The great river.
The thing is that, despite all previously documented troubles, Kazan is a really great place and I am really glad that the route was able to be influenced away from the usual stop in Perm to include it. Officially the third capital of Russia and recently done up to celebrate its 1000th birthday the tone of the place starts at the Kremlin which models co-operation to all by containing both a mosque and an orthodox cathedral. We had read that there was a strong separatist movement in Tatarstan and to expect to be asked about this. We weren’t asked so we sought out opinion on this and found that there may have been murmurings in the 90s but it seems that money has quelled those with the resource boom making the region very wealthy. Or maybe it is because FC Rubin Kazan is top of the league.
Our mood was definitely improved due to the cheaper, nicer hotel that was full yesterday welcomed us today. After a breakfast of bread, meat and cheese washed down with a cup of tea because this place has a jug, we not only booked a hostel in Yekaterinburg but also purchased tickets for the sleeper train. As if things could get better than that the supermarket next to the mental glass pyramid conference centre had mugs meaning that we were actually equipped for life on the train. So a mere fifty odd hours after leaving Suzdal we finally felt settled and somewhat in control. A final note on the horror that was the Volga hotel; priority number one on getting to the room was to get clean, you may remember the monastery in Suzdal didn’t have showers, no luck in the room itself but on a bit of wandering around the floors I found some and was just getting the water to temperature when one of the cleaning ladies who I had walked past on another floor came in and threw me out with a loud burst of probably not very friendly Russian. Hotel Fatima has wonderful clean showers.
Wanting to salvage a little part of my initial dreams about Kazan I dragged the others out on a long walk to see if we could find a ferry or something to at least get out on the river for a little bit. On the way we found where Rdoc’s mystery fountain had gone, adamant that he had see it the day before turns out they have switched it off in anticipation of the cold which is a cheery thought. We found the river, at close to a kilometre wide kind of hard to miss, but unfortunately no vessel to carry us so I had to settle for cupping some water on my head. Then the sky burst open and light streamed through the clouds, no voices but a cool moment.
And the heavens opened…
Back in the town we visited the university that hosted Leo Tolstoy and expelled Lenin. Now there is a statue of the latter and none of the grumpy old curmudgeon. Arnika’s equivalent of seeking out big rivers is to try and find the world’s best real hot chocolate. The one here was quite nice but more a 6.5 compared to Tallinn’s 9, still it was nice to be warm and coming back into the non smoking area I spotted a couple with a phrase book who turned out to be Dutch. They were headed west and so we swapped stories and recommendations. That night we went to the bar next door to this cafe but it was Sunday and quiet just like the rest of the town. The place did have one amazing feature of ice piled high in the urinals, I still have no idea why that is something you would do. It also had this great blurb on the menu: We are glad to welcome you to Beerlosa deer restaurant! You will have a good time here and also favor yourself with 12 sorts of elite draft beer and a great variety of Chief’s dishes to beer.
Arny finds her joy and a leader of a generation strides towards university.
Tags: bar, cafe, Church/cathedral, Kazan, kremlin, mighty river, Russia, Tallinn, Travel
montombo
May 27th, 2009 at 6:52 pm
I lol-ed a little reading the ‘final note on the horror that was the Volga hotel’. How did we manage to stay in so many place without showers? Or a better question, why the hell would a hotel not have a shower!