Mikado Hostel - Kazan

Mikado Hostel just moved into a new building, directly across from the old one, a month ago. The interior is brand new, and all the beds and linens seem like they just came out of the box. They are all from Ikea, so they definitely came out of boxes. It is very clean, almost sterile in fact. The staff is very nice, and they all speak English very well. There is a large kitchen that guests can use, but no lounge space that we saw. We never went upstairs, so it may have been up there. There is wifi available, but the signal is a little weak downstairs, where our room was.

The hostel is centrally located, so once you have actually found it, it is easy to get to. Most of the sites are nearby as well. The directions online are not very helpful however, and finding it the first time can be a bit difficult.

They do have a few things to tweak, but I'm sure they will fix them in time. The wallpaper contains fiberglass, which is something you don't think about until your guests all get a rash from touching it. Emily woke up with a small rash on her back from sleeping against the wall. They also need to put bath mats in the shower, because Richard almost fell. They also haven't sorted out the keys. They don't give a key to the front door, which is always locked, and they couldn't find the key to our room. The hostel is very nice, but I would give them a few months to figure things out before staying there again.

The Citadel

Kazan is home to the largest minority population in all of Russia, the Tartars. Because of this, Kazan is the capitol of the Tartarstan Republic. Like the Buryat, the Tartars were part of the great Mongol Empire at one point despite being descendants of the Turkic people. When the Golden Horde moved back toward Mongolia as the empire fell apart, the Tartars stayed. Today, they reside all over Russia, but their population is concentrated in Kazan. The Tartar population is largely Muslim as well, which is why Kazan has a good number of mosques.

Mosque.

The Kremlin is by far the most prominent site in Kazan, and it is the first one we have run into. It is home to the Kul Sharif Mosque and the Annunciation Cathedral. It was deemed a Unesco World Heritage site in 2000. Kremlin in this case is not the polit bureau. A kreml is a citadel or fortress that was built to protect traders from bandits and nomadic raiders. The Central Kremlin, when capitalized, refers to the government, and most of the buildings inside the kreml these days are government related.

The Kazan Kremlin is a very popular tourist site these days, and is the central point in all of Kazan. All the roads in the old city lead to the Kremlin. This includes a nice pedestrian street, Baumana. Here there are various restaurants, bars, cafes, shopping centers, stores, and banks. We ate at a very, very busy and very, very large cafe called “Dom Chai”, or “Tea House”. It was two floors and four rooms of people all eating lunch.

Kazan is also home to Lenin State University. They have a statue of a young Lenin running off to class. The funny thing, is that Lenin never finished his studies; he was expelled for revolutionary activities.

Young Lenin, but still Lenin (again).

Last, but not least, we saw our first McDonald's of the trip. We went 26 days before finally seeing the golden arches. It was really kind of nice not seeing them for so long. It kind of acts as a signal that we are entering the more international/European part of Russia. It also proves that McDonald's is not yet everywhere!

The golden arches.