Well we are back in the EU after our eastern European adventure. Russia is changing, some say too slow, some say too fast. St. Petersburg has certainly embraced the capitalist dream, of all out consumerism, with huge shopping malls and new freeways springing up on the outskirts and all the usual American fast food outlets and designer label shops scattered around the city centre and yes you have to pay to get into the Hermitage, not like the first time I visited "Leningrad" and the roads had a lot less traffic on them then. But just 20 miles outside of St. Petersburg you can still see the Russian "peasants" sat by the roadside selling a few jars of homemade pickles or a bucket of potatoes and the police checkpoints are still in operations on some of the main highways out of towns.
The border customs are a lot busier than that of the old USSR days, with general haulage been allowed to bring in all those western goodies they all seem to crave for. If they relax the visa regulations and allow the cheap flights in "The Venice of the North" could well overtake Prague, etal, as the stag party haven! I am so glad I witnessed Leningrad and the crumbling USSR, now, that was a place to visit.
Oh yes, the concert, the Stones played a storming gig on their first visit to St. Petersburg and Sympathy for the Devil being my highlight. After the show all the trucks grouped in the Palace square and around 3am we were all police escorted in several convoys to the Russian-Finnish border past Vyborg and after a relatively short three and a half hours of bureaucratic customs formalities, we were back in the EU and the welcoming smooth road to Helsinki and the Olympic Stadium car park "luxury"!
Well here we are at the biggest golf ball in the world or as it is known locally "The Globen Arena" This is the start of of the European leg of the Police Tour.
