Insult to injury.

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We squeezed into the minibus at 7 this evening, and set off for Kazan. The 850 kilometres of road was all bumpy and uncomfortable, and twelve seats for ten people didn't leave much room to sleep in. There were pot-holes everywhere that threw us around, and we even drove through two fields near Ivanovo when the driver got lost. Ivanovo in the dark was a frightening place, the fog and eerily silent wide streets making it feel hostile. We arrived in Tatarstan fifteen hours later, feeling very tired and sore.

We got to Hotel Fatima at 10 in the morning, unpacked and had a shower. It is decorated in a middle eastern style: whitewashed rooms with low beds, Tatar paintings in the corridors, and cream teracotta floors and suede sofas in the foyer. I shared a room with Chris W and Chris J.

I felt better after some time to relax, but the good mood didn't last for long. Our first trip was to a history museum. Not somewhere any of us wanted to be after such a tiring journey, especially as the staff were so unpleasant. Our guide, the imam from Yaroslavl's mosque, told the girl doing the tour to be patient with us "because they speak bad Russian". To which she talked to us like children, at the same time pausing every ten minutes or so to smirk, and say "why am I bothering?" to the imam.

We had lunch at two - but no-one thought of taking us to a Tatar restaurant. We stopped at the 'Children's Café', where we had the set Chinese menu that was put in front of us. I heard the imam say to the waiter "speak in English to them if you can, they don't speak any Russian." In his eyes we were tourists, innostrantsy, not students that are living here and who want to become fluent. He didn't understand the difference between the two, which we all thought was very insulting.

Later we went to the theatre, to see a Tatar play. There was a translation into Russian via some head-sets but none of us had the energy to listen. We all took the opportunity to switch off; Emma, Bhav and I slept through most of it!

Back to Fatima, where we lost the imam and and went to the girls' room. We spent 2000 roubles on red wine, and decided that if we weren't allowed to learn anything we could at least make the most of having a hotel to ourselves! Having a 'gathering' felt like being at university again. It could have stayed a stressful day but I went to bed feeling ok - after five weeks mostly talking about Russia we had a good time talking about our lives at home.

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Photos

Kazan gardens.
A feel of the openness of Kazan.

Kazan.
Kazan.

Kazan.
Kazan.

Kazan.
Kazan.