Hooray!
I planned to visit at least one more city apart from Moscow, and St. petersburg as these cities are the most visited and often, the only visited places by foreigners in Russia. So after much debating and google-searching, we thought we picked out the perfect place - Kazan ; and we couldn't be more right! Kazan was absolutely beautiful.
A lot of factors went into consideration before we hit the spot. Convenience, dates, budget, logistics, language barrier. If you don't know at least speaking intermediate level of russian, it is so bloody difficult to communicate and travel in this country. (I am saving this rant, for my next blog post! Ugh.)
The other interns decided to only visit only St. petersburg , so only me and zara went ahead to Kazan.
Kazan is the 4th largest city of Russia, and also is the capital of Tatarstan. Kazan is a mix of Russian and Tatar cultures merging together, giving birth to new, unexpected, interesting city. The city surprised me with its uncharacteristically friendly russians ; people who randomly wave and smile at you and insist on taking pictures with you or look and point at your friend and exclaim that she looks like aishwarya rai (I deserve an award for deciphering who she meant!) , to a bus conductor presenting me with a Buddha locket on our way to the train station!
TravelTip #2 : Never hesitate to ask questions , no matter how simple and how stupid. You are not stupid when you ask for something,you are stupid when you pretend to know something. Always smile, because smiles are the same in every language.
Its about 9 hour overnight journey to Kazan, and when we reached the station an Indian intern from AIESEC , Rahul was there to pick us up.
Thats us, In front of the Central kazan station.
We met a local, Alfiya via couch surfing who unfortunately couldn't host us, but was sweet enough to show us around the city and tell us about the rich history of Tatarstan. She showed us the Kremlin which houses the Kul-al-sharif mosque and the Blagoveshchensky Cathedral and also the Suyumbike Tower. Then we walked over to the university of Kazan which educated the russian greats - Leo tolstoy and Lenin. (Although they never graduated!) . It was a very pleasant day with Alfiya, ending with a free cup of tea in Cafe Sviter. I got a free cup of berry tea, because I checked into Foursquare and they had a specials going on. YAAAAAY!
Me, Zara and Alfiya.
BAUMAN STREET
Each city has a street which is on top of tourists’ lists of attractions, creates the main impression about the city and is recognized as its symbol.For Moscow it is Arbat street, for St. Petersburg Nevsky avenue. The main street of Kazan is called Bauman Street, or sometimes figuratively referred to as Kazan’s Arbat; it is one of the most ancient and significant streets in this city. The street is lined with boutiques, souvenir shops and kiosks, cafes, bars, and plenty of opportunities for people-watching.
Much of the city center is walkable, and its great for the pedestrian traffic. And at the entrance, free map of Kazan is distributed. We happened to visit Kazan at its festive best , because of the Victory day celebrations.
Bauman street had incredibly loads of people walking about with kids and loved ones in tow. There were so many LIVE performances happening on the street! Here is one :
One more thing i found too adorable was this :
A bunch of russian kids sitting on bronze frogs in the fountain and playing with water! It was the cutest sight I've seen in the whole day! :D
Kazan was a city of firsts for me ; it was also the first time I was going to couchsurf, and frankly! I was quite nervous. It is such a leap of faith! Anyways, the guy who agreed to let us sleepover lived in the Adortasky street and he was the only one who let us crash at such a short notice. He was a man of few words, and must've spoken about 10 sentences the whole time we were there. But he did this for us :
After a long, hot shower it was an end to a great first day.
Next early morning, me and zara were chilling on the bauman street when we saw this incredible thing! This old man, who didn't even look homeless or anything.. he was stealing coins from a wishing pond! And when we saw me, he nonchalantly walked away. Don't believe me? here's the video proof :
After having a cup of coffee at Costa rikka coffee shop , we decided to head over to the Soviet Life Museum.
After the museum, we were absolutely starving . We decided to sample some typical Tatar cuisine, and we went to Cafe Chak-Chak, on Bauman street for some yummy food.
We met up there with Ildar and Rahul. They took us to the puppet theatre and there we made the most ridiculous video of me trying to teach Ildar " Tunak tunak" dance. (WAIT TILL I UPLOAD THAT VIDEO! YOU'LL LAUGH SO HARD.)
We headed over to KillFish discount bar for couple of drinks before going back to a hostel we were staying at.
THIS PLACE WAS INSANEEEEE. There the alcohol was really cheap if you had the bar's discount card so me and Ildar promptly went and got our card made. :D
The place was teeming with drunk russians and the DJ there played some amazing songs (Thankfully, in ENGLISH!) . We got to see a crazy competition wherein a girl has to agree to let a boy write "Killfish" all over her torso and whoever gets more written wins. And omfg, it was quite a sight!
Its something that would be so unacceptable in India, seemed so normal and so fun in Kazan!
After a long, crazy night we headed back home to sleep.
All in all, Kazan was a warm, cosy place with comforts of being a small town but having the luxuries of a metropolitan. Its a sure visit in my list of places in russia to visit! :D
So long, folks! KEEP GALAVANTING :D
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