Back when we decided to take the Trans-Mongolian train from St Petersburg in Russia to Beijing in China, we didn’t know exactly which stops we wanted to make on the way. The majority of the reasonably priced tours started in Moscow, then go to Irkutsk which is three and a half days of solid travel, whereas the more expensive tours go to various towns/cities in-between. We knew we wanted to see more of Russia and we knew we didn’t want to spend three and a half solid days on a train, so based on that we looked at where the more expensive an adventurous tours went to, and the places which came up where Kazan, Yekaterinburg and Novosibirsk. So we booked up one of the cheaper tours and had these stops slotted in-between Moscow and Irkutsk. We did this without knowing anything about these places, other than they would have fewer tourist visitors than the likes of Moscow so would therefore possibly give us a better insight into the real Russia. This meant that when we departed on our train from Moscow to Kazan, we were excited to see what Kazan would be like. As soon as we got off the train in Kazan it immediately felt very different to Moscow or St Petersburg, we walked through a tunnel barely wide enough for one person to get from our platform to the station exit and from there could look back at a modest station compared to St Petersburg or Moscow.

We only had a couple of days in Kazan and were staying in a quaint little hostel which had an Alice in Wonderland theme running throughout, from silhouetted characters from the book/cartoon on windows/mirrors to recognisable quotes.

After all the Orthodox Christian churches in St Petersburg and Moscow, we had been briefed that the main religion in Kazan is Islamic and based on that we were eager to instead see a mosque, with the Qolşärif Mosque being the obvious choice. It is located inside the Kazan Kremlin (prior to coming to Russia, we associated the word Kremlin a soviet style, fortified complex in the heart of Moscow, however, it actually refers to any medieval citadel in the centre of an ancient Russian city).

It is interesting to see the combination of architecture, whilst undoubtedly a mosque, also features some onion domes reminiscent of Saint Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow. The building is relatively modern, having been rebuilt in 1996 – it certainly looked pristine.

Steve had been suffering from a cold for several weeks which didn’t seem to want to disappear and keen not to miss out on anything we had been pressing on, however, whilst looking around the Kazan Kremlin it became clear to Steve that something needed to be done as the pain in this throat had increased substantially. Had we been at home in the UK, Steve would likely have already visited the doctor (despite generally trying to avoid wasting doctors time which lead him to be 24-hours away from death with a ruptured appendix last year), however, when travelling it is a little trickier to resolve medical issues. We obviously aren’t registered with a doctor anywhere else in the world, and whilst we have medical insurance, there is still the matter of finding an English speaking doctor to see you, and also pay the £100 insurance excess). So Steve called upon the medical services of Gemma to shine the light from a mobile phone into his mouth, revealing some very swollen tonsils with lots of nasty bacteria. We would obviously need some antibiotics, in the UK this would require a trip to the doctors and a prescription, however in Russia, you do not require a prescription to buy antibiotics, you can simply by them over the counter. Russia isn’t alone, so far all the countries we have visited on our travels allow antibiotics to be purchased over the counter (India, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand). This obviously is problematic when people turn to antibiotics inappropriately, but in our case, when we were certain of the problem, it meant we could quickly and easily go to the pharmacy and buy a packet of amoxicillin cheaply).

Due to the levels of pain caused by tonsillitis, we were frustratingly not able to do anything else in Kazan. We had been keen to go to the Temple of All Religions, which includes places of worship for multiple religions including Orthodox Christians, Muslims and Jews. It is still in construction and ultimately will have structures/buildings dedicated to all 16 of the major world religions (including those no longer being practised). We really approve of this concept, we had also wanted to see the Lotus Temple in Delhi which has the same premise (although in Delhi we were unable to visit due to traffic, and then barely able to see it due to fog). So whilst we were disappointed at yet again not being able to see a building of this nature, we consoled ourselves that we were at least separately seeing buildings for various different religions as we travel around the world.

We shared our hostel room with a few people from Russia, one of whom from Kazan, he was very interested to hear about what we were doing on our trip and was keen to provide us a list of several dozen Russian delicacies we should try, including some Tatar foods (from Tatarstan which is republic that Kazan is part of). With some effort, we managed to venture out to try one of the recommendations, an очпочмак (pronounced something like ish-push-mak) which is a savoury pastry not dissimilar to a Cornish pasty, but other than that, Steve was confined to bed rest and was still feeling worse for wear when boarding our next train, which would take us to Yekaterinburg. Some care and attention was required, despite being a much smaller city than Moscow or St Petersburg, there were still multiple major train stations, and the station we departed from was different to the one we arrived at.

Part way through our train journey, we heard some music playing, initially, we thought it was someone’s phone, but then realised the music was coming from the train itself.

Whilst the music wasn’t overly offensive, we didn’t really want it blaring at us whilst we relaxed onboard, luckily we were able to find a volume control to turn it off.

Arriving in Yekaterinburg, Steve was still not feeling too well, however, we had a couple of days there, so we elected to take it easy for the first day and then have a tour around the city the next day. When taking a tour of the city, there are a number of conventional options, such as pay for a guided tour or join a free walking tour or attempt to navigate the city yourself. Yekaterinburg has a cheap and easy option, they have painted a line around the city, which goes past a lot of major attractions, so you can simply follow the line and look at the various attractions. Speaking of attractions, these were a little unconventional and include a huge cheese grater statue, a Beatles monument, a huge computer keyboard made from stones on the floor and some hedges cut into the shape of bear musicians.

It was certainly quite an eclectic city to look around and once again feeling very different from other parts of Russia that we had visited so far. We had been quite lucky in as far as Russia was celebrating Victory Day (surrender of Nazi Germany) so there were lots of people out, street performers and a generally jovial atmosphere. The way Russians celebrate Victory Day is certainly quite different to back in the UK where at a push we may have a street party, or perhaps a pint at the local Wetherspoon for big occassions like to mark the 50 year anniversary. In Russia they had huge celebrations every year, with kids walking around with inflated balloons in the shape of tanks and huge stages showing war reinactment films with huge crowds of people watching.

With Steve’s health improving, we were ready to jump back onto the train which would take us from Yekaterinburg to Novosibirsk (in Siberia).

By this point in our trip, we had already spent several nights aboard a train, whizzing between different cities of the world. Typically we have done this in a four-person berth, mostly for cost reasons (it costs twice the price to have a cabin for two) but it also means we get to talk to various people from different walks of life, from students to retired people, from fellow travellers to locals. In all of our experiences so far, we haven’t ever had any problems and our night heading towards Novosibirsk started much the same. We were sharing our cabin with a man who worked in the military, he boarded the train somewhat drunk but generally jovial and excited to talk to us, with the help of Google translate (he spoke as much English as we do Russian). He asked us about England, showed us pictures of his pregnant wife and told us about life in Russia. Our Google Translate conversation continued all evening until we were both ready for bed. He had been offering us vodka and beer all evening, which we had been declining as we had our own drinks (green tea and coca cola) – but when we said we were going to bed he insisted that we joined him in a single vodka – so we relented and had one each (we were in Russia after all). He insisted on another, which Gemma wriggled out of, but Steve accepted knowing that he would immediately then climb up to his top bunk and fall asleep and after this final drink that is exactly what Steve climbed up to do.

We switched the cabin light off and Steve started to rest, after five minutes Steve could hear Gemma saying on no thanks presumably to more offers of drinks that she didn’t want. Again she was telling him no, that’s enough now – a familiar theme from the night of him being very keen to share his drinks with us. He didn’t seem to want to give up, Gemma was still turning him down that’s enough, stop it now we both just wanted sleep. Trying to block it out and sleep, Steve then heard help coming from Gemma. After double checking Gemma was all right, Steve left Gemma to turn over, ignore the offer of drinks and go to sleep, much as Steve was trying to do. But again help but this time much louder, at this point Steve came down, expecting to have to make it clear that we do not want any more drinks and actually really want some sleep. At this point, Gemma explained that when she was saying oh no thanks, no that’s enough now, that’s enough, stop it now, help it wasn’t because she was being offered drinks, it was because our friend in the cabin was reaching over, stroking Gemma’s back and trying to gain her affections!

We were in a tricky situation, we had a huge, drunk military guy, on a train where the attendants do not speak English, only Russian. We could speak to the attendants, use Google Translate to explain, but we worried that they would speak to our roommate, who would deny it in Russian, leaving us in the dark as to what he was saying, and making it hard for us to argue when we are doing it via a Translation application. We were particularly worried about making our roommate angry and then being left to deal with him for the rest of the night. So instead Steve had a long conversation with him, via Google Translate, making sure it was clear that his advances were not wanted, that Gemma was now scared and that we just wanted to sleep (at this point we had traded bunks, so Gemma was on the top, and Steve was on the bottom at our roommates levels). We were apologised to as profusely as one can be when it is done via Google Translate and ultimately Steve said let’s just get to bed, what you have done is wrong, but we are more interested in just sleeping and moving on than talking any further about it. Our roommate apologised one last time and said goodnight, but just before Steve was going to switch the light off once again, he asked to translate one message, Steve handed the phone over, he typed in Russian, Google translated it into English I understand I can not touch or sleep with her,but it is okay if I give her a goodnight kiss. No matter what country of the world you come from and what language you speak, when Steve shouted NO, shook his finger and head and looked angry the message was clear. Our roommate gave up, smoked a final cigarette outside (in the non-smoking train) and then fell asleep in the room and snored very loudly. Steve stayed up most of the night to ensure there was no followup, but even a big Russian military man will eventually succumb to the effects of an entire bottle of Vodka and 3 litures of super strength beer.

Whilst Novosibirsk is a relatively major Russian city, it is further off the beaten track than most casual travellers venture, meaning we got a stronger feel of Russia from a locals viewpoint. It had a little more of that Soviet feel which we had expected in Russia, but not in an imposing way with KGB agents follow us around grey tower blocks, but instead more of a rough-around-the-edges with a lot of people not looking upset, but looking very stony-faced as they got on with the day to day slog, with little time to spend frolicking on exuberant recreational activities. We had arrived in Novosibirsk with no particular ideas of what to expect, and this was somewhat just as well, as from consulting Google, Trip Advisor and asking at the hostel, there really wasn’t a huge amount to do there from a tourists perspective.

We enjoyed leisurely strolling around, looking at artwork in a local gallery and having a drink in one of the bars.

However, for Gemma, her highlight from Novosibirsk was seeing a group of dogs, owned by the same person, whereby each of the dogs sported some sort of accessory, from a backpack to glasses.

We enjoyed seeing these three smaller cities and seeing another side of Russia and looked forward to the next leg of our adventure, which would initially take us to Irkutsk which we would use a base to travel to Olkhon Island, in the middle of Lake Baikal, the largest body of fresh water in the world. This was sure to be something completely different to anything else we had seen in Russia, taking us out to the middle of the country, surrounded by amazing landscapes.

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