Border Crossing Time...Again!

September 14th 2017

I am shattered! It's 5am and I am up, showered and ready for the next part of our travels....

We ordered a taxi the previous night, and it is outside waiting to take us to St Petersburg Finlyandsky Railway Station. Today we are leaving Russia and heading across the border to Finland.

We arrive at the station where there is a huge number of people waiting; we are held in a customs control area where our passports are then checked, our bags put through security, and then we get to board the train. No first class travel today; just cattle class, but it is way nicer than what we have back home..

As soon as we move away from the platform, Russian border control start coming through the carriage. Our immigration forms are stamped and we are officially leaving Russia. It has been an interesting journey, from the border crossing with Mongolia, to Yekaterinburg, then onto Moscow and finally St Petersburg. We have had an amazing time in Russia and I would not hesitate to go back; especially Moscow. But I think I would like to see it in Winter...maybe not quite minus 30 though!

After our passports are checked, the restaurant car opens until we get to the Finnish border. We grab a coffee and croissant which seems to cost the earth! We are starving and have some roubles, or "rubbles" as they say in English, left.

It takes us another 30 minutes to get to the Finnish border where our passports are checked again; this time its a breeze! We don't even get asked any questions, its the Russians that do. Theresa May, if you are reading this, can we please keep it like this?

Anyway, its now 9am and we are due to arrive in Helsinki just after 10...so until then, its time for a nap!





 

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