I heard about Kazan because I know there is a skater called Kamila Valieva.


Here in Kazan, you can enter the metro directly with a Mir card.

I went into the metro. It was mostly empty in the morning.
Suddenly I couldn't find my Yoomoney bank card. I lost it?
I quickly transferred all the money to Sberbank. 11000 Rubles, and 375-Rubles commision fee.
I lost my Yoomoney card in the metro station "Кремлевская".
It's not too bad though. As far as I know I haven't lost anything else. Anyway, when you've been through truly terrible situations to one where you think you are safe, but actually you aren't... If I hadn't transferred the money to Sberbank I'd be left with just 1000 Ruble in cash.
I went in, swapped my Yoomoney card for a pass, and I lost it 5 minutes later. But everything is fine.
So the languages of the annoucements are Russian, Tatar, and English.


I went into the hostel at 7:30. "Что вы делаете?" The staff asked me. "Я забронировала номер", "Регистрация в 2 часа дня". So I asked to put the suitcase there. I needed to pay them for them to hold my suitcase.
I left. The city is beautiful. There are still 6 hours.


The Internet and mobile data are really bad here.

I went into Mcdonalds. In Moscow the salary on the advertisement is 90k Rubles. Here it's 63k Rubles.
I went into Burger King and charged my phone there.

I ordered some food and I am going to rest for a while. Then I spilled my drink all over my tray. What a day! I don't know if I will mess up anything else.

On Bauman street is a tour group. The tour team hires many young people to hand out flyers. A young man led me to the ticket office. Tickets are sold only at the 2 pm slot now. I am going to come here tomorrow.


4 hours till check-in. Let's take the metro again to a station far away.


A tourist map


It's so hot here. I got off the metro at Авиастроительная, and I got out at Belinsky Street.



There isn't anything interesting here. I got on the metro again and arrived at Яшьлек. It's noon, and I am very tired from the lack of sleep. But I still plan to take a little walk back. I walked along Парк Сосновая роща.



Then there is a "Парк Победы" on the street. You can see many tanks, airplanes, and some soldier's names.







I went on улица Абсалямова.



Near Volga there are many beautiful apartments.


It's really a long walk. It's 1:30 pm, and I am arriving at the beach.







There are a lot of people having fun on the beach here. But I just left. My legs hurt so much. I returned to my hostel. And the hotel is another 1 km walk from the metro!
The hostel is insane. Luggage storage, 300 Rubles. A pair of slippers, 300 Rubles. Laundry, 400 Rubles. It's not very expensive, but these things should be for free. The women staff opened a Word document, or something like that. She didn't evne accept card payments. I didn't have much cash. I ran off and I told her I would wash my clothes by hand. And she smirked a little.
9840 Rubles left.
There is a quiet couple in the room. There are two showers for men, two showers for women, and a total of three toilets.




I took a shower and slept for 3 hours. Then I am going to a comedy show. There isn't even a decent spot to charge my phone by the bed.

A group of people was playing cards in the hostel lobby. When I passed them they said, "Nihao." I tried to say something, but my throat was dry from sleeping and no words came out.
I don't want to leave Russia because I am enjoying this cheap backpacking trip.


Улица Пушкина



I ate a sandwich and a piece of bread at Eurospar for dinner.

It's my first time in such a bar. We are going to watch a standup comedy. The bar is very remote and shady. But we are young, and it's important to enjoy life.



Tatars actually don't stand out that much in Kazan. Most times you'd just think it's a Russian city. There are a small amount of women who cover their heads.
I have 9000 Rubles left.
A comedy show is far more difficult to understand than normal Russian. I caught a lot of words, but the pace is just too fast, and I didn't get the humor. There are 7-8 comedians, each talking for about 10 minutes, so it's kind of like on TNT. But there are a lot more slangs and sexual topics.








I canceled my YooMoney card. So, that's it. It only cost me 300 Rubles transfer fee.
The hostel is very clean, quiet, and has air conditioning. I'll be sleeping soon. By 1 am when I finished blogging, everyone is sleeping except me.