Karelia for 9 days (35 foto)

Hello, my friends.

I planned a trip to Karelia with my children back in January 2020. I booked a house on the shore of Lake Ladoga for June 3 and we began to wait for the onset of summer.
As you know, in the spring of 2020, Russia introduced restrictions in connection with the COVID-19 pandemic. We had to cancel the reservation for this house.
This year, my son's vacation fell on the beginning of August. At the beginning of June, at a virtual family council, it was decided – we are going to Karelia again! I went to the BOOKING service and started looking for a suitable place for us. There were already few offers, but I managed to book the place of residence we needed – it was the base of Mikli-Olgino, not far from the Lahdenpohya city. I talked to the owner of this place, a very friendly girl, and she also gave me a discount on housing. This time Karelia was waiting for us on July 31!

On July 30, I went on a trip with my youngest daughter at 6 o'clock in the morning. I had to drive about 1800 km and be on the shore of Lake Ladoga by 3 pm on July 31.

On the first day of the trip, my daughter and I drove 750 km and by 6 o'clock in the evening we arrived at relatives in Yaroslavl city. We stopped in the village of Bukhalovo, we were fed, watered and put to bed.

On July 31, at 3 am, we continued our journey. It remained to drive about 1100 km. We drove along the M-8 highway to Vologda city and headed towards St.Petersburg city. By one o'clock in the afternoon, we were standing in a traffic jam at the entrance to the northern capital. In an hour and a half we overcame the roads of St. Petersburg and headed towards the Republic of Karelia.

By this time, my eldest daughter and her husband were already at the base. After 3 hours, we were also at the right place and enjoyed the view of the local lake, which was part of the skerries of Lake Ladoga.

On the first day, we took a walk around the neighborhood of the city with the Finnish name Lahdenpohja. In general, all the names of cities, rivers, mountains, and villages have Finnish roots. We visited the "Valley of Waterfalls" and the exhibition-museum "City of angels" in the old Finnish kirch.

The Valley of Waterfalls is about a 1 kilometer long section of the Ihalanjoki River.
A very interesting place. There is also a small farm with reindeer. Very funny creatures. They have very pleasant horns to the touch. They are used to being fed by visitors. They especially like birch branches.
At the entrance to the Valley, you can buy cheese from local producers. A very large assortment of cheeses made from goat's milk. Very tasty cheeses! There is a trout farm in the vicinity of Lahdenpohya, so there are many offers of fish products in all cafes and similar places.

On the same day, we visited the old kirch. In 1977, there was a fire in it, only the walls were preserved. Now people are raising money for the restoration of this church. A museum of wooden figures is organized inside. A very interesting place. It is located on the St.Petersburg - Petrozavodsk highway, in the center of Lahdenpohya on a hill. You will not be able to pass by this place without noticing it.
There is also a burial place of more than 300 Finnish soldiers who died in the wars of the 20th century in these places.

On August 3, my eldest son and his wife joined us and we started our full-fledged excursions and walks in Karelia.

In the vicinity of the same city there is "Mount Filina" (Huhoyamaki) - a military-historical complex of thematic tourism. A very interesting place. This mountain was once the headquarters of the Finnish Army, there were military warehouses, then it was a Soviet military facility, ex-President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev served here.
If someone happens to be in this area, I recommend visiting this underground museum.

We also went to the Ruskeala Mountain Park with the marble canyon. This is a very interesting place. You can walk there all day. There are organized tours by rail from Moscow, St. Petersburg and Sortaval. A retro train runs from Sortaval, driven by an old steam locomotive.
There are also waterfalls on the Tohmajoki River in the vicinity of Ruskeala. This is another beautiful place in South Karelia. Several cascades of waterfalls with quiet backwaters create a picture that you can look at for a long time.

On the penultimate day in Karelia, we decided to visit the island of Valaam. An Orthodox monastery has been located on this island for a long time. This island has a very rich spiritual and secular history. We had a little trouble there. LLC "Russian Railways", canceled the return flight of the meteor and we had to get out of this island on our own. Now it is very difficult to return the money spent on buying tickets.
If someone goes to this island, I recommend not to use the services of Russian Railways, not to go to Valaam on their meteor ship,it is better to use the services of private guides with carriers on small boats.

One of the days we completely devoted to fishing. We took 2 boats with motors for rent and went fishing within the base. We found a beautiful parking lot with a bonfire, cooked fish soup from caught fish, baked vegetables in foil. My youngest daughter was fishing with a spinning rod for the first time and caught two small pike. But the eldest daughter could not catch a pike. But she caught a lot of bream and rudd, from which we made an ear.
We have already prepared the pike caught by me at the recreation center. We cooked them in a smoker and ate them sitting in the gazebo.

Yes, on the territory of this recreation center (Mikli-Olgino) there are 2 baths, several detached houses, a central building with rooms in which we lived, many gazebos, cafes, a swimming beach, 2 boat docks, many wooden figures, a small farm. And at the entrance to the territory of this farm there is a large farm with cows, goats, sheep.

This is a good place. I talked to one of the visitors, he told me that he comes here with a large company every year. This year there were 24 of them.
One bad thing is that MTS mobile communication does not work, there is only a Megaphone. There is also an Internet connection, but it is not very stable. I had problems while working with it, the connection is not stable.