Saturday, September 25, 2004
Kazan
After a night's ride in the train with a bunch of beer drinking teenage Dynamo Moscow fans, we got to Kazan.
Kazan is the capital of Tatartan, a semi-autonomous, oil-rich region of the Russian federation, south-west of Moscow. Nowadays, the descendants of the fierce Golden Hordes are much tamer than when Ivan the Terrible met them. They even seem to live in harmony with the Russians, as mosques and orthodox churches stand side by side.
The city was much less oriental than we expected. Besides a lively market, and a "unesco world heritage" historical white kremlin, there is not much to say about it. Most of the town is under renovation, or construction, for Kazan's 1000th anniversary next year. And it was raining most of the time... But the people were very nice and helpful: independant travellers are apparently still not such a common sight round here!
This left us enough time to do our washing by hand. In Russia, it just seems much easier to find Louis Vuitton, Cacharel and Rolex boutiques than laundry services and decent food!
Kazan is the capital of Tatartan, a semi-autonomous, oil-rich region of the Russian federation, south-west of Moscow. Nowadays, the descendants of the fierce Golden Hordes are much tamer than when Ivan the Terrible met them. They even seem to live in harmony with the Russians, as mosques and orthodox churches stand side by side.
The city was much less oriental than we expected. Besides a lively market, and a "unesco world heritage" historical white kremlin, there is not much to say about it. Most of the town is under renovation, or construction, for Kazan's 1000th anniversary next year. And it was raining most of the time... But the people were very nice and helpful: independant travellers are apparently still not such a common sight round here!
This left us enough time to do our washing by hand. In Russia, it just seems much easier to find Louis Vuitton, Cacharel and Rolex boutiques than laundry services and decent food!
