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* Arrival in Petrozavodsk.
* Breakfast in a restaurant with Karelian cuisine that is famous for its cosy atmosphere of the Karelian house (“izba”) and high-quality service. Here one can taste traditional Karelian food.
* Leaving Petrozavodsk for Sortavala by bus. Visiting the historic Karelian village of Kinerma on the way to Sortavala. In the village one can still feel much life, talk with local people and enjoy Karelian nature.
* Walking around the village with the visit to a chapel. This small 17 house village is a unique complex monument of folk wooden architecture of the Karelian-Livviks. In the centre of the village there is a worship fir-tree grove with the Smolensk Mother of God chapel, built in the 18 century. For the first time Kinerma was mentioned in 1563. The village experienced a long period of suffering and destruction. In spite of this, you can still meet representatives of the old Karelian families, the founders of this village.
* After a short tour the hostess of the village treats all the guests to a delicious * Karelian lunch in an authentic wooden house with a unique atmosphere.
* Arrival in Sortavala. The town of Sortavala – formerly Serdobol – is the pearl in the crown of Lake Ladoga. This town attracted the attention of great people of the 20th century. Being glorified in the intricate wooden carving of the contemporary artist Kronid Gogolev who is famous throughout Russia, Sortavala is giving a strong impulse to constructive creative energy.
* Visiting the museum of Kronid Gogolev, a famous Karelian artist and wood carver.
* Accommodation in the hotel.
* Dinner.
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* Breakfast.
* The fast boat trip along Lake Ladoga to the island of Valaam. The Valaam Archipelago in Lake Ladoga consists of approximately 50 islands. For many years Valaam has attracted religious people by its magnificent monasteries, churches, chapels, nature, its economic infrastructure based on smart engineering decisions, and its amazing collections of plants introduced from different climatic zones. Kuingy, Tchaikovsky, Shishkin and Leskov, Korovin and Shmelev, Tyutchev and Zaitsev paid visits to this place. This nature is wild, sullen, attracting with its wilderness in which inspired stern beauty may be observed. You see the cliffs, proudly protruding out of the abyss; they stand like giants on guard. The monks abandoned Valaam along with the Finnish army in 1940 during the Soviet-Finnish Winter War. Then, after World War II, the island became part of the Soviet Union and the monastery was used to house people who had been badly injured during the war. Valaam and its monasteries have now become a popular tourist destination and its permanent population of 500 swells during the summer, with an influx of children, tourists and pilgrims.
* Visiting the Transfiguration monastery, the Father Superior cemetery, transfer by boat to the Voskresensky and Gefsimansky small and secluded monasteries (5 hours).
* Lunch in a refectory.
* Coming back to Sortavala.
* Free time.
* Dinner.
* Leaving Sortavala for Petrozavodsk by bus.
* Arrival in Petrozavodsk. Accommodation in the hotel.
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* Breakfast.
* The trip to the island of Kizhi by hydrofoil. The excursion around the Kizhi Architectual Ensemble and the historic village of the 19th century.
Coming back to Petrozavodsk.
* Lunch in a café.
* The city tour by bus. The capital of Karelia - the city of Petrozavodsk was founded in 1703 by the Emperor Peter the Great to provide support in his war against Sweden (1700-1721). Saint-Petersburg - capital of Russia at that time – dates back to the same year. In spite of its three century history Petrozavodsk remains an eternally young and dynamically developing town.
* Dinner (Karelian cuisine).
* Leaving Petrozavodsk by train.
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