Workshop 3 North Karelia Finland

PROGRAM

Once we arrived, our first stop was the regenerative hotel Lietsu Boutique Aparthotel – Huoneistohotelli Lietsu. This hotel showcases Karelian culture and operates from a sustainability perspective, with details ranging from secondhand porcelain to rooms offering clean, allergen-free air and renewable electricity.

We visited the University of Eastern Finland (UEF) and held a workshop on pricing of tourism products. Päivi Kosonen from UEF taught us how entrepreneurs should think in order to make their businesses financially viable.

After that, we headed down winding, often narrow and muddy roads in North Karelia to visit one of the project's reference companies: Karelia Cottages. This company offers accommodation in a regenerative environment on an island in Lake Saimaa. The lodging is well thought out and sustainable, and they offer regenerative activities, such as shoveling snow mounds for the endemic Saimaa ringed seal to reproduce. The Saimaa ringed seal (Pusa hispida saimensis) is a subspecies of ringed seal, with only about 400 individuals remaining. The species became isolated in Lake Saimaa 8,000 years ago due to land uplift.

The next day, we continued to a peninsula in Lake Saimaa. Saimaa is Finland’s largest and Europe’s fourth largest lake, filled with islands, peninsulas, and isthmuses. There, we visited SaimaaLife and Mari, who “helps you deepen your connection with nature—both outside and within yourself—so that you can gain wisdom and strength to better use them in your everyday life, and for your health and happiness.” Mari took us on a forest bathing experience in freezing wind and occasional sleet. Despite the weather, it was amazing to lie back and gaze up at the tall pine canopies swaying in the wind—truly a perspective-shifting experience.

Lunch was served at Vanha Salmela, which among other things grows apples and raspberries. The meal included slow-cooked lamb korma with pearl barley, apple juice, seed crispbread and rye bread, and finally apple cake with raspberries—all locally produced.  

Our excellent bus driver guided us through the small, winding roads, past the well-managed forests of pine, spruce, and birch, and on and off ferries, to a guided tour at the Riihisaari Museum in Savonlinna in southern Savo. There we learned more about Lake Saimaa, the town of Savonlinna, and the castle Olavinlinna.

Finally, we traveled to the Oravi Outdoor Activity Center at SaimaaHoliday Oravi. Oravi is located on the edge of Linnansaari National Park. The activity center offers a range of guided tours in the national park. You can also rent boats, canoes, bicycles, or hiking gear for independent adventures. They offer sauna experiences with a dip in Lake Saimaa—which we tried. Ice still covered the bays, so you had to be well-heated before jumping in!

We had dinner and stayed overnight in Oravi. For dinner, we were served pike patties made from locally caught pike from Saimaa.

Breakfast included warm Karelian pasties and cured zander, also locally sourced. Oravi Outdoor Activity Center contributes to the local community by running a grocery store. Without the visiting tourists, it would not be possible to maintain a store in this depopulated rural area. Local youth work in the store during the summer—often their first step into the job market. Of course, there are other seasonal jobs, but for local residents to make a living, full-time employment is necessary.

After all these experiences, it was time to head home. For us from Sweden, that meant another 500 km by bus and the ferry across the Kvarken strait.

 /Text: Ann Dolling Photo: Ann Dolling and Lucine Margaryan