The Trip to Kazan

Back in April or May, we were asked if we wanted to go on a (free) trip to Kazan' (the ' indicates the n is "soft", but I guess you're supposed to leave it out in English). I'd heard of the city, because a Soviet film I watched once was filmed there, and I knew it was on the Volga (the same river as Saratov, where I lived for 6 months). So, I signed up. Finally, four weeks into our program, the trip came. Kazan is quite far from Moscow, so we took an overnight train (13 hours!) on Thursday. Friday morning, we arrived, checked into the hotel, had a quick shower, and went on to our meetings at various universities.

The flags set up at the Humanitarian-Pedagogical University
(You see Russia, Tatarstan, and USA)

Everyone was really tired, but I managed to pull a few questions together to ask the Russian teachers we met with. At Kazan State University, we had a tour of the university's museum. Tolstoy dropped out from there, and Lenin was kicked out for taking part in student demonstrations only a few months after starting. What a rich history!

Kazan is the "Third Capital of Russia" and the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan, which is an autonomous republic under the Russian Federation. From the name Tatarstan, you can guess the region has some Muslim influences. The largest minority there are Tatars, who originally came from East Asia, and followed the path of Genghis Khan. Their language is quite similar to Turkish, though. All the street signs and many store names are in both Russian and Tatar, which was pretty neat. We had the chance to try Tatar cuisine too. (It's not all steak tartare or tartar sauce...)

Chicken broth with a meat-and-potato-filled bun. Delicious!

Chak-chak, the Tatar desert made of fried dough and honey

Tatar dumplings/ravioli

Kazan State University

Our last meeting of the day...Ministry of Education

Statue of Young Lenin (Ulyanov)

My hotel room

Mural in the lobby

Russian hotel breakfast:
Macaroni, hot dogs, beets, and a croissant. Plus instant coffee

After a long day of meetings, I went to bed pretty early. Saturday we had excursions all day: first to a monestary outside of town, then around the city to the main sights.

The monestary

The Georgian Cathedral

Me, at the lake near the monestary

In Orthodox churches, women are supposed to cover their heads. This place took it particularly seriously and had scarves for those who didn't bring one. They even had wrap skirts for those with legs too bare to enter the cathedral...

On the way back to the city, we stopped by the "Cathedral of All Faiths":

It's sort of gaudy and pretty.

A strange costume for handing out flyers...

A wedding photo taken purposely in front of the cranes

Part of our excursion around the city included a stop by the house-museum of the Ulyanov/Lenin family:

Lenin's boyhood room...

The museum tour was led by a woman dressed up as if she were the owner of the home that the Ulyanov's rented out. It was kind of ridiculous, and very entertaining. The whole thing ended with playing blind man's bluff, for some reason. I got a lot of it on video, but don't have the bandwidth to upload now...

Sts. Peter and Paul Cathedral

The Kazan Kremlin

The mosque at the kremlin (only built in 2005)

We were allowed into the mosque, but no pictures :(

McDonald's was hopping until 11 pm. Here's the outdoor window, "MacExpress"

We even found karaoke at a street cafe

The next day we had a boat trip to an island 2 1/2 hours up the river. As usual, we were all running late, so we didn't have as much time on the island as planned. Which was fine; it was pretty small and run down, although there were a lot of churches.

I tried to get a tan on the boat, but still felt the need to
cover my head after all the churches and the mosque...

One of the churches on the island

Remains of an old house

Volga Volga!

Our picnic on the boat

Being in Kazan was very different than Moscow or St. Pete. I forgot how people in the provinces react to foreign accents. We were constantly being asked where we were from, and people who heard us speak English would start talking to us. I'm happy to talk to them, but I insist on speaking Russian. They usually insist on speaking English, so it's kind of funny. The mix of Tatar and Russian culture is also quite present. Everyone was insistent on explaining how Russians celebrate the Muslim holidays, and the Tatars the Orthodox ones. It's really refreshing to see tolerance 1) in Russia and 2) towards Muslims. Hopefully now that people are free(er) to practice their religions in a post-Soviet world, the tolerance will remain. And next time you're in Russia, consider visiting Kazan!