Kazan - The 3rd Capital of Russia

Our holiday started on 31st of October, and what's a better way to celebrate it than travel? At 11pm me, Paula and Anya jumped on the train that would travel 1000 kilometeres to Kazan, the capital of Republic of Tatarstan.

I've never been so far away from a sea!

The train trip took 15 hours, and we had berths in the 3rd class called "platzkart". I didn't know what to expect, but I was surprised by what waited us... We all had separate compartments, all shared with 5 strangers and practically no privacy. I gave up on changing in to pyjamas and slept in my jeans. I had an upper berth on the aisle side so people passed by my face all the time. And the guys I shared the compartment with? They snored, moaned and farted in their sleep, so I didn't really sleep that night... :---D

There were no curtains between the compartments. The table was also made into one berth.

This was my bed, not too much space to move around... I was actually afraid to move in my sleep because it was so narrow.  I was sure I would fall down. :D

 

View from the train window.

When we arrived to Kazan at 2pm, our hostel called us and asked what time we would arrive. We told them we're coming in 2 hours. Thinking we have some time to see the town we walked up to Kremlin. We realized that the Kazan Kremlin is really big, so we decided to visit it the following day.

A clear sign that you're in Tatarstan: everything's written in Russian and Tatar languages!

A pyramid shaped building that had a restaurant and a consert hall in it.

The walls of Kremlin and a peacock. :D

Kul Sharif Mosque. It made me think of One Thousand and One Nights!

Tourist pictue with Paula. :)

The tourists Anya and Emmi... :D

The flag on the top tells that Kazan Kremlin is UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The statue of Musa Cälil (Муса Джалиль), a Tatar poet who was executed by the Nazis.

We went into a nice restaurant to get lunch, but just when we were about to order our hostel called us again... "You have to be here by 3pm. I'll wait another 30 minutes." WHAT? Why couldn't you say that when you first called us? We could have gone to the hostel straight from the station... So, we hurried out and tried to figure out what bus to take. The bus we were going to take apparently didn't work anymore, so we asked help from locals. One guy adviced us to a completely wrong direction by metro, so eventually we had to take a taxi that drove us to our destination for 30 minutes. And the place where our taxi left us was sort of.. interesting. We exchanged some worried looks, but decided to try one of the doors anyway...

Could this really be an entrance to the hostel we booked...?

...are we in the right place?

We found it! Welcome to Kub@!

There were 6 beds in total for girls.

View from the balcony.

The person who welcomed us just gave us the keys and left, so the only staff member at the hostel was this guinea pig.

Because getting to the hostel took us so long we decided to go eat somewhere close-by. We were told that there's a good Tatar restaurant just on the other side of the road, but we never found it. Instead we found several restaurants that offered pizza and sushi... so we got pizza and sushi! :D On our way back to hostel we went to the store to buy some breakfast.

This supermarket sold Tatarstan food!

Interesting looking jellies...

My breakfast looked like this! The bread looking thing is Tatarstan cuisine, элеш ("elesh"). It's filled with chicken and potatoes. The hostel offered free coffee and tea.

On Sunday we headed straight to Kremlin (Казанский Кремль or Казан кирмәне in Tatar). Kremlins are fortresses in the center of Russian cities, surrounded by walls and watch towers. Kremlins always have a church in them, but the Kazan Kremlin is the only one with a mosque. Despite historical buildings there are museums and many small souvenir shops within the walls. We visited the Hermitage Kazan Exhibiton Centre where they had exhibition called "99 Names of God". They had classical Islamic artwork of 9th-19th centuries (99 имен Всевышнего.Классическое искусство исламского мира IX-XIXвв). We also visited a museum about the history of Kremlin and Tatarstan.

The symbol of Kazan

Map of Kazan Kremlin.

This beautiful mosque was originally built in the 16th century, but it got destroyed. It got rebuilt in 2005. It's the largest mosque in Russia and Europe outside Istanbul.

Islamic symbol on a window.

Entrance to Kul Sarif Mosque.

What can it look like inside if the door is this beautiful?

To get inside the mosque women had to cover their heads. The entrance fee was 3 rubles, so only about 0.05 euros.

Inside the mosque hall. Definitely one of the most beautiful buildings I've ever visited.

We also visited the orthodox Annunciation Cathedral (1561-62), but you weren't allowed to photograph inside. Defnitely worth a visit, the interior was stunning with all the paintings.

Gate to the Governor's Palace and Soyembika tower.

Going to museum.

Looks like a samurai!

Arabian writing looks so beautiful~

The symbol of Tatarstan is a lion with wings.

View from Kremlin.

At the Hermitage Exhibiton Centre we got a special permission to visit a room that was closed from all the other visitors (maybe because we were foreigners..?). The room had a collection of musical instruments from all over the world!

..I need to get an aquarium so I can have this in it. The Hermitage also had a natural history museum, but unfortunately we didn't have time to visit it.

After Kremlin we found our way to the main street where we had our 4pm lunch at a nice restaurant. It was a pleasure to walk around the town because all the buildings were simply stunning. So many details!

..it was really cold, but this man just played his guitar and sang loudly without a shirt.

Picture of Anya's food, because it looked so interesting. Borsh in a bread!

Another sneaky shot of Anya's food... We were food jealous with Paula! :D

Tatar tea. :3

I tried Tatar noodle soup with fish. It was good!

Did I already tell you, that they have dill in every dish in Russia? But it was delicious!

German dessert. :--D

I travel all the way to Tatarstan just to find Finnish fish soup on the menu. It looks like they used Google translator... Yха means fish soup and yхo is ear. :D

Feeling refreshed we headed for our next hostel, Sputnik, that was further away. We found the right trolleybus, and the driver kindly stopped in front of our hostel. It was another surprise, because the hostel was practically in the middle of nowhere... The closest store was 15 minutes walk away in complete darkness, so instead of taking the risk we ordered pizza and sushi to the hostel for our movie night. We watched the first part of new Russian movie, Wiy, based on Gogol's book, BEFORE our food arrived. Actually it took 3 hours for them to deliver the food. I guess they had to wait for the rice grow first so they can make my sushi... As an apology we got -20% off the price and free chocolate. Yay!

I waited for this for 3 hours.. And they even brought me the wrong juice.. ;__; Luckily the sushi was good and I like apple juice too.

Outisde of the hotel.. :D

The staff told me to take a picture of them too. So cute. ^_^

We left the hostel at 8am and had KFC breakfast. Then it was time to take our last stroll around the town and shop some souvenirs. I ended up buying two very Russian hats... A side cap and a pink ushanka hat! :D We also bought food for the train and some Tatarstan food as a souvenir.

All the hats!

It's so COOL!

Home made noodles and çäkçäk, which basically is deep fried dough and honey.

Our train back home left at 1pm and this time we had the same compartment. We travelled in real Russian style: instant noodles and tea from the official train "podstakanniks". Me and Paula bought them as souvenirs too. :) On the train we met a student from Sankt-Petersburg and a Chinese exchange student and watched a movie together. We slept early and were woken up 25 minutes before the train arrived, so we packed our things and got off the train at 4am.

We had a tea and pie party on the train. This is Tatarstan pie with three layers: plum, dried apricos and lemon.

Russian tea, the train podstakannik and tatarstand plum jam pie with dried apricos.

It was a wonderful trip, Kazan was definitely worth a visit! There are still many places in Kazan I'd like to visit, so maybe I can visit again some other time... ;) Big thanks to Anya and Paula for the company, it was so much fun! ^_^