There’s a shopping trip from Helsinki to Christiana. That is Helsinki Finland to Christiana Russia. It also goes the opposite way from Christiana to Helsinki. From Helsinki you board the shopping boat at 1:30 am and it takes you over to Christiana by 9:00 am. We decided to give it a try to see all of the great artwork in the museums of Christiana, No visa required as long as you are back on the boat by 9:00 pm to return.
Off the boat and up the the street we went. It took almost a half an hour to reach the artsy part of town. I won’t bore you with all of the cathedrals and museums we visited, but they were all beautiful. We had a light lunch at 1:00 and then more art and more art. We found a cozy little family style restaurant around 5:30 for dinner
The owners spoke no english but the grandkids did. We explained about the shopping boat and that we needed to get back to the docks by 9:00 pm. No problem they said. Soon more grandkids and regular kids were amassed at our table. We talked, ate, dranh vodka, and talked some more. Some where in there we lost track of the time and suddenly it was 9:15 pm. And, our boat had sailed.
Without a visa we were illegally in Russia. A plan was made to hide us out until morning and put us on the Christiana to Helsinki boat at 3:30 am the next morning. One of their friends was on his way and he and his wife woulld put us up and drive us to the docks in time for the boat.
Soon Ivan arrived and told us the plan. We would pay him about $10, and he would walk us to his house a few blocks away. There we could spend the night in their guest room. He would drive us to the docks early in the am. He also said that if any thing happened that we should not mention the money part to anyone. We agreed. Being a little bit tipsy and that Julie was from Jersey and prone to be loud and obnoxious he warned us to be quiet as we walked.
That didn’t stop Julie though, she was loud and obnoxious tossing the F bomb around. He kept shushing her but it was too late. Two patrolmen heard her and saw us. They discretely followed us . When we got to the house our host was introducing us to his wife when the knock on the door came. Enter the police who wanted to know what we wee up to. The younger cop spoke english fairly well and as I was explaining the older cop was talking to Ivan in russian and he was telling the same story as mine. All the while Julie was waving her American passport and yelling that we were American citizens and couldn’t be treated this way. It was a mess. Soon no one was speaking english.
It was decided that the captain would sort it all out at the station. So off the five of us went . Now the police station reminded me of that old tv show Car 54 where are you. An older man sat behind this huge deck looking stern. We were cuffed to a metal bar and Julie would not shut up. The younger cop finally told me to make her shut up or we would be in serious trouble. She did! After a lot of discussion it was decided that we would spend the night in a cell–be given something to eat in the morning early—and then the police would drive us to the docks and make sure she got on the boat and left Russia forever
Regular Russian people are kind of like regular American people. I think that it was to much of a hassle to report us to the KGB, they just wanted us gone. And, I didn’t want to spend 15 years in Siberia. We were crateful for the hospitality and Ivan kept the #10. A win/win.
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