I've just come home a couple of hours ago, none the worse for wear considering the terrible experience me and especially my friends had on entering Russia. First of all, we were held up for four hours for a very flimsy reason by Immigration guards. We were even held under questioning (although I must say they were sufficiently polite despite the fact that my friend and I were visibly irritated). After getting to Murmansk from Ivalo, Finland at 2 am, we were invited for questioning again by an investigator who made sure we came by assigning a soldier to accompany us during our trip from the border to the city (it was a treacherous move, because we trusted the soldier, thinking he was just hitching a ride with us; we even gave him food and drink during the four-hour trip, he instead turned us over to the authorities). The questioning this time lasted for no more than five minutes, but still it was the most outrageous move by Russian authorities.
When we finally got to our hotel room, I was so exhausted and emotionally distraught by the latest episode that I immediately fell asleep. My two friends went out to buy food at the 24-hour grocery next door. On their return one of them was mugged by a street thug, who hit him hard on the face. They gave chase, didn't get the money back (he lost almost 1,000 USD in cash and valuables) but was invited by the police for investigation. By the time they got to the station, the criminal was already apprehended and put in jail. He has passed off the money to an accomplice, in the meantime. So my friends stayed all night at the police station answering questions and signing reports. They only got to the hotel at 8 am.
We boarded the train from Murmansk on Saturday evening, and it took 36 hours to get here. I'm all okay but feeling very, very tired. Took a bubble bath but still a bit woozy. Slept only two hours because I finished a book about Helsinki last night. The night before that I finished a novel by Finnish writer Jurani Aho.
When we finally got to our hotel room, I was so exhausted and emotionally distraught by the latest episode that I immediately fell asleep. My two friends went out to buy food at the 24-hour grocery next door. On their return one of them was mugged by a street thug, who hit him hard on the face. They gave chase, didn't get the money back (he lost almost 1,000 USD in cash and valuables) but was invited by the police for investigation. By the time they got to the station, the criminal was already apprehended and put in jail. He has passed off the money to an accomplice, in the meantime. So my friends stayed all night at the police station answering questions and signing reports. They only got to the hotel at 8 am.
We boarded the train from Murmansk on Saturday evening, and it took 36 hours to get here. I'm all okay but feeling very, very tired. Took a bubble bath but still a bit woozy. Slept only two hours because I finished a book about Helsinki last night. The night before that I finished a novel by Finnish writer Jurani Aho.
