To Finland, writing from Estonia

To Finland, writing from Estonia

Monday, June 10

We said our good-byes to Sergey, Irina and Anastasia this morning.  They were wonderful folks to be with.  Sergey has been a bit too protective, though.  He worries that we will get lost.  He was trying to figure out how he could drive us to the train station today, since he had to go to the UK embassy this AM to vouch for Anastasia’s visa.

We left about 45 minutes later than we had for our previous AM trips on the Metro, so it was a bit less crowded.   Jim told Ardith that it would have been possible to get our suitcases in.  Ardith correctly replied that the way we did things was much better.  One last observation about the Metro: since the rides are very long, you often see one person riding backwards so they are face to face with their friend / lover / child.

We go to the station with 50 minutes to spare and got our bags out of the locker with no problems.  When we got in the train, Jim couldn’t find his reading glasses.  He buys his from the dollar store and came with 2 spare pairs.  The one in his backpack had gotten an earpiece severed in his dash across the Copenhagen airport, but he wore them through the train ride and for a while in Helsinki. The good pair suddenly appeared in a pocket he had checked twice before. The station had a machine that squeezed orange juice right before your eyes.  We would have tried it, but were out of rubles.

We rode the Allegro high speed train.  The seats were quite comfortable and had hooks to hold all sorts of things.  

There were power outlets for each seat and Jim wanted to use his laptop.  He had brought 3 plug converters from the US, but the one that was easily accessed from his bag was the wrong size.  He did use the computer for most of the three and a half hour trip before its battery cried Uncle.  He managed to keep one eye on the scenery, one on the laptop and one in his camera.  Ardith enjoyed the scenery and read.

People could only get on the train in Russia and could only leave in Finland, even though there were 2 stops in Russia and 6 in Finland.  This meant that all passengers were international.  When we stopped at the last station in Russia, Jim took a picture of a bored agent.

 They did customs and immigration on the train quickly and courteously.  The Russians still track people coming and going through their country.  To get a visa, we needed to get an invitation from someone in Russia.  Irina’s mother went to an office there and waited in line for a while to get an official invitation.  When we were there, she needed to register us at a different office. We brought a nice scarf as a thank you gift for her.  We needed to give evidence of where we stayed as part of leaving the country. The Russian exit stamp in our passports shows a train.  Since visas aren’t needed for US citizens to enter Finland, our passports weren’t stamped by them.

The ride was remarkably smooth.  Jim likes to know stuff about railroads and did some reading on this train.  He was amazed that in Russia, they run on DC current and in Finland on AC at widely different voltages, and that the tracks are ¼ inch narrower in Russia than in Finland, yet we crossed the border without slowing down.  He enjoys looking at trains, tracks and related stuff, so will bore you with a few pictures of that.

Our train car was about half full in Russia, by the time we got to Helsinki, there were only two other people in the car.

We got to the train station in Helsinki 2 hours before we could get into our hotel room.  Jim had looked on a map and it appeared that the hotel was within reasonable walking distance of the station.  Ardith didn’t like the idea and wanted to take a taxi.  She stayed in the train station with our bags while Jim did some exploration.  He found the hotel, but decided that it wouldn’t do for walking because it was up hill and over cobblestones much of the way.  He did see that there was a tram stop a short block away and a corresponding one in front of the train station, but couldn’t sell Ardith on the idea.

Outside the train station there was a potbellied man in a Darth Vader costume expecting people to put money in his cup.  It was almost pathetic.  We didn't see anybody contibuting.

When we were getting our luggage in the train station in St. Petersburg, Jim noticed a curious looking woman in a tiny red hat.  She kept appearing where she was in the station there.  She also was in the station in Helsinki when we were looking for a place for Ardith to sit.  After Jim came back from his exploration, she was in and out of the station when he was in and out – still there nearly 2 hours after the train arrived.  Was one strange person spying on another?

One of Jim’s goals in his walk was to find a place to change money that was a better deal than in the train station.  He covered a lot of territory, but failed.  In St. Petersburg there was a money changer in seemly every block of more commercial areas.  When he changed his money, the teller warned him to be wary of pickpockets – the same message Sergey had given about his city.  One of the Swiss guys with Irina had his wallet stolen.  Jim has a shirt with a wide, super-deep pocket and wears that in areas where he thinks pickpocketing is likely.

We are staying at a hotel here that is unique to us.  We picked it because it was relatively inexpensive and in a good location.  There is no lobby, no receptionist.  A day before you arrive, they email you a code.  That gets you in the front door to the building.  The first floor only has the entrance to a tiny elevator and a stairway.  You need to use the code on a keypad at the entrance to your floor and again to your room. 

 The email said our code would be good stating a 4PM.  We got there at 4:10 and got in the front door, but couldn’t get onto our floor.  There were others in the same situation.  The problem was that the cleaning crew hadn’t finished on the floor, so we had to wait another 10 minutes to get in.  We were quite pleased with our room.  It was compact, but efficient and clean and had a good bed.

After we settled in we went out in search of a place to eat, since we didn’t have lunch.  There were several restaurants in our area and we settled on Tony’s Deli, which didn’t at all look like a deli.  On our Alaska trip blog ( jimardith.blogspot.com ), we included lots of gory details about our meals, but have largely restrained ourselves this time.  Restraint only lasts so long.  We had wonderful food here, starting with an appetizer of sun-dried tomato and mozzarella baked in a bread with the best pesto we’ve ever had on the side. Ardith had veal in an amazing dark thyme sauce.  Jim was interested in risotto, so opted for a chicken dish over it.  The chicken was very good, the risotto was amazing – he ate every bit of the large amount and wished for more.  We had crème brulee with lime sorbet to end the meal.

The decor in the restaurant was so interesting. As Ardith was admiring a pair of silver candelabra, she backed off a step and landed on the ankle that had been giving her trouble. Jim had to help her up the stairs and all the way back to our hotel.  Her ankle was swollen and very sore, and Ardith was upset with herself.