Kazan we can

Kazan east of Moscow

Why wouldn't we take advantage of taking a weekend trip to Kazan? No reason except it's a 12 hour train journey.  So I threw money at the problem, and we took a flight instead; a much more reasonable hour and a half travelling time. 

What a contrast to Moscow is this capital city of Tartarstan.  Situated on the wide and winding Volga River, open spaces, wide roads, good transport links at the airport.  This is mainly due to the 2013 Summer Universiade, the 2nd largest sporting events after Olympiads, attended by 162 nations. New arenas litter the skyline, modern and colourful, contrasting with the beautiful bright turquoise painted historical buildings. The leaning Soyemika Tower measuring an approximate 1.9m horizontal displacement as opposed to the more famous tower in Pisa at 3.9m is steeped in history as far back as the 16^th century.  Allegedly the Kazan Queen asked Ivan the Terrible to build it for her, a tier a day within seven days, before becoming his wife. Instead of which she chose to throw herself from the top; true or not it adds to the romance of the area and era.

Come evening time we couldn't believe our luck when an hour before the sold out show we scooped some front row tickets to Tchaikovsky's 2nd and 3rd symphonies in one of the town’s beautiful concert halls. 

Surrounded by the famous forests of birch the traditional colourful dachas and banyas creating flumes of smoke, and very little English, we really felt like we were in a different country.  Unlike international Moscow, the few schools here are dedicated to teaching English.  If anyone is looking for a summer break teaching English there, drop us a line because we've been asked to supply a native English teacher for summer holidays 2014.

We flew back to the bright lights of the capital city for our last couple of days exploits, navigating our way precariously via the stunning Moscow metro.  Like a child in its formative years, we are learning to recognise the shape of the letters of the alphabet, having no idea what word they spell nor how they are pronounced, but we still manage to get around.

Imagine our surprise to find Red Square closed, cordoned off by the police and gates closed all round.  Luckily being in the wonderful company of a native Russian speaker we approached who we deemed to be the most handsome guard to ask when it will re-open for us. 

He said solemnly, 'It's a secret.'

‘Will it be open tomorrow?’ we responded

‘It's a secret'

'It's never too late,' is a phrase I've frequently used and heartily agree with, but in this instance I can't help thinking the more appropriate one should be, 'never put off till tomorrow what you can do today'.

How long is my list of 'things to do today'?  Shhh....I can't tell you….because….. it's a secret.