Russia – St Petersburg

April 8th – we left Tallinn behind in icy rain. On the left hand side of the road, the ice on the Baltic Sea was right up to the shore, like frozen froth. The bay at Tallinn is iced over, with ice-breakers working to ensure that the ferry to Helsinki, and other ships, can keep going every day of the year. The sky was an intense mid-blue at the horizon, back in the direction we’d come from, but lightening a little ahead. We drove past what seemed miles of dirty industry, railway sidings and decrepit buildings on one side of the road, forests on the other. For a while there was a strong smell of oil in the air…and curiously, most newish buildings seemed to be painted blue and yellow – I kept expecting to see IKEA!

The traffic was pretty slow for a while as we were following a high sided vehicle with equal length trailer, both piled precariously with logs and swaying dangerously. A sign stated: Peterburi 323 km. In amongst the trees you can see patches of dry scrub – dead ferns, moss, pine needles – where there is some shelter from the snow. The ditches on either side of the road were frozen solid.

Eventually we came to the border post at Narva, which becomes something like Ivanograd when you cross the no-man’s land of the bridge between Estonia and Russia. On either side of the river which forms the border are huge fortifications, built up to overlook and control river traffic.We had to unload our baggage and pass through a building, showing our passports, visas and arrival and departure forms. After about 2 hours, we were all through and back in the bus. I suppose the most difficult thing now is the Cyrillic alphabet – and no English anywhere to help. The roads after the border were pitted and reminiscent of disused airfields from WW2. On this main road to Petersburg, we were thrown around, books raining down on us from the parcel shelf above.

Just about 80km before St Petersburg we stopped for a late lunch of hot borsch soup with bread and thick coffee with cream – delicious. And it only cost 130 Rubles, less than 3 Euros.

The road into the centre of St Petersburg was chock full of traffic but we finally got quite near the hostel and walked the last bit with our luggage. The driver was not in the best of moods as he’d overtaken a bus and in doing so had gone over the central white line. A policeman had waved him to a stop with a truncheon and fined him 20 Euros on the spot. We settled in an 8-bed dorm and then went across the road to the Macaroni restaurant (Italian, wouldn’t you guess!) and had some great food. The Hostel Pilao is good value – lovely clean rooms, toilets, showers and even a washing machine. It’s situated quite centrally, just off Nevsky Prospekt which leads up to the Hermitage.

Up at dawn, or thereabouts, and off with Olga our guide to do a 3-hour walking tour of the city. I was a bit the worse for wear…sore throat, cough and a bit weak. It was a hard slog, but so worth it. She took us along Nevsky Prospekt, then in an underpass to the other side and up a side road to the Arts square, with concert hall, theatre etc. Beautiful imposing buildings, mostly with European architects, and similar to those found in Vienna and Budapest etc.

We did a meandering tour around the churches, including one, the Church of the Resurrection, with amazing domes, minarets and huge quantities of gold leaf. It is now a museum but was used during the communist regime as a store house for vegetables like cabbage etc. In this roundabout way we finally reached the Hermitage, so named because it was a bolt-hole, a sort of retreat, for Catherine the Great. She stocked it with her treasures, European paintings and suchlike. We had a brief stop at a tourist shop/centre at this point – mainly to use the ATM. All in Russian of course, so we needed to be guided through it.

Some people had their cards refused – I was one of the lucky ones and managed to get a wad of rubles. Pete and Doug bought Russian fur hats with insignia – very dashing! They looked really good, actually!

After looking across the river at the fortified island and the many beautiful palaces, we walked to St Isaac’s church before returning to the Admiralty buildings and the end of the tour. The Admiralty buildings are the centre of the city, and the original planners designed three main arterial roads to fan out from this point, crossing canals as they come to them; Nevsky Prospekt is one of them. There’s also a beautiful statue of Peter the Great rearing up on his horse, erected in his memory by Catherine, also the Great. She made sure her name is on the plaque as well! I think she invented PR.

Tour over, we went back to the Hermitage in the vain hope of getting lunch there, to the sight of long queues waiting to enter the building. Then we were told that the restaurant was inside and we’d have to join the queue. No chance! We walked through the arch of the huge fronted office buildings on the other side of the square, found a nice little restaurant and had a lovely meal (baked salmon, covered in veg: carrots, courgettes, turnip batons and with cheese baked over the top). Then a longish trek home to the hostel. aching and weary! I’d planned a quiet night in while others went out again, but P and A stayed behind too and we went across the road to Macaroni – aubergines baked in tomato sauce with parmesan. Mmmm. And chocolate cake for afters.

Tomorrow we can have a lie in, then at midday we’re off to Novgorod for one night’s stop to break the long journey to Moscow. I’ll be studying my Russian alphabet and phrases on the coach!