Silent Hill

Nizhny Novgorod was our next stop after Kazan. We took an overnight train, which was full. The train cars were an older model, so they weren't as comfortable, and they were an ugly red color. We had the standard 4 berth compartment, but for the first time, our cabin was full. A younger man and an older man, both from Nizhny Novgorod accompanied us. From what we gathered through sign language and a tiny bit of English, they were in Kazan for business, but weren't traveling together. We tried talking, but usually finished with nervous laughter when no one understood each other. At the end of our trip, the older man pulled out a bottle of vodka, shook my hand, said, “Richard. Vodka.” and handed me the bottle. Russian people are so nice.

The Kremlin in Nizhny Novgorod is on top of a very large hill overlooking the Volga River. The view is beautiful, but marred by a factory spewing smoke from its stacks in the distance. The kreml in Nizhny Novgorod is not very touristy, despite the souvenir shops that line the outer wall. The majority of buildings are government buildings with only one small art museum, a cathedral, and an eternal flame monument to heroes of World War II open to tourists. For this reason, we are dubbing it Silent Hill.

My hair looks ridiculous. One of the guards couldn't stop laughing for some reason.

Nizhny Novgorod's train station is far from the city center which is also a Unesco World Heritage site. The tram lines run into the city, but in a completely different way than indicated in our old Lonely Planet guide. We got on the right tram, but got off about a mile and a half from our hotel. We wandered around for a couple minutes. Emily eventually flagged down a nice old lady after allowing a few younger people to pass by. Emily's reasoning was that all old women are helpful and sweet, just like grandma. She pointed us in the right direction and told us through sign language that we should take the tram, because it was too far to walk. We decided to walk anyways, and got there in about 20 minutes.

The hotel was the highlight of our stay. See our review for details. After we checked in, we relaxed for a little while then took off for the pedestrian street. It was a very nice street that was bigger than the one in Kazan. There were definitely more restaurants and bars than in Kazan. We did a little shopping, and Emily decided to buy a pair of more fashionable boots. She looks even more Russian now. We also ate dinner at the CCCP cafe and had dessert at a blini (basically crepes, but Russian) restaurant.

Stalin punching Hitler in the face. Lenin putting the moves on Greta Garbo.

Nizhny Novgorod is fine for a day, maybe two, but not much more than that unless you're staying in the Sergievskaya Hotel, in which case, you may want to just relax there for a week.

Crazy sculpture.

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.