Around Ilomantsi

(Post number 5 of camp school in Ilomantsi, to find out more read 4 previous posts)

Ilomantsi is known to be the eastest place in mainland of EU, the place of many war historic events, Kalevala community which cherishes carelian culture, the most orthodox municipality in Finland and the place with lots of wilderness and wild animals. On our tours in Ilomantsi we got to see all of that.

We visited game research department in Ahvenjärvi. I had never visited there before and it was very interesting. I enjoyed learning of they our government takes care of our game animals. In this map you can see where in Finland we've got these research centers. I think my pupils also enjoyed getting in touch with something so out of their world.

Visit in game research department was very educating our next stop was too but mostly it was an experience. We got to go to the frontier zone. We had to get permissions from the local border guards. We went to see the actual point which is the eastest in mainland EU in Virmajärvi. WE had to drive there 50 minutes or maybe more from the downtown of Ilomantsi. There we heard how our frontier guarding operates but kids were more interested in looking to the Russian side. We could also see the parts that used to belong to Finland! Ilomantsi has 100 kilometers common borderline with Russia. So being just a stone throw away from Russian side can be very exotic!

Here you can see the boundary marks of Finlan and Russia.



We had lunch in a laplander's hut in frontier zone. I am a fire watcher so havig lunch on campfire is so awesome!

On our way back from the frontier zone we visited Taistelijan talo Fighter's house in English. Basically it's an war museum but there is also an restaurant. The short movie of war in Ilomantsi made me cry. It was very well made! Boys loved the cannons!

In this kind of sleihgs people used when they had to evacue from their homes because of the war.

We heard stories of many fights of wars on our bus drive when we passed some fighting area. Our quide from Erämantsi was very good. Get to know the War History of Ilomantsi here.

Maybe the most wanted thing on our camp school was to get to the downtown of Ilomantsi shopping. Children had the time for themselves. While we camped in the middle of nowhere they had already started to miss sivilication! In my opinion the downtown of Ilomantsi is a little bit boring and of course it's very small but kids enjoyed their freedom!

Together we visited the crafts center of Ilomantsi, company called Mantsin Makie which makes jellys and juices of the gifts of the wilderness of Ilomantsi (very good) and the local rehabilitation center were we went swimming.

In a crafts center I've used a lot of time when I was a little girl. My mom would go there to weave and I spend time under the rug loom with my brother. I have good memories of those visits and I could recall the smell of that place. One day I'm going to weave my own rug too like my mom did.

The rehabilitation center Pääskynpesä is very familiar to me too. It was built in Ilomantsi when I was in senior high school. I had always loved swimming and worked as a swim teacher on lakes two summers in Ilomantsi. So it was very natural that I started coathcing the little swimmers of Ilomantsi. I already had been coaching Finnish baseball (pesäpallo) several years and had liked doing it. Pääskynpesä also situated very close to my home so I went swimming on my own a lot. Later on I even worked as a life-guard over there for a little while.

After swimming we had a snack on the back yard of the Pääskynpesä. Look how beautiful is the scenery:

Because of the high rate of members of the orthodox church I took my class to the orthodox church. It's also situated close to my childhood home so even though I never belonged to the orthodox church it became very familiar to me. Every summer I would go to the summer camp arrenged by the orthodox church (never went to the lutheran one -funny) and very many of my friends were orthodox. Even now at the church I met several acquaintance. Well, boys in my class couldn't help laughing at the church because of the constant singing and reciting. I wasn't prepared for that because the orthodox church is so familiar to me. here is the orthodox church of Ilomantsi:

If you are in Ilomantsi you can't miss the oportunity to listen Kantele, our national instrument! When I was a child I played it. Unfortunately I can't do it anymore, at least not very well. I really wish I could! I love the sound of it. And the second time on this camp school I cried in the concert but this time I cried hard! Listening songs like Iltakaste Ilomantsissa, Konevitsan kirkonkellot and Karjalan kunnailla made me realize that my roots really are in Ilomantsi.