First days in Каэань (Kazan)

(24) The first day I used to sleep some till the afternoon, and I relaxed some while struggling on the Ukulele. Sergye, the hostel owner, as kind as he is, made me aside from the normal porridge, an egg for breakfast (in the afternoon) and we talked some about the history of Russia and the Netherlands, and eventually about music while he was trying to play some songs he knew on the Ukulele. In the late afternoon a girl who wanted to work there brought me to a place where I could "lunch" without meat, as a examination task made up by Sergye. She could also practice her English, and I tried to ask her some questions and we had a funny conversation while she brought me to a sushi and pizza (!) restaurant. It was a cool and hip restaurant a bit in the hipster style and i was really amazed that i could order sushi and pizza at the same time, both for just a few dollars per dish. (so per pizza and per 8 rolls of sushi). I stayed there till 6 or 7 and ofcourse I was helped by the same girl every time, because she was the only one in the restaurant who could understand English. Even when I pointed at the exact picture of the drink I wanted the non-English-speaking waitress got that English speaking girl to help me. After this I went walking down the main shopping and clubbing road on which this restaurant an my hostel laid, to buy gloves, a scarf and food for the lunch on the next days. Shopping in this kind of mini shopping center was quite funny because I was really an entertainment for the selling staff, of every shop I went in. At first I walked along a grocery and thought at the washing soap I forgot at home so, I went in to by some. It was hard to find my way at the right stuff whereas everything was written in English. So one of the ladies asked me what I wanted, and she seemed quite surprised with herself that she dared to ask me something. So she helped me to the right small box of soap with little "soap-pillows" in it, which was quite useful, and she and all the other employees had a lo of fun with helping this tall blond guy wanting to buy a small box of soap. I laughed with them, having no idea where they laughed about exactly, but it was funny still. After doing my best to say some friendly "spasiba" with a second wave of humor. I went to another shop with an old ladies where I probably could buy a scarf and gloves, and there I got the same, humor about my wishes and gestures, even with this more old ladies with the age of 50 or 60. When I came back from in a big shopping mall I saw a small phone company shop, who sold some camera's. I was keen on camera's because I really liked making pictures with the camera i borrowed from Arie, but I waned to get some kind of level up. To have i bit more opportunities and a bit better quality of pictures. So I walked in and looked at the cheapest ones, the compact camera's with a zoom and the looks of a normal camera but then smaller, for around 120 euro's or a bit more. I didn't really understand the specs which were shown because I don't know a lot about camera's and everything was in Russian language, so I asked if I could try one. The battery was down, so they had to recharge them and I could come back in 15 minutes. I took this time to buy a new sim card, because the one I bought in Moscow for 800 rubles didn't work anymore in Kazan. I found a shop and while a drunk, very poor looking man was aggressively screaming at one of the girls behind the counter, I bought a sim card with unlimited 4G internet access all around Russia and 300 calling minutes or sms within Russia. Calling to other countries was not possible, but not needed because I could use Skype or Whatsapp to call people. It only costed me 300 rubles. Then I understood why the people in Moscow found this deal I made with 800 rubles for the previous sim card crazy expensive (Fkn basterd from the airport using my tourist stupidness). When I went back to the phone company in the big shopping centre they were closed, because it was allready later than 10 o clock.
I called with my parents and with Lisa and talked about my decision to buy a new camera and went eating in another pizza and sushi restaurant (where you could also eat stuff like pasta and donur. This pizza and sushi combination is popular in Kazan and other places just because it is a kind of fast food or popular food) and the restaurant was open till 12 pm so I had enough time to eat. I had some funny struggles with the menu which was completely in Russian. I first liked to eat a pizza with fish, but it was too hard to explain so I chose Sushi, because than I had no chance to eat meat. I wanted Salmon and pointed at my red bag and made a fish gesture with my hands so the waitress probably would understand red fish, or only red but that would probably also end up in Salmon.

Really annoying, the rest isn't saved by Waarbenjij.nu. I had written two days of Kazan. I only could copy the last paragraph of that, which I will past underneath.
The other paragraphs in between the one above an the one underneath this information I will write an other time in another blog.

(this is 25 of march) That evening after dinner I hooked up with the guys I met in the G-Art hostel in Moscow, the first night. They could speak quite well English and it was very nice to just talk and laugh with them about about Russia and the Netherlands, and after all I had a conversation with them, on which I was very cautious, and I could notice the boy I talked with was also, about money in Kazan and the Netherlands. It came out that the salary gorkyi told me about in Moscow only related to the people in Moscow (and he probably told me that but I remembered it as for whole Russia) and in Kazan the modal Salary was 25 thousand per month, which is about 350 euro's. They took me to the Kazan kremlin, which was really beautiful and has a big mosque, and they took me to a bar specially for students, which is called Killfish Discount Bar. Most of the music played at the bar (just from tape) was hard rock music, really loud, and the beers cost from 77 rubles for 0,5 liters. They were not really satisfied by the choice, because the music was too loud in their opinion and last time they had been there (two or three years ago) you could smoke at the table, but now not anymore which causes the bar to be very plain and hollow, without the thick layer of smoke they were used to see. Also the cheap beer was really bad and probably half completed with water. Still we had a nice time. They also showed me a snack bar where all the students went going for lunch at the school breaks, where we ate a typical Russian snack, which is a folded pizza with loads of mayonnaise in it, so it results in some kind of dripping taco/sandwich. I felt happy to meet these guys when I was back at the hostel, but also a bit said and frustrated, because they had very few opportunities for a good future, which I felt from the atmosphere they knew really well. Such very kind and good guys, just living in the wrong place. Then a Chinese guy came in with a big backpack and a roller case. Exited as I was to see the first other backpacker on my journey, I started talking to him and it came out he had been to a very lot places around the world and also had a lot of money, especially compared to other chinese people. He was 26 and had finished his economy study and now made 1500 euro's per month and probably would go mastering his education. His father was in the parlement also... But even when he was a tiny bit of arrogant, looking at the place and stuff around him all the time, he was a nice guy and showed me some very interesting pictures of hist journeys. Since he finished his university he has been making trips to south east Asia, Nepal, Tibet and lots of other places in Asia. We agreed to go to the temple of many religions the next morning, together.