Golden Autumn in Eastern Finland

Before the start of the tour, I spent two days in St. Petersburg, and the weather was not at all pleasant, there were low clouds in the sky, and sometimes it drizzled. It was just as dark when we drove from St. Petersburg to the Finnish border. There was no queue at the border checkpoint, and document checks and other formalities took no more than half an hour on the Russian side, and even less on the Finnish side. While we were going through these procedures, the sky miraculously brightened, the clouds turned into light clouds and the sun came out.

From the Vaalimaa border post to Helsinki, about two hundred kilometers and we covered them in about two hours, contemplating the autumn landscapes of rural Finland.

The first large (by Finnish standards) settlement, Hamina, a town with a population of 20 thousand inhabitants. During the Russo-Swedish wars, it repeatedly passed from hand to hand and was destroyed.

The city is located at the mouth of the Vehkajoki River and many small boats are based on its winding banks. In the sixties, an oil port was built in Hamin.

Then along the road stretched mixed forests decorated with autumn gold and lakes with swampy banks.

Closer to Porvoo, the terrain has changed, and here the road passes through recesses with steep rocky walls. Along the cliffs, you can see fences installed for the safety of wild animals.

Finally, we enter the outskirts of the Finnish capital, which I found very similar to our Ural provincial cities. In Helsinki, we will have a short sightseeing tour with a visit to the most famous sights.