Because I love planning holidays

[fluffymark]

How does this sound?

Friday April 30th - Early flight to Helsinki, pootle around, then overnight train to St Petersburg
Saturday May 1st - 4th Enough time to see a lot of things in St Petes, with alektoeumenides.
Wednesday May 5th - Arrive in Tallinn in morning (overnight train again) and explore the pretty bits of the city on my own.
Thursday May 6th - Catch ferry back to Helsinki, meeting up with snow_leopard in evening
Friday May 7th - Sunday 9th - A few days to explore Helsinki with snow_leopard
Fly back late on Sunday or Monday.

Comments

[mirabehn.livejournal.com]

Yay! It sounds wonderful! Oh, you'll have such a fab time! :)

[fluffymark]

Hopfully I'll manage to get time off work that week, and can arrange Russian Visa and book things. So many planned trips have fallen apart at that stage. I'm going to see this one through *determinedsmile*

Eeeep!

[alektoeumenides.livejournal.com]

That means I need to get myself organised and up to Petersburg! Yeeples. Well, let me know when it's SOLIDLY arranged and what time you're likely to arrive: early please, it's a national holiday so things will be booked up INSANELY quickly. You can buy train tickets a month in advance, so by the beginning of April please. You do realise that things will be closed on those days as a result (but it's the same problem the following weekend, so we'll just have to work with it). I suspect Saturday and Sunday will be run around museums day and Monday and Tuesday chill out days.

Anyway, one more point: where were you thinking of staying? I say there are two options:

- Somewhere very cheap which I can afford to stay in too
- Somewhere that can help you get your visa and where I can sneakily crash (this second part of the plan might not work well over 3 nights, although I did manage to conseal myself when Anya visited and she was in a massive warren of a hotel)

Anyway, just to make you see that accomodation IS an issue for me, so choose carefully. There are not many hostels and there are only two really worth staying in and they'll be about $20 a night - not terribly cheap.

Re: Eeeep!

[caro7.livejournal.com]

I stayed at the Puppet Hostel, around $20 - it was OK, inc. breakfast, staff are fine (you can get your 'invites' to the country from them), good location. Your best sources of info will be the Thorn Tree on lonelyplanet.com and it's worth joining virtualtourist.com which is even better for answering questions. It took us 3 days to buy train tickets - I would absolutely recommend learning the Cyrillic alphabet before you go, as many of the street names are only in Cyrillic as St Petersburg still isn't that tourist friendly (in contrast to Moscow). Beware old ladies - they (and anyone else who experiences you dawdling in a tube station) will push you around! Also beware the national dish - 'herring in a fur coat' - and if you are vegetarian be prepared for a long hunt for food. I went there while it was being refurbished for the 300 yr anniversary and every single building I went to see was covered in scaffolding, so take lots of photos Mark as I'll want to see them when you come back! :-)

Anything else I can help with, just shout.

Re: Eeeep!

[alektoeumenides.livejournal.com]

Thanks loads for that - I've actually been in Petersburg lots (I spent most of summer 2002 in the area so was initiated into all things Russian there) and I've got a general idea...I know that only the main hostel and the Puppet hostel are the ones worth staying in - for fluffymark Petes is new to him...I'm sure he can do with all the help he can get and I'm pretty useless at providing it! :)

I hope his cyrillic isn't too rusty... :)

Re: Eeeep!

[caro7.livejournal.com]

That's alright then! so you'll already know the next thing I was going to say - that the maps and the street signs never correspond because the names have changed so many times!

Seriously though, hope you all have a magical time there...

[snow-leopard.livejournal.com]

Eeples seems to be remarkably few places to stay in Helsinki. Can only find TWO hostels (and another 2 summer hostels that won't be open when we are there):
http://www.stadionhostel.com/rates.html
2 bed room EUR20.50 pppn

http://helsinki.hotel-finnapartments-fenno.tobook.com/Finland/Hotels/Hotel-Finnapartments-Fenno
EUR72 per night

Has anyone recommended anything? Where did Val stay when there?