MIR Corporation's Travel Log:
Russia's Southern Urals & Lower Volga
Follow along with Bill Altaffer and a group of travelers through the Urals and Lower Volga and into some of the lesser-known towns along the way.
Bill Altaffer, 64-year-old ski instructor, photographer, and travel company owner from Mammoth, California, was declared the "World's Most Traveled Man" in 2005. This year he is in third place and running as fast as he can to catch up. Of the 757 countries, territories, autonomous regions, enclaves, geographically separated island groups, and major states and provinces counted by the MostTraveledPeople.com, Bill has been to 676 of them, with 81 to go. His favorites places are the obscure Russian oblasts that he writes about in this blog.
Days 9-10: Kazan
September 29-30, 2008
 | | Entering Tatarstan |
After a night in Naberezhnye Chelny, the second largest city in Tatarstan, we proceeded to Kazan, the capital of the region and another city with a very old history. It is the farthest point west that Genghis Khan's Golden Horde conquered. Ivan the Terrible defeated the Mongol Tatars there in 1552 and built a beautiful cathedral that is now the oldest building in the Kazan Kremlin (fortress), a UNESCO site. Both Russian Orthodox Christians and Muslims have lived together peacefully in Kazan for over 500 years. It is now a vibrant, prosperous city. Students at Kazan University gather under a statue of a young Lenin in a location called "the frying pan," where they wait to hear their test results. Pushkin and Tolstoy were among those who failed exams there.
> Our evening meal in a family home was another highlight. These home visits, where we met and interacted with average citizens, provided insight into Russian home life far beyond what we could experience in our casual encounters with hotel and restaurant personnel as well as vivid memories to be cherished for years to come.
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