April 10, Kazan

I had texted our future guides, students connected to Stepan, and asked them to text us when they'd arrived at our hotel. We had been told there would be "sightseeing" and basically left it to our hosts. We descended the stairs from our room to find 3 nice young women, Regina, Aida, and Margarita. The first two were linguistics students at the University, the third an economics major who knew our friends as a result of participating as hosts in the 2013 Kazan Olympiade. Stepan is quite the networker,and in Kazan at least, most of them didn't even know him firsthand. They all spoke English and we promptly headed for the Kremlin. When you have guides like this, you learn the deep back story to the whole place. They explained the big bowl in the distance, the President's residence(These young people are very proud of their status as a Republic within Russia, and aware of the vast natural resources that emanate from within---they have a lot of oil and gas). The leaning tower was explained as a local girl's trickery to avoid marrying Ivan the Terrible---she agreed to the union if he'd build the tallest tower around; then climbed it and jumped off to avoid marrying the apparently ugly Ivan. It was very chilly again----rivers here were still completely frozen----unlike St. Petersburg(all melted), or Saratov(melting). Hundreds of guys still icefishing in the distance. We all decided it might be nice to see the big mosque from the inside----here in Russia, Islam is ultra-moderate, and this is allowed. Margarita led the way, but appeared to me to be entering through the exit door....выход as opposed to entry, usually marked вход. Don't they seem very similar? I started to warn her, but thought the better of it, and soon enough there was a raised voice and back out she came. I felt a little better at this point, as it appeared that even Russians get confused by the regimenting sometimes. So we all trooped in through вход and were immediately summoned to remove hat(me), cover heads(girls), and women wearing skirts asked to wear longer garments covering legs. We all also were charged a small amount for plastic baggie slippers. I was a little uncomfortable in this place. It was absolutely beautiful, wonderful colors, paintings, lighting. We climbed some stairs and were able to get a very nice view of the whole mosque. Our hosts, we were now becoming aware that Regina was the leader, had been here once when younger, but I think it was an experience for them as well. We all got along very well, each of them pairing off with one of us at times to ask questions. I being my father's son, went about interviewing each of them about education, future plans, politics etc. When one of them couldn't find the correct words in English, the others helped. Everyone really wants to speak with "native" English speakers and so we are happy to oblige.
After the Mosque and some more exploring the Kremlin, we head downtown to check out the Museum of Soviet Life. I expected a gray, depressing, clinical representation of the deprivation of Soviet times. We got quite the opposite. It is a private museum, upstairs in a 3 story building, and just the coolest thing. It really is sort of a Soviet "pop" culture museum. There is a collection of Levis---many signed by Sting and the like. Really cool toys everywhere. Interesting electronics. Tons of cool uniforms. Musical instruments. Music playing that is very different. Tons of unique stuff. At some point, the owner, realizing there were Americans in the midst, became very friendly. He gave me a military button. Laura got an actual  portable radio as a gift. He spent 20-30 minutes telling us stories about his famous visitors. He finances the whole collection himself----many times people bring him things. He is thinking about expanding to another larger space. We are there for over an hour. When we leave, Regina asks if we need them to walk us back to the hotel and seems surprised that we know how to find our way back. They are all so kind and seem genuinely worried about our well-being---it is so nice. She even says at one point....."but Russia is so dangerous...." I almost feel rude declining their offer, but we are only a few blocks away and I know these girls have busy lives.. We ask them if they's like to have lunch with us the next day. Margarita has a class conflict, but Regina and Aida seem happy to accept. They offer to pick a restaurant that will give us an authentic Kazan cuisine. We promise to communicate by text and say goodbye for the evening. Just the nicest people---very good at English, kind, smart, patient with my numerous questions. I think we all had a nice time.

We find Lenin but he can never be ours.

 

The quest for Lenin. The path is not easy.

 

Cool little sculpture on Bauman Street.

 

"Coffeeshop Company", Kazan. Funny.

 

Tow jacking on Bauman Street, Kazan.

 

April 10, Kazan

The next day, we got up rather leisurely and went down to the hotel restauarant for our breakfast. Most good hotels in Russia provide a rather substantive breakfast as part of the deal. Our hotel in St. Petersburg, the "M" gives you a variety of good stuff, two kinds of juice, bagels, croissants, potatoes, eggs, sausage, cooked veggies, fruit, porridge, muesli, cereal, yogurt, waffles. When you are out walking all day it is a good idea to fill up and we do. The Giussepe in Kazan is a bit less extravagant and is often times picked over when you get there at 8:30 or so. Plus no good coffee if any which makes the girls crabby. As a meat eater, I do fine, but the more refined members of our party do not have as many choices.

We planned to meet up with Kazan student friends of Stepan at 3:15 pm in our hotel lobby---after their classes; so we have most of the morning and afternoon to explore on our own. This day is a cold one, windy, and about 15 degrees F. We try to go down to the Museum of Tatarstan just down the street, go through the front door and are promptly stopped by a security guy, barring our forward progress. I hadn't read the sign outside closely enough---it opened at 10am, closed at 11am, and reopened at 1pm. Zatkrit. Closed. So, we walked down to Bauman street, the main Kazan shopping and pedestrian-only street. Our plan was to walk down this street a 1.5 miles or so to find the house where Lenin lived when he went to school here---now a small museum. Bitter cold. So we stopped in a place very similar to Starbucks---even the logo--actually an Austrian chain called "The Coffeeshop Company". Names are strange sometimes in Russia, for example, there is a live music club in Saratov called the "Rock Hard Cafe". Girls ordered fancy coffee drinks and some kind of filled croissants. The waitress explained these would take about 20 minutes. I got the Russian version of hot chocolate which is more like a cup of hot melted fudge. They give you a small glass of water with this and I suppose you are supposed to mix this in....? All in all good stuff. We are off after an hour or so to find Lenin. Nice street Bauman, very funky. Musicians playing every few hundred yards. Kazan seems very cosmopolitan, you can see the Asian influence everywhere. Many people are obviously Muslim, there are darker tones to peoples skin, women often with heads covered, but very stylish and colorful. We start to move into a less touristy and more residential part of town. We are looking for a certain street where this small Lenin museum is on our map and are having trouble finding it. Along the way, we come upon the Russian version of tow truck kidnapping. Police are in an intersection directing the following operation. Tow trucks that are more like crains are removing illegally parked cars. They attach chains to the entire car---in this case a nice black Lexus SUV and others---hoist them completely up off the ground, and then try to lower them correctly onto the bed of a truck. It seems tricky, cars are swaying, and lining them up with the bed correctly takes a bit of skill. There are several car owners standing around forlornly as their vehicles  are carted away. My heart goes out to them. This policy has always seemed not quite legal to me. Apparently towing companies have friends in government in Russia too. I try to snap off a couple of secret photos. You probably shouldn't be obvious when taking pictures of police or soldiers here. Nothing sinister about this necessarily---Volgograd is only a few hundred miles away. You are warned not to hang around photographing bridges, train/metro stations, military buildings. I am pretty sure we are obviously American, and therefore---this may surprise some readers----we have the same concerns about terrorist activity and are, I think are definitely considered friendly! Any time I have contact with public authority, I am treated very kindly, never with suspicion. I think this is partly because they know I am NOT dangerous precisely BECAUSE I am an American.
We are still looking for the street of the Lenin museum. I see a street I recognize on the map that is very close and we peel off to begin the search. We cross a big highway. There is a Russian business guy walking near us who is obviously frustrated because he can't find something. We don't talk, largely because we assume we can't help each other. soon we seem headed into a residential area that is beginning to turn into hills, one lane dirt roads, and footpaths. Up ahead, a guy in a car is having trouble turning around. He is gunning the engine, spinning his tires; eventually escapes his little predicament and is headed towards us. He stops and asks me in Russian if he can help us find something. I point our destination on our map---and he basically says---what is here? I say Lenin's house. Oh OK....he points us up the road. We go traipsing up this muddy dirt track a ways and I am vaguely aware of someone leaning on his horn back down the street. It is our guy, motioning us to come back down the hill and go left. Left is no road but a path between many ramshackle wooden houses...still snow, mud, ice, a little stream. After about a hundred yards, we emerge onto a street. It is Lenin's street.. We see a sign, follow the arrow, find the museum. Closed for repair.

Laura goes back down to Bauman to shop a little before we meet our guides. Janet and I head back to the hotel. We have about 45 minutes to rest up before our new friends meet us in the lobby..