Murmansk Winter Expedition: Day #10 – We achieved the goal of the travel

Daily distance: 151 km
Distance from home: 3322 km

We rushed through the taiga. A forest appeared to our eyes. Forest of chimneys. And then we saw the inscription of greeting visitors in the city of metallurgists.

We found a nice resort on the island, our room was only 80m2 and about 4 meters high. There was a nice white road with troughs leading to it. And we could even forget that not far from this place was the city of Orcs, that is to say, metallurgists.

While in Finland, we visited the Sam culture center in Ivalo, which had a richly equipped open-air museum and an equally interesting exposition inside, presenting life in Lapland throughout history. So when we have found something inspiring inside a promotional flyer from Karelia, we decided to drive 20 km from the main road to visit the Russian center of Sam, hoping for similar experiences. We drove through pretty hills and forests, the view resembled deep Finland. We parked nearby a high closed fence. From behind the gate a man came out in front of us, asking if we were on the excursion, because if so, then the nearest is in an hour and a half. He informed us about the price, which was not the lowest even by European standards. When we said that we were not interested in the reindeer sleigh ride, the gate was closed so that we could not even have a look inside to see the show village. And that’s all what we can say about our contact with an institution promoting Sam culture in Russia. In fact, it made an electrifying impression on us.

The next stop was an occasional photo session at the entrance to Murmansk.