VISA FREE Trip to St Petersberg

So our trip to St Petersburg was very enjoyable but also provided our most stressful moments.  So a little background. There are 26 countries in what's called the Schengen Agreement.  That generally means there is a list of countries (including New Zealand and Australia) whose citizens are allowed 90 days per 180 within those 26 countries.  However New Zealand nationals due to prior agreements still in place with 16 of the 26 countries are allowed 90 days per 180 in each country without reference to the time spent in other countries.  As a result it is actually pretty hard to stay long enough to need a VISA.  So any Kiwi's looking into this, check the latest information on http://eeas.europa.eu/delegations/new_zealand/eu_travel/visa/index_en.htm and make sure you know rights and don't pay for a VISA to exceed 90 days in Schengen unless you really actually need it. Anyway so now you know more about the situation than most European Border officials.

So Nicky and I are merrily bowling through ferry check in at Helsinki.  We get to passport control where the very stern Finnish man stamped Nicky's passport but then when going through mine, points at my Cherbourg entry stamp and says "which country".  So we say "France, we have been driving through many countries" to which he says something like "but all in Schengen more than 90 days".  It is about 98 days since we landed in France. Que panic! So I'm trying to explain the visa waiver which I last looked at nearly 5 months ago and I can't remember if Finland is on it (it is).  I'm not sure how much he understood or believed me but I think he figured he didn't want the hassle and let us through.  Having not had our passports checked since France I had got complacent and hadn't even considered that we had passed 90 days.  So we get on the ferry but they have no WIFI so I can't check the rules (I now have a PDF to solve that issue in the future).  So we are both bricking it that something is going to go wrong because we have 3 more passport checks before getting back into Helsinki.  We managed to sleep but we were super anxious about the Russians. In the end we get through the Russian side okay, no questions asked and once we get to the hotel I manage to reread the rules and confirm that we are on the right side of the law (huge weight off our shoulders).  So coming back we were armed with the response to any problems, so the main annoyance was the wait.  Passport control in both directions in Russia was terrible 1.5 hour queue arriving, for departure we arrived 3 hours early and still had a 40 minute queue.  Finland was fine departing but 1.75 hour wait on return. We had trouble when we got back to Finland.  First we got in the wrong queue so had to choose another, which turned out to be the slowest and as we got near the front the man in the booth just up and left and didn't return for about 20 minutes so we had to go to the back of another queue (there were people getting off the boat 1 hour after us and getting through customs before us).  So we finally get to a booth (by this time it has really thinned out mainly just the people that got caught in our queue).  Why not make one queue with those adjustable barriers, then split it near the booths as most rational countries do??? So hungry and frustrated I finally get seen and the girl asked me when I intended to return to New Zealand and when in said May she was taken aback, so she tried "when will you leave Europe" when I said "December when I go to Morocco" she became down right concerned. So I try and explain about the rules (as above) she asks a colleague who is none the wiser and then she has to call 'the office' as she says it sounds familiar but she doesn't know.  After a little bit it is decided the we'll have to be taken out the back to be tortured until we confess hehe JK.  The office guy says he knows New Zealand has a "contract" with Finland or something but he needs to look it up.  Anyway he said that he was happy the agreement exists with Finland and would stamp our passport and let us in but he hadn't been able to find a list of countries this exemption applied to (i.e the 16 I mentioned earlier).  Anyway who cares we were in and that was the main thing.

So that's our customs stories now our visit to St Petersberg.  So after finally getting out of the terminal in Russia we immediately found our 'city tour' shuttle bus which was supposed to have 2 stops before getting to the central city but went straight to the last stop St Issacs Cathedral (oh well that was our stop anyway).  You have to pay something like 50 euros for this to qualify for the VISA FREE stay but it is just a glorified airport transfer you could probably have got for 10 euro each way.

St Issac Cathedral

As we had our bag with us we had planned to do the Hermitage on day 1 assuming we could get in.  We had read about horrendous queues but as it was it didn't take too long to get a ticket and check in our bag.  The Hermitage is probably the most amazing attraction I have ever seen (not sure what the guy from Grimsby, England saw who rated it 3/5 on Tripadvisor, we made jokes about him) and good value for the ticket price.  The building itself could command the entry alone as there are so many rooms beautifully decorated.  If that wasn't enough you have one of the worlds best museums and art galleries inside.  Would have been good value at twice the price. Fortunately we had done our homework and got some recommendations of what to see off the internet.  Nicky had all the room numbers written down, so our first step was to match them to the map as there are 3 floors and 5 buildings involved (they tend to move stuff a bit so we didn't find everything but it was invaluable).  We spent 5 hours and you still rush past vast amounts of great things to get to the real gems and then you still don't have long enough with these.  We didn't even see the extra diamond and gold rooms (extra charge).

Winter Palace - part of the Hermitage (there are 5 buildings)

Our hotel which although located a little further out was new or newly renovated in 2011 as reviews suggested and exceeded expectations but best of all we got a free room upgrade.  After checking in and further VISA rule checking we had a fun encounter with the locals.  We went to the local corner shop/small supermarket for water (not supposed to drink their water apparently) and food.  Of course we couldn't understand much of the packaging and we were trying to make sure we didn't get sparkling (GAS) water as neither of us like it at all.  We thought we had it right but since their was an attendant we tried to ask and without any words other than GAS we managed to confirm that we had the NO GAS one.  She was so eager to help it was lovely.  It turned out she was from Uzbekistan and as is not uncommon she had half a mouthful of gold teeth (not sure dental hygiene was a top priority in the USSR).  Anyway she ended up collaring another customer, a young (mid 20's) local woman that did speak a little English (she said she had learnt in school).  This woman was also very excited to help and have a chance to try speaking English.  We only had a microwave available at the hotel so we were getting her to help us find food suitable for that.  She ended up behind us at the till as well and helped us sort out the payment which ended up being much more confusing than it needed to be because I couldn't see the number. It was quite nice actually because suddenly people were cheerful, smiling and laughing which we didn't really experience in any other situation.

The entrance to our hotel (in the courtyard behind the grill)

So on Day 2 we planned to go a bit further afield because we didn't have our bag, our first significant site was the Peter palace summer gardens which have been recently renovated and reopened May 2012.  They are free and we think possibly the top free attraction we have ever seen.  Since we were there on a weekend in late summer we were forever coming across bridal parties having photos.  This was nice but somewhat comical is the way Russian women pose for photos, it looks like they are all trying to put together a modelling portfolio, they sort of prostrate themselves all over anything and everything trying to make steamy sultry eyes at the camera (usually manned by the significant other but sometimes their children).  Also this brings me back to the Hermitage which had all these magnificent items on display. They generally have made them very accessible (limited barriers and glass etc) however that meant I observed rather more touching of objects while posing for photos than I would like.  I'm not sure how others feel but I find it the height of selfishness to touch items in any sort of museum/gallery setting.  These valuable and sometimes priceless artefacts are being preserved and displayed for the benefit of all and hopefully potentially for 100s of years to come but people are prepared to harm this by putting their grubby hands all over things or let their children loose pawing at everything within reach.  The Hermitage has a great collection of Greek and Roman sculpture and Nicky noticed someone just casually leaning on the base of one.  I'm surprised we don't hear more stories like the one from Italy about the American that broke the finger off a 600 year old statue.
So idealogical rant over from the summer gardens we moved to the Mikhailovsky Gardens (St Petersburg has a very pleasant network of green spaces near the central city).  Crepes in a park for lunch, YUM.  On to the Church on Spilled Blood which is the building in St Petersburg with the ice cream cone like domes that come to mind with Russia. It's no mistake that this is number 2 on Tripadvisor, both the exterior and the interior are something else.  I don't really know anything about the Orthodox Christian church but they sure make a good mural or mosaic.  From the church we went and got a taste of the Nevsky Prospect, the main street, and the canal which is crossed by Anichkov bridge before finishing with Peter the Great Monument and a long walk back to the hotel via Strelka where you get good views of the Hermitage and the Peter and Paul Fortress on the river.

Church on Spilled Blood

Fountain in the Summer Gardens - they were spectacular but the lighting made photos difficult

The plan for our final day was to see some things close to the hotel in the morning, come back to the hotel, have lunch and check out at 12.  That meant nearly 4 hours to lug our bag around in the afternoon until we caught the shuttle to the ferry.  We took some back streets towards where the Crusier Aurora is docked so we could get a bit more of a feel for the real St Petersberg.  The Crusier Aurora is famous as the ship that fired the first shot of the Russian Revolution.  We walked through the Peter and Paul Fortress and down to where the football stadium is before looping back.  We ticked off a couple more sights in the afternoon, Nikolay I monument and Yusupovsky Palace before buying some food to smuggle aboard (your not allowed food on the ferry - LAME).

Probably saw half a dozen abandoned cars around the place

Some buildings in Peter and Paul Fortress

That is the story of a trip we are both relieved is over and very satisfied with at the same time.
Nicky - Our trip to St Petersburg was very memorable and a fascinating experience.  Whilst we had problems with customs, it didn't take away from the impressive and beautiful buildings that we saw.  It is fantastic to see the building and restoration work that has been going on for the last 10 years.  My favourite part of the Hermitage was seeing paintings by Monet.  The Church on spilled blood is incredible, and it is unfathomable that this was used as a potato storehouse during the soviet era.  I'm really pleased we had this experience, as it was a great opportunity to experience a little piece of Russia.