Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Today was the start of my birthday trip to Kazan Tatarstan and Russia. I'd been to St Petersburg Russia before in 2015 but as the visa was such a pain back then and I was rejected twice I'd been putting it off. Having visited a lot of the border Soviet countries I'd run out of places and wanted to go back to Russia.
Kazan Tatarstan is another place I'd long wanted to go to see the unique Islamic culture in Russia. This is Russia's third and lesser known city after Moscow and St Petersburg.
I was flying on Turkish Airlines which is a Star Alliance member so I earn Aeroplan miles for Air Canada. Turkish also has direct flights to Kazan from Istanbul.
I had a night flight from Toronto. The row in front of me was a family that all put their seats back and filled the side aisle with trash. I was seated next to a guy from the US heading home to Benin.
My last flight on Turkish home from Baku Azerbaijan I was introduced to a period Turkish drama. They had more episodes I was able to continue watching.
On arrival in Istanbul I had a six hour layover. I had bad experience at this airport on my last trip. There was still no public wifi although they have added more seats than last time.
The connecting night flight to Kazan I had the back row which was empty so room to sleep. We arrived 1am local time. The passport line was slow but I had no issues or questions with visa.
My driver was waiting for me to take me to the hotel. I needed a good nights sleep after my long trip as my next night would be on an overnight sleeper train where I might not get much sleep.
See also youtube vlog of this leg of trip https://youtu.be/yOdh4JGL_zQ
2025-05-23