Copenhagen, episode 7. In which I put all my Russian eggs in one basket.

When Mari and I first planned our June wedding back in 1990 (remember, the proposal took place on Valentine's Day during our final college semester in 1989), the intention was largely so that we could enjoy our family and friends (and each other) and not have to rush off to or rush back from a honeymoon to get back to work. That June wedding also gave us a future filled with opportunities to celebrate anniversaries during our summer travels which have taken us further and further from home the longer we have been married.

Last summer's Baltic cruise landed us in St. Petersburg, Russia on the day of our 27th anniversary for a full two days of sightseeing and not-so-bargain bargain hunting. Above is our best selfie in front of the souvenir stands in front of the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood. The Russian Orthodox church was built in the late 1800s on the site where Emperor Alexander II was murdered. The mosaic-filled cathedral is a popular stop with tourists from all over the world as the dozens of souvenir stands lining the path to the church will attest.

You can catch a glimpse of those souvenir stands and much more if you click on my YouTube video above. Please watch some of my video footage from our shore excursions to St. Petersburg which include a city tour by boat, a brilliantly colorful visit inside Spilled Blood, and a special late night treat aboard the Norwegian Getaway.

Sometimes, it is difficult for me to wrap my head around the places I have been fortunate enough to visit. Nearly five summers ago, Mari and I were wandering the Acropolis of Athens along with a few (hundred) tourists and as we finally managed a camera exchange with fellow cruisers for a souvenir photo in front of the Parthenon, I paused and tearily asked Mari, "Can you believe where we are?!" It's a moment I will never forget and it is these tiny moments of self-awareness in larger-than-life locations that I so look forward to when traveling. It doesn't have to be Greece or Russia, but it was Russia in this case and Mari and I tried to make the most of our little time by taking advantage of three separate shore excursions in the two days we were docked in St. Petersburg.

Leaving the ship on that first morning, our anniversary, we joined some rather lengthy lines at customs unlike any we had ever experienced. After approximately an hour we were finally allowed to enter the beautiful and ancient and unexpectedly colorful and vibrant city of St. Petersburg. Our morning excursion included a city tour by boat as well as a tour inside the cathedral.

My stupid audio tour ear bud is still in my stupid ear in our colorful selfie above.

Our evening excursion was to the historic Menshikov Hall for a Russian folklore performance which we thoroughly enjoyed.

Another option for that evening was a live ballet performance of Giselle or Swan Lake at a local theater and yet another choice was an evening tour inside The State Hermitage Museum.

Unfortunately, our tour buses kept driving in every direction around that former residence of the Russian tsars, but none of our three excursions included visits inside the former Winter Palace. That's my best shot of the facade from inside one of our tour buses.

Hopefully, there will be another visit to St. Petersburg and Russia in our traveling future because the overwhelmingly bountifully bustling city is definitely worth a revisit.

Not free to wander in search of Russian fleamarkets, Mari and I made do with souvenir shops in the city as well as "pop up" souvenir stands set up at the port by local vendors.

If you are a cruiser, then you know to expect souvenirs as well as local crafts and specialties for sale when you are reboarding your ship for your evening sail away from port.

If you are new to cruising, then be sure to save a little time (and rubles) to spend before getting back on board because honestly these local vendors seem to have the best variety of items and the most reasonable prices. I still say that fleamarkets are the best place for inexpensive local souvenirs, but it is always a pleasure to purchase hand crafted goods from the crafters themselves.

We have even found that special event sales aboard your very own floating hotel will afford you convenient opportunities for souvenir shopping without the inconvenience of currency exchange.

If Russian travels are in your future, be aware that you should spend all your rubles abroad because you will not be able to exchange them back for dollars upon your return.

Mari and I could not help but laugh out loud at the enthusiastic spirit of Russian Capitalism embraced by the owner of this mobile souvenir shop!


Both our daytime shore excursions included visits to souvenir shops, of course, so even though you are not allowed to roam around St. Petersburg on your own looking for bargains, you will still have plenty of opportunity to find gifts and just the right memento (or bottle of vodka) to satisfy your thirst.

Mari and I added to our egg cup collection (remember, neither of us eats soft-boiled eggs) with these vibrantly matchy-matchy sisters, decked out in full folkloric garb.

Мисс Яйцо Кубок (that's Miss Egg-cup to you) in red on the right bears another St. Petersburg memento, an egg ornament which I assure you is not of the Fabergé variety.

I was nearly overwhelmed in a small room of a gift shop with thousands of these colorful ornaments seemingly surrounding me, their glistening homage to Russian artists and themes calling me to rescue them from souvenir obscurity. I quickly picked up a basket from the stack in the corner awaiting anxious souvenir hunters and entered the fray as we plucked beautiful egg after beautiful egg from danglingly dazzling display in what must have resembled some ancient pastoral rite of harvest.

When I later found Mari by the register, nearly a full dozen eggs in my reaped assemblage, she helped me recalculate my improvised ruble conversions and regain my sanity. My harvested handbasket of ornaments would have wiped us out of rubles four-fold and while we didn't want to have any ruble remnants at the end of our two days, this was not the way to go. I looked at Mari and sheepishly raised my index finger and whispered, "One." This was my favorite, reminding me as much of Gustav Klimt and our wonderful visit to the Vienna Christmas markets as it would remind me of our day trip to St. Pete. The lady in yellow on the left proffers another of my cherished paper-mâché treasures, kin to the one I shared with you on Easter.

Leaving St. Petersburg that final time, the day after our anniversary, was another of those melancholy moments I often experience when traveling. I've even come to look forward to them.

You know me and

"my moments."

I've learned that it is good to be a little sad when leaving a touristed location because then you know you have really enjoyed your limited time there.

Fleamarketed items and souvenirs help us experience nostalgia anew and remembering to pick one up off a crowded (and dusty) shelf from time to time is a quick way to satisfy that travel itch.

I leave St. Pete posing among a display at a port shop with a tried and true (Columbia blue) travel companion, itself a souvenir of my time as a Memorial Mustang (which is quickly coming to an end). More on that in a future post.

Next, we sink our teeth into Helsinki.