Adventures on the Finnish Railway

Part of the attraction of the side-trip to Helsinki was the opportunity to ride the Finnish Railway to St. Petersburg.  Sounds romantic, doesn't it?

The train departed in the mid-morning...

 

From land and from air, Finland appears to be wooded, green, flat and very wet -- many inlets and lakes. 

Russian immigration officers boarded the train, and inspected our passports for a very long time. First, they ask to see the passport -- look at it and hand it back. Then they come back. Ask to see passport again. Look at the visa, hand it back. Third pass, ask to see the passport, and the entry form (There is a small form on which we have entered name, visit dates, passport ID, visa ID number, etc). They swipe our passports on a handheld electronic device, look at the passport, the form, the visa, carefully inspect everything for about five minutes. Then, finally, they stamp our passport, and hand us our form, which we must protect until we leave the country. Whew! We are approved to enter Russia.

Oh, but no. Immigration officers come back. Must see passports to verify technical accuracy. We hand our passports over again, and they disappear to the end of the train car. We wonder, what does "verify technical accuracy" mean?  Apparently, they were technically accurate because about fifteen minutes later, the passports reappear, and we are not asked for them again.

To my surprise, when we arrive in St Petersburg, there is absolutely no customs. We step off the train, and walk out to the street. They must be more worried about the people than the stuff.

Donald was very impressed with the quality of graffiti along the tracks as we approached St Petersburg.