Baltic voyage
So, the story of the journey along the route Latvia-Estonia-Russia.
A ticket to Riga by bus costs about 100 thousand rubles, departure at 10 pm and at 7.40 already in place. The border crossing took almost 2 hours, and at the Latvian border everyone was asked to get off the bus with their belongings and passed through a scanner. Basically, they checked for the presence of meat products that cannot be imported into the EU countries, for some reason they seized condensed milk from some))) Arriving at the bus station in Riga, I realized that I had forgotten at home the printout of the route to the hotel and I don’t even remember the tram number. It was pouring rain, so wandering around and asking people how and where to get there was out of hand, so I took a taxi. It was about 6 kilometers to the hotel, so by local standards, taxis were inexpensive (6 lats = 12 dollars), but for that kind of money we can probably drive half of Minsk)
Naturally, I arrived at the hotel very early, and in order not to wait in the lobby until 2 o'clock check-in time, I paid 10 lats extra and here I am in the room. I stayed in this hotel on my last visit, so there were no surprises for me - everything is clean and tidy, as usual, a spacious room with everything you need. It turned out that breakfast was not included in the room rate. It could be taken for an additional fee of 5 lats. In my opinion, this is very expensive, so I took advantage of this opportunity only on the last day, when I had to leave early in the morning. A 10-minute walk from the hotel is a huge Domina hypermarket where you can buy food and things or sit in one of the many cafes. Tram number 6 runs from the hotel to the center of Riga, they run frequently, despite the fact that there were Easter holidays, they ran every 5-7 minutes. It takes about 15 minutes to get to the center. The trams have electronic displays, so if you know the name of the desired stop in advance, you can easily get where you need to go. E-tickets can be bought at kiosks - for 1.5, 10 and 20 trips - the cost is 50 santims for one trip, or from the driver, but then you have to pay 75 santims. On the first day we walked around the city in the pouring rain, but this did not stop us from going around all the nooks and crannies of the old city. During the breaks, coffee was warmed up in wonderful cozy coffee houses. By the way, apparently due to the crisis, the number of Double Coffee coffee houses, which used to be found on every corner, has significantly decreased. I also want to give advice - if you want to eat sushi, you should not order them at Double Coffee. Apparently, they are not cooked right on the spot, but they are brought from somewhere, so they turned out to be not the first freshness, and generally terribly tasteless. Because of the holidays, all the museums in the center were closed, so we went somewhere on the outskirts of the city to the motor museum of vintage cars, which, as we were told by phone, should be open. But no luck - they arrived and kissed the castle and left home. I also noticed that every free centimeter of the walls of buildings in Riga is painted with graffiti. And not highly artistic and, as sometimes happens, but all sorts of nonsense. It spoils the impression a little.
One day, having decided to breathe in the sea air, we went to Jurmala. There are trains from the railway station. Ticket from 75 to 95 centimes, depending on which station you go to. This time we were lucky with the weather - the sun was shining, there was no wind at all and a huge number of people were walking along the beach. On the main street of Jurmala - Jomas is still not crowded, souvenir shops are open, but summer cafes are just starting to set up tables on the street. I looked at the Dzintari concert hall, where the New Wave and KVN festivals are held. It looks like a completely nondescript building, it looks much more interesting on TV) We went to have lunch at the Patio pizza and, since it was Easter, we received a painted egg as a gift. A trifle, but nice)
In general, I must say that everything in Latvia turned out to be terribly expensive. Prices are 2-4 times higher than in Minsk. Therefore, if you want to not deny yourself anything, stock up on finances)))
From Riga I went to Tallinn. I didn’t book a ticket in advance, I bought it immediately at the station for 12 lats. The Eurolines bus just won me over. Insanely comfortable seats, a working toilet, tea and coffee at any time, and the crown of everything is a power outlet near each chair and free wi-fi. So 4.5 hours of travel to Tallinn flew by unnoticed. I got to the hotel in Tallinn by tram, fortunately, at some tourist forum, they painted the route in detail for me. The ticket must be bought at the R-kiosk. It costs 15 crowns, about 2 dollars. By the way, exchange offices in Tallinn are a separate issue. It is not possible to understand the courses. The dollar exchange rate in different places is from 8 to 11 kroons, and there is always a commission, and in some places, even in addition to the commission, another 10 percent is withdrawn if the exchange amount is less than 500 kroons. In short, the devil will break his leg, so in Tallinn I withdrew money from the card at ATMs. Hotel Metropol 3 *, where I stayed, is a 10-minute walk from the old town. The room was very large, probably at least 20 meters, with everything you need. Very pleased with the underfloor heating in the bathroom. The only negative is that from time to time there is some kind of not particularly pleasant smell, apparently because the hotel is no longer new. Breakfast buffet, quite varied, was included in the room rate. By the way, be prepared for the fact that the reception will have to explain in English, the staff did not want to communicate in Russian)))
The weather in Tallinn turned out to be not a fountain - only 1 degree during the day, at night it seems to be minus. But there was no wind, so I went for a walk in the old city. After 10 minutes, realizing that trying to navigate it on the map is almost useless, I just wandered around these quiet old streets for several hours. I really liked it, apparently not in vain Europe in all the old films was filmed in Tallinn. Even in the old town, you can climb to the observation deck, the entrance is free, the view from there is very nice, only it was a little problematic to find the entrance there)) Hungry, I decided to go to some local restaurant. On the way, we met the Olde Hansa restaurant, where all tourists who come to Estonia are always taken. The restaurant offers medieval cuisine, and of course the interior is appropriate, I was especially impressed by the toilet and washbasin with a teapot) There is no electric lighting either, only candles, and live medieval music plays. In general, the atmosphere is very sincere, though the cuisine is not for everyone. Not risking ordering elk, wild boar, lamb and other delicacies, I settled on pork in beer. In addition to her, there was a lot of other incomprehensible things on the plate. The waitress of course enlightened me what it was, but I immediately forgot. Everything had a sweet aftertaste that I didn't like at all. Coffee was brought with so much balm that I simply could not drink it, it burned my throat terribly. In short, having spent a lot of money, I didn’t get any pleasure from dinner and concluded that you shouldn’t go for advertising)))
The next day I decided to go to the royal palace of Kardriog, which was built under Peter 1. The palace itself is quite nice, there is now a museum there. But much more interesting is the huge park around the palace, which, judging by the photographs, looks like a park in Peterhof. But given that it is still almost winter in Tallinn, the park was not cleaned up, so only heaps of rotten leaves and the remains of snowdrifts could be observed there. From the park along the embankment, I headed towards the port. The huge cruise ships that ply to Stockholm and Helsinki certainly make a lasting impression.
After checking out of the hotel, I again went to the bus station (by the way, only 3 stops by tram). A night bus to St. Petersburg was waiting for me. I ordered a ticket for it in advance at the Minsk office of Eurolines for 120 thousand.
The bus leaves Tallinn at 11 pm and arrives at the Baltic Station at 7 am. This is on schedule, in fact, I arrived an hour early. Probably because we crossed the Estonian border very quickly - it took exactly 12 minutes, and they also say that the Estonians are slow))) On the Russian side, the procedure took longer - they got off the bus again with all the things and provided them to sniff the dog for transportation prohibited items. In principle, such an early arrival turned out to be very useful, because I was able to get to the hotel by metro before rush hour in an almost empty carriage. I wanted to book the Sky Hotel in St. Petersburg, where I stayed last time, but there were no free rooms for this period, so I booked the Deluxe Hotel on Galernaya through the booking. com website. On the one hand, the location of the hotel is simply fabulous - right next to the Bronze Horseman, a 5-minute walk from St. Isaac's Cathedral and 10 minutes from Palace Square. On the other hand, it is quite far from the metro, which creates certain inconveniences. Like all mini-hotels in St. Petersburg Deluxe Hotel is located in a residential building. On the 1st, 3rd and 4th floors there are apartments, and on the second floor there is a hotel with 7 rooms. When I entered the room, I was simply speechless - the size of the room was approximately 2 * 2.5 meters, there was only a bed, a tiny table and a TV on the wall, a toilet and a shower were also in the room. I was glad that I would only have to spend the night in this room, because staying there longer, it is quite possible to earn claustrophobia)))
Then I went for a walk in one of my favorite cities. To begin with, I finally looked at the winter palace, the Hermitage and the winter groove in the light of day, otherwise it was possible to do this only in the dark. Then I went up to the colonnade of St. Isaac's Cathedral. A ticket for foreigners costs 160 rubles, but I went for mine and paid 80))) Climbing 43 meters up a spiral staircase in a narrow enclosed space is not particularly pleasant, but it was worth it - the view of the city from there is excellent. Then I went to the Cathedral of the Savior on Spilled Blood, the paintings there, of course, are very impressive. Further, my path lay to the cruiser Aurora, then to the Peter and Paul Fortress and the Naval Museum. After spending 14 hours on my feet, I managed to see more in 1 day than on my last visit in 3 days)))
The funny thing is that, like last time, there was bad weather for a whole month before my arrival, and the sun was constantly shining with me. So this city loves me, however, it is mutual)))
