«Trip to Scandinavia»

We are a group of students, lecturers, and professors from Geography Departments of Tver, Voronezh and Moscow State Universities. The total number of people is forty-one, plus two bus drivers. A nineteen-day trip to Scandinavia is ahead of us; its length is about five thousand kilometers.

Our group's leader is Alexander Zherenkov, an experienced traveler who knows almost all of Europe. He's been preparing this trip for about a year. I know that he put his heart and soul into it…

We left Tver before noon. On the way to St. Petersburg, two professors from Moscow University lectured on economic development and geology of the areas that we passed. We made a few stops, one for lunch.

We arrived in the 'Northern Capital' at night, stopped the bus by the Neva River bank and had a couple of hours to walk around the city center.

Early in the morning, when everybody was almost half asleep, we crossed the border of our northern neighbor - Finland. At first glance, nothing was different on the other side, except for the roads, that were much better than ours, and striking cleanliness. As we passed villages and towns, I noticed how lovely they were.

We made a stop in Imatra, a town located on the banks of the Vuoksa River whose imposing rocky riverbed is the main attraction there. Many well-known people such as Russian czars, Swedish kings, writers, and painters used to come here to spend their vacations. To commemorate their visits, stones with inscriptions engraved on them were placed on the riverbank.

We also saw a dam and a hydropower station built on the river. Alexander said that on special occasions, the dam opens up and a stream of water rushes along the empty riverbed. At the same time, music plays and a light show can be seen in the night sky. That must be interesting!

Kari, Alexander's Finnish friend, accommodated our large group for two nights in Niittylahti at the North Karelian Technical School's gym.

In the afternoon, Kari took us to the Kolvananuuro Nature Reserve. The drivers parked the bus at the small parking lot in the woods from where we took a path down to a bog. There are signposts everywhere in the park, which provide information about the place. A seven km path runs at the bottom and along a gorge that was formed during the last ice age. Despite tough hiking along the canyon's rocky floor, I enjoyed it.

In the evening we went to the real Finnish sauna! What bliss!

In the morning, we went on an excursion to the Koli National Park located on the shores of the lake Pielinen. There is a research center in the Park where we saw a very beautiful documentary and an exhibition on geology, history, culture, and biological diversity of the area. I found out that this was a favorite place of Finnish celebrities, writers and artists, including the famous composer Jan Cibelius, who came here to get their inspiration.

I was impressed, when a geography professor later took us to two giant rocks - the smaller one is called 'The Old Woman' and the bigger one 'The Old Man' - from where I saw magnificent scenery: northern wilderness, blue water of the lake, rocks, and coniferous forests that stretch for miles in all directions. Indeed, there can be no better place for restoring one's soul and getting inspired. And all this is a result of a glacier that about ten thousand years ago drew back, giving the terrain such a mysterious shape.