This album might be defined as an introduction to the
next one (Valaam). We want to make the trip in one day, so we chose the
shortest route to get there (by the car to the Sortavala and then by the
hydrofoil craft "Raketa" to the island).
Since many people passed by the road to Pryozersk and it was
mentioned in previous albums, I will not comment it.
Soon after
Pryozersk the road became hard. At the beginning it is like a serpentine
road - hills and sharp curves everywhere. Then the serpentine is over
(and asphalt too!) and the dirt road begins. The car could stand it, but
CD player refused to operate in such conditions.
There is an official entrance to Karelia in this picture. At the
beginning the road was the quite comfortable (asphalted, I mean), but
it was an illusion - asphalt was over in a couple of kilometers. "The
main entrance" ;-)
There are the old Finnish farm's remains
just by the road sign …
…and well familiar bus station.
Such buildings very often can be seen by
the road, though they are untypical for Leningrad's region.
Though we found out beforehand when the
first "Raketa" would start, on the way we realized that we wouldn't be
in time because of the bad road.
There is another boat to Valaam that
started from Pryozersk (the trip takes two hours approximately), but the
timetable is not so suitable.
It's hard to understand whether this
house is unfinished or not fully demolished yet.
It could be a railway
station in the past - there was a railway crossing, where we were stuck
for a half an hour.
This is the rest on the lake's side.
Beautiful sightseeing and malicious Karelian mosquitoes.
Such picturesque view
is supposed to be a very typical for the most regions in Russia, unless
spot's color of cows and tree's types are different.
Ladoga's banks. There are a lot of
little islands and bays along the bank, so the horizon almost cannot be
observed.
Here we are in Sortavala.
It's a
little place. There are many cars with Finnish numbers (the frontier is
in several kilometers) and ordinary cars given way to pedestrians.
Sortavala was founded by Swedes in 1632 (people has been living here
since 1500) and during the wars it was took by the Russians and Swedes
back again several times. In 1811 known as Serdobol it became the part
of Finland, belonging to Russia at that time.
In 1940 Sortavala became the part of Russia, in 1941 it was took again
by Finnish army and in 1944 it was given back to USSR (during this
changing city's population migrated wigwag).
Now Sortavala is belonged to Karelia, which is the part of Russia.
Nickolskaya church.
It was built in 1873 by Nikolay
Grebenkov.
There is the sign on the tablet: "To the
heroic Soviet warriors fallen in the actions for freedom and
independence of our motherland." There was also a list of the names.
There were other place of interest but we didn't have enough time to
look at them.
This picture was taken, because water
from this water-pump poured down for an hour minimum (we passed here and
back again) without any external action.
Here we are on the quay. Ladoga is ahead.
It must be said that there was the guarded parking by the quay and
the parking fee was quite moderate.
The quay was built not long ago - everything was fresh and clean.
There we and other passengers were waiting for the "Raketa" to come…
.…but, of course, it came to the
neighboring old quay.
