Kazan, Russia

We awoke in Kazan, the capital of the province of Tatarstan. Kazakhstan and all the other '-stans' are just to the south of here. We were thrilled by the exotic atmosphere and Islamic influence. The star of Kazan is the old kremlin (or citadel) and the star of this is the stupendous mosque.

Three new stars then introduced themselves: Anver, Zlata and Gujel. Young students from the local university keen to practise their English on us in return for an idiosyncratic tour of their city. Before our late night train we rounded off our Kazan stopover with a sunset cruise on the River Volga. It might have been gently romantic but for the pumping Russian disco beats.