Day four of my trip to St Petersburg had arrived, and it was only a matter of hours until we had to jump in the car and head to the airport. The night before was spent with some of the people we had met during our stay at a restaurant. Celebrating new friendship, perspectives and future possibilities, might sound like a cliché but in that atmosphere nothing could be. These people were just filled with such amazing spirits that even I who is usually very positive felt a bit knocked over.

Anyway I think at breakfast this morning that we all felt a bit sad to leave and of course that made us a bit late for the daily schedule. The first and only planned stop today was the Hermitage.  However, we insisted on making another stop to the Kazan Cathedral An amazing building that we had passed numerous times but never had time to take a closer look at. Fortunately for us the cathedral was in walking distance from the Hermitage, so that was put on the daily schedule as well.

The Hermitage and the Kazan Cathedral

As I told you we were a bit late leaving the hotel as we had to pack our bags and get ready, since we were not coming back before we left for the airport. This almost caused us our visit to the hermitage since we were on quite a tight schedule and the hermitage sometimes have insanely long lines. But once again we had our luck with us as there were no lines at all. We later found out that this was because the summer was over, in the summers the lines can take hours and they spread all over the square in front of the building, and I will tell you, that is not a small square.

When in the museum I was almost more amazed by the incredible architecture than by the art itself. Although I was a bit surprised to find out that almost the whole museum burnt down during the war and everything were reconstructed after it was over. Though I could see that the internal architecture was in very good shape they fooled me. I had no idea that they could capture what used to be in such a real way, but since I am not an expert, others may disagree.

We walked around the hermitage main building and I got to see a few amazing paintings from Pablo Picasso and others. After spending some time viewing the older pieces as well as the more modern art we felt that enough was enough. Satisfied with our visit we continued to the fabulous Kazan Cathedral.

The cathedral turned out to be even more astonishing up close. The Russian architecture is truly massive, but everything seems to be under reconstruction and so was this building. But since you where allowed to go inside and thus see both the internal and external work of art the reconstruction did not bother me too much. Instead I am just happy to have seen yet another building in close up before it was time to leave.

After walking out of the cathedral we took a few more pictures, enjoyed our last Russian two course meal and sad our goodbyes to Katja before we headed off the airport. There it was time to say goodbye to Tuukka for now as he was flying to Finland, while the rest of us caught the flight to Stockholm. There we all split Bodil flew to Oslo, Janis took the train to Örebro and I continued my journey to Uppsala. I really hope to see them all very soon. I hope we will all attend next year’s Emax event in Denmark as volunteers.

A few last words about the trip

Before the trip I did not have a lot of time to read about the city and what you could see there, and when it came to my views of the culture, people and standards I think that my knowledge got stuck in the history classes in school. I believed that Russia was gray and cold and that the people were poor and had little charisma. Now I cannot understand how I could think that, I guess it was because I never really read or learned anything about the country after graduating high school, and all we learn there is about the wars, the problems and the poverty. Sure Russia has it problems still, but nothing is like I thought it would be.

Ok, I admit that Russia is cold, but St. Petersburg is a beautiful city with so much culture. The people who live there are very educated and proud of their city and they can tell you anything you want to know. Can you do that about your city? And when it comes to the poverty it might still be in their wallets but in their hearts they are such a rich group of people. I feel a lot more comfortable in a group of Russians than I would in most groups of Scandinavians; they are open, warm and pleasant to be around. While Scandinavians, at least young people, in comparison is so much more judgmental and uninviting, sad but true. I love Scandinavia and the people, but we are sometimes a hard group to get to know.

The programs that the Russian government and organization offers for prospective entrepreneurs are a lot more generous and promising that the ones that we have in Scandinavia. In Sweden you cannot get financial help to start a business unless you are unemployed. While in Russia the grant I have been talking about is offered to anyone. Adding to that the money you receive from the grant programs is not a loan; you get to keep that as long as you use the money according to the business plan. In Sweden all the money you can get is from a loan and that is not very encouraging for someone who wants to take a chance for something new? We might have prospective entrepreneurs in the country that wants to create something that could be ground breaking and great for the country, but where is the real support?

Sweden and I believe the other Nordic countries as well have a lot to learn from the programs and possibilities the Russian offers their Entrepreneurs. Start to study it now.