Full points for the high speed railway express from Helsinki to St Petersburg. Those 3.5 hours of my life went by this morning faster than I could close my eyes for a quick nap (and ugh, we were up at 5am). By the time we had our passports, visas, and tickets checked and stamped on 3 occasions, it was nearly time to get off. It was clean, punctual and comfortable, and reached speeds of around 200km/hr for a good portion of the journey.

We were able to navigate through the best time warp metro ever, once off the train, and for the low price of $1.00 each you sunk into the earth on a 4 minute super steep escalator complete with ultra retro decor. The rickety train was fast, crowded, and went way faster than its age would suggest.

A few blocks walk with close attention to addresses we were able to pick out our tiny little hotel sign on a busy, crowded, and grimey looking Main Street of a million othe