Kazan and the Universiad Games

We had the morning to spend. The first volleyball game starts in the evening. So we walked around some more

This was inside the Mosque at the Kremlin

One of the Kremlin gates

Thats the building you go to to get married

Peoples houses

Then we went to a museum about life in the Soviet Union

It was full of toys and things that would of been in homes in the USSR

There was some kind of Asian street band

Then we went to the arena for volleyball but were early so played in the park

This was the first game. I forgot who it was but the team on the right was North Korea

USA on the right and Poland on the left

The next few days we just spent going between volleyball games. not really any sight seeing to speak of.

Go K-State

These fans were for the other team

Then the Russian Men came out and they were monsters! The shortest guy on the team was my height, 2 meters

After it was all said and done we drove back to Moscow. it was pretty uneventful drive we were both in a hurry to get back to work.

Kazan, Russia

The next day we continued to Kazan. It was a long drive with not much to see until we got the edge of town and we came upon this over look.

We wanted to check it out more. so found a little path to pull of onto so we could relax.

Getting down the path was easy. Getting back up was a bit harder!

We finally made it to Kazan and found the apartment we had rented for the event. It was still pretty hot during the day but got rather cold at night.

The next morning we went into town to check things out and get tickets to the events.

We were here to see the Univeriad games. its like the Olympics but only for University age people who were still in school. The gorls volleyball team from America was represented by the Kansas State girls volleyball team so i wanted to go support them. First things first though were tickets.

We got to a ticket both and waited in line. It was HOT near 100 degrees and no shade around.

We waited and waited then took turns with one going into the local Mcdonalds, that was air conditioned, to cool down. Finally 4 hours later we had our tickets!

While waiting in line one of the local people told us of a restaurant near by that had traditional food. so we went there to celebrate. 

After a long rest and hydration period we walked around the city more.

The metro was the easiest way to get around

Just around the city center

Everyone was playing around the huge fountain trying to cool off

This was a bank

This to

Pyramids in Russia!

Finally their Kremlin

Their Kremlin has a Russian Orthadox Church inside

And a Mosque

After walking around for a while we decided to head home.

This is the metro at the Kremlin

We decided in the evening to ride motorcycle around.

We found this motorcycle club house

While I was taking the photo a car stopped to ask if everything was ok. He told us to follow him to a different club so we did.

This is our friend and his wife

Inside the club

One of the other members of the club was the manager of a theme park so he invited us there for free rides!

It was a fun evening and we slept like babies afterwards

Moscow to Nizhny Novgorod

We were headed to Kazan, Russia to see a sporting event. Left Moscow on July 3. The first destination we had was Nizhny Novgorod.

It was a little further than we wanted to go in one day so we stopped just on the outside of town at a small hotel.

This church was near our hotel

We kept pushing forward and in a few hours were in Nizhny Novgorod

The had a market to!

We roamed around the city a bit but it was very hot and soon we were both over heating.

In a tunnel under the street

We walked through their Kremlin and looked a the outdoor displays.

The Kremlin was on a hill and this was the overlook

Look up at the Kremlin from the bottom of the hill

We only stayed a few hours then decided it was just to hot and we wanted to move on and get closer to Kazan. So we took off and a ways down the road we saw a beach and decided to go swimming.

We pulled off the road for swimming

After an hour or so of swimming we kept going down the road looking for a place to camp for the night. We stopped in a village and asked and they pointed us in a direction and we headed off

It was on sand tracks through fields. Kind of fun and a little adventure

We finally came across the picnic table they told us about.

More swimming and then a nice sleep!