Hospitality runs in blood of Valday citizens. They used to welcome guests with country-famous barankas*, they didn't get stale for many days, and merchants and travelers took them with great pleasure. And ringing Valday bells are famous around the world. The other one sightseeing there is the purest Valday Lake. The water there is still drinkable. Even the name tells about its pureness for «Valday» in translation from ancient Finno-Ugric language means «fair, transparent». There are small and big islands scattered on the whole lake. There is a very beautiful Iversky Monastery situated on one of those islands. When patriarch Nikon chose this place for construction, he said «There's heaven in the sky, and on Earth there's Valday». *Baranka is a traditional Russian, Ukrainian, Lithuanian and Polish bread roll very similar to bagels.