Blogs from Samara, Volga, Russia, Europe

From Kazan we're follow the Volga River south to Samara. Well it used to be the river now its the Kuybyshev Reservoir, the largest reservoir in Europe and 3rd largest in the world by surface area. And it really is big, it takes us the whole day to ride its length, mind we did stop off at a few places on route. We're riding through green, rolling hills. The roads are great – good quality and hardly any traffic, certainly none of the queues of trucks we had entering Kazan. It is really enjoyable riding. We call in at Ulyanovsk, originally called Simbirsk, in 1924 it was renamed in honour of Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. He was born here in 1870 and is better known to the world as Lenin. Having visited the house where Stalin was ... read more

Samara donc, ou j'ai trouve un CS qui etudie l'histoire de France et le francais, ce qui suffit a m'en faire tomber amoureux. Bon il s'avere qu'en pratique il parle francais comme moi russe, mais c'est excellent pour nos progres a tous les deux, et en plus il fait un cafe piment/cannelle a se damner :o) Il m'emmene faire seance tenante une nocturne visite de la ville ; on se balade un peu le long de la Volga (oui promis apres j'arrete avec ce fleuve, c'est la derniere ville ou je la croise...normalement :p ) et decouvre nuitamment une architecture composite (une eglise gothique, un batiment style Art Nouveau, de vieilles maisons en bois, le bunker de Staline qui l'avait fait construire au cas ou et le theatre d'art dramatique) en devisant gaiement. Le week-end arrivant ... read more