Summer trip to Carelia. Round-up.

Hello friends!

Just in case you've missed one of my posts here are links to all the parts of the story of our Russian adventure: Part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4.

Today I'll tell you about our visit to the village of Danilovo. It's a beautiful but almost deserted village. In the good old days it was the home of eleven thousand people, now there are one three permanent residents. This time of year it's a bit more lively though with tourists and people spending the summer in their dachas in the village.

A typical Carelian house.

The village was founded by Orthodox Old Believers who had a monastery there from 1694 to 1857. Now there's hardly anything left. Only old, abandoned wooden houses, raspberry bushes, snakes and bears.

But the scenery is wonderful. We decided to take a walk to an old spring where the monastery supposedly was located. Everything was so quiet and calm as we walked along the path but of course Julius had to go and ruin the mood. He was feeling hot and started complaining.

Look how dry it is.

Good thing we found the spring

A strange thing happened while we were in Danilovo. I told you before that Russians used to believe in spirits and other mythical beings likes gnomes. There were various creatures all over the place and they could take on different forms, so for example the gnome living in the banya (Russian sauna) could reveal himself to humans in the shape of a frog. Harming them in any way was very bad luck. 

Well, by the old banya we found a small frog. We thought he looked lonely so we introduced him to our friend Pyzhik the playful kitten. That may not have been the best idea in the world. Rest in peace banya gnome, we ment well.

Pyzhik

Talking of banya. After the trip to Danilovo when we were back at granmother's place we got to try her sauna. It was old, dark and smokey. But that's the way it's supposed to be. Like a proper Russian I beat Julius with birch twigs. I was very good at it, he was all red afterwards, very good for his circulation.

After the sauna Julius could hardly move so we spent the rest of the evening on a bench outside eating raspberries. The next day we went home to Finland.