Brynn Marie Evans

Chris and I were in both Helsinki and St. Peterburg last week. On Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Chris and Jyri were giving workshops to various clients in Helsinki. I was ensuring that our Russian Visas would be ready, and re-visiting folks from the FinnFacts tour from the week before

On Thursday morning, we took the Sibelius (Finnish) train to St. Petersburg. The trip took about 6 hours, and the “border crossing” lasted about an hour (although we were continuously moving). The most terrifying part of the crossing was when the Russian guards took our passports for 30 minutes! They actually collected the passports of everyone on the train, went in the “back” and conferred (I assume), and finally returned them to us. Not a single question asked.

Upon arrival in St. Petersburg, we had asked our hotel to hire a car to drive us to the hotel. We met our guy and he drove us directly there (for 600 rubles, or about $20). That night, we met our gracious guests, Vitaly Vlasov and Gleb Kaplun, for the first time.

In the rest of the week, Chris and I went all over the main part of town, seeing sights (e.g., Peter and Paul Fortress, Peterhof), visiting museums (Hermitage, Kunstkamera) and churches (St. Issac’s cathedral, Church of the Spilled Blood, Kazansky Cathedral). It was overwhelming, awe-inspiring, tiring, and invigorating at the same time. St. Petersburg feels a lot like Paris or New York City — a BIG city with lots of people living a fast-paced life. It was quite the contrast to Helsinki where we were coming from.

Luckily, we had great weather in St. Pete’s! Most days were cool but clear. One day it did snow — the first snow of the season, in fact. But otherwise, we lucked out!

The map below documents where we were and what we did in St. Pete’s! Click around, zoom in, or open the map in its own window for a step-by-step history.

View St. Petersburg in a larger map