Today we got up and I swear the weather has it in for me. Every time we leave somewhere just about it is sunny. Today was no exception, sunny and blue skies in Tallinn! Oh well. We climbed a lookout on the way to the train station as we were running early and enjoyed the view.
We got to the station. A couple of days earlier, the man we met at the apartment had said to us "oh, you're getting the train! We've just updated our trains. Where are you going?" We replied St Petersburg and he said "oh...all of them except those to Russia". Which I have to say I was expecting! I've learned about Russia a fair few times while at school. They were always introduced as a really backwards and agrarian country when we talked about World War I. And of course communism and its downfalls were always mentioned. But in year 12 when I chose to do the VCE subject 'History of Revolutions' and one of the two our teacher picked was the Russian revolution, that was when I really learned a lot about Russian history. But more about that tmro when we go to the Winter Palace etc (again - YAY! I'm a bit excited if you can't tell!).
Anyway we got to the station. Lovely modern orange trains everywhere, and then ours. It was older and a bit dirty, but really it was fine! The journey took about 6 hours all together. I was a little anxious about the border crossing which I knew would occur in an Estonian town called Narva, after which we would cross a river and be in Russia. We sat in Narva for about half an hour and not much happened. Then three police officers boarded and looked at our passports and stamped them (mine is fast filling up! What a bad problem to have ;) ). Various other official looking people boarded the train and checked our passports. Up until this point we were the only other tourists and everyone else appeared to be Russian. But two German people boarded here, which put us at ease a little as we then weren't the only ones who had no idea what was going on. Another official made those two open their bags and inspected them, but luckily we escaped having to do this!
We crossed the river and were officially in Russia. There were barbed wire fences all over the place. Those of you reading who have been to Russia (nan, pa, Ian and Robyn!) know all the hoops you have to jump through to get a visa and come here. For those of you who don't, you have to book somewhere to stay, pay them to send you a letter of invitation to come here. Then you have to fill out a really extensive application including some personal details and history. My least favourite was filling out all the countries you've been to in the last ten years and the dates you were there. Having then been to 26 at that stage, this took me a significant amount of time!!! Anyway, after that you send the form, you passport, your letter of invitation and a cheque to the Russian embassy and it's processed. Then you get your visa. But then today we had to fill out more forms and be checked and rechecked!! Oh well - we were finally in Russia and all the mucking around had paid off! Funny thing is that the crossing the border into Cambodia from Thailand in January took much longer! (Three hours).
We stopped again after the river and our passports were taken along with the arrival card we had to fill out (which, by the way, had the tiniest squares I've ever had to write letters into!) into a small building to be processed some more I guess. About 30 minutes later we had our passports back in our hands which was a huge relief and were on our way.
The Estonian countryside was fairly plain but I really enjoyed staring out the window looking out into the Russian countryside. There were some quite pretty fields with trees and flowers and some woods as well. However, there were also a lot of very dilapidated buildings and houses and I couldn't help but yet again be reminded of this country's tumultuous history (and present due to the current situation) and the effect this has had in terms of living conditions etc.
As we approached the city the grey clouds emerged (of course they did - I'm here!). We arrived in St Petersburg about 3.30 and got really confused as mum had written down a different station to the one we arrived at. Thank god my phone maps work without wifi so I was able to navigate us on the half hour walk instead of the anticipated 5 minute one to try and find the office for the apartment complex we were staying in. We couldn't find it. I feel like I'm illiterate here. Can't read everything, people running around everywhere. So overwhelming!!! Eventually we had to ring the girl and she met us and took us to the apartment. It's really nice!!
Tonight we went for a walk up Nevsky Prospect which is our street. We saw the old singer building, the Kazan Cathedral, a department store, Anichkov bridge and Catherine's Garden and Alexandrinksy Theatre! Everything is nuts here. People trying to hand you things, approaching you. Aaaaah!
Tonight I am meeting my Topdeck crew for a river cruise and some drinks. Mum and dad are going for a walk.
Big day tmro of walking and my Achilles is playing up - hope it goes away :(
Love to all
Claire
Xoxox
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