

Bon Voyage!

A lady rolling cigarettes in the Duty Free Store

My new friend will be making another appearance later in the blog...

We bought a few bottles of wine, some cheese, chips, and nuts and sat by the window in a prime time location as we sailed along the coast watching the pretty little Swedish houses and the sunset through a very very dirty window - how romantic! But really, it was a nice moment.

Then this happened! Haha.

Anyway, it was an awesome night of meeting lots of interesting people from the tour. We were quite a large and noisy crowd and that night on the boat, we mainly just hung around here in our prime time location, and also went to see a few of the "quality" shows on the boat which mainly followed the Cuban theme. Ridiculous!

DAY 2: HELSINKI

Arriving in Helsinki the next morning, we dragged our tired selves and our luggage onto a tour bus as the "best bus driver in the world" shuttled us around the city with the "best tour guide" telling us every minuscule detail about the city. I wasn't particularly enthused - I'll be honest. Buses are really not my thing - I tend to feel quite sick on a bus and get bad motion sickness. It turned out I also got bad sea sickness (although this was something I learnt last time too) but I had gotten it even worse this morning over breakfast. Horrible. A buffet breakfast on the boat was included with our tour and I am ashamed to say that that was one of the things I was most excited about. Unfortunately, I was too sick to eat more than about half a plate (blasphemy!)... but I did drink something like 15 cups of tea.

In Finland, it was still snowing a bit and that of course, makes everything all the more magical. We went through all the touristic spots, including the Sibelius monument which was quite an amazing sculpture and a real sight to behold amongst the pretty Christmas trees and the snow. 

After the long bus tour that I thought would never end, the sun came out and we were told we had the afternoon to explore the city ourselves. Yes! This was especially awesome because one of my friends from Australia actually happened to have moved to Helsinki three weeks earlier. Gobsmackingly ridiculous! But seriously. Ilona was in Helsinki - and so I texted her and we made plans to meet up at the Big White Church. As we walked around the city, exploring and heading in the general direction of the church, I found myself just really loving the vibe and spaciousness of this city. We were told on the bus that Helsinki is actually the Design Capital and I can kind of see why. It is just really nice, with funny little artworks, nice buildings, amazingly artistic store fronts, people who looked artistic and open, and in general - just quite spacious and well put together. My friends felt the place to be not so special and quite similar to the other Scandinavian cities which it is to a point. But I did enjoy it here and I really felt like this was a place I could live for a while!

This pic is for Helen

So Scandinavian!

Biggest Maccas sign ever?

Love these guys... they remind me of Never Ending Story.. I am not sure why

Turtle is so cute!

As we waited for Ilona at the White Church... we had some fun on the steps.... the sun really brings out the sillyness in people!

Really liked how it looked with this girl on the steps

Can you spot Ilona?!!?!?!?! Tanned and looking ever so amazing!

Year 7 Smith's Hill Buddies REUNITED IN FINLAND!!!

It was so cool to see Ilona in Helsinki! What a crazy thing to happen.... was absolutely surreal. Even funnier was Ilona's accent which was not so Australian anymore... for some reason. But it came back eventually - I gave her a bit of crap about it teehee. As you can see from the above place, we dined in style... at a very strange Pizza Buffet place (to atone for my fail of an effort at the Breakfast Buffet) that also had tacos but it all tasted really quite bad....

I love UP - the Pixar Film.. and this image reminds me of this

After lunch, my friends including Ilona walked around exploring the city a little more. Ilona had actually not done all that much exploring herself so that was good. We went for a trek to find the other big church in the city and on the way, so lots of quaint and quirky stuff. I love the quirkiness that is Helsinki!

Yes it was nearly Easter in Helsinki and these feathers are everywhere in Scandinavia - Sweden included. Here are some photos I took in Uppsala City just before I left... so cute!

Uppsala is filled with these feathers on trees... it's so colourful and awesome!

But one thing we didn't have which Helsinki did.... was these Bunnies crossing the street?

The Red Church we were trying to get to

Padlocks on the bridge

What a cool restaurant front!

At the top of Helsinki - GROUP PHOTO's are a necessity!

Walking back to the harbour to catch our boat and the beginning of a big trek to find a supermarket

I really loved this sign. It says in the red area - "Probably Always Cheaper!"

We were running late for the boat and so it was in a bit of a rush that I bid goodbye to my dear friend Ilona! I hope we will cross paths again soon! She's keeping her own blog so make sure you guys check that out too! Her adventures in Finland are definitely hilarious.... going to a country where you don't speak the language reaps so many amazing and funny stories.

Back on the boat - we ate the things that Ilona recommended us - like Potato cakes or something. Sorry Ilona, this batch was pretty gross. Not Happy Jan!

Icky Finnish Potato Cookies

Aboard the Princess Maria a-heading for Russia! YEW

DAY 3: ST PETERSBURG

We arrived in Russia - to be greeted by this BRASS BAND. It made for quite a celebratory exit out of the terminal. Again, we were herded onto the bus for a tour of the sites of St Petersburg, stopping for photo stops at random places such as this sphinx.

The views and the waters around St Petersburg were so sparkly and the buildings were very intricate and had a classical Russian style in design. Believe me, you will see a lot more of that. We were told that in Russia, there are usually only about 60 days of sun so we were quite lucky to have arrived on a sunny day. Funny because for the 3 days we were here, we experienced all different kinds of Russian weather. Sunny Russia, Windy Russia, Rainy Russia, Snowy Russia, and Hailing Russia.

Another photo stop was for a couple of statues, and a view of a fortress which was in the shape of a Pentagon which we would later visit. If you haven't noticed, I'm not so much into touristy trips and so I do apoligise for not giving the proper names for things sometimes. I will try and include photos!

After the photo stops, our next stop was at the Vodka Museum where we were educated on the history of how Vodka was made, given the opportunity to sample some Vodka, and treated to an amazing 5 course Russian Lunch! Now, that's what I'm talking about!

Really cute bottle... the lady haha so funny

The guy who makes Vodka

The most extensive Vodka bar... that platter has little bread with pig fat on it to eat with the Vodka... mmmm tasty!

We need to sample some quality Russian Vodka here...

The group of us walking around sampling and Vodka and eating weird food

Bit scared to drink the Vodka... ready for the BURN! And no this time - it is not water!

Our main course, after our delicious salad thing

Coffee and Icecream? Yes Please! Everyone thought I was weird for popping that icecream in the coffee... but I certainly didn't regret it! AFFOGATTO's - I love you.

The next leg of the journey was towards the fortress with a Russian Orthodox church inside. On the way, I was astounded to see that all through the city, cars were double and even triple parked in. Every car was also quite dirty and the roads were extremely wide. Still, how any car gets out once it is parked is beyond me.

Entering the fortress

The Orthodox Church

We had to buy tickets from a very angry Russian lady to go into the church

Interesting colour scheme...

My favourite thing inside the church was the people who were working on sections of the church refurbishing it - and I thought they looked a little like oompa loompas. Funny site!

Another highlight here was being serenaded by this priest choir who sang for us and they sounded seriously angelic. I was very touched by their voices. I took a video but it doesn't do them justice - also because it is sideways but it's more to listen to some Russian Orthodox Choir Music. Actually it's quite a long and large video so I will just let you listen to it on request when I'm back in Australia lol

After seeing the Russia Orthodox Church, we went to a Russian Church - "Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood" which was especially amazing. This is because firstly, IT LOOKS AMAZING from the outside. It is quite a sight to behold. Secondly, the inside is gobsmackingly intricate and detailed as it is covered in murals which are completely made from the tiniest mosaic pieces. It would have taken forever to build. Incredible!

This photo I took to show you the fact that all of it was made from little mosaic pieces. IN AWE.

After seeing all the sights of St Petersburg, our tour bus deposited us in the middle of a narrow but rather busy Russia street - causing quite a traffic jam (40 students getting out of a bus, and collecting their bags from the luggage area takes some time). We stood around awkwardly as the tour guide tried to work out where our hostel was. We looked like the biggest idiots standing awkwardly on the sidewalk and between cars in the street and to my disbelief, the tour guide announced that actually, we were not in the right place and the bus was going to have to come back and collect us and load our luggage again. Ha.... what a fail!

We did eventually make it to our hostel, which was actually a little away from the city. Maybe about a 20-30 minute walk? The hostel itself was not too bad for Russian standards! The four of us shared a dorm with four other people from the tour. It was a very spacious, clean and bright room. The stairway up to the hostel smelt like smoke. In Russia, you can smoke indoors. The hostel itself had a no smoking policy so everyone ducked outside and smoked in the staircase. The smell of smoke everywhere, including restaurants and bars was something I had to get used to over the three days.

As we left to go explore the city and find ourselves some dinner. We couldn't read the name of our street and worried that we wouldn't find our way back, I took this photo of the sign. Any guesses on how to pronounce that?

Loved finding such colourful graffiti and awesome shots of Urban Decay

The streets of Russia. Daunting much? But yet, magnificent!

Loved the colourful randomness of this building

This is my favourite shot from Russia because I feel like it really encompasses everything that is Russia. The awesome church which I think is just bloody awesome. The frozen water. The houses and buildings and the broken balcony which is about to sink into the water.

The main shopping street of Russia

In a Sushi Restaurant, which smelled like smoke, we ordered Pasta (yeah I know) and I ordered this "homemade Russian drink" which tasted like berry jelly... was very thick and glutinous. Interesting textures.

Russian Subway! Sells Beer!

That night, we went on a pub crawl with the tour to a couple of Russian Bars and Clubs. It was a Wednesday so the only people out were us which was a little strange. All the bars smelt heavily of smoke, and everyone smoked a lot. The bar tenders didn't speak English well at all. In fact, noone in Russia really speaks English. It was actually quite a challenge getting around because we couldn't read any of the signs, and the Russians could not converse with us! Still it was all quite hilarious. The bars were very different to what we were used to of course. The toilets usually had no toilet paper, sometimes no water too. The decor was incredibly cool because they were very dark, with interesting ripped walls and crazy pictures on the wall, lots of graffiti and the music was AWESOME.

The next day, we went to the Winter Palace where the Hermitage Museum was. We were greeted by a Russian Army Band! So cool. I watched them play for ages. There were drums, and brass and a conductor. Afterwards, we spent about 4 hours in the museum - meant to be one of the best, biggest and most comprehensive museums in the world - where I saw lots of stuff. Such stuff includes: Egyptians (mummified people), Van Gogh, Matisse, Monet, 2nd Century Old Statues, Michelangelo Sculptures, Knights Armour, etc etc.

The Winter Palace

Russian Army Band

Inside the Winter Palace/Hermitage Museum, we saw a lot of interesting Russian interior design - which I have come to learn I am not a major fan of. It is definitely glamorous and intricate but just a little too glamorous, a little too pompous, a little too cluttered, a little too much of a cacophany of everything. Still, it was again, a sight to behold. You can really see, the Russian Royal Family liked to live in luxury. You will see an even better example of this at the next Palace we went to! You see, this palace was not luxurious enough for the princess for whom this was built for. After the Winter palace was finished, the princess decided she didn't like it - so now it is a museum. Huh.

Can you spot Annie in this pic?

After the long and tiring but very interesting many hours in the museum, we left and decided to go and find some typical Russian cuisine. Now, one thing I have learnt since coming on exchange is that when you go to a country, asking for the "typical food of that country" can be difficult. When you are in Australia, it is hard to find a restaurant which says "Australian Cuisine" (other than the one I worked at which was owned by Asians and is now closed down and apparently a sushi bar). My point is, that everywhere, places are becoming more and more globalised and multicultural when it comes to food. Nevertheless, we did find one! TEPEMOK! The Russian Fast Food Restaurant - pancakes and buckwheat porridge. YUM!

After our actually surprisingly delicious Russian lunch, we walked around the city a little more and it rained. We came across "China Town" and where you find China Town, you find Me and Carter! 

More shots of Russia because Russia is really kinda cool

After a long trek around the city, Carter, Manon and I had yet another long trek around the city at night in search for some pie shop which was recommended in Carter's Lonely Planet. We walked down the street it was on for what seemed like forever (in the rain with no umbrella) stopping Russians and saying only the name of the cafe only to have them constantly pointing in the opposite direction to the way we were going. It turned out we were literally walking left and right down the street, going past it over and over again because the sign was written in Russian! DAMMIT! When we finally found it, it was closed because it was after 9. Huh. We ended up just trying to find ANYTHING AT ALL to eat. We finally ended up in a really amazing Georgian restaurant. Soaked and hungry, we were so happy to find the waitress could speak English and even better, had a menu in English for us! Here is a photo representing how woozy we felt and then one of our happy celebratory pose!

Yes we were in a Georgian restaurant but all I wanted was a Ceasar Salad!

After dinner, we ended up being coerced into going out for a final night out in Russia! It was quite a crazy night where the whole group of us (some 20 or so people) all got lost in Russia at night and separated. Carter, an Aussie and I ended up in a Jager Bar where the bartender who didn't speak English gave us an amazing "Sambuca Experience."  If you want to know more, you can ask me personally. Either way, it was a really memorable last night in Russia! But when I got home, I was definitely ready for bed! Only to have to get up quite early to go to St Catherine's Palace for our last day in Russia!

It had snowed overnight. WOOT

Last Day in Russia - St Catherine's Palace

In the palace, you need to wear foot slippers!

St Catherine's Palace showed me a world of extreme luxury, wealth, and a gaudy smorgasbord of Russian interior design. Obviously, I wasn't especially keen on the style but I admit it does come out nicely in photos compared to in person in my opinion. Also, it serves as a depiction of the style at the time. I am very glad that I was able to witness it first hand.

The Amber Room - not allowed to take photos in here. But I snuck one anyway. The room is quite famous, but actually, the Amber in here is apparently not even the real deal - as the real Amber pieces which were donated by a Prussian Prince were stolen by the Germans in the war and are "lost" - unsure if they are destroyed or hidden. Wow. Just Wow. These are GIANT walls of amber we are talking about - how does one LOSE GIANT PLANKS OF AMBER?

Outside in the garden of the Palace

In St Catherine's Palace Garden, there is another little palace for St Catherine when she wants to "get away"... and have peace and solitude...

Lenin Statue, and the military hats some guys from the tour got!

At this point, the four of us and two German guys decided we had had enough of the tour on the bus and strayed away and caught a metro instead home. The metro is meant to be one of the deepest as it never surfaces above ground. It was also awesome because you don't see the metro! It is kind of like in Harry Potter in the Ministry of Magic, when the people go into the toilet and then come out in little portals. In the metro station, there are no platforms - you simply just wait in the main area and when the metro pulls up - the doors all down the station open and people spill out. Amazing sight!

I bought some crab chips for the boat ride home - they tasted like crab! Pretty tasty!

There was a Russian bride and groom in the ship terminal... how romantic and random!

About to set sail!

On the boat - we were stoked to discover that for this leg of the journey back to Helsinki - our cabin had a window for the first time! YES!

We arrived back in Helsinki on Sunday morning to find that wow - major flaw in the tour - it is EASTER SUNDAY. Nothing was open. And it was cold. There was pretty much nothing to do! Mina here expresses how it kinda felt for us to have to spent the whole day in Helsinki with nowhere to go and nothing to do. We found a coffee shop that was open.

We found a Turkish place open too. Big meal...

With so much time to kill - we ended up finding out way to the cinema (Manon's brilliant idea) and asked to see any movie that was in English. To my delight, The Descendants was about to play so we saw that. It was awesome and sad. So what looked like it was going to be a horrible day in Helsinki ended up being an awesome day in Helsinki and very comfortable.

Back on the boat, while Manon had a nap - the rest of made a little blanket fortress for funsies! HOORAY!

It had been a very very very busy and super touristy trip! We met a lot of cool people and saw a lot of things which I really don't think we could have seen unless we had gone with a tour. What became quite clear was that travelling to Russia, a tour guide is very helpful, especially one who can speak Russian. It can be quite an intimidating place. Still, it was a crazy adventure. I can't say I was particularly a fan of it being so touristy, but I think it was a good experience to try it. In the end, we did mix it up a little and we did lots of interesting things. I bought a bunch of postcards from Russia too! And I intend to send them to everyone when I get the time. So I may need to grab people's emails!

I hope you enjoyed reading this blog. Because it took me a heck of a long time to write it. Wow - and I still have Latvia to go! Damn. But hey - THANKS FOR READING GUYS!

Oh yeah also - my friend who I said would pop up. I didn't end up being bothered to talk about him anymore but we saw him again and again throughout our nights on the boat.