In Sortavala, close to the border of Finland I stay in Ladoga Hotel. They offered me a bed in the huge 6-bed room for 400 roubles – not bad…
Now, how to get from Sortavala to St Petersburg? There is a single railway track and they have a train going north on even days and south on uneven days…
I tried to buy the tickets in advance but I found the station closed with a written info that it will be open only 1 hour before train departure. OK.
It takes more then 6 hours to St Petersburg, but since it was day-time service (dep. 7.20 am) I decided to buy “platskartny” class for 406 roubles. What is “platskartny”? Do you remember the hard sleepers in China? – that’s similar class.
They also serve free boiling water for your tea or soup at the end of the car…
In St Petersburg the hostel business is gwowing – now there is a choice of 20 hostels or so… Wow! I went by subway to SPB (Why not KGB? 🙂 ) Hostel at Moskovsky Prospekt… 750 roubles per bed in the triple room, clean sheets and big towel included!
