Kazan was one of the places, that wasn't just special because of the things we did, but especially because of the people we met. Straight away, as soon as we left the bus actually, people seemed more friendly and open towards us. Since we are quite a thing to look at with our huge backpacks, people smile at us. One woman even approached me (Chantal) and lifted by bags to see how heavy they were. Then we arrived at our hosts home, whose name was ... Aleks! Yeah, we noticed that like 70% of the people in Russia are either called Aleksander or Sergej. In Russian the nickname for someone who is called Aleksander isn't Aleks though. Actually they're called Sascha. Anyway we called him Aleks. He and his mum welcomed us in a typical Russian way. Very hospitable and with a lot of delicious tea and food. As well as that, Aleks is an active traveler himself and was able to tell us many super interesting stories he had been through all around the globe. Since our schedule in Kazan was really tight, we wanted to head towards the so called "Blue Lake". We were really excited about the fact that even though he would have to work all night, Aleks agreed on joining us. We took the bus and soon after that, we found ourselves walking in a little winter wonderland.
It looked like this. But this was not the actual lake we wanted to go to. Still we were able to witness a Russian, who just decided to take a bath. At this point we were still thinking: "Damn, he is crazy". As we kept on walking, we also stumbled across two Russians from Moscow, who completely drove their car off-road. With one wheel completely hanging in the air, one on the actual ground and two covered deep in snow, we tried to help, but it was pointless. We continued our walk and after taking a few wrong turns, we arrived at our destination - the Blue Lake.
The Lake itself was beautiful and there were more Russians who jumped into the cold water. We started thinking... If they can do it, why couldn't we? We asked one guy who just took a bath if we could borrow his towel. Aleks had two with him so we had three in total. They we were, without any swimming clothes or anything else. But hey... WE DID IT! We jumped in, in our underwear and probably had the coldest bath of our life. As we got out, we got dressed as fast as possible and walked back. We couldn't wait to arrive at home, drinking hot tea and taking a hot shower. Yet we are still very proud of ourselves for that one.
The next day started just as exciting. Just as we were about to leave the house to visit the so called "Temple of all Religions" Aleks got up and decided to join us. What a crazy guy. You have to know that he works as an Interpreter and basically deals with phone calls (most of the time from America) where he supports (most of the times at least) Russians who are not that fluent in English in difficult situations. Due to that he speaks excellent English, but since the time zones from the States are quite different to the Russian ones, he usually works during the night and sleeps during the day. That's why we were so excited about his company, because he couldn't have had much sleep. Anyway, off we go!
This project is 100% funded by donations and if you feel like working in Russia - well you can even volunteer there! We were really amazed by the details and all the beautiful pieces of art that we were able to see. Inside there are many amazing paintings, information about religions and also some facts for those, who are interested in the history of these. After this beautiful and definitely worth seeing place, we headed back towards the city to see the Kreml and other astonishing buildings. The Kreml includes many different buildings, the oldest one being built in 1562. The unique thing about the Kreml in Kazan is that many cultures had an influence that is noticeable by looking at the different styles of buildings. The cultures were the Tartar People, Bulgarians, the Golden Horde and Russians. The Kul-Scharif-Mosque symbolizes the peace between Muslims and Russian-orthodox Christians. We learned a lot from this by our clever guide Aleks. He is just a very knowledgable guy and we are really grateful for having him.
After visiting all those places, we walked through the city and had some food. We passed by the University, the one where Lenin actually used to study.
At some point it was time to go back to Aleks home because he had a friend coming over who wanted to practice his German. He was also working as an interpreter and we had some really cool translating-games. A nice exercise for all of us.
For us both Kazan was one of the cities we liked the most. The people were friendly, the city has many things to visit and it's super close to beautiful nature places. Definitely worth a visit, even though it's not actually an official destination of the Transsiberian Railway.
A big shoutout to Aleks who was definitely our hero in Kazan. Without him our time there wouldn't have had been the same. Thank you!
Big hugs and keep shining
Chanti and Franzy
Take your Chanzy #takeyourchanzy
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