From Russia’s Saint Petersburg

The distance between Helsinki, Finland and Saint Petersburg, Russia is approximately 188 miles. That’s it! To think, my school in Kentucky is 169 miles away our state capital in Frankfort. But in Europe, you can travel under 200 miles and find yourself in a different country with a unique culture. For months, I have shared an 833-mile border with Russia as a temporary resident of Finland. It was only fitting that I pay my new neighbor a visit.

About St. Petersburg
St. Petersburg is a Russian port city on the Baltic Sea. It was the imperial capital for 2 centuries, having been founded in 1703 by Peter the Great (Source—Google Travel Guide). Today, the city remains Russia’s cultural center for reasons found throughout its rich history.

Leaving Helsinki for St. Petersburg

Don’t You Need a Visa?
If you are not a national of a very select number of countries, you do need a travel visa to visit Russia. However, there is one small, but very important exception. If you are traveling to St. Petersburg for up to 72 hours on a ferry or cruise ship (on the condition that you are sleeping on the ship and are accompanied by an authorized tour guide) from Helsinki and Tallinn with St. Peter Line, you do not need a visa (Source—Visa-free travel to Russia). This was my ticket to Russian territory.

Here was my schedule for traveling to and from St. Petersburg: 

• Depart Helsinki at 6:00pm on a Friday
• Arrive in St. Petersburg the following day at 8:00am
• Go on a city bus tour from 9:30am to 5pm. 
• Return to ship and depart St. Petersburg at 7pm 
• Arrive in Helsinki and disembark Sunday at 8am 
• You can also stay overnight in a hotel visa-free if your time does not exceed 72 hours.

Ice fishing on the Baltic Sea of St. Petersburg

Many people from Finland and Estonia enjoy the experience onboard the ship more than the shore excursions. Cruising is a popular leisure activity in Finland. The ship has a magnificent buffet, restaurants and cafes, live entertainment, shops, spa, and yes…sauna. These amenities are appealing, but I set sail to see St. Petersburg with my own eyes.

I learned later from my tour guide that the locals say St. Petersburg has only 60 days of sunshine all year. I must be lucky because I awoke to a bright and cheery (yet cool) morning at our port in St. Petersburg. You must always know what the weather is doing at this latitude because you can assume nothing. Just last week I walked home from the gym with sunrays beaming down. When I got to my apartment, the sky dropped with snowflakes. I couldn’t believe it. I had tracked St. Petersburg weather forecast all week and conditions were quite favorable.

The first stop on the city tour was by (I mean “on”) the River Neva. The water was still frozen so we took a little a stroll atop the ice. At this point sits two magnificent sphinxes that are roughly 3,500 years old. According to Saint-Petersburg.com, “They once stood on the Alley of Sphinxes in front of the tomb of Pharaoh Amenhotep III. For nearly two centuries, however, it has been the waters of the River Neva rather than the Nile that reflect in their bottomless eyes.”

Neva River (St. Petersburg) - Spherical Image - RICOH THETA

More images along the River Neva:

Church on Spilled Blood

Our next stop was at the Cathedral of a Savior-on-the-Spilled Blood. This church was built on the spot where Emperor Alexander II was assassinated in 1881 by a group of revolutionaries, who threw a bomb at his royal carriage.

We then headed to the famous St. Isaac Square. Located here is St. Isaac’s Cathedral. Adjacent to the church is the building where Russian author, Fyodor Dostoevsky once lived. Dostoevsky is most well-known for writing Crime and Punishment.

St. Isaac Cathedral with Dostoevsky's former residence on the bottom-right.

The final destination of the tour was to the Hermitage Museum complex which consists of the Hermitage Theater, Old Hermitage, Small Hermitage, and the Winter Palace. The State Hermitage Museum is the second largest museum of art and culture in the world. It boasts of three million pieces of art including works by Leonard da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Rembrandt. It was founded in 1764 when Empress Catherine the Great acquired an impressive collection of paintings from the Berlin merchant Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky (Source—Wikipedia).

Hermitage (St. Petersburg) - Spherical Image - RICOH THETA

360-degree image of the Hermitage. Use you cursor to scroll around the picture.

Below is a 360-degree image of “The Small Throne Room” in the Winter Palace where you can see the throne once occupied by Catherine the Great.

Throne Room of Winter Palace (St. Petersburg) - Spherical Image - RICOH THETA

Clockwise beginning top-left: Michelangelo, Raphael, Rembrandt, da Vinci

There was so much to see at the Hermitage that I would need another two weeks to appreciate it all. In fact, it would take much longer than that. Our tour guide informed us that if a person spent one minute viewing each item in the collection (during opening hours) it would take 11 years to see it all. I would happily take any extra time to see and explore St. Petersburg further. One day just wasn’t enough. I am glad I made the voyage to this impressive Russian city. Though time was short, the memories will be long.