Russia: Nervous at the Crossing Border

Russia, September 2010

While I was enjoying the moving scenery through train window on the journey from Helsinki to St. Petersburg, I heard an announcement that we were about to reach Finnish border. Thus cafeteria would closed and all toilets would be locked. We were told to remain seated and get our passport ready. I was quite nervous because I've heard not-so-pleasant stories about the immigration process.

The train started to slow down and stopped. Some immigration officers boarded to our train followed by 2 custom officers and their drug-sniffing dogs. Then the train continued to roll slowly while those officers worked their way through our train. By the time we reached the border, those officers and sniffer dogs all left the train.

After that the train continued the journey for about 5 minutes before stopped at a small station. We were officially in Russia by then. The immigration Russian officers arrived to check our passport and visa. We were relieved when they left the train, everything went very smooth. St. Petersburgh, here we come!

Finally arriving in Russia.....yeah that's the pile of our luggage :p

Peter and Paul Fortress was the first place on our itinerary to visit in St. Petersburgh. We went into Peter and Paul cathedral with its splendid interior. It's the burial place of all Russian Tsars from Peter I to Alexander III. After exploring for about an hour or so, we headed to city centre. We decided to join the canal cruise before having dinner and back to our hotel.

Peter and Paul Fortress

splendid interior

cruising the canal in St. Petersburg

The next morning after breakfast, we made our way to Petrodvorets where Peterhof Grand Palace is.
It's sometimes called the Russian Versailles and recognised as UNESCO World Heritage Site.
When I got there, despite the rain and gloomy skies, I was in awe because this palace has amazingly beautiful garden and fountain.

Peterhof Grand Palace

beautiful details in Peterhof

Petrodvoreds

matching top with the statues :p

Before lunch, we managed to visit St. Isaac's Cathedral, the largest Russian orthodox cathedral in the city.
The cathedral's dome rises 101.5 metres  and is plated with pure gold also decorated with twelve statues of angels. The interior was originally decorated with scores of paintings by some great Russian masters of the day.

St. Isaac's Cathedral

the interior of St' Isaac's Cathedral

St. Isaac's Cathedral from afar

St. Petersburg the bustling city

In the afternoon we visited Hermitage museum, it's one of the largest and oldest museum in the world founded in 1764. The collection includes more than three million works of art and artifacts of the world culture. Among them are paintings, graphic works, sculptures and works of applied art, archaeological finds and numismatic material.

After dinner the tour guide took us for a city tour and made some stops to take picture of some iconic buildings and souvenir shopping.
St. Petersburg is a very beautiful city that I'd like to re-visit one day.

Hermitage museum

Crouching Boy by Michelangelo

St. Petersburg

the gala diner

Church of our Saviour on Spilled Blood

dusk in St. Petersburg

flying Aeroflot to Moscow

Next morning we arrived in the domestic airport around 7 to fly to our next destination.....Moscow.