Finnish Sledding and Ice Skating

Enjoying a day in the park!

We've been taking advantage of the holidays to get out and do some fun stuff. Yesterday the weather was quite nice with a bit of sun shinning briefly. After sleeping late and cooking blini for breakfast we headed over to Yelagin Island, to just have some fun for the day.

Yelagin Island has a beautiful park, especially in winter with snow everywhere, makes for a great place to walk, ski, go ice skating, ride on a horse and sleigh, or just on horseback. There are lots of other attractions too, there is a palace, museum, they often have concerts, soon there will be an exhibition of ice sculptures (I'll write more about that when I get more info), cafes and other things.

With all the things to do in the park, we decided to rent a Finnish sled for an hour and ride around the park. I personally didn't know what a Finnish sled was before going. A Finnish sled is one with a seat in the front with long sleds for someone to run and push from behind. It was a lot of fun, and some good exercise too! Just kidding, it really wasn't difficult, I was surprised how smoothly and easily the sled rode. In the park you can rent a sled for one hour for 100 rub. with a 1,000 rub or driver's license for a deposit, which you will get back of course when you return the sled.

After sledding for an hour, and resting a bit by just walking around and drinking some tea, we decided to do some ice skating on the beautiful open air rink. By this time it was started to get a bit dark and the lights on the rink were beautiful and made for a nice atmosphere. If you have your own skates you can skate 1 hour for 100 rub, if you need to rent skates that will add another 200 rub, plus the deposit, which for the skates is 2,000 rub or a driver's license. 

During the Summer Yelagin Island is a great place just to go for a walk along the river and opening to the Finnish Gulf. Another one of my favorite things to do one a nice summer day is to rent a paddle boat and chill out on the big pond on Yelagin Island. It is a lot of fun and can be very peaceful on the water, plus we loving feeding all the beautiful ducks and swans swimming on the pond.

Overall it was a great day, and the weather is supposed to be nice again tomorrow. We're planning to go back tomorrow to do some cross-country skiing around the park. If you get a chance, when you're in St. Petersburg, summer or winter, head out to Yelagin Island to the park one day!