Photography, except in the port itself, is legal now, and you can photograph anything you see from the railway and passenger sea terminals or on board the ferries. Lappland Nature Preserve Buses and trains from Murmansk to towns along the peninsula's western corridor are cheap and frequent. Heading south, our first stop was the Lapland Nature Preserve near the ecologically devastated city of Monchegorsk. It was founded in 1932 to protect the area's reindeer herds, still among Europe's largest. You can trek through the wilderness or traverse it on cross-country skis or snowshoes.
Costs vary but are generally very low.
The preserve is run by a non-profit organization. Apitity We continued south to Apatity because some Swedes living there had offered to show us the area. This is one of the most beautiful areas in the north, says Peder Axenstein, who has lived in the area on and off for four years. We just hope that people will come and see what's here, and not be afraid to explore the wilderness outside the cities. Indeed, Apatity, the Kola Peninsula's second-largest city, founded as a geological studies center in 1966 on the site of a former gulag, isn't very attractive to those outside scientific circles.