Lewisham, United KingdomDeparture from the UKBremen, GermanySchuelpBack to BremenChristmas in the HarzDriving in the HarzAround Bad Harzburg and Christmas Market in GoslarWinter Tourism im HarzAnd home againViennaNew Year'sSightseeing in Vienna Day 2More sightseeing in Vienna and some plansArrival in BudapestTickets Booked!Bath HouseTrain to LvivWe made it to Ukraine!Leaving LvivOdessa, UkraineEventful arrival in KievMorning in KievOn the train to MoscowBrief stop in MoscowOur first trip east of the KnownOn the train to Kazan - a lot to catch up onkazan - at an ungodly hour of the morningOn the train to YekaterinburgOne night until SiberiaSiberia!!!!! Tobolsk - it's not on Google Maps! It's 4 hours north of TyumenDay trains5 Hours from IrkutskSafe arrival in IrkutskLake BaikalBack to IrkutskGoodbye to BaikalAn Experience in Ulan-UdeCrossing the Border - Happy New Year and Australia DayPlans changing in HarbinEnchanted with BeijingBeijing WanderingsCrashingMore CrashingSam's almost better againSecond last day in BeijingLast day in BeijingTianjin, ChinaIncheon ArrivalSeoul!!!Exhausting full day of enjoying SeoulI still love SeoulRainy and grey in BusanUnvalentine's DayInfinite turtlesDry land againA Perfect EndCoolangatta International Airport, or lack thereofBrisbane, AustraliaMum and Dad's
 | samandleonie |  | Heading East |  | On the train to Yekaterinburg |
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Jan 15 2009, 08:45 PM
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Kazan', Russia
We had a nice, relaxed day, despite having to reassess our entire travel plan. It brought home how good it is to be flexible and the funny thing is, this way is likely to be a little cheaper, if a little more difficult. So at least we won't have to pay extra and have extra difficulties.
Those trains to China must have booked up a while ago, as every service in January and February is completely booked out and tickets in March aren't available, yet. There weren't even any luxury berths available. The Trans-Manchurian is booked out. Our planned route from Vladivostok is booked out. I have lingering doubts about whether we've asked in the right place and perhaps the woman we spoke to today actually didn't have access to the ticket system for international routes.
It doesn't matter too much in the long run. We've found another way across the border. Although we have to skip Vladivostok, we'll now stop in Ulan-Ude and see more of northern China. It feels very adventurous. It was quite freeing to realise we can do this any number of ways and we don't need that train.
It was quite lucky that we arrived in Kazan at six this morning. We had plenty of time before sunruse to play with the timetable machine. We've now got a new temporary itinerary, in which we arrive by train at the Russian border with northern China (quite close to Mongolia) in the morning on the 26th and we cross the border by some kind of shuttle bus which operates especially for the border crossing. That's when we don't have any answers. Hopefully, we'll then get on a train to Harbin as planned. It's actually the Trans-Manchurian route we'll be following, so we hope there'll be fairly regular trains. We will check all this out soon, but at the moment, we're not 100% sure how the Chinese side will work.
So we formed this plan in the early hours of this morning, then sat in McDonald's for a while and used the internet, then when the sun was finally up, we set out to see Kazan.
It has a very long history. It was the capital of the Kazan Khanate until the sixteenth century, a city of Tatars, ethnically more Asian and now traditionally Muslim. Mosques and churches dot the city almost evenly, although it was notable that the Mosques were in less wealthy-looking areas.
There's an old Kremlin (fortress), the current wood and limestone walls from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The architecture is colourful and the geographical setting, a the confluence of two rivers – one of them the Volga – is impressive. The city celebrated its 1000th anniversary in 2005 and many important buildings were restored for that occasion, but it was also very decrepit in parts, with collapsed buildings and piles of rubble dotting the city, covered in snow.
The snow was lovely. They'd obviously had a good snowfall recently because there was a good couple of centimetres around the lake – and on the lake itself. It was impossible to tell what was lake and what was ground. We stayed well away from anything that could've hidden water, but we saw many people – and once a large group of people – walk across the ice as a short cut.
Kazan is now recognised as the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan. We're not quite sure what's involved in being a republic in the Russian Federation, but it was clear the population was proud of their ethnic and regional identity. According to the Lonely Planet, 43% of the residents of Kazan are ethnically Russian and not Tatars at all – a result of various imperial attempts to force the local culture to assimilate. But it was still noticeable – particularly among the one or two school groups we saw – that there was a separate ethnicity, if quite diluted.
In Vladimir, we'd heard about Tatar invaders who sacked the town. Vladimir was constantly repelling Tatar forces from Kazan. The city was finally conquered and brought into the Muscovite Empire by Ivan the Terrible in a Red Square was built. I've just read this section in our excellent Russian history book. Another piece of history falls into place.
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