Finnish Karelia: Weekend route from St. Petersburg
Finnish region of North Karelia is rich in natural beauty. An hour after the instant crossing of the border through the empty PPC of Vyrtsille, we will achieve the province of Contiolakhti, where we will stop in the house right on the shore of a small lake, which in fact, connecting with ducts with other reservoirs included in the huge lake system of Sima.
After the border, the Karelian landscape does not change, but strong differences in everyday life are noticeable. Instead of villages with hollows covered with sweat, places of irradiated paint, and sometimes at all without it, neat settlements right in the forest, where houses are apart from each other, separated by pines. Finns love and respese nature. Special relationships with the outside world seem to be printed in their national identity. Instead of smashed fences, seeking to close the life of the owners, a live fence or the absence of any fence. Personal territory does not closes the perimeter – here are sure that no one will come to her. Houses are usually separated by natural lining and painted in "Scandinavian" colors – white or pastel shade color, sometimes in a bright burgundy. Many possessions are equipped with small extension saunas with a pipe on the roof and full-time at the entrance.
The capital of the region, "Regional Center" – the city of Joensuu – on scale more like the Moscow region district centers. However, with a population of 80,000 people, he has everything necessary – here and a huge multifunctional medical complex, and a pedestrian center with boutiques and restaurants, and large malls on the outskirts, and many diverse enterprises together with work places. The city is low-storey, but many live not even inside him, but in nature, coming here to work every day. The city is almost deprived of a dense suburbs, immediately behind his outskirts begin wild forests and lakes. There are almost no traffic, at the same time do not and problems get to work every day.
Usually in this region of Finland came to fish and collect. Blueberries, lingonberries, mushrooms. Then the summer was out of dry and forest harvest did not yielded. With fish, too, somehow did not ask – the experience is missing from me to catch it on spinning, and in addition to one feud. But finding in this lake edge, among untouched forests, in itself perfect. Natural sounds come at night, fresh air fills the lungs while walking on oars. Pastoral landscape and feeling of the correctness of life here is relaxing and motivated. After such places, my life is becoming more and more environmentally friendly, and I dream that an understanding of the importance of a pure surrounding world will come to all of us. Much there, of course, does the state, but also the people are well done – very "green" citizens.
At 75 km from Joensuu there is a National Park of Kolya – this is a whole ridge of rocky hills, which are opening Finnish Dali: On the one hand, a sea of water with scattered strokes with wooded islands – a fascinating example of a classic glacial relief, on the other – the sea of taiga to the horizon itself. If you are on the car, on the way to the park you can explore Finnish Debres in more detail. For example, using the County Dear Jerontie, which will hold you through the forest on the shores of the lakes past lonely farms. At the same time you will see how the ground roads should be done correctly (hello to the primers of the A12 track).
National Park in Finland – not just protected natural territory. Unlike the same Ladoga Schker in the Finnish National Park, visitors are waiting. There is all the necessary infrastructure and many time options. For hiking lovers – thoughtful and understandable routes, designed for duration from a couple of hours to several days. Places of recreation and place of overnight stays – all over the route. At the entrance to the park is a large parking and a free funicular, a hotel for visitors, a tour desk and a souvenir shop. Immediately – a small skiing complex, whose tracks in winter allow you to descend from the top right to the lake. Short, but, by the way, the coolest slopes in all Finland.
We arrived in the park under the sunset, and three hours we were enough to slowly bypass three picturesque peaks of the park – Ukko Koli, Akka Koli and Paha Koli. The trail originates right at the hotel, to which a free elevator leads from the parking lot. Two-three-hour routes pass even with young children – it starts with a small staircase, after which the trail goes on the ridge almost horizontally.
Owners of Shengen from Peter in the Park of Kohl, if desired, can be taken even on the weekend, using the Svetlogorsk-Imator transition and a convenient route No. 6 from Finland, instead of the PPC.
