Republic of Karelia

LionelNashe

This place has caught my imagination a bit because I didn't know it existed before last week. I'm glad my knowledge of the map has its limits because I don't have to go too far to feel completely off the map.

I've googled a bit, and I can see train connections from St Petersburg and Moscow. I'd like to see the place and leave via St Petersburg, but I don't want to go there via St Petersburg as well because then I'm covering the same ground twice.

Does anybody know if there are bus links from Finland? Has anyone ever been there?

Edit: I'm going to tag on a second question as well. When in Russia on a tourist visa, do you have to stay at the hotels that you specified on the dates you specified when you applied for the visa? I would rather keep a flexible itinerary - If I get off a train somewhere and it looks like there is nothing to see, I don't want to hang around, and if I go somewhere that is worth a longer visit than I expected, then I'd like that flexibility as well.

ardmacha

Until the Russians pushed out to the Baltic to build St Petersburg, all there abouts were Karelians, who were enslaved to build St Petersburg. And of course the area around Vyborg was siezed from Finland in the war.