Yikes at the Istanbul airport!

OK,so I bought a little scooter to take to my grandson. It’s in the original package, I’ve got the receipt and I decide to take it as my carry-on luggage. It works great from Kazan to Ataturk in Istanbul. I go to international transfers, go through security and they stop me because they tell me I can’t take it inside the plane. I tell them I brought it here that way from Kazan. Nope. Go back to the transfer desk and get a tag for it. Ok. Back to the transfer desk. As I’m standing in line, a manager asks me what I want. I explain . He says I have to go get a visa. I tell him I’m just transferring. Nope. Go get a visa. I tell him I was here two months ago and my visa is still good. I show him the stamp in my passport. Nope. Go get a visa. I go to the visa desk. He asks where I’m going . I tell him Frankfurt. He tells me to go upstairs. Whaaaat? I go back to the first desk and follow the manager until he answers me. I explain what happpened and I asked him what I was supposed to do. His answer: “I told you what to do.” What a jerk. So I stand there and keep telling him that all I want is a baggage tag that says that I can carry the scooter to the plane. So he reaches across the counter and gives me one! He could have done that 10 minutes ago. He had a young man accompany me through security again so that I could at least take it is far as the gate and then give it up. What a royal pain that was. Glad I have a long layover here.

Almost time to go

The apartment’s clean and the fridge and all other appliances are unplugged. Now I’m just biding my time and getting in the last blog post before I head for the airport later tonight. Friday was a fun day. One of the boys celebrated his birthday with all the pageantry that a Russian birthday party entails. Two costumed cartoon characters came in and played games with us, twisted balloon animals into shape and blew gigantic soap bubbles. At first the kids didn’t know what to make of it but they eventually got warmed up and had lots of fun. Then the mom of one little boy had invited me over for dinner. I took my bike home and changed out of my school t-shirt and she came by to pick me up. Their condo is spectacular. It’s on the 10th floor of a building overlooking the promenade on the Kazanka River on one sid3 and the Kremlin on the other. And the president of Tatarstan is building his house right next door, with his own private mosque. Very nice neighborhood! And it was, without a doubt, the best meal I’ve had in Russia. She cooked roast pork with potatoes and several salads, cheeses and some great chunks of cold ham from Austria. The conversation was pleasant and interesting and it was a nice way to end my first stay in Kazan - with food I really enjoyed! We also had a good laugh about how sick I am of porridge. Yesterday turned out to be a fun day too. It was the end-of-school festival. The weather was perfect for an outdoor event so I headed off on my bike. First, they did a jeopardy-type quiz with the kids, then there was lots of food (and it was very good!), then we got a soccer game, face painting and other events going. It was actually lots of fun. Just as everyone was clearing out, the science teach, who had also ridden her bike, asked me if I wanted to do a ride through the woods with her and two students. I wasn’t going to turn that down. We probably rode about three miles and saw lots of cyclists and hikers. The trails are all full of ruts, just the the trails around Blue Lake. But one friend said that that’s the kind of trail he enjoys the most. It’s like a real mountain-biking adventure. When we got back to school, the principal was outside measuring for the bike track, so I helped him finish that and then headed on home to finish cleaning up before I was to meet Sonia. We all wanted to meet downtown at a sports bar to watch the Real Madrid-Liverpool soccer match. Thomas and Lorene were there so I got to say good bye to both of them. They are also leaving Kazan. We had some great wings and watched a semi-exciting game. Sonia was happy that Real won 3-1. This morning I just finished up odds and ends and made sure I had everything I needed in the suitcase. Then I went to the bank before I met Anna for lunch. Now it’s just a waiting game. Can’t wait to see everybody.

City Club

I went to my last City Club meeting for awhile. Sonia and I went down together and couldn’t find the place. I hate it when it says one street address but then it’s around the corner on a sid3 street. And Fattah wanted to meet us there to practice his English and meet new people. And of course, he couldn’t find it either. We kept texting back and forth and finally we saw each other coming from opposite ends of the street. There was a big crowd this time. Almost 50 people. Anna couldn’t make it but I met some new people. Leyla works at the university and likes to cycle, so we are definitely going to get in touch when I get back. And it’s nice, because she lives very close to me and she was able to give me a ride home. I didn’t have to walk to and from the Metro. The kids have been a lot of fun the last few days. They enjoyed the erupting volcano and today me made jellyfish. This week we had also made octopuses and sharks as project since our theme this week was oceans. My TA is basically just going to review my lessons over the whole summer. The kids already recognize everyone’s name. Now we will work on writing some letters of the alphabet. I can’t wait to see how much the kids progress over the summer. Today we will celebrate one little boy’s birthday and tonight I’m invited over to one kid’s house. Tomorrow is the school festival and Sunday it will just be “clean the apartment”day before I leave for the airport. I’ve also got to make sure I find an hour or so to meet up with Anna.

Our garden and our erupting volcano

The lilacs are out!

I forgot to mention that, on the way back from the lake on Saturday, i saw lilacs here for the first time. I stopped to smell them ,but they weren’t really open and they didn’t have a scent. Rats. Sunday I tried to sleep in but only managed to sleep until about 7. I started listening to Real Time with Bill Maher and fell back to sleep again. I just sort of lazed around all morning. I noticed that I had a slight sor3 throat and my nose was runny. So I started taking my spray right away and, although tired, I was good enough to meet Anna at 1 p.m. for lunch. We went to the Georgian place wher3 we shared one of those dough boats full of hot cheese and I had stuffed grape leaves. Very tasty. Then we headed down to the Kremlin where we went into the museum with the gems and minerals exhibit. Many of the stones and fossils were found right in Tartarstsn. It reminded me very much of Idar-Oberstein in Germany. I got home at about 6 and hoped that I could fall asleep early, but it never seems to work that way. Somehow I think of one more thing to do or read. In any case, I slept well, even if it was t as long as I had wished. Today in school, we took the beans, carrots and pansies that we had started on the window sill and transplanted them in our garden. The kids had a lot of fun with that. Now I just have to make sure the things get watered everyday. Then my TA and the kids can harvest them and eat them in August. I can’t remember if I mentioned that on of my kids got vaccinated against polio. Since I have three families that don’t believe in vaccinations, three of my kids had to be moved to other classrooms for two months so they avoid the risk of becoming infected. That’s a long time for them not to have comprehensive English lessons. I hope they don’t lose much over that time. It’s obvious that the kids don’t really understand my they have been moved. I’m tired tonight. Let’s see if I fall asleep earlier.

Blue Lake

It’s called Blue Lake because that’s the color your body turns when you go in the water. It was 39 degrees! We started out well. We all gathered at the bike rental place. (I rented a bike for this long trip because my folding bike only has one gear and I needed something for the hills.) By the time we were all set to go it was 10:30. Bike rental for the entire day? $8.20. But now the problem was, the place didn’t rent helmets. I had mine with me but Sonia, the other one of us who used to ride everyday when she worked in Oxford, needed one. There are surprisingly a gazillion bike rental places in Kazan, so Ravil called around to several of them with no luck. He found one place that wanted to charge her more for the helmet for the entire day than the bike rental cost us. Finally we found a place where she could get one for about $1.50 for the day, so we headed in that direction. Now we were good to go. We had packed all sorts of goodies for a picnic, now all we had to do was get there. The first half of the trip was through the city. We were on the sidewalks the entire way. All we had to do was avoid hitting pedestrians. And, where there were no ramps on the sidewalks, we had to ride up and down the curbs to cross the streets. Once we go past the stores and the large apartment buildings, we rode past some of those beautiful wooden single family dwellings. The latttice woodwork around the windows is really remarkable. Then the sidewalk ended and the road narrowed. There was a shoulder for a little bit, but the soil around here is so sandy, it’s like riding on the beach. Then the shoulder ended too. So we stuck to the pavement as much as possible. we had lots of trucks behind us beeping their horns because they couldn’t pass. Tough bananas. They had to follow us down the hill and wait unti we got into the next town so that we could pull over. So, we finally got there. There are no real signs directing you there. Ravil just used the app on his phone to find the way. He had been there before so he basically knew where he was going. Once you turn off the paved road, you end up on some dirt paths, some with ruts a foot deep. Cars drive down there all the time and it is a mess. It’s like a mountain-biking course in some spots. We stopped at one spot where a couple of other cyclists took some pictures for us, then we headed on to the like. There were a ton of people there. Some were wild camping. Some were grilling. And a ton of people were standing on the single pier debating whether they should go in the water or not. We went halfway up the hill to eat our lunch and observe the situation. Then we decided to do it. Ravil was already to go. Remember, he’s the one who jumped into the ice water in the middle of January! It took me a little more time to work up my courage. I went down the steps into the water up to my knees. It was so cold, my ankle bones hurt. I had to get out. I did it again. Same result. After watching Lorene and Fouad get in, I worked up the courage to go down the ladder and jump in backwards, but I didn’t put my head under. That was enough for me. We all stood around on the end of the pier joking and laughing with the other people who couldn’t decide whether they wanted to go in either. Everyone enjoyed watching the others suffer! After we dried off sufficientLy, we got on the bikes and rode a couple of miles farther to another lake. This time we crossed a super busy highway before we hit the dirt roads with the ruts. This lake was exactly as cold but the swimming area was much more attractive. There were three piers to jump off of and picnic tables at some spots. But there were no bike racks and no benches at the changing area for people who just wanted to sit and watch. Lorene and I went for a walk while the others stayed with the bikes. Then we two stayed while the others hiked. Then Lorene and Ravil were brave enough to go swimming again. I had had enough. Then we headed back into town. We needed more stops this time but we made it. First we returned Sonia’s helmeT, then the bikes and w3 ended the evening at Fouad’s place with some take-out food. It was a great day. The weather, aside from a few sprinkles, was perfect, the ride mildly strenuous and we were all exhausted. I really slept well.

Blue Lake pictures 2

Blue Lake pictures 1

The weekend is here

Hooray! This is the second to last weekend I’ll be spending in Kazan until August. My visa was renewed last week so I am legal until next May. The weather has been great the entire week, but of course, since the gang is going to do a 30-mile bike trip tomorrow, it’s raining tonight. Too bad. We are going to ride to Blue Lake anyway to swim in the frigid water (Think Stony Brook times 3.)and it’s still a go. We’ve decided who is bringing what for the picnic and let‘s see how many of us will make it there! We are all renting bikes. Since my bike doesn’t have any gears, I’m not riding 30 miles on it. Today was a good day in school. Ali, one of the custodians, turned over a small plot of land on our playground so that we can plant our garden. We have beans, carrots and pansies growing on our window sill. It’s time to get them outside. And it will give the kids something to do all summer. The nursery school goes year round, but I got hired on the elementary school schedule so I’m taking every bit of vacation that’s coming to me. Besides getting our garden dug, I found out that our bike rack had been ordered and that the guy who is planning the bike path around the school will be in next week to get things laid out. According to the principal, we are going to let the kids paint all the traffic signs right on the path. This will be a great project for the older ones. And the funny thing is, who do you think I ran into last night when I rode downtown to meet with Fattah, the guy from Iran that I met last week? Artyom, the guy who is doing the bike path project for us! He was just coming up from the subway underpass with his bike and I was just headed down Wit mine. It turns out, he has several bike rental and repair shops in the city. No, we’re not renting our bikes from him Tomorrow. Ravil knows a shop near his place and that’s where we’re going to get them from. So cross your fingers that we have reasonable weather. I should have some neat pictures to post tomorrow night.

The good news and the bad news

Good news. 1. My TA was sick (not good) but I didn’t have to stay until 7 because they found someone to fill in for me. (Good) 2. The director and I visited the collection of what used to be the Kazan bike museum. Private tour. There was some nice stuff there. 3. On the way home from school I took a detour through the woods which took me past one of those treetop adventure parks, which I didn’t even know was there. The path ended at the street where they have a great fresh veggie market. Bad news. Walking back from the grocery store through the parking lot, one of those automatic gates came down on my head. That smarted, big time!

Another beautiful day.

Weather wise, it was another picture perfect day. The temps were in the 70s, the leaves are soft green and the grass is no longer covered with snow. We started our day at the European Taekwondo Championships.by the time we all find each other at the right place, it was about 10:30. I don’t know the rules for Taekwondo, but there is is some serious kicking going on. It looks a lot like that u.timate fighting stuff, but with better padding. It was definitely interesting. It’s very ceremonial and precise. The refs all used the same hand gestures and followed the exact same routine. We got a quick snack there before heading to the food festival in the park next to the basketball arena. It turns out that this weekend was also the volleyball championship which was being played at the arena, so they decided to make a “food stand Festival” in the park right next th3 the arena to draw a crowd for both events. They served everything from fish to burritos to gyros to desserts. But you wouldn’t have recognized any of them because every country makes them in its own style. But the gyros tasted great. They served it with French fries wrapped right up in the pita bread with everything else. It certainly made it easier to eat. We found a spot on the grass and just spread out and soaked up the sun. Lorene and Manuel were covering the volleyball tournament so they were running around getting their press credentials and equipment. The rest of us just enjoyed the warm afternoon lying on the grass. Earlier in the day we met a young student from Iran. He’s in Kazan trying to learn Russian and English. He heard us speaking English and came over to join us. He wanted English lessons but I told him I was only going to be in town for another two weeks. And when I get back, he will probably be at the university in Moscow. But he called tonight and we talked about what books he should study and we’ll meet for coffee at the end of the week. Tomorrow it’s back to school. I’m going to start preparing the kids for my absence. The pre-school kids have classes right through the summer so my TA will have to keep speaking English with them so that they don’t lose their skills. Since I was hired to teach in the school and then later assigned to the pre-school, my contract says I work on the school schedule, which is why I get the vacation time. I’m good with that.

This can’t be true!

It’s 73 and sunny today. I don’t even RECOGNIZE Kazan! This is the first day I’ve gone without a jacket for 7 months. How pleasant. Only two more weeks left until I leave. This is getting exciting. As school is winding down, bike news is picking up. The Russian mountain biking champ is going to start giving bike riding lessons to our 3-5 year olds. He starts them on the little bikes without pedals and teaches them to. Balance first. 40 kids have signed up! So he will give lessons on Tuesdays and Saturdays. The other great news is that the boss lady was able to get in touch with the guy who owned the bike museum. He now has all the exhibits at his home and she got us an appointment to go look at everything on Tuesday. I suggested that she have the guy bring a few things out to our summer camp at school and teach the kids a little about bicycle history. We’re going to wait and see what the guy has before we decide on that. The boss was also at our staff meeting on Friday. She had sent me a text about a pizza party that evening . Apparently the mother of one of our students had opened a new restaurant and she and her family were going to go. At the meeting she asked if Valeriya, Matthew and I wanted to come along. Who says no to a pizza party invitation? We all met at school at 6:30 and took off. It was a really nice restaurant and it was the best pizza I’ve had in Russia. There was enough sauce on it! The crust on the pepperoni pizza was exquisite. So light! So we hung out there and had a good time for a couple of hours. Valeriya, Matthew and I took the subway back home. On the way to the station we stopped at an office supply shop that sells school supplies. They had a lot of neat stuff, but I can’t find cellophane for projects anywhere. I’ll have to bring some back from the States in August. Today was a get things done day. I rode my bike down to the shopping center and got some more presents. The. I went back this afternoon on the tram and bought a couple of new suitcases. I noticed that the ones I came with are falling apart. Ow it’s “get some more work done” Time. Tomorrow the gang is headed for the european taekwondo championships here in town. It’s amazing how much this city offers. I don’t know how long we will stay there, but on the way home I’ll stop in town and pick up just a few more souvenirs that I need.

The start of the week

So, they are doing something with the water pipes in our subdivision and we will not have warm water for two weeks. Crap. Not that the cold weather’s going, they replace it with cold showers. I’ll live. Monday night we got tickets to a free soccer game. The rumor was passed around that Vladimir Putin’s was going to be there. It looks as if they passed that ru,ore around just to get people to get tickets to the game and fill the stadium because the game was pretty crappy. And it turns out that FIFA, soccer’s world governing body was using this match as practice fo4 the s3curity measures for this summers World Cup matches here. This means that ALL traffic (buses, trams and cars) have to stop one kilometer away from the stadium. The cars get rerouted, public transportation just stops. Everyone hops out of the buses and trams and walks the rest of the way. It is really neat walking on a 4-lane highway with thousands of other people over a bridge on the Kazanka River to the stadium.once we had all gathered, we went in to our great seats and watched Rubin Kazan have ten great chances to score and not be able to sink one goal. Pretty pathetic. After the game, we had to walk back over the bridge to reach public transportation again. Fortunately, there were about 10 trams waiting in a line, so none of them was overly crowded. Tuesday was a shortened day at school, which is always the case before a holiday. In the morning the school did a little pre-Memorial Day ceremony. Kids dressed up in uniforms and sang patriotic songs. So today was the really big ceremony. We headed down to the area by the Kremlin early and found out there was only a certain entry for spectators so we ended up walking more than a mile around the perimeter until we could get in. By the time we got in, of course all the best places were taken . I was basically peeking out from under somebody’s armpit. It was still interesting. Not only is there a parade, there is folk dancing, military songs and speeches. And all around the area they have parked tanks and other military equipment which everyone is allowed to climb all over. You could take pictures with weapons and eat at a mess tent. The concept is very interesting. It looks as if they are making the military attractive to young kids while at the same time honoring the fallen soldiers and veterans. After the parade, we all caught the tram to Victory Park. That’s where Thomas and I had been 3 weeks ago and there was still ice on the lake then! This time it was a little warmer. The park was just as full as the place was at the Kremlin. But this was more like a July 4th celebration atmosphere. There wereall sorts of crafts and activities for kids, including shooting a machine gun. (No joke.) again there were concerts and folk dances and people climbing all over the military equipment,including on the helicopter rotary. There were food stands with shashlik and others with cotton candy. Somebody was flying kites. And many people laid flowers at the eternal flame. It’s such and interesting conbination of remembering the fallen while building enthusiasm for the military. In the middle of the afternoon we all split up and went our separate ways. It was such fun meeting Lorene’s parents. I was even able to understand a lot of what they were telling me in French. They leave to go back to Nice on Saturday. Then it won’t be too long before it’s my turn to leave.

Memorial Day picnic

France, Uzbekistan,Lebanon, Spain, Russia, USA.

Russian Memorial Day

The BMX/skater/scooter course in Gorkinskiy Les

This was very cool.È

The long walk

It was another beautiful day today. I loafed around and read until noon, then I took off to meet Anna for lunch. We had decided to take a walk today. Did we ever. We had a good Lunch at Beanheart’s then took off on foot to the Kremlin and beyond that to the promenade along the Kazanka River where we had ice skated a couple of months ago! It and the river were finally ice free. But everyone and his brother was out today, either walking or riding their bikes. I admire the Russians that they are always out in the fresh air. In the middle of winter at 8 pm they’re out with their kids playing on the swings on the playgrounds! They have the right attitude. If they waited for “nice” weather they’d never get out. And I was really impressed by the number of cyclists. I even so some on the busy roads and a couple wearing helmets. We are claiming out space more and more! But I still which’s the cyclists would keep off the pedestrian path and vice versa. How hard is it to understand the picture sign? And the paths along the river have been extended even farther than when I was here the last time. There was a lot of construction still going on, but the paths extend all the way to Millenium Bridge now. We walked almost to the end and then cut up the hill on Tolstoy Street because we were trying to see if there was a connection to Gorky Park from the River. If there was, we didn’t find it. By this time we had walked several miles, so we parted near the Korston shopping center, Anna walked home, and I caught the tram. The entire way home, I noticed all the construction. Almost the entire sidewalk on the right side of the road was being rebuilt and at my tram stop, you can now see what will be the new Metro station. The metal protective walls are down around it. It looks as if it’s just the landscaping around the station that has to be completed now. It will be an easy walk/ bike ride to this new station. I can’t wait to see if the prices go up when it’s finished. Im thinking they want the city to look really good for all the foreign visitors who come this summer for the soccer World Cup. It’s going to be a big deal. The next big event will be the Memorial Day celebration on May 9 commemorating the end of WWII. We’re all going to meet down at the Kremlin for that. It sprinkled a little today and now it’s overcast, so I’m glad I’m in for the evening. One more nonsequitor. Anna and I were discussing why English was more prevalent in Yekaterinburg than in Kazan. She thought that it had a lot to do with Boris Yeltsin being from Yekaterinburg and the head of the Russian government for almost 10 years. I think that’s a good point.

A pleasant, sunny day

The morning started quietly. I got my wash and my dishes done. I even got my lesson plans done already! The kids can’t write their names yet, but they can recognize the letters in their names so we are going to work on strengthing that skill. Valeriya bought a new bike on Friday so we planned to ride together to Gorky Woods to check out the new bike trail there. It was gong to be a little tricky because she isn’t too keen bout riding on roads. (I’m not either, in Kazan.) But I had wanted to check out Gorky Woods Park because a friend told me bout the great bike trail they had there. To get there involves riding on some of those crazy parallel side roads. And, if We could get there safely, it also meant that I could get to IKEA and Ashan safely because they are both just down the road. So I checked it out on Google maps first and it looked like a go. And,damn, it was easy. It only took us about 20 minutes to get there with minimal encounter with very slow traffic! That means I can get to IKEA in 30,and that’s faster than I can do on the tram, by the time I walk to the tram stop. The park itself is gorgeous. It is absolutely brand-new. The playground equipment is sturdy wooden stuff. The bike paths are parallel from the walking paths. But maybe only about 1/10 of the bike path is marked already. And even though the two paths are separate, it doesn’t keep the pedestrians from walking right down the bike path in front of cyclists! Come on, people. I don’t want to run into you. Let’s have some mutual respect here. There are bike rental places, a skater/BMX-type Park, and a nice little restaurant. The only thing that seems to be missing is that there are no bike racks in front of any of the playgrounds. there should be some place to lock up. We did find a bike rack at he bike rental shop next to the restaurant. We wanted to lock up there, but it was full so we chained up on the water pipe next to it. When we got back, the guy was crabbing at us for doing it. So get some more bike racks! We got cake and coffee at the cafe and just took a nice long break before we headed home again. And again, there was absolutely no problem with traffic. So I think we will be gaining confidence for other rides. I had a couple hours to rest before I took off again on foot to meet up with the gang. Lorene’s parents are here from France so they are doing some sightseeing. They went out to Sviazhk today and then the others met them at the big Ferris Wheel near the river when they got back. To do a ride and see the sunset before we should meet for dinner. I was not up to a ride on a Ferris Wheel so I just met everyone downtown at the restaurant. It was a place I hadn’t been before and it was very nice. But, since we were 7 people, they made us pay a deposit of 5000 rubles and told us our bill could not be less than that. They also said we had to pay in cash; they would not take credit cards. Interesting. So we all ordered and it was the usual Russian style. Appetizers and main courses all came at one time. Strangely enough, I had ordered spaghetti and Fabrice had ordered a pizza. Our orders came 45 minutes after everyone else’s. Our bill totaled more than 5000 rubles and we were all able to pony up enough cash. It’s just a very unusual dining system here. I got the Metro and was home about 11:30. It was good to get in bed.

Saturday in Gorky Woods

Beautiful weather a new park and a nice bike ride.

Home again

We got in this morning at about 11:30. The guys had left sometime in The middle of the night. And of course, this time I screw up the time change, so I wa the one who woke up Sonia to tell her we get off in half an hour. Wrong. We had a couple more. Oh, and I forgot to mention my other screw up last night. Coming out of the Subway to go to the hotel Sonia wanted to go right and I wanted to go left. So we each went the way we though was correct and she got back to the hotel about 10 minutes before me. Whoops! I’m usually so good with directions, but I got screwed up by the church on the corner this time. (That’s my excuse anyway.) So, to continue. We got in at 11:30 and went straight back home with a taxi. I got a little straightened around and then took off for the post office, where package had been waiting for me since Saturday. it wa from Bikeability Scotland. It was a packet ful of great mAterials I can use in bike lessons AND it contained my certificate as a cycle training assistant. Hooray. Now I can lend some real credibility to our fledgling bike program. Afterwards, Matthew and Valeriya had invited me, Sonia and Fouad For a picnic in the woods. The weather was pleasant, (about 59 degrees with a little sunshine). I even wore a light jacket. we grilled shashlik and just had a good time with good food and lots of jokes. So now I’m all caught up with my blogging and will get ready to go to bed soon because we have school tomorrow. It’s only a two day week. Yessssssss!

Y burg, day 3

After a long night, Sonia’s Alarm went off at 8:30. We shut that off quick enough. I slept another hour and then woke Sonia up at 10 because we wanted to meet Sveta at 1 at the Boris Yeltsin Center. While she was fixing here breakfast, Iran down to Burger King and got a quick breakfast sandwich. By this time, Sveta had texted and said she couldn’t make it, so we packed up all our stuff, took it down to reception and left it there because we had to check out, and took off for the tourist office. I wasn’t sure if it would be open because May 1 is such a big holiday here. But it was and we gave the lady here thank you chocolates. One big difference we noticed between Yekaterinburg and Kazan is that a lot more people in Y burg speak English and all the tourist signs are posted in English as well as in Russian. And another thing that really impresses me abou5 Y burg is the architecture. a lot of old buidings from two centuries ago are nicely preserved, but the newest buildings are very, very attractive. I didn’t see a lot of old Soviet style cement clumps. Many of the the new buildings have very original designs and are very colorful. We took off for the Yeltsin Center and enjoyed the fakt that traffic had been shut down on most streets because of the May 1 Labor Day rallies. There were lots of speeches, lots of balloons, and just lots of people out enjoying the nice weather on scooters, by bike and on foot. Talk about an attractive building! The Boris YeltsinCente4 was completed 3 or 4 years ago. It houses a conference center, offices, stores, the Yeltsin Museum and and interactive section where kids and adults could do everything from learning to inline skate to making origami. It was a great place. The museum itself was very interesting and Shed a light of light on that period of Russian history for me. We spent three hours there! It was totally absorbing. We grabbed a bite to eat there at the museum then left to follow the red tourist line on the street which takes you past the church built on the site of the old mansion where the czar and his family were assassinated. Every year, on the anniversary of the deaths, the people hold a procession and walk the four hours from the church to Ganina Yama, the pit where the bodies were originally buried. It’s just so interesting to me that they would make all the family members saints. Now it was about 6 and we had to pick up our luggage at the hotel at 8, so what to do? We decided on a “Tour de Fast Food”. We were both dying for MacDonald’s ice cream, but we needed something hardier in our stomachs before the ice cream. So we hit KFC, where we had hot dogs. (So-so) Then we went to MacDonald’s and really enjoyed the ice cream (two thumbs up). And we decided to go to Subway after that to get a sandwich to take along in the train.(good idea) So back to the hotel we went, picked up the luggage, and took off for the train station. We got there at about 8 so we had about 2.5 hours to kill. I got a lot of reading done and we ate the sandwiches before we even got on the train. (I suspected that would happen.) We got to the train and, what a surprise, Sveta came to see us off. We had about a half hour to talk. She’s just a very pleasant person and I can’t wait to see here in Kazan sometime. We share a compartment with two middle-aged guys who didn’t speak any English. We basically just made up our bunks and went straight to bed. It wasn’t a very restful sleep, but it was sleep.

Yekaterinburg, day 2

So, after we rested up, we went to the Greenwich shopping center food court. On the way upstairs, Sonia found a football shop selling the local team’s jerseys. Of course we went in. Her brother and nephew will be happy. Upstairs I got a plate of ratatouille and some tea. It was just enough. We came back, set the alarm for 8:30 and fell asleep pretty quickly.
The alarm goes off this morning, not at 8:30 but 9:30. No harm done. We needed the sleep. We headed back to the Greenwich shopping center food court for breakfast. I had Russian crepes while Sonia took off to the supermarket to get milk for her breakfast. We came back to the hotel and slowly got ready before we took off to Vysotsky Business Center tower where we took an elevator to the 52nd floor viewing platform. It was overcast and WINDY, but we could see for miles. One thing was really neat. Yesterday, sveta pointed out a building constructed during Soviet times. she said if you had a bird’s eye view of it, you could see it was in the shape of the Soviet hammer and sickle symbol. Damned if she wasn’t right! It was overal an impressive view.
When we came down, we went into the Vladimir Vysotsky museum on the ground floor. He was a poet and musician during Soviet times and is still an important part of the culture of the past. We called a taxi and took off for the Europe-Asia border. The lady in the tourist office yesterday had given us the number of the taxi and written down that we wanted to go to the border and then to Ganina Yama, the mine pit where the bodies of the czar and his family were dumped after they were assassinated. So I tell the driver that first we want to go to one place and then the other and he says he’s not going to drive us to Ganina Yama. Hmmmmmm,OK. So we drive 10 miles out of town and he lets us off at a rest stop near the border monument, which is right next to this major highway with a little park behind it. There were a couple of guys there selling souvenirs so Sonia got a few things, then we walked up to the monument, took our pictures and walked back. So, we still want to go to Ganina Yama. We try to call Uber. No car available. We try to call Yandex. No car available. We find a number for a taxi service in our tourist brochure. I call. They say no, they don’t understand me. So, here we are in the middle of nowhere. What should we do. We call the tourist information! Sonia gets another nice lady who speaks English and Spanish and she orders us a taxi, but it will be 20 minutes. Who cares! Meanwhile lots of tourists are coming a going, some of whom speak English. The guys selling souvenirs tell one of the other people there who speak Russian and English to ask if we are Ok. These guys were so kind and thoughtful! A few minutes later our taxi came and took us to Ganina Yama. the name literally means Ganya’s Pit. It’s the mine pit in which they threw the bodies of the czar and his family after they were assassinated in 1918. The Orthodox Church has canonized them and an entire cult has built up around them. In fact, this entire Monastery was only built in 2001 and there is a chapel for each of the 7 family members who were assassinated. Not only did we have to have something covering our heads when we entered, all the women had to put on aprons resembling long skirts. All the buildings are constructed of massive logs and there is a monument at the site of the pit and a wooden walkway around it. There were a number of visitors and ages varied greatly. It’s almost as if some people would like to return to the time of the czars. After we’d looked all around, we went to the bus stop to catch the bus back to town. It took about an hour and went through lots o& small owns on the way back. What an interesting contrast to the city. A lot of individual dwellings, lots of above ground pipes. In fact, the large pipes running parallel to the main road might have been for natural gas or oil. The bus let us off at the metro station so we road another five stations to the one nearest our hotel. We quickly stopped off and bought a box of chocolates fo4 the nice lady in the tourist office. The. We got a quick bite to eat and went by the tourist office to deliver our chocolates, but of cours3 the tourist office was closed. So we just headed back to the hotel to rest for a few hours before we wereto meet Sveta at Everjazz restaurant for a jazz concert at 10. After a couple of hours rest, we took the taxi to the restaurant and were a little early, so we decided to walk around a little. We ended up in a small park filled with young people smoking hookahs. I’m struck by how many young people here smoke cigarettes and e-cigarettes too. We headed back, met Sveta and went in to our table. It’s actually a very nice club and seems to b3 very popular. The musical group was ok. They had a decidedly Brazilian/Jamaican flavor. I got wild and ordered a large pina colada. I bet I hadn’t had one in 10 years. I figured it would help me sleep later. Wrong, but I did have a pleasant buZz on. We finally got in at about 1 am. It had been a long day.