Those of you that know me well, know that I am a huge history nerd. I know many historical facts and will occassionally bring them up in conversation. There is just something about the lives of our ancestors that I find extremely interesting. It is also one of my main inspirations for traveling. On my first trip through Europe in 2004, it was the driving force that compelled me to go. I wanted to see the ancient city of Rome, the heart of the Roman empire, the classical city of Athens of ancient Greek fame and the beautiful city of Paris, well known throughout medieval and modern history.

And I achieved these goals, but something happened along the way that I did not expect. I thought that would be the trip of a lifetime, but it turns out it was just the beginning of a long love affair with traveling, because I had acquired the "travel bug." I began to find many more reasons to travel; to see many new places, to learn about different cultures and religions, to eat new foods and meet new people, to see the world through a different perspective than the American perspective. The thing is, I will probably never entirely get rid of the American perspective, which is too far ingrained into my psyche (though this is not entirely a bad thing), but I do believe I am much more open to other perspectives. Knowledge of the world and the many perspectives that are out there is definitely something that can be acquired through travel. I'm not talking about just travelling in tours, surrounded by other Americans, with everything planned out for you. That type of travel has it's own merits, as one will most likely get to see the sites that one wants to see, and it is probalby much more comfortable, but you will also be somewhat isloated from the culture of what ever country or place you are going to see. Tours are fine, but I believe the best way to really see a different culture is traveling on your own, making your own plans and figuring out how things work on your own. It is also much more rewarding. Those rewards have also become a driving inpiration in my travels.

Kazan

History is still a huge driving force in my travels and it takes me to many places, because of the hisorical significance of that place. Kazan is one of those places. Kazan is not on the traditional Transsiberian railway, in fact it is not even listed in my Transsiberian guidebook, but I decided to take a little detour, because of it's historical significance. It is a significant city because way back in the 16th century, it was the turning point for Russia becoming an empire. Kazan was a stronghold of the Tatar Khanate, who were the descendants of Genghis Khan's great Mongol Empire. Genghis Khan conquered an empire that stretched from the Pacific Ocean to Eastern Europe in the 13th century. The Tatar Khanate or the Golden Horde was one of four Khanates that formed after this empire had broken down. The Russian people had to pay tribute to these Tatars as their overlords. However, in the 16th century, the first tsar of all of Russia, Ivan IV better known as Ivan the Terrible, conquered Kazan. This broke the Tatars control over Russia and they never had to pay tribute to the Tatars ever again and it paved the way for Russia becoming an empire.

Kazan is the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Tatarastan. It is still Russia, but the people has a slightly different identity as nearly half the population are of Tatar ethnicity, and thus there is a higher population of Muslims. It is an interesting city, that is very walkable. The Kremilin is also very interesting. One of the main towers in the Kremilin is Syuyumbike Tower, that has an interesting story attached to it. It is said that when Ivan conquered Kazan, the Khan of Kazan had a beautiful daughter named Syuyumbike, that Ivan wanted to marry. She agreed to marry him only if he would build her a tower higher than any other tower within 7 days. He agreed and built her the tower within 7 days. However, instead of marrying Ivan, Syuymbike climbed to the top of the tower and jumped to her death. I guess Ivan's reputation preceded him, even then!

On my second day in Kazan, I ran into a Frenchman by the name of Scott, that I had briefly met in Suzdal. It always interesting how you sometimes run into the same people when traveling. I would actually run into him again in Yekatrineburg, right before I was leaving. Anyway, it was raining all day, but Scott still manage to make it to a museum. It was a interesting musuem, but as expected, everything was in Cyrillic, so I only got a general idea what things were. Afterwards, we went to a Turkish place to get lunch. For some reason, we were seated with this guy that was supposedely an American as well. I guess they figured we would be more comfortable talking to someone that spoke English or something. The problem is that it was actually quite awkward. The man was a Turkish man that had lived in Miami for 30+ years and had just recently moved to Kazan. When they sat us done, he was just sitting alone checking out his phone. I got this strange vibe from this guy, like he was some kind of Mafioso. They sat us down like we were there to get a favor or something. As he was talking, I kept waiting for the catch. Fortunately, it never came. He was just a strange, but ordinary guy that had lived in the States and Cuba and for some reason out of the blue decided to move to Russia. He kept going on and on about how fake the U.S. is and about his travels to Cuba. I asked him why he liked Kazan so much and he says it because no one was fake. No one had to put on tons of makeup and get enhancements to look good, unlike in the States. Of course, I couldn't disagree with him more and I told him about growing up in a rural community in Wisconsin, where au natural was the norm. Besides, if someone where to get some enhancements, what does it matter? I know several people with enhancements and they are wonderful people with or without them. Anyway, we got out of there as quickly as we could. The funny thing is that Scott got the same mafioso vibe from this guy that I did!

Yekaterineburg

Yekaterineburg is another historical signficant city. It is also a usual stopping off point on the Transsiberian. I just stopped there for a night to take a quick look around the city and gather some supplies for my two day train trip to Irkutsk. Historical, Yekaterineburg is the final bural site of the last Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II. Back in the early 1900's, Lenin led his Communist Revolution in Russia. Nicholas II was the Tsar and was forced to abdicate, which started a civil war between the Communist Red Bolsheviks and the White Monarchists. As we all know, the Communists eventually won, but before doing so they murdered the entire royal family. The Tsar, his wife, his four daughter and his haemophilic son were imprisoned by the Red Army in Yekaterineburg. The Communist feared his return to power and so it was decided to dispose of them. One night in 1918, the family was rounded up and brought to the basement of the home they were staying in and executed by being shot and then bayonetted to death. The remains were then brought outside of the city and disposed of. They would not be found again and identified until 1992. The Russian Orthodox Church has canonized the whole family as martyred saints and a huge church now sits on their execution site.

Yekaterineburg is also a nice city to walk around in, with some nice parks and few monuments to look at. There wasn't a whole lot else to do though. I just checked out the church and walked around the city. However, the hostel I stayed in was one of the nicest I've been in. The hostel was in a really nice three-bedroom apartment and was really clean and had huge rooms. The host, Tatiana, was also really nice and she and I had an interesting conversation about Russian and American politics, travel and Sherlock Holmes, of all things! I also met a group of Germans doing the Transsiberian railway as well. Always the best thing about staying in hostels is meeting new and interesting people all the time. I got to talking to one of them, named Christian, and we talked about the similarities between Germany's position as the main power of the EU, and America's position as the main power in the world. And as usual, since we are guys, the conversation eventually led into sports as well.

Well, another long post! I hope you all liked my little history lesson. So, until next time, take care!