What is meant by "association areas"?

[Lothric]

Yo,

The limbic association area is on the temporal lobe. Do the neurons here connect the neural structures within the limbic system with each other (e.g., olfaction with long-term memory)? Is this what an association area does?

If yes, can an association area connect structures located on the opposite hemisphere or can these connections only occur within the same hemisphere?

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[iBS1972]

I recommend you read this:
ASSOCIATION CORTEX
It's written very simply with lots of bolds and italics and underlying for ease of reading.
In short, association areas exist to process more abstract forms of information. And higher order association areas integrate information from different sensory domains.
Your second question is very interesting, and that is beyond the scope of exams. How they connect is still a very active research area. It seems that immediate lower order association areas are more regional, while higher order association areas are more interhemispheric.
If anyone else has anymore insight into this, please comment. This might be a good topic to repost in the neurology resident forum.