Leaving Russia

Previous page - The City Bus & the Fortress

 

Taxi from St Petersburg city to the airport

We both had a dreadful night's sleep but most especially Ian. Heaps of people seemed to be coming back to the hostel at all hours. The usual doors banging and talking that was way too loud for the middle of the night.

Then there was more crashing around just after 5 a.m. It was the cleaner lady cleaning out rubbish bins (again). We decided to get up and make a cup of tea. It was quite warm in the bedroom – probably another reason we didn't sleep well. Is there any wonder we are so tired at this point in our holiday?

 

 

 

We were downstairs waiting for our taxi to the airport by 7 a.m. It seemed to be an unofficial taxi the hostel had booked for us but we didn't mind as we paid only 500 roubles for the trip. We've seen references of 1500 roubles and upwards elsewhere for the same journey.

 

Saint Petersburg international airport

We had a bite to eat at the international terminal but Ian was too anxious to enjoy his breakfast. He wanted to get through customs, passport control etc. We had ordered some wraps at the airport café. There was supposed to be crispy bacon in them but it was half-cooked bacon instead. It was quite inedible. The glass of orange juice that came with it was delicious though.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We sailed through all the appropriate checking points without a hitch. The only things they wanted to see were our passports and the original piece of paper we got registering our visas when we first arrived in Vladivostok. No asking about what Russian money we were taking out with us. No looking at all the train tickets and other proof of our travels that we had so carefully kept intact. It was so easy-breezy.

One thing was different to other airports – we had to take our shoes off. Once you get past the last check point there is only a very tiny area to wait for the plane to board. There was nowhere near enough seating for everyone. Crazy Russians. Whilst there we met an Australian girl. She normally taught in the Philippines but she was on holidays and was travelling around northern Europe/Russia. It was nice to talk to a fellow Aussie.

We were soon on board our Air Baltic flight to Riga. We say our sad "Goodbyes" to Russia!

 

Next page - Flying in to Frankfurt, Germany

....................................................................................................................................................................................