St Petersburg in three days

Saimaa Lake, Lappeenranta, Finland

I haven't stopped travelling, but have been taking a break from blogging about it, since my trip to Budapest back in March. Why? I asked myself. Was I becoming lazy? Thinking not many people were reading my blogs anyway, so why bother? Was my reporting back so poor that it wasn't worth recording? Or had I discovered that the whole blogging thing was just one small step away from the selfie-look-at-me kulture that I find so abhorent?

Maybe the answer is a bit of all of them, but those of us who feel compelled to write can't seem to stop, whether or not we're read. Like the painter who paints for the enjoyment of the act itself, for that sense of 'flow', when we're in the moment and that's all that matters. So, here I am, back. Whether I catch up or just start again from here is a wait and see scenario.

At any event, I'm just returned from Finland last night. It was a trip taken with two friends and went like this: London to Helsinki by plane, train to eastern Finland, another train to St Petersburg in Russia and back again.

Finland is a lovely country in the summer. I'm quanitifying it because I've never been in winter, but certainly when the sun is shining, it's hard to imagine why anyone would want to live anywhere else. People are, in general, polite, friendly, honest (that is, there's a low crime rate) and the lifestyle is enviable, with lots of outdoor pursuits in beautiful places.

Washing rugs

Lappeenranta, where we stayed with a friend, is based around Saimaa Lake, and is both cosmopolitan (lots of coffee shops and yachts, which gleam invitingly in the marina), and small-town traditional, so people know each other and stop for a chat, and still bring their rugs down to the washing pier to stand in giant rubber pots sunk into the jetties, so they're at water height and can scrub without doing their backs in.

Cycling is safe, because there's not much traffic and there are dedicated cycle routes; a market runs seemingly daily, selling fresh produce, and you could, if you had time and an inkling, go swimming, take a boat cruise up through the vast lake network all the way to the Baltic Sea or tootle along on your borrowed bicycle (yes, there's a hire scheme here), stopping for a mango syrup and soda water by the lakeside when the mood takes you.

Getting a visa to visit Russia is a journey in itself. There's a lo-o-o-o-o-n-g, sometimes confusing application to fill in, heaps of information that's required (current and previous passport numbers, grown children and ex-husband's current addresses, bank accounts, social media accounts, proof of income, job held, everywhere you've visited for the past 10 years - yes, really), plus, you can't just rock up and find a place to stay. You have to know the name and address of your hotel. There's more, but you get the gist.

St Petersburg

Partially because of the visa malarky and partially because of what we in the West hear and read, we were expecting - still - a heavy-duty Soviet feel to the country, with a scary police presence. Imagine our surprise when what we found was a large European-feeling city, no security in evidence and very little that suggested that we were even in a post-Communist country. There were Starbucks, Burger King, Coca-Cola, hawkers selling boat cruises on every corner and plenty of souvenir shops.

It was also beautiful. If you love Art Nouveau, you will love simply walking around and gawping at the statues straining to hold up pedaments on building fronts; cherubs gamboling above doorways and decoration at every turn. Favourite buildings include the Singer House; the New Hermitage, with the black granite Atlantes statues in the portico; and the random sightings of black apartment blocks amid the pastel-painted houses beside the canals.

If you're only there for three days, as we were, how best to see the most? Here's what we did:

View from the Hotel Moscow

Stay: at Hotel Moscow. Most rooms overlook the Neva River – definitely ask for this view, as the alternative is a close-up of an office block. Decor is plain and functional, but rooms are comfortable, buffet breakfasts (included) are vast and downstairs is a surprisingly good in-house restaurant, a couple of souvenir shops and you'll be next door to a metro stop and Nevsky Parade, the main artery, with plenty of buses down to the other end, where the so-called historic heart of the city is.

Buy: a metro/bus card from any metro station. We inadvertently bought a week's one, thinking we were getting a mere five journeys, and found it incredibly useful (if you get on the wrong bus, for instance, you can just jump off and get one going back) and great value. At the time of our visit, in August 2018, it cost approximately £8.

Alexander's Column

Day 1: go on the St Petersburg Free Tour. It meets rain or shine at 10.45am at the base of the Alexander Column in Palace Square in front of the Hermitage. Our guide, Demi, spoke perfect English, was very personable and happy to be asked anything. It's three-hours long, which passes quickly, and is a great introduction to the city's main sights as well as providing a bit of history. Useful to know is that there's a toilet/drink stop about halfway through. Eat lunch in the Singer Building, where the tour ends. After lunch, visit the gaudily decorated Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, which is around the corner.

Church of the Spilled Blood

Day 2: take a boat trip, as this is a city of canals and a vast river. There are plenty to choose from, but we specifically wanted the hop on/hop off boat with the most stops and were very happy with the one we took, which starts at the Admiralty Embankment every hour 11am to 5pm, May to October and has stops at the Peter and Paul Fortress, the Summer Garden and Fabergé Museum, among others.

Peter and Paul Fortress

Day 3: visit the Hermitage, the vast palace-now-art museum. Yes, it will be crowded and you will flag to the point where even the Rembrandts start to blur together, but it is incredible and has to be done.

The Hermitage

Top tip #1: buy your ticket in advance before you even get to St Petersburg. It will cost you a bit more (at the time of writing £14 instead of £8 on the door), but is worth it to skip the hour-long ticket queue. With your internet ticket you will go to a special entrance on the side of the New Hermitage and walk straight in.

Top tip #2: eat lunch in the General Staff Building across the square from the Hermitage. Ignore the misleading name: this is simply where the more contemporary art is displayed and there's a great café on the ground floor with a good vegetarian stir-fry option that's tastier than it sounds. It's much emptier over here and if you eat on the late side you'll find a table easily.

Kunstkamera

Of course, you'll do tons of walking, which is a great way to see any city. And, as a side, slightly quirky visit, you could peel off and pop into the Kunstkamera. Though similarly painted green and white outside, inside it is the opposite of the Hermitage: creaky staircases, dusty dioramas, old-fashioned displays of ethnography – which is somehow charming for its lack of pomp and glitz. It also houses a peculiar collection of early 19th-century fetuses. Look away now if you're easily spooked, but it's a room of glass cases containing jars of two-faced babies, cyclopses and Siamese twins, as they used to be called and is why the queue can go 'round the block for this place.

We spoke no Russian, though I did manage to learn how to say hello ('preejet') and thank you ('spasibo') and both received smiles whenever I used them, so I recommend being polite and learning at least these two words – though, please, go to YouTube for the correct pronounciation!