Day 18 – Kazan to Naberezhnye Chelny

High point: Lots. It was an incredible day. We set off early and arrived in Kazan before lunchtime at the Mercedes garage. They were massively welcoming and loved what we were doing. Using a lot of body language and finger pointing we eventually manage to explain the problem. The chief then rallied the troops within 10 minutes and they started work. In the meantime he let us know, if we wanted, the lovely Veronica would show us around Kazan. Wow! She was a definite 10 for her knowledge of the town, friendliness and her legs. Beautiful. The guys at Kazan Mercedes garage were amazing throughout. We all can’t thank them enough for helping us in our time of need and if they’re ever in London and need a helping hand we’ll happily oblige (we’re good with guided tours of tower bridge, trading strategies, bean counting or golf lessons)

Low point: Amazing day until we arrived at our destination to find the hotel didn’t exist. This is, however, when the incredible teamwork began. James, our semi Russian speaker, was jumping out at every opportunity to track down anyone looking like they might be able to speak English. Dave was weaving Martha around the city with Ross in navigation. Steve and Ben were either hot on the steps of James, directing traffic or running in and out of hotel look-i-like establishments. We eventually reached the one suggested hotel (Kazmas) only to find there were two in the city with the same name. The team weren’t disheartened and we soon tracked down a cabbie. By this stage Martha was drawing in more and more admirers so several locals helped explain our problem to taxi man. Dave followed in hot pursuit to success. Only it was midnight! Several beers helped drown the pain.

No point: Russians like to serve boiled potato with battered fish and burger

Russian word of the day: Garyacheey (Hot)

Authors comments: In addition to the highs and lows above the driving today was fantastic. The back of the cab was going off following our purchase the previous night of several i-Phone games. We love trivial pursuit and risk. Angry birds makes Dave angry.

Two other brilliant points are the police and opening hours. The police appear to be leaving us largely alone. They look over in wonder and amazement and don’t really know what to do. So they leave us alone. Superb.

The opening hours are also amazing. If we were in France or Spain they’d be having siesta’s all over the place. But thankfully not in Russia. We’re not arriving in destinations until quite late in the evening but the cities are buzzing until the early hours. Despite arriving at midnight last night we still found food and beer. And internal to the often grey and depressing exterior we’re occasionally finding funky bars/restaurants.

All in all today was superamazingwowzers

Dave

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