With the journey time slashed to 3 hours 36 minutes, it is no surprise that cross-border excursions are suddenly in vogue as folk on both sides of the border want to try the new Allegro service. To meet the new demand, train frequency on the Allegro link from Russia to Finland will double with effect from next Sunday.

Accommodation in Hamina, Finland

Throw in the new St Peter Line overnight shipping service to Helsinki, which started operation last year and this week moves to a new terminal in St. Petersburg, and one might well wonder why anyone still takes the bus from St. Petersburg to Finland.

Bus links

The bus takes longer than the train, but it’s cheaper, and we really think it can make sense. The Allegro train is great if speed is of the essence, and the ship is fine for those wishing to sleep on an overnight voyage to Finland.

But between St. Petersburg and Helsinki lies one of Europe’s most profoundly interesting areas, a region where Russian, Finnish and even Swedish interests have delicately intertwined to create very distinctive histories, politics and cultures.

A visit to Hamina, Finland

The scheduled bus takes about eight hours and stops along the way in the cities of Vyborg and Hamina. The latter is a superb introduction to Finland.

Hamina is an old fortress town, a place that in the past has been variously Swedish and Russian. Being little more than half-an-hour by bus west of the Finnish-Russian border, it is a popular spot with Russians making short forays into Finland for shopping. Yet Hamina’s picture-perfect octagonal square is a fine piece of early 18th-century design and a great spot to linger.

Where to stay

We stopped in Hamina last week and stayed at Pormestarintalon Pihakammari, a super little garden house in a peaceful setting behind the graceful wooden villa that for many years served as home to Hamina’s mayors. Our stay came towards the end of a long journey exploring remote Karelia, and after some wilderness days sedate Hamina was a happy re-engagement with civilization.

How to get there

For travelers coming from St. Petersburg, there is a convenient direct bus to Hamina at 3:40 p.m., which arrives in Hamina at 7:40 p.m. The one-way fare is €30. For those continuing the next day, after the overnight stop that Hamina deserves, to the Finnish capital there are frequent onward buses–generally hourly.

Fares and schedules for bus services in Finland (including many cross-border services to and from Russia) can be checked online.

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It was a wintry thrill to visit this northern city in the colder darker months.  It also, however, provided some stunning views of the city during the long, winter night.

Today I thought I’d post some of my favorite photos of St. Petersburg at night. Glowing lights, snow, beautiful bridges. Talk about drama!

The pictures

As you can see, walking along the canals–or anywhere, really–in St. Petersburg in January can be hazardous. The sidewalks might simply look wet, but they’re often covered in ice. Check out the frozen Moika  Canal.

But when you do venture a look up from the sidewalk, behold the city! I took this photo along the Moika Canal heading toward the Hermitage. The beautiful canal is one of three that winds its way through the heart of St. Petersburg.

Along the Moika’s banks are 18th and 19th-century government buildings, offices, museums, restaurants, apartments, and palaces. As you can see, during my visit there weren’t very many tourists walking along the canals. It was very, very cold outside.

St. Petersburg’s canals are crossed by 313 bridges, many of which are works of art. Many incorporate statues, most involve intricate metalwork, and almost all are photogenic. This bridge is crossing the Moika.

Continuing westward along the Moika, we cross another bridge and spot St. Isaac’s Cathedral. The day after I took this shot, I climbed to the top of St. Isaac’s and circled the giant rotunda in whipping winds.

Returning home along the Neva River, we pass the Peter and Paul Fortress, with its illuminated cathedral glowing through the falling snow. Under that shining spire rest nearly all the czars of Russia, including Peter the Great, himself.

Good night, St. Petersburg!

The post St. Petersburg: Photos album of the city at night appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

Officially named the “Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ,” the church was built as a memorial to the slain Tsar Alexander II of Russia, who was mortally wounded on the site in 1881. It was closed by the Bolsheviks in the 1930s, but reopened in 1997 after 30 years of restoration work.

When I visited St. Petersburg last month, I stopped by the church on my second night. I had heard that there were some masterful mosaics to behold inside. But I didn’t realize that the entire interior was covered in mosaics, from floor to ceiling–including the walls, arches, ceiling, and altar!

Indeed, the church contains over 7,500 square meters of mosaics, more than any other church in the world. Here are some of my photos from the interior. Remember, these mosaics are pieced together from tiny, tiny tiles…

Read more about the church on its website, including its history, near demolition, and use during the 20th Century as a warehouse for opera sets.

The post St. Petersburg: Holy Mosaics! The “Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood” appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

About ten days ago, during my last day in St. Petersburg, Russia, I experienced an afternoon snack attack. I had spent the day visiting churches, climbing to the top of St. Isaac’s Cathedral, and doing last-minute shopping. I wanted to stop for a coffee and treat, but I needed to get home to pack for Riga.

I took the metro to Chernyshevskaya Station, which was a ten-minute walk from my friend Carl’s apartment. Leaving the station, I walked along the lovely Furshtatskaya Boulevard (home to the US and German consulates), watching my every step as I maneuvered ice, slush, and salt.

A vision of…fried dough?

And then I saw it! There was a little green hut, steaming in the cold, and a powerful smell of fried dough. A squat woman inside the hut handed two policemen what appeared to be hot donuts, wrapped in wax paper. But they weren’t exactly donuts, as they were flatter, much larger, and didn’t have a hole. The officers took their dough, nodded and hurried off, stealing bites as they hustled into their parked car.

An afternoon donut sounded ideal. I approached the window, smiled, and pointed to the stack of donuts draining inside on a paper towel, fresh out of the grease. “One,” I said, holding up my finger and then pointing to the stack.

“Which one?” the woman gestured, pointing from one donut to another.

Was there a difference? They all looked like sugar-coated fried dough to me. But there were three stacks of them. There must be some variation I wasn’t noticing.

I pointed to the first stack. She picked it up with tongs, thrust it in a wrapper, grabbed a napkin and handed it over. She held up a calculator to show me the price… 30 rubles (a little less than US $1.00).

I walked five paces around the corner, pulled back the wrapper, and bit into the donut, bracing for a sweet and greasy sugar rush.

Surprise!

The “donut” was filled with savory minced pork! It took a few seconds for me to register the taste, and then, my expectations adjusted, I devoured the rest of the hot pocket.

Turns out, I was eating pirozhki, meat-filled doughy treats that are fried or baked. Fillings vary, but they’re commonly stuffed with minced beef or chicken, mushrooms and potatoes, or sweeter ingredients (cherries, apples). My version, minced meat, was spiced up with a variety of seasonings.

(Note: Don’t confuse pirozhki with pierogi, which are smaller, stuffed dumplings that are fried or boiled and popular in Eastern European countries.)

Thus, dear reader, when in Russia, I’d recommend indulging in a pirozhki. They’re cheap and tasty. Just don’t expect a sugar rush.

The post St. Petersburg Cheap Eat: Fried pirozhki! appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

St. Petersburg, like most big cities, strikes me as a place of small surprises. For every grandiose palace visit, there’s an insightful trip to the grocery store. For every grand view, there’s a real-world view right behind you.

Today I thought I’d post some photos of everyday life in St. Petersburg. Mind you, I don’t have any clue what “everyday life” would be like for a resident, as I’ve only spent four days here. But apologies aside, here are some everyday scenes that struck my fancy.

Some things haven’t changed very much since Soviet times. Above, a man reads today’s newspaper, posted along the street for the public.

This is the control panel of the elevator at my friend Carl’s seven-floor apartment building, where I’m staying. Although there are numbers for floors eight and nine, they aren’t really buttons and you can’t push them. (I still haven’t figured out what the X-button is for. Care to find out?)

When you get off the elevator downstairs, a man sitting in a little room looks at you from behind an open window. The first couple of days I offered smiles, nods, and hellos. I’m a little wiser now and just get out of there.

This is the meal that I devoured inside the Peter and Paul fortress two days ago at their cafe. Shown here: Beet salad (turns out with pickled herring), a sort of double-wide meatball (beef and pork) topped with soft cheese and baked, rice, a slice of wheat bread, and a glass of strawberry water (a refreshing concoction made up of watered-down strawberry juice with two frozen strawberries dropped inside).

The cafe had a special buffet-style system set up, except you didn’t serve yourself. The lady working behind the bar explained the dishes in basic English, I pointed, and she put it all together and rang it up at the register. This meal cost about 300 rubles, or about $8.50. And yes, it was absolutely delicious. I could eat it again right now.

Speaking of lunch, at almost every restaurant or cafe I’ve visited so far, the napkins on the table are presented in this festive manner. They’re folded, fanned out, and displayed upright. It makes quite an impression.

Something about this bathroom, located in the visitor’s center at the Peter and Paul fortress, cracked me up. The stalls (not pictured) are not blessed with their own toilet paper dispensers. You must take your paper before you head in. Choose wisely!

I’ll bet that you can read that familiar restaurant sign, written above in Cyrillic. I’ve noticed a few American chains, including McDonalds, Pizza Hut, and yes, Subway. However, there are fewer than I expected to see (and certainly than I saw in Paris).  This Subway is located near the Hermitage on Nevskiy Prospekt.

Finally, because today’s post might paint a rather unglamorous portrait of St. Petersburg, let us focus on one decidedly “non everyday” aspect of the city. In this photo, which I took yesterday in the Hermitage, Matisse’s masterpiece, “La Danse” (1910) is displayed on the wall of a third-floor gallery that overlooks the palace square.

I spent about five hours in the Hermitage, exploring the palace rooms with my audioguide and getting close to priceless artwork. The best part–there’s hardly anyone around. When I took this photo, I had to wait for somebody to walk through the door.

The world comes to St. Petersburg in the summer when the white nights keep the city illuminated nearly around the clock. In January, however, most tourists stay away, intimidated by the bleak weather.

And to think it’s colder right now in New York…  More soon!

The post St. Petersburg Journal: Daily surprises appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

Greetings from St. Petersburg! The city is snowy, slushy, and slippery, and every step outside requires attention.

I flew in from Paris on Saturday afternoon and my friend Carl, who lives in St. Petersburg, picked me up at the airport and whisked me off to the grocery store.

Check out the caviar selection:

Sunday we explored the city, holding onto each other to avoid landing on our backs.

Carl introduced me to the St. Petersburg Metro. Interestingly, you must enter through the “enter” doors at street-level (and avoid the exit doors, as I found out when I took the Metro by myself). They’re the doors everyone’s walking into, like so:

You then put your token into the turnstile and go down a very, very, very long escalator at a swift speed. The St. Petersburg platforms are some of the deepest in the world. (I timed one escalator ride yesterday–I was cruising up it for 3.5 minutes. This may not seem like a long ride, but it is.)

St. Petersburg during January doesn’t get much sun. During the days that I’ve been here so far, it gets kind of brighter around 10 AM and stays sort of bright through about 5 PM. But we’re not talking about radiant sun. We’re talking about cloudy, whitish skies, usually with some precipitation falling.

This doesn’t stop anyone from walking around, shopping, or selling their wares. Here’s a cluster of art merchants selling their canvasses along the Nevskiy Prospekt, the city’s main boulevard.

It all makes you want to drink a lot of coffee. The city has some American-ish style coffee chains (and St. Petersburg is about to get its first Starbucks). The coffee house I like is called, well, “Coffee House.” (That’s what the sign says in Cyrillic.)

And who says Russians aren’t friendly? When I enjoyed a coffee break at this coffee house yesterday, my waitress was full of smiles and charm. I don’t speak Russian, but everyone I’ve come into contact with has been helpful and we’ve managed to make ourselves understood.

My waitress helped me pick out a chocolate éclair, and when she brought it to the table had decorated it with a little surprise:

That was a first! And so I smiled, this time in front of the Church on Spilled Blood, modeled after St. Basil’s in Moscow:

And that’s my report. Now I’m going to walk to the Hermitage, where I hope to spend most of the day.

The Hermitage in the snow, taken yesterday while trying to keep dry.
More photos soon! Until then, well… smile!

The post St. Petersburg Journal: Impressions, photos, and a smile appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

I’ll be in St. Petersburg for eight days–exploring the city, camping out at the Hermitage, and visiting some hotels for the site. I’ve got the lodging covered in St. Petersburg.

Moscow hotel quandary

However, from St. Petersburg I’ll be heading down to Moscow for three days. This requires two nights in a hotel. As you may know, Moscow hotel prices are quite steep.

Here’s what I’ve found so far:

* Hostels are available with bunks for $30 a night.
Problem: I don’t want to stay in a hostel. (And I really shouldn’t, considering I’ll have a computer, cameras, and such. And I haven’t found any hostels with private rooms.)

* B&Bs run about $135-200 a night.
Potential problem: Will I be able to find it? Will I feel completely safe staying in a B&B in Moscow? Most of the B&Bs I’ve found don’t have any guidebook or user reviews. Yikes.

* Hotels start at about $200 and shoot up to over $500 a night!
The cheaper hotels tend to be Soviet-era concrete structures (which have their own special charm), located at some distance to the city center. Recognizable chain hotels start at about (gulp) $300 a night and quickly become much more expensive.

So what’s a Cheapo to do in Moscow? Where does an independent traveler stay?

I’m realizing that this isn’t like planning a trip to Europe. Aside from the slightly spooky formalities (hello mandatory tourist visa!), it’s also quite a bit harder to find helpful advice online.

I’m obviously a proponent of independently-run small hotels, and thus this dilemma doubly concerns me. Perhaps Moscow demands a different approach. I’m wondering if I might want to splurge on a three or four-star hotel in Moscow. Or would it be cheaper to book a hotel through a travel agency in the States?  Join a tour package (double-yikes!)?

Tell me: Have you been to Moscow? Where did you stay? Do you have any advice? Thanks!

The post Moscow hotels: What’s a Cheapo to do? Advice needed! appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

The launch followed a spate of violence against women taxi passengers in Moscow, and has proved so popular that the original ‘fleet’ of two cars has now grown to 20. It has its own website at www.pinktaxi.ru and can be booked by telephone telephone at 940 76 76.

The company has also expanded its range of services. Now it will even pick the kids up from school and make your grocery run for you. Its main advantage for Cheapos, though, is as a godsend for women in London or Moscow on their own. After all, what price can you put on peace of mind?

The post Moscow: Pink Taxis appeared first on EuroCheapo's Budget Travel Blog.

Siamese twins in formaldehyde, the skeleton of “Bourgeois the Giant,” and the Tsar’s collections of teeth—which he himself had pulled—are not for the faint hearted. Yet Peter’s intention for his kunstkamera was to prove to the superstitious of his time that abnormality was the result of natural causes and not the devil’s work.

The Museum has a total of one million artefacts from all over the world and is currently running a new exposition of African exhibits. For details, check out the Kunstkamera site. Admission is RUB200 (€5.75; $7.70), with students going half price.

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