Russia V - Russia 3 Holland 1

I arrived in Kazan the day of the Euro 2008 Quarter-Final between Holland and Russia. I was travelling with a Dutch guy and we were intent on watching the game. We very nearly missed the train to Kazan from Yekaterinburg, beginning the journey in carriage that resembled a sauna.

I arrived in Yekaterinburg just after Russia had qualified for the knockout stages of Euro 2008. In the morning there were still a few people driving around with flags hanging out of their cars. In Kazan on the day of the Quarter final there appeared to be little interest in the match. As kick-off drew near we headed out into the city in orange t-shirts from a charity shop. If you walked around in orange t-shirts on the day of an England/Holland match in the UK I think you would stand out. Russian men have such a lack of fashion sense that two men walking down the street in bright orange t-shirts draws no attention. We struggled to find a bar with atmosphere to watch the game, until we stumbled upon a small bar which was packed. We were given pride of place in front of the TV. When the locals discovered I was English there were many apologies for knocking England out in the qualifying. They gave a hearty rendition of the Russian national anthem (click here to watch). The match began and Russia dominated. While I was wearing a Dutch shirt my sympathies were with the Russians. When they went up 1-0 the place erupted. The Dutch drew level at the very end of normal time and Hemmo jumped up and down screaming for joy. Luckily no one clouted him. In extra-time the Russians took control and scored twice to win 3-1 (click here to see the Russians celebrate the third goal). Immediately after the final whistle crowds of people poured on to the streets. Cars raced up and down the streets with flags hanging out of the windows and people were on top of buildings celebrating (click here to watch a video of their celebrations). One of the guys in the bar wanted to swap t-shirts with Hemmo and went off happily in the dodgy orange t-shirt. Needless to say Hemmo was none to pleased about the result.

The journey to Kazan from Yekatertinburg should have been straightforward. We arrived at the train station with plenty of time to spare. We kept an eye on the departure board and went to our platform. The strange thing was there was a different train there and when it pulled off no-one was left on the platform. I thought this was a bit strange and had a wander over to the other platforms. I discovered our train had had its platform changed. I ran back to Hemmo, we grabbed our bags and ran across the station. We managed to jump on just in time. It was a hot and humid afternoon and we had already begun to sweat. To save some money we had decided to do this leg of the journey in Plastkartny, third class, the equivalent of hard-sleeper in China. I bought the ticket from Hotel Irkutsk and it only cost 1000 Roubles. In Plastkartny there are about sixty beds crammed into a carriage. The carriages have air-conditioning but this works on an air pressure system when the train is moving. The train had been sitting there a while, fuill of people in the sun. We struggled into our carriage already dripping with sweat only to be confronted by a sauna. Plastkartny is a bit of a squeeze and not quite as comfortable as hard-sleeper in China. However, it is not that bad. I found Kupe a much more comfortable way to travel for long distance. I was amazed to see in our carriage a boy wearing a Tottenham shirt. I tried to inform him of what a good team he wa supporting but it seemed to him it was simply a t-shirt. It was the first time I had seen any local wearing a Tottenham shirt in all of my travels. I had my photograph taken with him but I think this only served to confuse the kid more. A guy in our block of beds was an aircraft engineer who spoke English. We chatted with him for a bit and Hemmo did his survey. Hemmo had been conducting a survey on his travels. He asked people which three countries have the most attractive opposite sex, and you could not mention your own. Russia was figuring highly amongst male travellers simply for the way the women dress. Russian women are certainly very glamorous though this just crosses into the scantily clad prostitute look, or as an American girl described it 'trailor park trash'. Hemmo's survey was always a good ice breaker with people.

Kazan felt quite different to any other Russian city I visited. The influence of central asia can be seen quite strongly here. Kazan is the capital city of the Republic of Tatarstan. While there have been calls for independence from Russia it is still part of the Russian Federation. Kazan has a beautiful Kremlin, in the centre of which is the large Mosque in Russia (as you can see in the above picture). The Kremlin was declared a World Heritage site in 2000 when the city celebrated its Millennium. It feels multi-cultural and cosmopolitan. It is also obvious that in recent years a great deal of money has been spent beautifying the city and restoring old buildings. The hot summer weather stayed with us in Kazan and we were able to go and sit on the beach on the banks of the Volga river with the Kremlin in the distance. We stayed at Hotel Volga which is very close to the Railway Station. The receptionist was the spitting image of Deirdre from Coronation Street. Kazan is not that big and it is very easy to walk to the centre of the city or to the Kremlin from there. A twin room cost 2000 Roubles a night and a buffet breakfast was included, which I abused to the best of my abilities.