Russia and TransMongolian Train — St. Petersburg

Bidding goodbye to my comrades of 15 days, I headed to my next leg of adventure: Russia. A country that Americans only knew of for three things: communism, vodka, and Putin. Most travelers come to Russia for Arctic tourism and mythical Tran Siberian/Mongolian train. I decided to take my journey through Russia entirely through train starting from Helsinki.

The Allegro train is a rapid train that journeys across the Finland Russian border. The entire trip takes 3 and half hours from the Finnish capital. The border police from both sides will be on the train to check documents. Looking around the train, this fast transit option seems to be popular for business people as many came with their suits and tux. (no pictures for you here as the Russian border policewomen don’t like pictures…)

As the train made it through the border, the scenery didn’t seem to change all that much. Little houses with neatly decorated walls continued through the countries. Then it suddenly stopped, shortly, there is a big structure. The Leningradsky station, Saint Petersburg, Russia. I walked out of the station and looked around. However, the scenery was not what I expected. There were some obvious signs of the socialist government existence, the star, the hammer and sickle, but not so much… Russian. The buildings were neatly stacked side by side, all with similar height. The streets, neat and clean. A lot of young people were walking, skating, biking, or scootering around (Yes! There was a lot of scooters). On my route to my hostel, there was even a very wide (and none stinky) river. This is incredibly westernized. You could have mistaken it for any other European cities.

Sunsets late in the summer of the Northern capital

Ferries cruising along the channels of Saint Petersburg

Indeed, St.Petersburg was a nice soft landing to my backpacking journey through Russia. Thanks to Peter the Great’s reform, this city was nicely planned out to the likes of Venice. In fact, it was modeled off of the Italian city of canals. The classical styled exterior of the houses and bridges were all set to compete with the greatest of European structures.

Argentina vs. Nigeria’s soccer match was also that night. I set off to the Fanfest built right next to the famous Church on Spilled Blood.

Yes, I was here during the World Cup!

The day ended with an Argentinean victory and a white night for the northern capital.

Day 1 in SPB

My own Russian history knowledge is very limited, so I reserved a personal tour guide for the first two days. ( I also recommend doing this if you are backpacking through a country for a bit. This helps you to get your footings fast. Also makes rest of your visit to the historic sights more meaningful).

I met up with my tour guide, Maria at 10 o’clock in the morning. Plan for the day is the Winter Palace, the Hermitage, the Nevsky Prospect and all their surrounding sites. We started the day by walking by the river I passed by the day before, the Neva river. One of the important lifeline for the city of St. Petersburg. Most of the important sites in St. Petersburg are built along this river or other canals connecting to this river. The Winter Palace and the Hermitage were first commissioned by the Peter the Great’s daughter, Elizabeth. The sites were re-decorated and added on by several of the Romanovs afterward. It was said that Elizabeth loved luxury and grand designs, the palaces, and rooms with her designs all displayed baroque style.

The Winter Palace and Hermitage

Hallway full of European style paintings

The throne room

Palace square

Since Peter the Great’s reformation, the Romanovs after him all loved to collect masterpieces from European artists. As a result, instead of Russian paintings, the Winter Palace and Hermitage had a very extensive collection of Flemish, Dutch, Spanish, and French paintings as well as sculptures. Most of them are prominent religious piece due to the Orthodox influences. If you wondered where the Russian art collections are, they are in the Russian Museum down by the Nevsky Prospect also in St. Petersburg.

Nevsky Prospect itself is worth a visit. Not only it is one of the main commercial streets, but also a street with a lot of history. This street was one of the original main avenues that radiate out of Admiralty as part of the Peter the Great’s design. Since Catherine the Great’s religious tolerance, churches of different faiths, not just orthodox, occupied the prospect of giving it the name “Prospect of Tolerance.”

One of the churches here

You can also find Catherine the Great’s statue on the prospect

However, for ordinary tourist like me, this is a perfect spot for people watching, trying new cuisine, and souvenir shopping. You can also find a famous Russian pancake chain “Teremok” on the Nevsky Prospect. I highly recommend trying the pancakes here due to its tolerable price and variety. Bonus: the one on the Nevsky Prospect has free wifi!

This was the one I tried: beef, cheese, and mushroom. Delicious!! (photo credit: Teremok. I ate too fast forget to take pictures of this)

Taking the advantage of the white night and extra time, I visited the Faberge museum. Faberge eggs, famous for their delicate designs and surprise were gifts from Tsar Nicolas II to his mother and wife on Easter. A total of 50 delicate eggs were manufactured by the Faberge guild, and only a few of those are for none Russian royals. One of the last eggs manufactured was for the American heiress Consuelo Vanderbilt, the Duchess of Marlboro. But the most unique egg was the (tree egg). Given by Nicolas II to his mother Maria …..

(Clock Egg for Consuelo Vanderbilt. Photo credit Luismigeulhoward Jewelry)

It’s already 8 o’clock in the evening when I finished visiting the Faberge museum. Saint-Petersburgers seems to already burst into party mood on the canal boats. Canal tours are one of the best ways to tour St, Petersburg. I bought my ticket and joined in. (Note: Try to joining the canal tour instead of the Neva river tour. I highly recommend the one in front of the Faberge Museum)

Party on the river!

Wedding party on the river!!

The cruise by the Faberge museum passes through smaller canals

Dinner recommendation: Not too far from the Faberge Museum and the cruise dock was a cheap and delicious Pelmeni restaurant. If you want to try the famous Russian dumpling. Highly recommend doing it there. Though expect to wait somewhat in the summer.

Don’t forget to try the Pelmeni in Russia!

Day 2 in SPB

The sunny day continued in Saint Petersburg. Today, with Maria, I was visiting the Peterhof Summer Palace. The best way to get to the palace is by hydrofoil; essentially a very high speed and capable watercraft. (Hint: Due to the summer crowd and pleasant weather, it’s best to reserve beforehand so you can get a seat at the time slot you wanted.).

Hydrofoil braving the choppy waters of the Neva river

Getting off the Hydrofoil, I was stunned immediately stunned by the luxuriousness of the fountains. Maria had the timing just right, shortly after we enter the palace compound was the time to watch the opening of the fountain at 11am. There is a total of 144 fountains in the Peterhof Palace, all naturally fed by the water reservoir nearby using gravity. To turn on the fountains, all the workers had to do was to turn off the water blockage. Because there is no electric component with most of the fountains, the opening performance is actually manually controlled by worker turning on and off the water blockage. I wondered how strong his arms had to be to keep on turning on and off those heavy wheels for controls.

Main fountain right after opening

View in front of the palace towards the dock

The design idea of Peter the Great was for each of the palaces to have their own fountain. Other than the grand opening fountains, other equally impressively designed fountains are scattered through the palace park. See below for some other nicely design fountains. The most interesting of them all was perhaps the trick fountains. It was said that Peter the Great loved to surprise people with these fountains. One of such looked like a small statue but is a fountain secretly controlled by a worker sitting behind it. The control of the fountain looked like a bench arm. He changes the fountain depending on where people were standing at the moment. Another one had its openings hidden by the side of the road among the rocks. Maria warned me about it so we stood by to watch. However, some were clearly surprised and got drenched. Luckily it was an unusually hot day. (I won’t spoil the surprise for you with too many pictures of these rick fountains so you can still be surprised when you go there. You are welcome :)

The Peterhof Palace itself was surprising a short tour. Currently, you are only allowed to see the first floor, as the second floor was still been reconstructed. The Palace was seriously damaged during the Second World War. German troops advanced so fast that the Russian government employed Russian women who were not fighting to bury and hide some of the statues of the palace. Still, the main statue of Samson on the opening fountain disappeared after the war. The palace interior was heavily damaged as well. The decorations of what we are seen today are mostly reconstructed after the war.

Still, from the rooms reconstructed, you can imagine the palace it once was. From the luxury Baroque style of Elizabeth to the classical style of Catherine the Great, each of the emperors and empresses left their marks which can still be seen today. One of the most stunning room was the room of portrays. Hundreds of portrays of 8 girls acted as wallpapers to the room. Normally we would consider it to be slightly creepy to have eyes watching you while you eat. However, considering that the Orthodox church’s iconic iconstasis normally has thousands of saints’ portray up on the wall staring at you, people back then might have gotten used to it.

If you haven’t seen what an Iconstasis look like, here it is. LOTS of portrays of saints.

Well…. very very overwhelming

Taking the hydrofoil back, I parted with Maria who provided me with so much good information. (The company is called the friendly local guide. I highly recommend them. Maria was very knowledgeable about everything.) Rest of the day, I spent visiting the grand St. Isaac’s Church and Peter the Great’s statue. Interestingly, Peter the Great was born on St. Isaac’s day, so there were quite a few churches built for this saint. However, due to the swampiness of the banks of Neva, only the fourth one, the current one persevered the harsh environment.

St. Issac’s Church.

Opulent interior of the St. Isaac Church

Founder and symbol of the city: Peter the Great

Day 3

The last day in St.Petersburg before leaving by night train to Moscow. Time to visit the place where everything started, the Peter and Paul fortress.

It all started with a strategic location. Peter the Great wanted fortification at the convergence of the two rivers after his victories in the Northern wars. The initial fortress was hastily built due to the war needs but was later replaced by stones from all over Russia. The most significant structure in this fortress is perhaps the spire of the Peter and Paul Church.

Peter and Paul Church with its famous tall spire

Since Peter the Great, most of the Romanovs were buried in this church which includes the great reformer himself and memorial burial of Nicolas II.

Peter the Great and Catherine the Great were both buried here

Other than visiting the great museum within the walls of the fortress, it is just a nice place to take a stroll on a beautiful day. With tall leafy trees lined some of the walks, it’s hard to imagine this was a place where once no Russian wanted to think of or to be. The State prison here in the fortress imprisoned many political prisoners. Once also prisoned many Bolsheviks. The actual facility of the prison was actually not so bad, but it was the psychological torture of complete no communication with the others that killed many. This is a museum which I highly recommend visiting. (Tip: Because the fortress grounds is quite big with many museums. I recommend buying the set ticket (which included entrance to 5 museums) and renting the English voice guide. Unfortunately, at this moment, Russia does not have a lot of museum explanations in English. Without the voice guide you pretty much don’t know anything.)

From the fortress, you can see the Winter Palace and the Hermitage quite clear.

As I made my ways out of the fortress to cross the Neva river. The wind suddenly picked up. It was so strong that I was literally moving sideways by the wind. I recalled Maria’ warning about the sudden change of weather and strong winds in St.Petersburg. It does seem like that I have run out of my luck on weather. I suppose it is a fitting time to move on to the next city. Jumping on the famous “Red Arrow” number 001 night train, I left with the company of the “white night.”