russia: kazan

When my friend Bo found out I had moved to Russia, he decided to visit. He and I have traveled and/or met up on three different continents, in multiple countries and cities. He planned his trip so that he would have time in Moscow, as well opportunities as see several other cities.

The first weekend he was in town, he joined Claire and I for our weekend trip to Kazan. We chose the city because it was one of the host cities for the upcoming World Cup football tournament, and we didn't know anyone else who had been there.

Kazan is the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan, a semi autonomous republic in Russia. There are almost 1.2 million people in the city, it's one of the biggest in Russia. There are two official languages, Tatar and Russian. Names all over the city were written in both languages; Tatar has a few characters in its alphabet that are different from Russian. The Republic is both Islamic and Orthodox, with houses of worship of both faiths.

Kazan is pretty much as far as I'm willing to go on a night train for a weekend trip from Moscow, the train ride was 11+ hours. We arrived just before noon, on time. Since the train rides each way were so long, it meant less time in the city, booo. 

We took a couple photos of the trains, station, and one of the train attendants.

From there we walked to the hotel we'd booked for the night. We weren't able to check in, but we were able to use the toilet and leave our bags at the front desk.

Our first sight was one we had seen while on the train coming into the city. It looked like a church in the middle of the river. It took us a while to walk there, but the weather was nice, so we didn't care. When we got there, we were able to go down to the banks of the river but weren't able to get out to the church, as it was actually out in the middle of the river.

I'm not sure how it is possible to get out to the church, and to go inside, but it must be at various times.

The banks of the river at this point were more like sand dunes, which were fun and challenging to get around.

From this church, we walked back to the biggest sight of the city, the kremlin. You can see the white walls from a distance, and it sits on a small hill. You can also see the minarets of a big mosque inside the kremlin.

The landscaping around the kremlin is really simple, just a lot of green, soon to be healthy looking grass.

Near the entrance of the kremlin is a metal dragon, of course I took that photo.

Entrance into the kremlin was free, woo hoo. Almost as soon as we walked in, we saw the mosque, it would be impossible to miss. Kul Sharif mosque was one of the biggest mosques in Russia and Europe when it was built, in the 16^th century. It is white, with blue at the tops of the minarets. The platz around the mosque is paved with bricks, the whole thing is aesthetically attractive.

As we approached we saw a woman having her photo taken in front of the mosque, complete with hair flipping. As much as any people watching we do, it was entertaining. I have no desire to take sexy photos in front of a religious structure.

Entry into the mosque was also free, and one of the volunteer ladies made sure every strand of my hair was covered before letting me go any further. Bo simply had to take off his hat, sigh. We followed other visitors to one of two doors marked as tourist balconies.

It turned out there were balconies for tourists on the walls of the second level of the mosque, the doors led to stairwells to get us up to those balconies. As the balconies were rather small, we had to wait while the queue moved slowly up the stairs.

The view of the 'sanctuary' from the balcony was lovely. There were plenty of windows, so the interior area was filled with natural light, something I always love. There was a large chandelier hanging from the ceiling providing even more lighting.

Back in the entry area, we noticed a man sitting in a box of sorts, singing the Koran. It was really impressive to see, I wonder how long he sits in there at a time.

By the time we left the mosque the weather had changed completely. It was now windy, with grey skies. Walking along we came to the gate of the official residence of the president of the republic. I wonder how often he is there. The gate was closed, so we weren't able to get that close. I'd like to think that tours are available to the public from time to time.

We didn't know of anywhere else to go in the kremlin, so we left. I still feel like we missed something, but I don't know what. Since Claire and I love public transport, and metros in particular, we decided to explore some of the metro stations of the city.

A jeton for a ride cost 25 rubles, it was just a piece of plastic. We rode several stops to the end of the line. It turned out only two or three stations were decorated nicely, but those stations were really nice. The best station had mosaics everywhere, including one of a dragon on the ceiling. 

Awesome. Like Moscow, the stations were cleaned and smelled normal. Unlike Moscow, trains didn't come quite so often.

After riding the metro we decided it was time for dinner. There didn't seem to be a huge range of options, we ended up having sushi from a food court in a mall. Also located in this mall was a store named after me :)

On the way back to our hotel we stopped at a supermarket to pick up food for the next day. We got a little lost on the way back to the hotel, but we got there eventually. It was easy to check in, and all three of us fell asleep quickly.

The next morning was our normal pattern of waking up early but not checking out and leaving for a few hours. Oh well. Unfortunately, when we woke up there was no power in the hotel. No wifi, no lights, no hot water. No fun.

After checking out, the first sight of the day was the Museum of Tatarstan State History. It was free that day, yippee! We had no idea why, but didn't care; what a lovely surprise. 

It was set up quite well, on two floors of displays. The history of the republic goes back quite a way, most of the exhibits were displayed chronologically. 

It was really neat to see the historical/cultural differences, up until Soviet times, when we saw some of the same things we could see in any history museum around the country.

After the museum we stopped in the central market, just to see what was there. I ended up buying some dried fruit, just because I liked the way the display was set up.

While walking around the city we'd noticed a church with an interesting roof several times. We finally found it, but the inside wasn't nearly as interesting as the outside. That has been typical in my Russian travels.

We walked along a park, which would probably be quite nice in a few weeks. As it was, we were visiting in mid April, when the snow had melted but nothing had started growing yet. There was a fountain with a statue in the middle, the water wasn't flowing just yet.

Next up was a statue of Pushkin, right next to a theatre. On the other side of the street from the front of the theatre was a statue of Lenin. I found information online telling me he was put there in 1954. Behind him was a big platz, called University Square.

On the other side of the square was the local duma, looking very big, boring, and Soviet. Since it was a weekend, there was no traffic (vehicular or pedestrian,) in front of the building.

From there we walked back toward a platz/circle more in the center of the city. While walking we saw a statue up on a hill. I'd seen a picture of this statue in the museum, so I was happy to see it in person. By that point the weather was not so great, so every time we walked on grass we were basically walking on mud. We did not walk all the way up the hill because of the mud.

After that we tried to go to the museum of Soviet life. We were quite excited to see this museum, until we started to pay the entry fee and realized it was basically a giant collection of Soviet kitsch. We had all seen these sorts of items from time to time, and didn't feel the need to pay hundreds of rubles to see more, so we ended up walking back out of the building.

It ended up being a good things we didn't spend time in the museum. We had just enough time to pick up sushi to go, walk back to the hotel to pick up our bags, then walk to the train station and board our train. 

We also stopped really quickly in a souvenir store near the train station, so we could get city magnets and postcards.

As expected, the train departed on time, and we arrived on time the next morning in Moscow. I don't feel the need to return to Kazan specifically, but I would be happy to explore more of the area.