Saturday 28 April 2012

St Petersburg Russia


What a very strange city St Petersburg is.  It looks like Paris but feels like Naples.  It has an incredible metro system but has been swallowed by cars.  People of all ages are on the streets at all times but they look so unhappy.  There are only 60 days of sunshine a year.  I saw one of them but I also saw torrential rain on every other day.  A Russian friend, on an evening when the temperature couldn't have been more than 7°C, told me "This smells like summer".

Here are some pictures I took:







 Some of the signs are comprehensible





But not all of them




And this is what the metro looks like - it's about three storeys deep





Some lines don't have platforms because the train pulls up exactly where the doors are


On a sunny day, some go to the beach




Or get married






Others dress the dog up and take it for a walk




Usually the streets are packed with traffic







Except 


when these



are coming



This is the street where Anna Pavlova went to ballet school




And this is the school





That was well before these arrived






There's real estate for sale



Or rent



And look how lovely the views are



Saturday 21 April 2012

Kiasma

Visited Kiasma today - that's Helsinki's museum of contemporary art. It's almost impossible to photograph the art but here are some pics of the building








and the view





Thursday 19 April 2012

Helsinki

Bigger, colder, stranger than expected.  Lovely people - polite and helpful - all with perfect English (and Swedish, French, Russian, German etc etc).


The city's buildings are a mix of 18th and 19th century charm with 20th century brutality thrown in.  













And there are faces everywhere.














The food is good but the wine - 40 euros for a bottle of Yalumba - perhaps a little overpriced.



Thursday 5 April 2012

Before leaving

  • pack up
  • clean up
  • get stuff into storage
  • keep out stuff for travelling
  • open the gate
  • get ready, get set ...