Thursday 15 September: Tallin to St Petersburg

From Tallin our trip was to take us very briefly into Finland, to connect with the train to St Petersburg. Having had our (by now very overweight) suitcases brutally mishandled by the taxi driver, we duly turned up at the Tallink terminal. "Sorry, the 10:00 ship can't sail today because the wind is too strong". (??!!) "We can arrange a ticket on the Nordic Jet boat which will get you to Helsinki at the same time."

The Nordic Jet terminal was too close to take a taxi, so there followed another long walk dragging our suitcases behind us. Once on the ship (a big catamaran type) we settled in for a quick and comfortable crossing - so we thought. The first sign of trouble was when the stewards came around handing out plastic bags "in case it gets a little bit rough". Well, it got a bit rough - it was surprising how much the big cat swayed from side to side. Luckily the bags weren't needed, and we arrived in Helsinki 2 hours later.

Cobble stones. Many of the cities we've been in - and Helsinki is no exception - have had large areas of stone paving. Either cobble stones (in Tallinn) or cut stones everywhere else. These look great, and no doubt withstand frozen ground much better than our Australian pavements would, but they're a real bugger when you have to drag a suitcase over them.

Anyhow, we got from the port to the station OK, and had a brief look at the Helsinki city centre along the way. It was really quite pleasant on our first impression. We were met in Helsinki by fellow Nikonian Janne Han###, who shouted us a coffee, and showed us some of his recent pictures from Helgoland. Brilliant stuff! He really is a gifted photographer. Janne got us back to the station and steered us onto the right train for St Petersburg. It was really good catching up with him, and putting a face to another Nikonian name.

We had a two-berth cabin to ourselves, and eventually managed to get our cases into the overhead storage area (easier said than done). The cabin was quite spacious once we got the cases stowed. For the first couple of hours we rode through the outskirts of Helsinki, then into birch forests and farmland. Darkness fell, and we settled down to our books. Crossing the border into Russia was almost a non-event, apart from the uniformed lady who ordered us outside then flipped up the bunks and had a look underneath. Maybe she was searching for stowaways, because any contraband certainly wouldn't have been discovered.

Luckily Sue was on the ball about time zones, as Paul was settling down for a snooze, thinking we had another hour to go. We retrieved the cases - not without a lot of grunting and straining, and hysterical laughter. On arrival at St Petersburg we were met by our driver Sergei, who whisked us off to the Dostoevsky hotel.

We had decided to get a guide and driver for our couple of days here. We used a company called "Travel in Russia". It wasn't cheap, but so far they have proved to be excellent, and good value for money. We booked over the internet, at a very much lower cost than the Australian agents were quoting.

The Dostoevsky is a relatively new hotel with a large attached shopping arcade. It's comfortable enough, but nothing special. The worst aspect we've found is the total lack of ventilation - even in a cold climate, we like to breath fresh air.