I love you and will bring you goat's milk

This post will best be read while listening to this song, called "Good to live in the east" by Sergei Nikitin, a singer of the Russian author song genre. Author song is this nifty little Russian term for singers who write poetry and sing them to simple guitar melodies.
Anyways, this song talks about how good it is to live in the east, eating delicious food, laying in the sun's warmth, etc etc.



Our first big trip of the semester took us about 700 km east of Moscow to Kazan, the capital of the Tartarstan republic of Russia. Leaving on a Friday night, we once again took a sleeper train (which I am growing quite fond of) and 14 hours later arrived to a sunny (although cold), Saturday Kazanian morning. After making our way to our wonnnnderful hotel (the showers were nicer than my apartment in Moscow, sigh), we rested a little and then set off to explore Kazan.
First on the agenda was a tour of the kremlin. This kremlin is different from others we had been to and has a mosque! It was a very nice refreshing change from the orthodox churches, and we
even got to observe people doing prayers. All very interesting.
























After the Kremlin tour we walked down the main pedestrian street for a while, snapping pictures and being crazy tourists as per usual. The day ended with a lovely* little trip to the National museum of the Tatarstan republic.

Leaving the kremlin; the building to the right is the lovely little museum.

A lot of the buildings were slightly old and decrepit looking. I love it. Also it was cold and full of ice. Awesome.

Peter and Paul's cathedral through a gutted-out building on Bauman street.

Strolling down Bauman street.

Dancing on Bauman street.

Dome reflecting Bauman.

We awoke the next day after a fantastically relaxing night's sleep and headed down to breakfast in the hotel's cafe. The woman who gave us our food was the epitome of our host mothers/Russian women: bringing endless mounds of food and then forcing us to eat. It was glorious. After all the food, we set off to Sviyazhsk island, founded by Ivan the Terrible in 1551. Basically there are lot of old churches here, full of lots of icons and frescoes and so on and so forth. En route to the island, we drove by the Volga river. I'm pretty sure the Volga is to the Russians as the Mississippi is to Americans: epic. So, it was cool to see THE VOLGA (ooooh, ahhhh) in person, but, well, it was kind of all frozen over and covered in snow, slightly taking away from its epicness level. Alas.

On the island. See all the white stuff near the greenish trees? That's snow. On water.

The church is called "The Joy of all Sorrows."

It was built from 1898-1906.

And is crumbling.

However, it is under restoration.

Phil's triumphant return (from petting a kitty, I think).


The main attraction on this island is to be found in the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary:


This, my friends, is St. Christopher. St. Christopher was quite the stud, and it was decided that since he was so studly, his image would distract worshipers and therefore he had to be depicted as a horseman. I've definitely never seen anything like this in any other orthodox church; it was an unexpected and lovely** (in a non-distracting way, of course) surprise.

After our three hour tour it was high time to eat something and we set off along the oh so bumpy roads, at last finding ourselves in a cafe serving traditional Tartar food. For most of the trip I had the sense that Kazan wasn't used to having many foreigners; when we walked into this cafe, people couldn't stop staring. It could have been because we were all having horrible hair days, but I think our foreignness was the main cause. However, a little staring didn't stop me from devouring the best chicken noodles soup I've had (yeah, that's Tartar...) along with uchpuchmakh (pronounced "ooch-pooch-mahk"), a little triangle pastry thing filled with mystery meat and cabbage mixture. De.Li.Cious. Kelly also had the brilliant idea of ordering food to go for our impending 14 hour return trip to Moscow.

After a brief rest back at the hotel, we set off to the theatre to see a Tartar play, "Dilyafruz - remake". As is suggested by the name, Dilyafruz is a remake of a Soviet play/musical.
Also, it was hilarious.
Also, it was in Tartar.
However, we had headset translators.
In summary, Dilyafruz is the beauty of a provincial Tartar town but finds herself at the center of three suitor's attentions when they discover her picture in Playboy magazine. But, Dilyafruz actually loves a fourth man, Zhamil. Zhamil, of course, also loves Dilyafruz and hasn't even seen her Playboy picture but is too timid to tell her. In the end the three force Zhamil to look at Dilyafruz's picture, who promptly laughs and, calling the others idiots, exclaims "That's not her! Look at her face!" And they live happily ever after. Aww.
The best part? We now know how to say "I love you" in Tartar: "Meen seen-yay yah-rah-tam".





Mosque at night.





Monday brought the coldest day yet, complete with a lovely*** little snow storm. Monday was our day to decide what to do, but sadly most things were closed since it was also a holiday (International Women's day).

Nevertheless, we ventured into the cold and trekked to a craft market in pursuit of Tartar souvenirs.
Along the way to the market we ran into Lenin, who studied at the university in Kazan.

After vendors had fought over our business and souvenirs had been bought, we once again made our way outside and headed back to Bauman street, this time searching for Peter and Paul's Cathedral.

We found Bauman street but were temporarily distracted by the cold/music blasting through the speakers and decided it was time to just dance.


We finally reached our final destination, the uniquely Baroque-style Peter and Paul's Cathedral.



Oh, Kazan also has a metro. I'm afraid after Moscow I will forever be a metro snob, and every other metro system will just be kind of cute in comparison. Kazan's metro has six whole stations and two whole trains. It's very nice and pretty, though. In a word - cute. After riding the metro from the beginning to end and back again, it was time to eat. We returned to an Irish pub we had discovered the night before (another story for another time...) for a very very very very very yummy and much needed warm lunch.


Phil also broke out the presents he got for the girls for International Women's day. Thaaaanks, Phil. :)


After lingering as long as possible in the Irish pub, the time had come to say goodbye to Kazan and return to the real world of Moscow. Armed with our new Tartar language skills, we boarded the train and, of course, did lots of homework. We also talked a little to a Russian guy in a neighboring bunk, on his way to visit friends in Moscow. He didn't really speak Tartar but was able to add to our already impressive knowledge of "I love you": when you say "I love you", you're supposed to also say "kezhe set ashatam" - and so I will bring you goat's milk.


And there you have it, our slightly epic trip east. Oh, one more exciting bit of news: yesterday it rained for the first time since November. SPRING IS NEAR! Maybe?

In any case, I love you all and promise to bring goat's milk.
Until next time!






*Like, ok. I have to admit; I...well....I don't really like history museums. Sorry, mom. I just don't. But um...the museum was nicely arranged?

**This time I'm not being sarcastic in my use of the word "lovely." Just to clarify.

***Sarcasm.