FINLAND - Helsinki (2002)

Helsinki: 23.05.2002

We did a relaxed check-out in the morning. The sun-god, having taken care of us for two days, had again vanished, pulling the temperature down to 9 degC again.
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The airport check-out at Russia was quite lengthy. In fact, the Immigration lady had never seen such a long route, I think, and gathered together a colleague and a supervisor to run through the itinerary:

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Lady: Here to Helsinki?
I : Yeah
Lady: Helsinki to .... Vienna?
I : Yes, transit (I make sign of plane flying off)
Lady : Vienna to Kiev?
I : Yes, yes.
Lady : Kiev to ... oooh ... Paris!
I : Yes ma'am, transit (Same motion with hand)
Lady : Paris to Dubai (Slightly tired now ...)
I : Transit again (I had not lowered my hand)
Lady : And ...... Dubai to Muscat.
I : Yesss! I live there.
Lady & gang : Aaah! House! Good, good .... (stamp)
.We were booked into one of the Scandic Hilton Hotels. The drive from the airport was lovely -- clean roads in green countryside and the taxi wound its way through juniper avenues to a hotel tucked away beside a beach! A lovely spot, but not, we decided regretfully, a hotel for a business visit.......

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We wanted to start work right away -- it was already 3.00 pm -- and attacked the Yellow Pages to find that it was in Finnish (a language close to Swedish and Estonian but totally unlike English). Luckily most people in Finland, at least most of the half million population in Helsinki, speaks English, it being a compulsory language in school.
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The Mercedes taxi outside said it'll charge 20 Euro (almost (20 dollars) for taking us to our client, so we walked down to the bus-stand, caught a bus downtown and cabbed the rest. Here it is very difficult to 'hail a cab'. We'd have to call up the company providing cab-service and they'd send over the nearest empty cab to us. We scouted around the city centre and wangled two rooms tomorrow onward at the City Scandic Hotel, a centrally located one. We'll change hotels tomorrow morning.
.A typical European city, beautiful but without the bustle. We've seen only a little of it, but lots of cafes and eateries with people sitting outside in the afternoon (7:00 pm) sun, enjoying the weather. Public transport (trams and buses) are good and cheap (min 2 Euro). The people are also very friendly. We met a Pakistani doing his Masters in Computer Science there. Education being free of cost, it's an attractive country to do post-graduation in.
.Today we snacked at MacDonalds and I fazed the servers there by asking for a veg burger. Finally they knocked off the meat from one and converted it into a veggie!

.We went back to the seaside hotel and rested for a while (slept off in fact). At 10.00 pm, we went out for an evening walk on the beach and found that the sun had just set, leaving an orange sky. Some chaps had been doing fly-fishing on a small jetty, the chill breeze notwithstanding, but they were also winding up. What to do for dinner? The receptionist at the hotel had told us of an Indian restaurant 'Namaskaar' that can be reached by tram, the tram leaving/passing close to our hotel. We located the stop and true enough, a tram came trundling along bang on time to the time-table mounted at the tram-stop.

.These trams are a far cry from the ones in St Petersburg of course. Here they are in mint condition and the tracks are perfectly maintained -- no broken tarmacs. There is a button to press to make the doors open from outside, which took us a while to locate, while the driver waited patiently for us to get in. A helpful co-passenger located the restaurant for us. Good food, though since the chef had almost changed clothes and was ready to leave, the dishes were hurriedly cooked. All restaurants take last orders at 11.00 pm and usually do not open for lunch.
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We came out of the restaurant at 11.30 pm into a freezer of 4 degC! The wind was cutting through our clothes (we had just gone out for a walk and then continued to dinner) and the tram-stop was no shelter at all. It was no help seeing some Finn wearing a flimsy T-shirt and walking along briskly. The tram didn't come fast enough.

Helsinki: 24.05.2002

Today morning we shifted to Ramada Resident Hotel at the centre of the city (slightly cheaper too). Engaging a taxi, a mini-van in fact, on an hourly basis was also costly business. Whereas we were paying the hotel $115 for 24 hours (around $5 per hour) the taxi rate was $35 per hour! Anyway, we had around 4-5 hours of continuous work scheduled, so we engaged one. Luckily the driver spoke very good English and became our semi-interpreter. He was quite enjoying the customer introductions and told us to ask for him by name when we phoned the taxi company tomorrow.

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We were through by 5.00 pm today, and at this rate we did not really need to stay till 28th. We called up Finnair and asked them to change our Kiev booking to 27th, which they did. Tomorrow we'll get the fresh tickets.

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Today's weather is bad -- cloudy and cold (6 degC). Yesterday's sun has vanished without a trace. The roadside cafes are deserted and people are walking quickly on the streets, anxious to get indoors.

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Our customer visits today took us a bit outside Helsinki proper, to greater Helsinki, consisting of Epbo and Vandta, with a total population of around a million. Except for certain central parts of Helsinki, there's plenty of greenery and the highways are often bordered with flower-beds of tulips. If we travel 70-100 kms, we'd come across lots of beautiful lakes as well -- and maybe daffodils!......

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At around 7.00 pm, the sun decided to emerge from behind the clouds once again, and the tops of tall buildings (the tallest one is only 12 stories high) lit up with an orange glow. We promptly went out for a walk, which seemed justified by the weather as well as by the pasta partaken at 4.00 pm, still residing heavily inside.

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We walked down the narrower roads, extremely quaint and cute, set with small boutiques, gift shops, art galleries and cafes, the road surface mostly cobbled. We walked right down to the seaside to find a massive liner tied up there. Must have brought plenty of tourists. The Gulf of Finland is said to be very shallow and, at least near St Petersburg, a channel has been dug up to allow big ships close to the shore.......

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Cycling is a serious means of transportation here and they whizz along at fairly high speeds on pathways provided for them alongside the sidewalks. We saw stretches which were marked with a picture of an adult holding a child, indicating that in this section, strolling children had priority! Very strong on courtesy and orderliness and if someone's too pushy, you can see them blink and reply a little coldly.

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We saw a restaurant called 'Village Thai' in one of the small roads and decided to finish off our dinner too at 9.00 pm, for once. It was full of the weekend crowd, all serious diners having fun. It suddenly struck me as a wonder as to how much of mental and physical energy people, especially Europeans, attach to this activity of eating. Not just the food but its order of appearance and variations, accompaniments, atmosphere, the companion, occasion -- the mental map of the whole thing, so to say. It's like having built a personal temple, paying obeisance to it.

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Tonight we were better prepared in terms of attire to brave the night temperatures. On the upper body -- vest, T-shirt-one, T-shirt-two, sweater and jacket. On the lower half -- track-bottom and jeans. Cap. This is fun!

Helsinki: 25.05.2002

Weekend has started for Helsinki and most people were still sleeping when we called a taxi and started plotting with the driver as to whom to buttonhole in their cabins. But these Finns are clever. They'd either shut shop for the weekend, or had left their underlings in charge of the showrooms, who'd only smile at the customers and serve them coffee. So we decided to go meet a prospect at a place around 70 km out of Helsinki, situated beside a big lake.

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The road to this place Lohjan (pronounced "Loyaan") is lovely, through conifer forests and juniper trees. We could see small lakes flashing here and there through the foliage. These lakes are remnants of one-time glaciers, that have melted over a period of time. The lakes are warmer than the sea and people prefer to swim in the lakes. There's a lot of choice, there being 188,000 lakes in Finland!!.....

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The big lake at Lohjan was practically endless. There were numerous motor-boats offering to take us on a ride around. We'd probably do that tomorrow, being a Sunday, when we planned to cross to an island castle. In spite of the sun, the weather was quite chilly and a boat ride could still be a freezing experience.

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We peeped into the 'Bloomsgarten' which had many greenhouses. Having bought our tickets, we sort of rushed around, looking for huge flower-beds, but could not locate any.......

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After spending some time in our rooms preparing tour reports and other such stuff of monumental importance, we were out on the streets once more. The sun was still shining, but for the first time, we felt that sunshine could be cold -- or rather, carry no heat whatever. It was just 6.00 pm, but for all the effect the sun had, it could well be midnight.

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There is one traffic rule peculiar to this country (I don't know about other European countries) that all cars must have their headlights on, even during the day, in dim mode. Perhaps because the weather here turns murky without notice and it is better to make a rule of it than to leave it to the discretion of the drivers.

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The sidewalks were claimed today by bunches of kids practicing skate-boarding. The pavements are wide and smooth and attractive to experts and learners alike, and all the kids were scooting around shamelessly not worrying about skill. It is a sort of qualification for them, I guess, like knowing cycling without which you can't be 'cool'.

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We walked down to a waterfront area called the Market Square, though we could see no signs of any shops in the square itself. Maybe, it being a weekend, they had decided to stay at home! We located the points from where a 1.5 hour sightseeing boat-ride leaves, carrying the tourists around the islands of Helsinki. This also we plan to do tomorrow and hope to God that the sunny-ness holds! As it is, it's jolly cold, and will be even colder on the water on the open deck of a fast boat.

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Speaking of cold, this is actually summer for the Finns, you know, and they are perhaps sweltering, because I could see a lot of them having ice-cream on the Market Square. I was also motivated and rubbing my hands to un-numb my fingers, I bought an ice-cream cone as well and had it --- oooh! It was very good!

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We caught a No. 4 tram to our original beach-side Sandic (we were getting familiar with the city now -- quite the native!) to pick up some caviar I had accidentally left behind. It had been located and kept quite safely in the kitchen fridge. On the way back, we dropped off at the 'Maharaja', an older Indian restaurant. The food was too oily and heavy, but we made the acquaintance of a Pakistani student and a Bangladeshi who was doing weekend waiting jobs. Never thought I'd speak Bengali in Helsinki ....

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Back in our rooms before 10.00 pm -- what a change! Will hit the bed as soon as the food settles down a bit .....

Helsinki: 26.05.2002

The Sunday we'd been waiting for arrived but alas, it is terribly cloudy. Well, we'll make the most of it in any case....

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Getting dressed in the morning reminded me of another foibles of this place. We'd changed hotels on Friday and some dirty laundry had collected. On Saturday morning, when I rang up housekeeping for them to collect my laundry bag, they politely informed me that this was weekend and there won't be any laundry service till Monday! I never expected such serious leisure in a top-class hotel. So, since we're flying off on Monday, we have to conserve and recycle.

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We were picked up at 10.20 am by the sight-seeing bus and taken to Esplanade Park near Market Square, the actual departure point. The rest of the passengers boarded here. In spite of fairly chilly winds and a temperature of 4-5 degC, the tourists were quite determined to make a day of it. As in Madrid, there were headphones with multi-lingual commentary. As we passed through the city, we were told a brief history of the Finns, through which their love of sausages and sauna came through most strongly!......

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This is practically a designer city. When Helsinki was declared the capital in 1812, it was a Dutchy or autonomous state under the Tsarist rule of Russia. Before that Finland was a part of Sweden for 600 years and Stockholm was the common capital. After a big fire broke out in 1808, Helsinki was practically rebuilt and the design of most of the buildings of importance was done by architect Engel from Estonia, who had also redesigned their own capital Tallin. Finland has close ties with both Estonia and Sweden and Estonia is a place admired by many Finns. The influence of the above places (as well as Russia) is very strong on Finland and the Finns have struggled for long to establish their own national identity.

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Now Finland is a prosperous, though not overpopulated, nation, strong in technology, education and culture (music, drama and fine arts). There are 20 universities. Education is free and compulsory and schooling lasts from 7 to 16 years of age. Both the official languages Finnish and Swedish are taught, as are English, German, French and Latin.

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The city tour allowed us to get down only at one spot, but we could mark the places we would like to visit later at leisure. Luckily, most of the places were within walking distance of our hotel. In fact, most buildings have such beautiful architecture that everything seems photographable! All buildings in the Senate Square, including Assembly Halls, Mayor's House and the Library are pieces of art and all the churches are very beautiful. After an hour-and-a-half, we returned to the Esplanade Park and disembarked. The quality of the bus, the commentary, the guide's friendliness and efficiency -- everything was top-class (and cost $18).

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Today we found the Market Square living up to its name. There were rows of stalls set up, catering mainly to the tourist trade. Souvenirs, clothes, jewellery, artifacts were all laid out. They were not very cheap, but all the stalls were doing brisk business as Helsinki was already chock-full of tourists and more arriving by the hour! I bought some souvenirs and T-shirts, as usual.......

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Our next item on the agenda was a ride on a 'water bus', as they call it here, which is basically a launch with two decks, the upper one open and the lower one closed and set in restaurant style. The launch takes people across to islands or takes them on a round of the islands and brings them back. We wanted to go on a round, usually 1.5 hours in duration, and chose a boat which was leaving an hour later at 2.30 pm, giving us enough time for a beer/coffee and lunch. We imbibed the liquids at 'Kupelli', the oldest restaurant in town. The story goes that there was a shepherd with cows and sheep living at the edge of town (which was here) and he used to sell warm milk from his hut. When the hut was demolished, this restaurant was built more than 100 years ago.

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We had our lunch at a seaside cafe on the Market Square. Crepes with Greek filling, ie lettuce, tomatoes and cheese. It is actually like a 'dosa' or a 'mughlai paratha' and is quite filling. Unfortunately, it HAS to have egg and there was not much option around for me but to compromise a little on my vegetarianism on this chilly waterfront. The crepes were excellent.

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The 1.5 hour boat ride was worth much more than the $12 that we paid for it. Helsinki has six islands just off the coast, two of which have fortresses and were used to defend the harbour. The boat took us around all the islands. The sea was calm and deep blue and the sun had come out while we were eating so the scenery was very bright. White sailing boats and launches were speeding away in all directions, with families enjoying the afternoon. A lot of them own boats and many of them own beautiful summer houses on the islands. We saw a number of them, too pretty to describe, set in seclusion in the middle of forests, with a private sauna house at the water's edge. It is said that there are more sauna houses in Finland than there are Finns!........

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All the islands have some kind of history. One of them houses the Soumenlinna fortress and is well-fortified. It is now also a tourist attraction. Another used to be a Viking pirate's base camp when they were in full form. Another one had been populated by Russian noblemen when Finland was a part of Russia. One island had been developed by the intelligentsia of Helsinki, who wanted to get away from the din and bustle of the city (at that time Helsinki had a population of only 100,000 -- still there was a din, apparently!). One small island holds the only zoo in Helsinki. The biggest island, now connected to the mainland by a bridge, is being developed for 'executive housing' and has beautiful flats facing the sea on all fronts.

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Helsinki's docks and ship-building yards are also very well-known. The coastal shelf has been deepened so that big ships can tie up right at Market Square, which is the commercial centre of the city. Daily cruise liners ply to Stockholm and smaller boats run across to Tallin, the capital of Estonia, just an hour away. We also saw a huge luxury cruise-liner being built. Finnish 'Ice-breakers' are also much in demand during winter.

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That reminds me of a funny thing told during the tour. Finns love to swim in summer of course, but even in winter they won't let up. Sometimes the sea freezes over so that it is possible to walk over to the islands. Holes would be made in the ice and the daring Finn, having had a quick warm-up in a sauna, would dive right in and take a swim below the ice! In fact, the sea is supposed to be warmer below the ice than the minus 25 degC outside!!

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After the boat ride, we walked around the Senate Square for some remaining photography. Then, on the way to walking to a church we had missed, we peeped into 'Stockmann', said to be the biggest departmental store in Europe. It occupies a whole block and is in an old unimposing building, but inside it is quite staggering! It is said that if you can't get it at Stockmann's, then you don't need it anyway!!......

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We were quite tired today so we clocked into the hotel at 5.30 pm itself, ready for a hot bath and some rest. Today we hunted down a Chinese restaurant (there are 7-8 of them in the city) and had a very satisfying meal.

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The variety in restaurants is fantastic. They are differentiated by national cuisine, eg Finnish, Lappish, African, Chinese, Far East, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Indian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Yugoslavian, Malayasian, Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, Nepalese, Mexican, Turkish, Russian, Spanish, Thai etc. Then they are based on themes like Artist, Boat, Home-style, Theatre, Young & Trendy, Jazz Clubs, Dancing, Rock Cafes, Sports, Karaoke, Gay & Lesbian and Erotic! Deciding to eat out is an easier decision than the venue....

LINK TO FINLAND ALBUM

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RUSSIA - St Petersburg (2002)

St Petersberg: 19.05.2002

Reached this north-west frontier town of Russia at around 4.30 pm local time, via Dubai and Paris. The journey was a bit more comfortable this time as I was travelling business class as per my new eligibility. More comfortable seats for sleeping in, as well as the use of business lounges, were welcome improvements.
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St Petersburg, also known as Leningrad, is a fairly old town, including an old airport. Very imposing structures lining the streets, but somehow they look quite forbidding. The facades are very blank and convey a 'do-not-disturb' look. But the architecture is quite nice. We passed through some thoroughfares that displayed a conspicuous degree of consumerism.
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When we landed, the temperature was 6 degC with a stiff breeze blowing. Summer and season-time mind you, and hotel rates have gone up! It was quite cold outside. This is the period of 'White Nights', they said, when the sky remains light throughout the night.
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The language is a problem, no doubt. Hotel staff do speak English, but the casual taxi-fellow is not expected to speak and understand. There are a large number of tourists who have arrived and our hotel displayed a chart of drama, dance and music programs running in the various theatres in the city. The sight-seeing list also mentions around 15 trips to various places. We will have to be satisfied with some fleeting glimpses.......

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Our hotel is located on the coast of the Baltic Sea and we can see Finland in the distance. Clouds have banked up and somewhere in the waters heavy rain is pouring down. In St Petersburg too the streets are wet, as it had rained earlier in the day.
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We slept for a little while. I woke up at 9.00 pm to find the afternoon sun blazing in through the open window. We went out for a peek at the city and when we returned at 10.30 pm, it was still bright enough to take photos. From June to mid-July, there would be no darkness at all!
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This time we found the city full of life -- at least the stretch of a high-profile shopping area where we went, was. The populace was dressed in fashionable winter clothes, full of fur-lined overcoats and leather jackets. Poverty seemed to be missing altogether. Bistros were doing good business on this Sunday evening, although most shops were closed. The young crowd was like any expected to be seen in an European city. Possibly St Petersburg, being so much of a borderline case, has developed a strong European influence.

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Big buildings, wide roads, electric busus and trams, medium traffic-heaviness -- not a bad city to live in.
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We (Rashid and I) were having beer in our hotel bar prior to going up for dinner when two extremely well-dressed young ladies asked us whether we were looking for company. We politely declined. Later it struck us that we were looking for interpreters for the 3 days that we'd be going around and these ladies might have been a cost-effective option!

.We had a good dinner at a Korean rstaurant on the 15th floor, different in taste, not like Chinese or Thai.

St Petersberg: 20.05.2002

This morning also it was an overcast sky and a shivery 6 degC. We were told it was 20 degC a couple of days ago and some unseasonal rain caused this cold spell. While we were waiting for our hired car to arrive I bought a furry Russian cap with side-flaps and immediately the sun came out and the temperature rose to 9 degC. An utter waste of $8/-, as the Russians wear such caps only when the snow-drift is deeper than two feet!

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We had taken along an interpreter, a girl named Irina, who, after being briefed properly about the nature of our business, did a lot of enthusiastic selling. Rates are quite steep for such services -- $10/- per hour. We'll have to take one for 7 hours every day.

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We learnt the interesting fact that St Petersburg town, situated near the mouth of the Neva river, is actually a conglomerate of a large number of islands (she said 300, which I don't believe). There are lots of bridges and it is quite confusing as to what leads where. Twenty of these bridges open out to allow ships through and a knowledge of their relative schedules is needed to ensure that the driver doesn't get stuck somewhere. Quite like a computer game.

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Having got the hang of Russian signs, today I could identify MacDonalds and Baskin Robbins! The city looks prosperous and the riverside promenades are quite beautiful. The buildings, although forbidding from close quarters, look very pretty in the setting sun (11.00 pm) lined up on the banks of the Neva. It's too cold for a river cruise on an open boat, which would have been quite lovely.......

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Our hotel is now chock-full of tourists of all descriptions and the Hotel Services section that operates tours is perpetually crowded. If we find time, we'll squeeze in a guided 3-hour city tour some day. Ther's a lot of evening programs, costing between 500 to 1100 roubles. Tomorrow we are attending a folklore show, much to Rashid's chagrin, who would have rather spent the money at a night-club.

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Today I could do the full cycle of Padma and Kriya and was feeling good about it. It was 10.30 pm when all this got over and Rashid wanted to 'hit the town' for dinner. He called our usual driver Uri and we went looking for a restaurant on a boat (which Uri said has a 'show'). We reached a sort of tug-boat moored on the riverfront and a family on board was raising a ruckus and pointing into the water. They were the 'management' I suppose, and their dog, a big mastiff, had fallen into the ice-cold water. We could see it swimming about in the space between the boat and the pier wall. One kid, around 15-16 years old, was hanging from the mooring rope and managed to grab its collar but did not have enough strangth to one-handedly pull up the dog. Uri brought a rope with a hook from his car (why he had such a thing beats me) and the kid tried to slip the hook under the dog's collar, whenever it swam nearer, but couldn't. Finally when they found that the dog was getting disoriented and heading out to the sea, the kid stripped down to his underwear and jumped into the river. It was 11.00 in the night and 5 degC. Just seeing it froze me all over. He pulled the dog to the pier and slipped the hanging hook into the collar and Uri and gang pulled it up. The kid climbed up a rope by himself. A very moving scene..

After this, I at least was in no mood for a 'show' and we went into the city centre where Uri dropped us and went off to take care of some other customers. Sadly there were no open restaurants nearby and after braving the blizzard for around 10 mins we hopped into a cab, came back to the hotel, and had dinner at the Russian restaurant. I had a cheese sandwich that did not have the top bread!

St Petersberg: 21.05.2002

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Out again at 12.00 noon. From 10.00 to 12.00 we were in our rooms with our new interpreter Anastasia, a pretty young student of Management and Economics, calling up prospective clients from the Yellow Pages. Then off we went in Uri's car.

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Today we travelled to other sides of St P. The city IS rather spread out and I cannot really tell which side was the 'other' side. The sun was shining brightly and the city looked very picturesque, with all the decorations and carvings on the buildings standing out in high relief. The Neva was twinkling blue, the stiff breeze whipping up small waves all through.

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The city is quite low on pollution (by Indian standards) because 90% of public transport is taken care of by electric trams and electric buses. The sky overhead is always covered with wires and the road always broken up around the tramlines. The highest fare is 5 roubles (around 20 cents) and they are heavily used. Once we were crossing a bridge built quite like the Howrah bridge and the sight of a tramcar trundling along it with our car trying to avoid the broken flagstones, made me quite nostalgic.

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We had lunch at a fast-food joint with Anastasia (Rashid insists on calling her 'anaesthesia') translating the whole menu on the wall for Rashid's benefit. I had a small salad and potato fries. Life is so much simpler being a veggie, no?.

During today we were debating whether on 23rd, we should take the mid-day flight to Helsinki as scheduled, or cancel it and take an early-morning train instead, which takes 5 hours and arrives around the same time. Finally our lack of knowledge of formalities about crossing the border by land and then flying out of Finland, and the lack of language (and the prospect of a little more sleep) deterred us. We had even checked out the railway station. Well so much for 'darpoks' (mainly me).

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We went to see a Folk Show at night at the Nikolayevsky Palace from 9-11.00 pm. It was excellent -- the costumes, the dances, the mixture of comedy with skill -- all world-class. I had practically forced Rashid to go with me and both of us enjoyed it thoroughly. The small hall was jam-packed. This was indeed something worth seeing. There are other ballets running in town, like 'Giselle' and 'Swan Lake', but my interest there was limited..

We finished off with a light dinner at the Sandwich Club at the hotel -- a veg sandwich, salad and baked potatoes with sour cream. Not at all light.

St Petersberg: 22.05.2002

Another beautiful sunny day with the mercury at a succulent 14 degC (succulent because the weather is like ice cream, good enough to eat!).

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We had a few calls to make in the morning with Anastasia the Second as interpreter. She happened to be a guide as well, so we finished our business by 2.30 pm, grabbed some burgers and french fries from MacDonalds and pushed off to Peterhof, 30 km from St Petersburg.

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Apart from the seeables in St P, some of which we had anyway seen 'en passante', Peterhof is a must visit place. It is also called the 'Russian Varseilles' as well as the 'City of Fountains'. The place houses the Summer Palace of Peter the Great amidst 100 acres of rolling wooded grounds which has around 150 fountains of all shapes and styles, including trick ones which our Peter used to love springing on guests! We had no time to explore inside the Palaces, but a walk in the beautiful grounds was by itself a grand experience. There are some sub-palaces like one built close to the sea as a sort of 'study' from where Peter could watch ships sail into the harbour of Petersburg nearby. There was also one where he would stay with his second wife, the only palace with a kitchen because his second wife, being a commoner, loved to cook. Thre is a fountain pool where Catherine the Great used to swim in the buff. And so on and so on ...........

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Germans had greatly damaged the palace during WWII and restoration is still going on. Out of the 120 rooms, 80 are over with 40 still to go. Hope another world war does not come along before that, touch wood!

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We stopped near St Isaac Cathedral with the famous golden dome and also near the Neva river to take some pics. Then having blown a bit on money on souvenirs and caviar (which I think will spoil) we returned.......

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The prospect of deliberating over whether to plough through a Russian menu or risk an European dinner was rather daunting, so we ultimately relaxed on our stricture of avoiding 'desi' food on the tour and called for Uri again to come quickly and rush us to an Indian restaurant before it closed. A dinner of veg korma and daal maharani with naan ensued which caused the salad-laden tummy to breathe a sigh of relief. We met an Indian student (Neeraj) working there and also an old-time manager.

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A word of appreciation for the Russian service-providers is in order. Maybe we have been lucky, but the dedication to service of the three interpreters as well as the driver Uri was quite beyond our expectations. There was never any 'khich-khich' about working longer than expected (in case of Uri, often waiting for an hour for us to finish a meal), nor was there ever much haggling about charges. They have left a pleasant impression.

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Tomorrow we leave for Helsinki as Putin and Bush arrive to take our place, so the roads to the airport are likely to be jammed. We check out at 9.30 am.

LINK TO ST PETERSBERG ALBUM

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