Tarter: bad for the teeth, good for the traveler

On the train we met Alex and Max from Kazan. They were headed home and were insistent on pointing out every landmark you could see from the train as we approached Kazan at least 6 times. They were a bit excited to be going home and I couldn’t blame them.

We stopped at McDonald’s for a bite before getting to our room. Before you start saying how sacriligous it is to eat at McDonald’s while out backpacking let me just say #1 we don’t do it often #2 what the hell do you know? #3 We tried to get doner kabab but were unsuccessful as the place in lonely planet either no longer served it, had no idea what the hell we were talking about, or both. We had Greek Macs and hoofed it up to Fatima where we got a room. It was 900 roubles for a twin room with shared bath, very plain, clean, and had a small tv. We registered our visas and headed to the Capital Coffeehouse that had wifi. Next door we had some beer and sausages for dinner and headed back.

The next day we went to the Kazan Kremlin, a Unesco world heritage site which had an incredible mosque. I really liked Kazan, it was a small quiet city/town with a great vibe and beautiful atmosphere. We checked out the rest of the area and got ready for the final leg of the Trans-Siberian (which from here was actually the Ural railroad but who cares)