A visit to St. Petersburg and Helsinki

By this time, our Scandinavian Cruise is already over and we docked back in Copenhagen last Sunday morning after sailing non-stop from St. Petersburg, Russia and Helsinki, Finland to return to Denmark. That means we didn’t have Wi-Fi signal while the ship was sailing and people once again began chatting with each other during lunch or dinner time. During dinner, the waiters and chef held a Waiters Parade for all the guests where they sang songs and the Filipino crew gave a stunning dance number. Yes we had a great food service on board the Serenade of the Seas.

It was truly a fun time for cruising… and to think that this is summertime in the Scandinavian nations, it was still too cold for comfort. I toured the outside of the ship and the decks were empty and no one swimming on the heated pool. I can just imagine what these ships would be doing during the winter season. The real problem in the Scandinavia cruise is a currency issue. Denmark uses their own Kroner, while Estonia and Helsinki use the euro and Russia uses only Rubles. If not for their acceptance of debit or credit cards, this trip would have been a problem.

Anyway our visit to Russia was truly memorable in the sense that we have always thought that we’d see Russian military roaming around. On the contrary the only Russian military we saw was when we left St. Petersburg where we passed by a Russian Naval station with an active Russian navy docked on the pier. But yes, we learned so much about the Russian influence on the Baltic States, Finland and Sweden, when they had wars with each other. This is part of their histories…, which is why Estonia is so proud to be a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). But then what can a nation of a million people do to threaten another nation?

 Our tour of St. Petersburg was superb simply because we had one of the best tour guides that St. Petersburg could offer. Her name was Anastasia and she spoke fluent English, as she was a linguist. In the 12 degrees cold in Russia, going inside the famous Hermitage Museum was truly a great blessing because Anastasia could give us information on who did this or that painting. There was a Mother and Child painting done by Leonardo da Vinci, which to me was more stunning than the Mona Lisa in the Louvre. They had a lot of paintings by Rembrandt I’ve ever seen.

During the times of the Romanov Empire, St. Petersburg was the capital of Russia… but after the Bolshevik Revolution the city was renamed Leningrad, after the rise of communism that introduced the Soviet Union and the Iron Curtain. As history teaches us…the Iron Curtain collapsed after Perestroika and communism dissolved in what they now call a Russian democracy. It must be said that during the days of communism, the Church was suppressed. But now it can be told that no one can suppress a religion.

Orthodox Christianity is strong in Russia, but in places like Finland, or Estonia or Denmark, Lutheran churches dominate. But when we talk to people about their religiosity, most say that they are not religious and do not go to church at all. In fact we went to the Sacred Heart church in Copenhagen the other Sunday. We wanted to go to the same church again last Sunday for the 11 a.m. mass. But when we got there, there was a small disappointed crowd who told us that the mass has been cancelled as the priest had a meeting to attend. What a disappointment indeed.

We can only second guess that this could be because many Baltic and Scandinavian nations are welfare states which provide for your needs even if you lose your job. The only use of a church is during baptism, weddings or funerals. If Europe doesn’t watch out, the next biggest religion is going to be Islam. Remember the Muslims do not believe in abortion like most Christian nations do.

After our visit to St. Petersburg, we sailed to Helsinki, Finland. Touring the city on a bus only showed us that Helsinki isn’t as charming as Copenhagen. If there was something I was truly looking forward to see in Helsinki… it was a Nokia signage. For most of the mid-1990s Nokia was the cellphone that the whole world used. So I thought that while Apple has overtaken them at this time, at least in their home country Nokia would still be king. But apparently it is not.

But one saving tour destination in Helsinki that literally made my day was at the Winter Wonderland indoor park, where they showed us igloos of different kinds and gave us a shot of Finlandia vodka. But their main attraction was a Husky dog sleigh ride. Yes I’ve always wondered how the people who lived in snowed mountains travel using a dog sled. The Huskie dogs turned twice in a snowbound racetrack and for me… that was one in my bucket list that made our visit to Helsinki unforgettable. Thus ended our Scandinavian cruise… and we hope you enjoyed my memoirs on this trip.

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