How to plan an adventure

[fluffymark]

So, here I am in front of the computer, with my atlas beside me showing me a lovely map of Finland, Estonia and the bit of Russia around St. Petes, and am working out where all these strange places are I may have to go to. Wow. I've spent the past few hours on a major webhunt of useful sites so I'm going to splurge a few here for my own reference so I don't forget them. Just ignore me...

Hostels: http://www.bootsnall.com
Finnish Trains: http://www.vr.fi
Estonian Trains: http://www.evrekspress.ee
Ryanair: http://www.ryanair.com
Tallinn-Helsinki ferry: http://www.tallink.fi

And what have I found? Sadly the Finnish budget airline FlyingFinn I was originally planning on traveling with closed their Stansted-Helsinki route about 3 weeks ago. Grrrr. This was nearly a catastrophic deathblow for the whole adventure. Fortunately Ryanair offer a cheaper if slightly bizarre alternative: Tampere. Seems flights there are £9.99 and it's a 90 minute train ride from there to Helsinki. Yay. Only minus is theres only one flight a day and arrival time into Helsinki is very late evening. But thats the only way there so thats what it'll have to be. Which fails miserably to connect with the night train to St. Petes, although it seems that a bad idea anyway as I'd arrive in St Petes at 1:30AM if the connection was do-able, which would be bad. So It'll be a night in Helsinki, and then the early morning train out to St Petes arriving early afternoon, unless theres a convenient overnight coach I've not yet spotted. Hostels in st Petes are at manageable prices (at least compared to Helsinki). This is good as I may be paying for two. The Estonian leg of the journey seems better timed, theres nice overnight trains to Tallinn, and I can spend a night there, and regular and fast ferries between there and Helsinki. Finding cheap accomodation in Helsinki is not proving to be easy, but I'm sure it exists somewhere. But overall it looks very affordable adventure. Just the hassle of sorting out the Russian visa can stop me now...

Oh look, I'm off to Bruges on Thursday. Yaaaaaaaaaay! :)

Comments

[snowgrouse.livejournal.com]

Hiya, pinkdormouse pointed me out to you... Gorgeous background on your lj, btw, adore Mucha.

Anyhow, I recommend staying overnight in Tampere or elsewhere as it would be way cheaper than Helsinki. I live in Lahti, which is about half-way between the two (about 100 km north of Helsinki). There's just no way of getting cheap accommodation in Helsinki short of staying over at friends:P. Finnish hotel prices are ridiculous and we don't really have a b&b culture here.

I heartily recommend Tampere--it's a lovely town full of culture and much warmer and relaxed than Helsinki. Dunno about it being a Goth capital, but I sure as hell prefer Tampere goths to Helsinki ones (the latter seem to be rather up their own arses). *cough*.

Was the VR website helpful? I *think* you can actually take the straight train to St. Peters from here in Lahti without going via Helsinki, if I'm not completely mistaken. *checks train timetable booklet* yup, 'tis true! If you go to Helsinki from Tampere you'll end up doing another visit up here anyway before the train turns east towards Russia. I'd recommend getting off at Riihimäki or Lahti and then hopping on the St. Peters train if you want to avoid unnecessary travel to Helsinki.

Anyway, just random things that popped to my head:). I'll be here if you need more help...

[fluffymark]

Hello! How helpful you are! I like you already.

I'd come to the same conclusion about Helsinki hostels! Ow! I'll see how cheap places are outside Helsinki, and may end up travelling around Finland for the 3 days staying nights in different cities - that may be even more fun!

Have now booked flight to Tampere - will be flying in the evening of April 30th and ideally I want to catch the early morning train to St Petersburg, the one that passes through Lahti about 9AM. I'd not realised it went back on itself like that but now I look at the timetable you're right - it seems sensible to avoid Helsinki totally on my way into Russia. So my immediate problems are to find somewhere to stay in Tampere or elsewhere that will allow me to get up early enough to connect to that train. And I need to book a ticket for the train itself - how would I make a reservation, given that I'm unlikely to have any time at all to do it after arrival?

I think I'll need all the help I can get out there... :)

Re:

[snowgrouse.livejournal.com]

Um, don't know about the train ticket reservation as I've never booked a morning train to Russia myself. I take it that the Ryanair flight is arriving very late in Tampere? AFAIK the Tampere railway station should be open almost 24h/day and they have ticket machines and stuff. There may even be a chance to book a train ticket at the Tampere airport but I've never been there, so can't be sure:/. And the VR website won't even let you book a ticket to Russia online, grh. I think you can buy tickets on the trains themselves if you're in a rush, but it might cost a little bit extra. The morning train from Tampere is an expensive super express one (gah) and it seems to change for the Sibelius (the Russia train) at Riihimäki. At Riihimäki you'll have about half an hour before you need to step on the Sibelius, so at least *there* you can book in advance for your Russian trip. I don't think you need to worry about that bit too much.

As for staying overnight... Wasn't someone on this thread from Tampere?:) I'm not an expert on places to stay there, really, so can't look/ask around:(. I hope the Tampere website (http://www.tampere.fi/english_v/) will be of some assistance.

[fluffymark]

You're wonderfully helpful! I like you. :)

I arrive in Tampere airport at 20:15 on April 30th, and from the sound if it thats some way out so I don't expect I'll get to the train station (or anywhere else in Tampere) before 9PM. There will be some time, but i'll need to know exactly where I'm going and not leave things to chance upon arrival. It' really frustrating not being able to book the tivkets online before I go, and I'll have very little time to do it upon arrival. Maybe I can find a travel agent who can do it for me, but they're likely to charge a big fee for something like that. Please let me know if you find any way I can get hold of a train ticket before I arrive in Finland.

Still lookinf gor places overnight - I've been told of the Eurohostel in Helsinki, but maybe not for that first night, as Helsinki is out of the way. I don't know of anyone in Tampere - the lovely isobell who popped up last week on my journal is from Turku, which looks pretty, and I may be tempted ot do a day trip there, depending on timings. We'll see. For the moment I need to arrange my Russian Visa Invite, but that's easy now i've got a Hostel booked. :)

[snowgrouse.livejournal.com]

I don't think the Tampere airport is *that* far away from the city. I'm sure you can find somewhere to book a ticket--but I can't help you with the online booking, I'm sorry:(. Perhaps you should try emailing the VR website?

[fluffymark]

My usual experience with Ryanair is that the airports they fly to are in the middle of nowhere (London Stansted is 30 miles or so from London), but maybe this one is different. I may attempt to email the website - good idea, and thankyou again! :)

[snowgrouse.livejournal.com]

Believe you me, Finland's a bit different that way:). I just checked, and the Tampere airport is only 17 kilometres away from central Tampere, so I don't thnk you have reason to worry. It won't be a long trip:)! Go here (http://www.helsinkivantaa.fi/lentoasemat/) and click to make it show stuff in English, and look for "Tampere-Pirkkala".:)