Day 11, Kazan: buying stamps & long walk under the sun
Today is our last day here, you might think we’d be out early in the day, but our train tonight is at 02:04, so we opted for the late start. Also our body clocks are off here since we’re still in Moscow time, which is only one hour behind French time, but we are so much further east. The sun goes down early, and rises really early.
Every morning now, after waking up and dozing off several times, I look at the time thinking "it's got to be late now" and it's only just 08:00!
So anyway, we got up between 11 and 12, showered and had a solid breakfast of oatmeal+oatmilk+ 2 eggs, and in the microwave for a few minutes.
We packed our bags and asked politely with Google translate if we could leave them at the hostel for the day. Our host said it would cost 100 Rubbles. :(
Just outside the hostel there is some sort of distributer. We finally understood it was a clean drinking water dispenser as we saw people queueing with empty water bottles, testament to the fact that tap water here is not to be drunk.
I had bought a postcard back in Moscow, but you can’t by stamps elsewhere than at the post office. So I finally got around to searching on Google maps for a post office and we are lucky enough that one should be a couple of blocks down, on our way into town.
We arrive in front, and unsure of that is the post, I point at the corner of my postcard and then at the building while looking at a passerby, who nods "da".
Except for the young woman behind the counter, the post office is empty. I ask in English for a stamp for Ireland while showing her the postcard. She takes it, disappears, and comes back saying it will be 40 Rubbles. I ask for 3 more stamps and she begins rummaging in folders around her desk before disappearing for a couple of minutes. She comes back and shows us 3 cards, which look like postcards but blank instead of having a picture.
We are confused and the clerk is confused.
By this point, several people have come in and begun queueing behind us. One of them speaks English pretty well and explains that they don't have other cards.
"But I don't want cards, I want stamps"
A few minutes later and thanks to our new translator, I eventually pay 160 Rubbles for 12 stamps. 4 are needed per card I intend to send to Ireland/UK.
We then go to the promenade along the Volga, we like it here.
There are many street carts around and one of them looks like it has beer taps. “Not beer, no alcohol” says the vendor when Iinquire as to what it is, and proceed tasting some, deciding that I like it and buy a pint. It is Kvass, a traditional Slavic and Baltic beverage commonly made from rye bread.
I drink half and then decide I don’t like it after all. Some plants received the second half.
After going for a ride on the swings, again, we walk all the way to the end of the promenade, under the bridge we could see in the distance, and back. Under the sun. So hot.
We then went to the supermarket to buy food for the coming 48 hour train ride.
We finished the day by going to the same restaurant as the night before last and ordered the same thing. Damn, they don’t have their herb drink ☹ Sophie goes for water, and I go for beer.
Our train leaves at 02:04 in the morning, so we have a few hours to kill. We stay in the restaurant for a while before heading into town and staying beside what we think is a man-made lake.
We enjoy the fresh night air and the mosquitos before going to the station to wait some more. Upon boarding the train, we realise that we are not in a compartment wagon as we were led to believe when we bought the tickets.
Head hitting pillow is a welcome feeling, and I’m asleep before the train leaves the station.
