The stops did not come as a surprise since we booked our train tickets in advance but the cities Kazan and Yekaterinburg were different from what we expected them to be.
The first impression of Kazan was quiet ….sorry, I am distracted because of the camel on the other side of the street. 
Oh well, Kazan really knocked us of our feet. At first we were sure that we now got the real deal, the real Russia, the one we expected but then after turning a corner the boulevard resembled a 19th century film set. After walking around for a while, we realised that 2 days might not be enough bit that was all we got here. We will be back, knowing what to expect. The capital of Tartarstan, a city with over a million citizens, a coty with history, good food and quite the shopping possibilities. 
We saw cathedrals and mosques as well as the Kremlin itself, nice boulevards and we strolled down the pier. We wanted to go and see a very touristy but probably fun tartarian dinner show which did not work out since it only took place once a week on saturdays.
Obviously we spent the night in Kazan on a Friday. This gave us the opportunity to walk up to the old tartarian town which was beautiful. The next day we wanted to see some of the museums inside the Kremlin but instead we walked along the pier, it seemed like a good choice because the Kremlin was packed with tourists and mostly citizens of Kazan on the riverside. Families, couples and newly weds strolling, biking, having fun and taking photos.
The night train from Kazan to Yekaterinburg took about 14 hours. And here we are. Sitting in a cafe with wifi updating our blog and soon walking back to the station to catch our train to Irkutsk. This is going to be the longest time we will be continously on the train.
Yekaterinburg seems much more laied back and less sophisticated. People wear more jeans and sweatshirts which makes us feel less touristy eventhough we are wearing our hiking boots. Many are biking through the city or hang out at the city pond -which is quiet big- feeding the birds. Teenagers are taking selfies and hang out at Mc Donalds…did we even leave for our trip? I guess this shows again how we are all basically the same anywhere on the globe. I like the atmosphere here and for lunch we decided to go to an american style coffe shop where russians eat, not a russian restaurant where tourists eat. It is called Travellers Cafe which seems to be a perfect fit anyways.
