DAY 153 SATURDAY AUGUST 25 STRANDED

Today is our last day in Scandinavia and our first day in Russia.  A lot of planning has gone into this segment so we had our fingers crossed.  Our first major goal was to meet up with Pam and Ken who will arrive on the ferry from Stockholm at 10am.  We know the way to the station well by now.  It is a very impressive building with four "bouncers" watching the entrance.

Or are they basketball stars?  The clock tower is the equal of Sydney Central's.

We left all our luggage in a locker there at 8.30am and checked out the pretty building next door which proved to be a drama theatre.  Sauntered down a carfree street which had no crowds because it was Saturday morning early.

When we reached the Silja ferry wharf we climbed the hill in the park opposite to find a vantage point to observe the Symphony coming into the harbour.  Along the way we saw haybales and fences set along the downhill pathway.

Can you guess what this was?  We could not but a passing workman explained that tomorrow at 12 Red Bull was sponsoring a Soapbox (billycart) Derby.  This was confirmed by a flyer we saw on the ground.

We found a spot in front of the VIP tent for the Derby and caught sight of the Ferry as it came past the island in the harbour.

We found Pam and Ken among the big crowd disembarking and walked up to the market place where we had seen people using their boats as market stalls.

Very clever.  Pam went to the ticket office to collect our train tickets but had to make a phone call to St Petersburg before they could print them out for us.  We stashed their luggage in a locker, had morning tea and set off to show them the city of Helsinki in two and a bit hours.  The city put on a great show in that time and we believe it is a great place to be in on a sunny Saturday.  There was a huge food show on and we wandered through taking free samples. Lyn bought another plate of whitefish from lapland.

Pam was hanging out for fresh cooked vegetables.

And Malcolm found a nice carrot tart for one euro.

As we headed towards the big white cathedral we found buskers galore in the streets.
 Two men were sharing the work on a big xylophone playing classical tunes extremely well.  Got them on video.  Our bottle playing man from yesterday turned up at a different spot and we listened to him again.  As we passed the stage in the Esplanade where we had sat for concerts we read a sign indicating there were five more scheduled today but we had other priorities. In front of the cathedral a big police fair had been set up.  There were police entertaining the little children.

Bicycle police were showing off their bikes.

And the garbages were being emptied by a man we assumed to be the Commissioner. Really!

Up on the temporary stage the extroverts wer putting on a song and dance. And we thought the Finns were reserved people. We moved on to the Orthodox Church which is close by.

We could not resist a quick look inside and as we walked in we heard heavenly music.  It was a group of six singers supporting the priest who was conducting a wedding in song.  There were no chairs so all the guests stood in a semicircle with tourists watching behind them.  I wanted to record the music on video but an usher signalled that this was not allowed. On the way back to the station we passed some South Americans playing pipes.

Our train was called Allegro and left at 3pm.  It was quite new and comfortable, back in second class.  Our Eurail Pass is out of date so we did not pay for first class tickets.  It cost us about the same as the Eurostar from London to Paris but was more pleasant.  We were entertained by Immigration and Customs Officers along the way as they checked passports, visas and entry forms.  We put our clocks forward another hour so we are about 7 hours behind Sydney. So it was 7.36pm local time when we pulled into St Petersburg station.  It was surprising that no other train was in evidence, only one platform, a big iron gate with armed guards at the exit and only a fairly small building for the ticket office with no large sign on the outside to indicate that it was the station.  We were looking forward to the promised driver who would be standing with a sign "Bradley + 3" but the only driver with a sign ushered other people to his car.  We stood outside the station thinking ours must be running late, rejecting a taxi driver's offer.

 After ten minutes all the taxis had gone and Pam was on the phone to Real Russia in London.  After 30 minutes it started to rain and we moved to a nearby bus shelter. We suspected that our hotel was not far away but had no address, no map and no taxis in sight.  Needed a Tom Tom again. After an hour Pam got an SMS explaining that our driver had been in a car accident (?) and another one would be there in 10 minutes.  He dropped us at the hotel which was less than a kilometre away.  The girl at reception was another one on her first day in the job and was required to scan all our documents into the hotel computer, which took another 20 minutes.  By the time we got into our rooms it was 9.20 and we had had no dinner.  We went upstairs to the cafe and had a light meal thanks to the lady who told us the cafe closed at 8pm. The rooms are excellent and we were able to relax.