I was coming into Saint Petersberg from Helsinki via train. This was a nice and comfortable way to travel compared to a busride as you can freely move around the train and since they discontinued any ferry connections. The ride takes about 7 hours and a one way ticket costs about 60 EUR. Return trip is twice as much, there are no discounts for that. Keep in mind that you will have to pay exchange fees, if you purchase your return ticket in St. Petersburg, so you might just as well get it in Helsinki. The train has services like a dining car and money exchange on board. All customs and visa procedures are also done on the train between the last and first stop across the border.
Once in Saint Petersburg I needed to get to my CouchSurfing host. Since there are hardly any signs in Latin and generally you don’t find anyone speaking English, this turned out to be quite an adventure. First I had to get on the Metro. One coin (ticket) to access the Metro system costs 5 Roubels – which is about 0,14 EUR right now. Pretty cheap :) Once within the Metro system, you can take any train (there are four lines) and switch as often as you want to get to your destination. I got off at the closest station to my hosts place, but it was still about 2 km away.
I decided to take one of those mini vans swirling all over the city. My hosts supplied my with the correct line number and stop. Problem is: you need to tell the driver where you want to get off. As I didn’t know how to pronounce the street and everything, I showed him the written note. Of course it was written in Latin letters, which neither he nor the other 7 or 8 passengers couldn’t figure out. Finally they decided on a certain place. Good thing that I memorized the place in google maps, so I knew if it was about right or not. Turned out, they were just 80m off. :-)
To be continued…