2. 1 June to 9 June 2011 - St Petersburg, Russia

A 'border day' was ahead after we disembarked in Helsinki Finland, after a great crossing from Germany on the Finnlines 'Nordlink'. A border day means every ounce of patience you can muster, a calm exterior and no other plans for the day. And that is just how our border crossing into Russia unfolded.

Five hours at the border had nothing to do with our passports, but everything to do with the vehicle, and the confusion caused by the Australian documentation that travels with it. And 12 km of parked trucks waiting to cross the border seemed like a bad omen at the time. We arrived at 11am and it was 4pm before we left for St Petersburg, with 200kms still to drive. Add to that an hour long traffic hold-up due to a one-lane crossing over a bridge under repair, and a rough, deep-rutted tarred road, which for us meant 80kph maximum speed but for the locals meant maximum speed no limits. It was about 9:30pm before we arrived at the Elizar Hotel Camping on the edge of St Petersburg. That was after ignoring our GPS, as we all know you must do at times, because we knew better and could see the signs to St Petersburg, only to realise later that it wanted to take us on a ring road around to our campsite. How much better that would have been than driving through the very heart of St Petersburg traffic! But it did give us some bearings for the next few days. And at last we are in Russia!!

St Petersburg was a magnificent week. The campsite was ideally located a short walk from a metro station, and with only three stops we were at Gostiny Dvor in the heart of the city on the major shopping street of Nevsky Prospekt. We got to know the centre of St Petersburg in four days of walking-our-legs-off sightseeing. The architecture is wonderful - so many beautifully coloured or golden onion domes, and opulent and historic buildings. On the first day we found a great little side-street local cafe where we had our first Borsch - soup of beetroot , cabbage and some meat, and another traditional Russian meal called Pel'menis - like ravioli with meat inside - both delicious. But one day was completely consumed with applying for the Kazakhstan visa - which we were able to pick up the day before we left for Moscow. Very exciting!

The metro is a new experience - an escalator, which we estimated to be 130 metres long, down to the metro depths. No track visible, just everyone waiting at closed iron doors and it feels rather dungeon-like. Then you can hear the train screeching in, and the train doors and station doors open in unison with a 'whack'. They close the same way, so there's no wasting time hopping on board by anyone. The next one arrives in less than 2 minutes anyway. The train goes into rapid acceleration and ear-shattering screeching and you feel like a bullet in a gun barrel, only thing is there's no bursting into daylight for this bullet, just another train station and a screech to a halt, and a 'whack' of doors opening again, and ... so it goes on. But three stops was bearable and it was comforting seeing all the locals taking it in their everyday stride.

We have used our limited Russian quite a few times, and it has been very,very handy. Many people speak English in St Petersburg, but out in the suburbs where we were camping there was very little English spoken. Buying food is great fun, and although the shopkeepers seem stern at first, they usually end up laughing along with you as you bumble along with the language. They are always very helpful in a full-on sort of way.

We have already met fellow overlanders at the hotel campsite - a group of three from the UK and a young German couple, all going our way but maybe with a different time frame.

More sightseeing at Pushkin (Tsarskoe Selo) on the way out of St Petersburg to see Catherine Palace, and the Amber Room that Olga, our Russian language teacher, had told us all about. And now it's off to Moscow!!