Some unfinished business from all of time I've spent in Helsinki was a trip to Saint Petersburg. When I recommended to Jen that she and Aimee should stay with me in Helsinki and then we should all travel on to Saint Petersburg from there, she jumped on it.
It's hard to get into Russia -- the visa process is involved and takes months -- but there's a loop hole for cruise groups, which allows for a 72 hour visa free visit. The low budget cruise company St. Peterline exploits this loop hole to provide cheap access to St. Petersburg from Helsinki.
We left Helsinki Friday evening and woke up on Saturday morning in St. Petersburg. We spent two nights in the city. On the first day, I visited Fyodor Dostoevsky's apartment (now a museum), where he lived while writing The Brothers Karamazov. I have been on a Dostoevsky kick lately and listened to Crime and Punishment while walking the streets of St. Petersburg. On the second day, we visited the astounding Hermitage Museum. And on the last day, I walked and ran in the city while Jen and Aimee went to a Russian bath house.
There are a handful of cities that really resonate with me, and St. Petersburg is one of them. When I'm in such a city, I get why someone would want to live there. I felt this resonance as strongly as I ever have in St. Petersburg. I would go back in a heart beat, even though it requires more of a commitment to get there than most cities.
We returned to the ship on Monday evening, and cruised on to Tallinn, Estonia, from where I flew back to Copenhagen. Jen and Aimee continued on the ship to Stockholm, for a full Baltic tour. From there they traveled by train to Copenhagen, arriving one day after me.
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