Christmas presents
Day one 03-01-2012.
I find my bus at the Gallery shopping center, as it turned out later, many did not succeed the first time, and the guide’s phone number dictated to us turned out to be disconnected, the guide had, it turns out, a completely different mobile number. In the bus, a lady with a small shaggy dog on a pillow sits in a place of honor intended for the second driver. I don't really care, but there were tourists allergic to dogs in the group, in addition, I am sure that the transport of animals on the tourist bus either must be agreed with the group, or not allowed at all. The driver repairs the second door of the bus for half an hour - looking ahead, I will say that he opened it only on especially solemn occasions, that is, at the border. At any other sites, he did it only at a huge request and with a disgruntled look.
We go to the border, we pass it quite quickly, and around 10-11 o'clock Finnish time we find ourselves on the territory of Finland. Here the guide suggests that we change the program: go to Lappeenranta today. Sleepy people agree to this adventure. In Lappeenranta, I ask you to drop me off in the center near the church, because I know this town well and like to walk on my own. As it turned out later, I did it in vain, because for me it turned out to be a secret place from where the bus would leave for Imatra. Okay - I think I'll call the guide, she will tell the address. I'm calling. Instead of the exact address, I hear: “The bus will stop at the church on the right” - and the phone is thrown. I fall into a stupor: the church is quadrangular in plan, and what “on the right” means remains a mystery to me. In short, I run around for half an hour hoping to see the bus. Later it turned out that I was not the only one who ran like that - that is, even those who went on an excursion, far from everyone understood where the bus would still be waiting. Well, okay - they learn from mistakes - then we asked both the guide and the driver three times about the place where the bus would be. This was done not because of our stupidity, but so that the driver and the guide themselves would remember where they should wait for us.
From Lappeenranta we go to Imatra to check into hotels. And then I find out that I will not live with the main group in the center of the town, but in a hotel located 6 km from the city. But at this moment, I still naively expect that the hotel will be no lower than the class. When I go into the room, I understand that I was brazenly “thrown”, because the room, according to my estimates, costs no more than 70-80 euros per day, and there is no smell of a spa hotel, for which I paid extra. However, the hotel does allow dogs. The payment for the room includes a morning sauna, located on the first floor (I live on the second), I cannot use this service, because we have excursions in the mornings. There are no pools, of course. In order to take a morning shower, I need to wake up at least 1.5-2 hours earlier to turn on the water, because only in this case and after the specified time does it become warm enough for washing.
Day two 04-01-2012
I remember long forgotten English and ask the reception for a copy of my voucher, they kindly provide it to me. I see that I was right - accommodation in my room costs 75 euros per day.
We are going to Savonlinna. On the way, we listen to the bickering of the guide with the driver - they did this continuously for all three days of the tour. The level of excursion service is at zero - the guide knows nothing about the history of Savonlinna, nor about the fortress of Nienschanz (Olavinlinna), stupidly reads the main data from the book. On the way, he even distorts history - for example, it turned out to be a revelation for me that the Russian-Finnish war lasted 105 years (!!!! ), and not 105 days.
An excursion to the fortress is not booked in advance, so we are added to the crowd of children from 7 to 13 years old. As a result, the group grows to 40 people, the guide works without a microphone, the children talk to each other, it is hard to hear.
In the evening we return to Imatra. Those who are lucky enough to live in the spa go for a swim, but I have to sit in my room and watch TV, because there is nothing else to do in the hotel, all evening services are paid.
Day three 05-01-2012
The driver with a guide is eager to leave for St. Petersburg as early as 12 noon - that is, as soon as the tourists vacate the rooms. Almost everyone here is already indignant, as a result of the indignation, we still manage to knock out 2 hours of free time in Imatra, which is very useful for me - at least I have time to go to the stores and make some purchases that were ordered to me, because in the evening I could not do it , because the hotel in which I was located was located in the forest, where, of course, there are no shops.
At 14.00 Finnish time we drive towards the border. Our requests for the driver to drive to the Prism supermarket are severely cut off by both the driver and the guide. The driver, apparently, is in a hurry to deliver home his girlfriend with a dog.
On the way, we listen to an excursion, from which I learn a lot of new things: "Suvorov's army descended from the Alpine mountains on plastic troughs", "Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov's father's name was Vasily", etc. "revelations". About incorrect stresses and inconsistent endings, I just keep quiet. In fact, almost nothing was said about Finland.
Most tourists are going to write complaints about the service - perhaps someone will do so. I traveled a lot on tourist trips to different countries, the guides were all different too - who is better, who is worse, but this is the first time I meet such incompetence, and I really wish that such guides and such drivers did not work in travel companies.
For reference: the guide is Tatyana Vasilievna Pavlova, the driver's name is Mikhail, the main organizer of the tour is the 100 Golden Roads company, I purchased the ticket in the BlueSky company on Kolomyazhsky Prospekt near the Pionerskaya metro station.
PS. I wrote a claim with a request to return part of the money, at least for the difference in room rates. They sent an answer that everything was fine, that there were no grounds for returning part of the money. Do not deal with these firms!
