Kazan- Capital of Tartartstan
4 July 2008- Friday
The train arrived in Kazan about 7:30 a.m., we finished breakfast on the train and got on the platform at 8:00 a.m. in an occasional misting rain, but looked up at a four story staircase which had to be climbed in order to cross over to the train station and, of course, four flights down. With that unique experience, we then were led toe the busses which turned out to be mini-busses and I got an inside seat in the rear, therefore precluding a lot of bus photography, and we were off to explore the city. Kazan is the capitol city of Tartaristan. The tour was not the most comfortable, but we drove rapidly through the business section over to Freedom Square. We took a right turn before we saw the square and there was Lenin in the Square center, of course, un-photographable. We then headed down to the “Kremlin” of the city. Kremlin, by the way, means fortress and every city in Russia has a Kremlin.
They got out to do a walking tour and were met by two lovely young ladies who were serving something that looked like the Rice Krispy and honey combination that you’ve seen around. Pretty edible. Then we entered the Kremlin. The most remarkable place here was, although it was a 13th century structure, in the middle of it was a gleaming modern mosque. Naturally, we had to tour the mosque. That meant plastic shoe covers and a climb of about six flights of stairs to be able to look be able to look down into the main worship area and listen to the explanation from our female guide who was also a Muslim. Fortunately, I’d seen a few other mosques and could pick out the landmarks such as the name of Mohammed and Allah prominently displayed in the front of the worship area. It’s easy to make out Allah because it looks like a very forward ‘W.’ Then down the stairs to finish the doors of the Kremlin and in the process I lost one of my plastic shoe covers. A wedding party had just arrived as we were getting ready to leave the mosque and the bride looked beautiful in her white gown. The distinctive part was the fact that she had her face wrapped in white satin as well so you could only see her eyes. We had a delicious lunch at a local restaurant after which we went down to the shores of a lake – along the shores of the Vulga – where we got on a boat that took us for a short cruise on the Vulga River where we could get some distant shots of Kazan. I tried a drink called Kas which is the Russian national drink which is made of fermented Rye bread and is probably only 4 – 6 % alcohol and does have a very yeasty flavor. I think it would become an acquired taste. We then drove back to the town square for “shopping” for twenty minutes but this was just another time for a photo op. By the way, for the next several days, we had to keep advancing the clock at least one hour a night and sometimes two in order to make up for the different time zones we were crossing – so we were actually getting one hour less of sleep every night.
The train arrived in Kazan about 7:30 a.m., we finished breakfast on the train and got on the platform at 8:00 a.m. in an occasional misting rain, but looked up at a four story staircase which had to be climbed in order to cross over to the train station and, of course, four flights down. With that unique experience, we then were led toe the busses which turned out to be mini-busses and I got an inside seat in the rear, therefore precluding a lot of bus photography, and we were off to explore the city. Kazan is the capitol city of Tartaristan. The tour was not the most comfortable, but we drove rapidly through the business section over to Freedom Square. We took a right turn before we saw the square and there was Lenin in the Square center, of course, un-photographable. We then headed down to the “Kremlin” of the city. Kremlin, by the way, means fortress and every city in Russia has a Kremlin.
They got out to do a walking tour and were met by two lovely young ladies who were serving something that looked like the Rice Krispy and honey combination that you’ve seen around. Pretty edible. Then we entered the Kremlin. The most remarkable place here was, although it was a 13th century structure, in the middle of it was a gleaming modern mosque. Naturally, we had to tour the mosque. That meant plastic shoe covers and a climb of about six flights of stairs to be able to look be able to look down into the main worship area and listen to the explanation from our female guide who was also a Muslim. Fortunately, I’d seen a few other mosques and could pick out the landmarks such as the name of Mohammed and Allah prominently displayed in the front of the worship area. It’s easy to make out Allah because it looks like a very forward ‘W.’ Then down the stairs to finish the doors of the Kremlin and in the process I lost one of my plastic shoe covers. A wedding party had just arrived as we were getting ready to leave the mosque and the bride looked beautiful in her white gown. The distinctive part was the fact that she had her face wrapped in white satin as well so you could only see her eyes. We had a delicious lunch at a local restaurant after which we went down to the shores of a lake – along the shores of the Vulga – where we got on a boat that took us for a short cruise on the Vulga River where we could get some distant shots of Kazan. I tried a drink called Kas which is the Russian national drink which is made of fermented Rye bread and is probably only 4 – 6 % alcohol and does have a very yeasty flavor. I think it would become an acquired taste. We then drove back to the town square for “shopping” for twenty minutes but this was just another time for a photo op. By the way, for the next several days, we had to keep advancing the clock at least one hour a night and sometimes two in order to make up for the different time zones we were crossing – so we were actually getting one hour less of sleep every night.
Labels: Trans Siberian RR
posted by DT at 8:03 PM
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