Have you ever wanted to visit Russia but didn’t want to go through the process of obtaining a visa first? Well good news is that it is possible to visit Russia, visa-free! There is a 72 hour entry to Russia visa-free option if you arrived to St Petersburg by boat and book your trip through an organized company. Luckily, Emmi had all of this set up and planned so I didn’t need to do any of the busy work.
It was half past 5 on a Wednesday evening when we boarded our cruise ship in Helsinki to set out towards St Petersburg. This was my first cruise ship experience so I wasn’t sure what to expect. We dropped off our bags in our little cabin room with bunk beds and went to explore the rest of the boat. On the boat, we found many restaurants, bars and areas for entertainment and then went out on the deck to enjoy the sunset in the middle of the Baltic Sea/ Gulf of Finland.
(No we weren’t photoshopped into this picture!)
The only thing I wish I had remembered to pack was my Dramamine! I only really felt sea sick while we were at dinner and sitting near the window when I noticed how much the boat was rocking from side to side.
After dinner, we found the main entertainment room and sat to watch. There were many different singers, musicians and dancers that each performed a few times. We found them to be very entertaining!
It was time for bed so we headed back to our room to discover that our room was located right below the club on the cruise ship! Luckily I finally was able to fall asleep to the beats of the clubbing from above.
Around 0900 the next day, our ship had arrived to St. Petersburg! We were more than ready to step foot in Russia. Finally, we got off of the ship just to find a ridiculously long line for customs. The nerves were setting in as we knew our shuttle bus to our hotel would be leaving in less than an hour. There seemed to be a thousand people in front of us waiting to pass through.
About nearly an hour and a half later, we finally had made it through customs. Unfortunately we missed our shuttle bus that went directly to our hotel. We waited another 20 minutes for the next bus that would take us to the city center.
Eventually we made it to our hotel, after a stressful beginning to our day. We were ready to begin exploring St. Petersburg.
Some of the must see places in St. Petersburg that we discovered:
Centrally located, and you can see many of the famous landmarks in St Petersburg just by standing in the middle- Palace Square:
We both agreed that this was one of the most beautiful city squares we’ve ever visited!
We continued to roam around and next saw St. Isaacs Cathedral: (you can also see it from Palace Square)
Not far from Palace Square, we walked around The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood:
Still beautiful, reconstruction and all!
Near the church, we roamed around Summer Garden, where we discovered beautiful fountains, statues and well maintained gardens:
Since we really enjoyed our canal tour in Amsterdam, we thought we’d try the canal tour in St. Petersburg. Unfortunately, the guide only spoke Russian so we didn’t learn what places were, but glad we went along for the views!
We loved seeing all of the gold features on bridges, cathedrals and more!
The same day, we explored a small part of the metro system there. Here is pictured Admiralteyskaya, one of the world’s longest escalators! About a 3.5 minute escalator ride!
After a long day of exploring, a friend of one of Emmi’s friends offered to drive us around to show us the city at night time. It was raining, so it was actually dark outside around 10 pm.
There were beautiful sights to see with everything lit up.
The next day, we ventured to Peterhof Palace. We took a boat that passed by Peter and Paul Fortress:
Peterhof Palace was nothing like we had ever seen before. Beautiful fountains and gardens and everything in between, we were blown away by the beauty of this place!
We spent many hours walking around the lower gardens of the Palace. We did not go into the palace or into the upper gardens, due to time.
Later that day, we went to see a Russian Ballet in the new Mariinsky Theater which is next to the old Mariinsky theater (the oldest in Russia).
I was blown away by the performance as well as the live orchestra!
Sadly, our last day in St. Petersburg arrived so we finished checking places off our list, which included The Winter Palace and Hermitage museum. (Located in palace square):
If you like art museums and palaces, then The Hermitage Museum is the place for you! We could’ve spent days in here just admiring the art as well as the amazing interior palace-like design:
This was probably by far one of my favorite museums I have ever been to.
Along with seeing all of the main sites in St. Petersburg, we noticed the beginning of the World Cup preparations and decorations.
Also, on our boat ride to Peterhof, we passed the soccer stadium:
As we passed by, Emmi said “if I were an alien, I would land there!” She was right in the way that it looked like a ship from outer space! The streets of St. Petersburg were busy during the time we were here, so I can’t imagine how busy it will be in a couple of weeks with the World Cup in Town!
I think Emmi and I can both agree that for only having 72 hours in Russia (more like 48), we saw as much as we could and made the best of our time! In the course of our 2.5 days, we walked over 25 miles, saw famous landmarks and cathedrals, joined a canal tour, explored the metro, went on a day trip to Peterhof, saw a Russian ballet, experienced a whole new culture and much, much more! We were both blown away by the beauty of St. Petersburg and again, so thankful to have been able to experience this trip together!
The Aud Blog 