July - Holiday in Russia

At the end of our summer holidays we enjoyed an extended weekend in St. Petersburg. It was about time for Vilma to have her first trip abroad. Also I think Paula was looking forward to her first visit to our great eastern neighbor. It's bit strange how little Finnish people visit this metropole which has ~same population than Finland in total and is only 4 hour train journey from Helsinki.

I guess we all were thrilled too see how traveling with 2 kids would go. And it went well. Of course we had to adjust the pace a little and keep our eyes open to make sure the playground was there when needed. Instead of hotel we rented a flat. It gave us bit more space for the early mornings and early nights that were obvious. The flat was booked through STN which worked out really well and also was reasonable price. Our place was located just around the corner from Nevskiy Prospekt on walking street full of restaurants.

The thing that didn't work out very well was my camera, its battery to be more precise. In order to minimize the amount of stuff that we were carrying I decided to leave the charger at home and just charge it before the trip. Well it seems that it didn't charge at all. Therefore all photos are taken with my old mobile and that can be seen, my apologies.

There was even a small playground outside our flat.

The famous State Hermitage museum, the queue was just too long so we didn't bother.

One of our long walks across several bridges.

On the beach along Neva river.

Another bridge

Iines hanging around with local lads.

In the market buying some honey.

Vilma and Nevskiy Prospekt

Canal cruising

You have to be creative sometimes, play mat Russian style.

Iines and the Great Russian Bear

I like to travel light....