Transit to St. Petersburg

First Impressions of Russia

After all of the trouble it took to get a Visa to even undertake the trip to Russia, I was prepared for the worst as we approached the customs and immigration officials in St. Petersburg.  I remembered my experiences with Soviet era east European border controls – guards who seemed to go out of their way to make you feel insecure, even though you knew everything was in order.  That’s what I expected.

At the Air Berlin check-in counter they had reinforced those fears when they made us get out of line to print up a copy of our return flight itinerary for our eventual departure from Moscow.  Russian Border control would need proof we were leaving Russia before they let us in, or so Air Berlin told us.

So we arrive in St Petersburg, armed with our itinerary (which at the airport only cost us 9£ to print)  We were ready for the third degree.

We didn’t even get the first degree! Just a smile, a look-over and a stamp.  The German pass control was worse in Dusseldorf and all we did there was change planes!  Customs was even easier.  We had heard stories of people having trouble taking their expensive electronics out of Russia on departure, so we were warned to declare everything. 

At the exit you choose your line: Declare, or Nothing to Declare.  We chose the Declare line and went forward.  There was nobody there.  No one between us and the exit.  We stopped, waited, turned around, waited and finally someone noticed and came over.  He said something in Russian, I answered “Goods to Declare” in English and he responded in very nice English, “What do you have to declare?”  “A computer” I said.  “That’s nothing” he replied, “You go in the other line”.  So we did.  We passed that gate and again, no one was there. 

We were in Russia and it was about as easy as crossing the Canadian border at Derby Line, Vermont used to be before 9/11.  In those days all you would get is a wave and “have a nice trip!”.  That had been my easiest border crossing - until St Petersburg.  (Of course we have not left with our computers, stay tuned)