Best Eastern Karelia Hotel Petrozavodsk

This morning we woke to a beautiful, picturesque still morning with wisps of fog rising from the water. We were anchored as fog during the night had stopped all ships entering the lock that connects the Volga-Baltic waterway into the Svir River at Lake Onega. During the night we dropped 80 meters through a series of 5 locks taking us from where we are at the highest point of the waterway, situated 116m ...

... The city is on the shores of Europe's second biggest lake, Lake Onega. It is so big that it looks like the ocean - there is no visible other side. We walked along the embankment which is full of monuments given to Petrozavodsk by its partner cities. He also took us to the train station and helped us buy our train tickets to Moscow the next day. The main reason we came to this city was to visit Kizhi Island on Lake Onega. It is a small island, home to an open-air museum of centuries ...

... muttered "One" under my breath as I handed the cashier a 100 ruble bill and it worked out! The place itself is pretty amazing, especially the first complex of two churches (Transfiguration Church and Church of the Intercession) and a belltower. It's really amazing that these two churches were constructed without using a single nail. I'll post some pictures along with this entry (the only problem was the weather -- no sun all day). Some of the old wooden ...

Caught the train on Tuesday to St Petersburg. I had a bit of trouble finding the station in Moscow, as its not clearly marked and there are a couple of stations in the area. They had tried to explain it to me at the hostel as I was checking out, but I hadn't paid much attention as I had cockily assumed I could find it ok, apparently forgetting that I can't read Cyrillic. Also had some trouble finding the hostel as it was hidden around the corner from the street its meant to be on. The ...

... Finnish border stuff pretty uneventful and then arrive in Vyborg, Russian. As the Finns point out Vyborg used to be part of Finland but there you go. Russian border guards take all the passports of everyone on border and off into there big falling down building in this border town. Get the passports back and everything OK (he he) and everybody chilled out. Then the rush to the buffet car. Mad queue and get to use roubles for first time. Arrive in St ...

Less pukey today. Went walking with Ian and saw much better things and i even bought a hairbrush. Got back to hostel and had nap and then went to the pub. Had one pint and felt ill so had to go back. When got back there were some lads playing chess so i stayed up a little and watched them. Saw St Basils Cathedral and it was really cool. Looked a bit like the one in Moscow.

Got up late again!Walked around but not in the main tourist areas and i found it aa bit scabby. Sorry all. Negotiaited our way to a coffee and then discovered the nice part of St p. Went to an English bar to watch England v Paraguay and then to Jimmy Hendrix bar. Vey nice but must sleep. Ian - yesterday ...

The past two days have been EXTREMELY cold!!! It is about -30 degrees and with the windchill they factor it at -41. It just HURTS to go outside!! Finally the apartment is not too hot though! Usually it is pretty warm in here, too warm, but since it is soooo cold outside I can feel the cool air coming in from the tiny gap in the window.

... ham). It doesn't look fabulous or attractive but has a feeling of a quaint New England town. An old lady told me she had a chance to visit local elementary school and it looks just MISERABLE- small , dark, and very run-down. She said there is no school in the U.S. looks so horribly managed (even in Baltimore?). Oh, I guess I'm lucky because I missed the bad part of the place we visited again.... It's the last day before we reached St. Petersburg, so there were a lot of ...

... that small island (there is nothing else to see, in fact). I just make sure I'm the last one to leave this isolated island. After lunch, all the passengers were treated a tour of the captain's bridge. This is not a big ship (I've been tour the bridge on an ocean liner plying Baltic Sea) but it's always interesting to see something different. What!? This boat was made in communist East Germany! I was told it is a 'German-made ...