Since I have gotten back from my three week vacation I know I have a lot to write about. So I will break my Russia trip up in Days of the trip.

Day One, March 20:

This was just a travel day for the four of us from Vaxjo who went on the trip to Russia. We left Vaxjo in the AM and traveled by train to Stockholm. We bummed around the town and had to be at the ferry landing in the evening. The boat left at 8 pm and we explored the ferry (it was HUGE!)... had some fun meeting other exchange students who were also going on the trip to Russia. The thing about the ferry is that many people travel on it to and from Sweden to Finland. (we were going to Turku, Finland). It is a good place to buy tax free and cheap liquor too, so the store is always busy. Since Finland is a different time zone, we had to wake up an hour early than normal and in addition, had to be up an hour before the boat landed so they could clean our rooms. So needless to say we didn't get much sleep on the boat, there was a dance club too so we went there!

Day Two, March 21:

We arrived in Turku, Finland in the morning and headed straight for the coach bus. It was tiny. And we had to sleep on this bus too for two nights! I wasn't looking forward to it. This day was a day of straight driving... we were headed for St. Petersburg! Don't forget that we had to go through Passport control, in both Finland and Russia. The first one in Finland was a sinch compared with the later few in Russia. The drivers kind of made us scared in preparing us for the Passport contol in Russia by telling us to always have our passports out and handy to show to a Russian officer. Also, that any time between the Finnish and Russian passport control areas (There was about a 10 km gap of free land or so) we could be stopped and asked to show our Visas and passports. To be honest, I was scared. At the Russian border there were guards everwhere and we had to get off the bus, carrying nothing but our passports and go to passport control. It was like I was in the army, getting drilled! They searched the bus and underneath and after we all had our visas checked, we were free to go. We had our passports checked a few more times on our way to St. Petersburg but other than the main station, we were cruising to St. Petersburg!

About half way in Russia, the drivers pulled off the side of the highway into a turn around area and we were surrounded by woods. Then the driver announced that we had the opportunity to buy cheap Russian alcohol at the forest store right outisde.... And what do you know, an old car that was all rusty pulls up next to the bus, opens his trunk, and takes off the blanket to unveil his selections of booze. It was hilarious. The drivers had arranged for him to meet us at this spot on our way so we could load up with alcohol. The pictures are in the album... what a hoot!

We got to St. Petersburg in the evening. It was very pretty driving in at night because everything was lit up and driving along all the rivers through the city was gorgeous.  In Russia you need to be invited, per se, by the hotel you are staying at for tourism purposes and then when you arrive they need to sign and check your Russian visas,very strict. The hotel we stayed at was very nice though. Tonight we stayed in and hung out in the lobby. Excited to be in Russia too!