Day 24 March 8th 2017 International Womens Day
International Women’s Day in Russia – a National Holiday. Everywhere you see women carrying bouquets of flowers particularly Tulips and Mimosa. The day seems a little more like a Mother’s day celebration than a celebration of rights and women’s achievements.
Yet it is the centennial year of the revolution in Russia. The marches comprising mainly of women on International Womens Day in 1917 triggered the overthrow of the Csar and the revolution
Our day was spent on the train – a day trip from Yekinterinberg to Kazan. We wonder about what comes next. It will be hard to better Luba our Yekinterenberg guide and fascinating teller of history. We were sorry to leave this lovely city.
On the rails again-and this time the freebies keep on coming -the photo shows the stuff we kept getting until the table was full!! Although the quality of some items was questionable-I do not get why bread rolls are always stale and without butter? And not just the train!
Alighting from the train in Kazan we see a young man standing with sign with my name in full. Unlike other guides he picks up our bags, no handshake, no introduction and off at a fast pace -we follow almost jogging to keep up. I try to make conversation with a Russian only response. Odd.Different! A drive through a lovely looking city to our hotel where we are asked for fare – again Odd. Different. We do remind ourselves “First world problem” and we have been spoiled thus far.
After paying we check in and settle in. Five minutes later we get a call – our guide is downstairs. Ildus, a very personable young man tells us that he was at the station and that there had been a mix up with the hotel providing the transfer as well as himself.
He recounted a very funny story of arriving at our (empty) carriage and asking the Provinitza “Have you seen the foreigners?” with the reply we had been taken off by someone. This story was apparently corroborated as he progressed through the station asking that same question where even a taxi driver sitting at the entrance recalled seeing us being driven off. We were amazed to find that we were so visible.
