This is it. The big one. What I've been waiting for. Over Easter weekend I got the opportunity to go to Saint Petersburg on an ESN trip. This was also offered last semester but I didn't think that I'd have that week off, turns out I did so missed it. This semester I was determined to go to Russia, it's a place I've wanted to go to since I studied my history A level and it did not disappoint me.
The weekend started with a 15 hour coach journey to Helsinki to catch the cruise ship which was mildly enjoyable but also an absolute killer. When we arrived in Helsinki a big group of us went to get food in the few hours we had before the ferry left before walking to the port and boarding the ship.
When I woke up the next day, we'd docked in Saint Petersburg and I was so excited. Little did I realise just how long the task ahead was. Passport control. Now, I'd not expected passport control to be easy, I'd thought the line would be long and it would take a while, but that was naive. A somewhat orderly queue had formed by the time we entered but about an hour in everyone got sick of that and proceeded to shove forward, losing any semblance of order that had proceeded. Some boys got a bit tired of waiting in silence so they put some music on. My highlight was hearing Wonderwall for a good 30 seconds before it was turned off. Finally, after about 3 and a half hours we were all through passport control an onto a quick tour. We stopped occasionally to take a few photos as our guide, Alex, gave us some information about what we were seeing. I was in absolute awe. I love beautiful architecture and Saint Petersburg is full of it. Many of the buildings were palace's belonging to the Russian Imperial family before it was abolished in 1918. I was in my element.
That evening a group of us went to a traditional Russian dinner which was super fun, we also got to see some traditional Russian entertainment and got some free vodka and as a student I can't complain about that. As we only had a short time in Saint Petersburg (72 hours without a visa), there was A LOT of activities planned. We all packed onto the bus the next morning to go to the Hermitage Museum, previously the Winter Palace. I couldn't wait. I'd read so much about this place, seen it in films and photos. I never thought I'd go myself. The interior was just as beautiful as the exterior, the grand rooms ornately decorated which reminded me that this was once a palace, someone's home. That afternoon I went exploring with Lucy and Katie, we wondered the city and stumbled quite literally across the Savior on Spilled Blood which I had been so desperate to see. The mosaicked domes opened up to me the closer I got. I'll be honest I got a bit emotional because I was actually seeing it. We spent every moment we could exploring our surroundings with other exchange students because we had such a short time in the city.
After we left Saint Petersburg we stopped in Tallinn for a few hours before catching the ferry back to Helsinki. Tallinn was really beautiful and to make the most of the short time we'd been offered there I took a tour of the old town, which I found really interesting. I wish I'd had a bit more time to explore Tallinn and its surroundings properly and it's definitely somewhere I would go back to. It was a wonderful break from Rovaniemi and it felt great to not wear snowboots and base layers all the time.
