From Russia With Love

Early on May 2nd i awoke, took the bus to Helsinki and then boarded another bus, packed with exchange students, heading for Russia. It was the start of our first Rotary organised trip and there was about 80 students on two buses.

We spent most if the first day on the buses but just after lunch we made it to russia and were told we could change money if we needed. There was no exchange shop, rather two men, one holding a huge pile of Russian notes and the other with a big plastic bag for the euros. Shortly after that we stopped at a little market to get some drinks and snacks and in the store we found a big sign, advertising drugs for sale over the counter. At the very top was Viagra...We were starting to get a look at the Russian culture already. Eventually we made it to our hotel in St. Petersburg in time to watch the sun set over the endless sea of buildings.

On the second day we toured around St. Petersburg on the buses and visted the Hermitage (In which we got lost more times than i can count). After having a traditional Russian meal we went to a museum exclusively for weird stuff, in which there was an entire room of deformed babies floating in glass jars. That night we went to the St. Petersburg Ballet to see 'The Nut-cracker'

The next day we had free time in the centre of St. Petersburg where we had a look in some shops (but didn't stay too long for fear of the massive security guys in most stores), got shoved around on the streets by angry pedestrians and got lost ('haven't we walked over this bridge already?' That night we went to a traditional Russian folk show, which turned out to be one of the best things we did there.

So the next day after about 8 hours of sleep (over 3 nights) and some of the most fun i've ever had we were on the buses back to Finland.