Day 38, June 4 - Kazan' Wait-and-see Day

0km - 2507km, sunny 25C, no wind, 0 shots, 0 sauna, 0 Lenin, HC

Got up early in anticipation of the upcoming arrests. Had a realistic attitude about the slim chances of finding my wallet. Spent the morning calling around to SFCU and visa and getting the run around about what to do about the visa card. Finally it turned out that I had to speak directly to the Stanford Federal Credit Union (SFCU) staff during working hours (PDT), which meant some late evening Skype calls. Adel and I then looked around on the internet for the requirements for Russians to visit the Schentgen area visa zone. After a hour of explaining (and re-explaining ) the requirements as written in English, we decided to head downtown to do a bit of tourism.

We walked around town seeing some of the sights by-passed in the previous days. We ran into two Canadians who were wandering around town for a few hours before their next westward leg of their trans-Siberian journey started. Sat down in a cafe on Baumann street, the main boutique-filled pedestrian mall, and had a few beers watching the locals stroll by and teaching Adel some North Americanism. We headed back to Adel's place, where I was coralled into having dinner with Adel's grandparents. (I was a bit hesitant because I was due to sleep at my other HC host Timur.) After dinner, we then grabbed my bags and headed out to bus stop and waited for the #22. Sadly, the last one had gone while I was eating carrot salad with the family. We called Timur and said that I wouldn't make it, and then
headed back to find the grandparents asleep on the couch within three meters of the computer where I had to make my important Skype calls. Adel said to go ahead, and during the usual run-around with the bank (plus a list of things to do), I woke up the grandparents who were very grumpy! Went to my bedroom balcony and read for a while before heading to sleep.