St Petersburg and Finland

It's been a while since I last tapped away here on my blog!

I recently went back home for a couple of days. If you don't know I'm from Finland but I live and work in the UK! While I was back, I also went on a visa-free cruise to St. Petersburg (from Helsinki) with my boyfriend. It might be difficult to believe, but I'd never been to Russia previously, despite living so close! We spent a really nice day in St. Petersburg - I booked our cruise through Lähialuematkat, but I think a couple other travel agencies organise it as well. The cruise gives you 72 hours of visa-free time in St. Petersburg, but we only opted to spend the day there so we returned on the ferry in the evening (so spending one night on the ferry getting to St. Petersburg and another night returning to Helsinki). Many others stayed one or two nights in a hotel! We still had around 4 and a half hours to explore St. Petersburg, which I think is enough if you are content not seeing everything but have a couple of things or places you are personally interested in seeing. I do have to warn that Russian immigration takes a while going in to St. Petersburg, so budget about an hour for this.

On our agenda was the Winter Palace, which is definitely worth seeing. An hour or two is enough for a quick tour, although you could definitely spent a lot longer there. The entrance fee to the palace and the museum was also quite cheap compared to other attractions in Europe!

We had a really nice lunch along the canal. Food is also very affordable!

Walking along Nevsky Prospect we found this really nice church, which was breathtaking inside!

I would really recommend visiting St. Petersburg, it was much prettier than I expected!

Moscow is next on my list.

While in Finland, we also visited really nice botanical gardens in Helsinki. I love going to greenhouses and botanical gardens, they are such relaxing places!

We were quite lucky with the weather, and overall I really enjoyed my short break in Finland and St. Petersburg. Also, if you don't know, at this time of the year the days are very long in Finland - the below picture is taken around 11pm.

Let me know in the comments if you've been to Finland or Russia! I'd love to know your thoughts.

Love,
Maddy-Lou