Day 42, June 8 - Ilet River - Yoshkar-Ola

74km - 2658km, overcast 15C, 20km/h tailwind, 0 shots, 0 sauna, 2 Lenin, HC, 8th broken spoke

Woke up to a light drizzle of rain spattering on to my face through the flyless tent (because, the night before, there was no chance of rain). Opened my eyes and saw the millions of mosquito eyes staring back at me (a count which may be correct given my amateur knowledge of mosquito biology). Packed up my bags inside the tent and loitered around not looking forward to the inevitable first unzip of the tent flaps. Barreled out of the tent and packed the bike as quickly as possible and headed out to the highway. En route, I noticed two guys who had sent up a 'Russian fishing camp' the previous evening, consisting of one tent, one huge bonfire, two unused fishing poles, three empty vodka bottles, and two (mosquito-bitten?) sots passed out in the long grass. (I don't think I'd want to see the hunting camps...)

OUt on the highway, I was pleased to notice that I would have a 20km/h tailwind the entire way to Yoshkar-Ola. The quality of the road was excellent, so I was able to average about 32km/h with extended flat segments up to 40km/h (during which, yes, I daydreamed of entering the Tour de France). Reached Y-O just as the rain started, and I texted Katarina (my HC host for a couple days) to arrange a 1500h meeting. Met up and walked over to her flat and had an old-fashioned, pot-of-water-over-the-head shower (because the hot water is shut off 2-3 weeks each June so that the plumbers can update city's infrastructure). After that we walked around town and admired the newly renovated riverbanks and the small but comfortable city center. Not really a tourist center, Y-O is quite a nice place to while away a few days!

We headed back to the flat, stopping for groceries along the way. We cooked up an enormous pasta dinner (yay, no-guilt eating for me!) and then chatted for a little while before Katarina had to finish up her diploma thesis due to a couple of days). Set up my little bed on the back enclosed porch, read for a while, and then fell asleep again listening to tympanic rain drops on the corrugated metal roof.

Day 41, June 7 - Kazan - Ilet River (Mari El Republic)

75km - 2582km, sunny 25C, 20km/h headwind, 0 shots, 0 sauna, 0 Lenin, Camp, Flat tire

Got up and started to pack up my bags for the early afternoon departure. My rear tire had gone flat in the past week so I had to pull another tube (because we couldn't find the mysterious leak, even in a tub of water). Headed to the store and bought the goods required to cook up some spaghetti and pasta sauce. After lunch, I thought that I would give Visa one last call to ensure that my request had gone through. I was pleased to hear that SFCU had, yet again, denied my request for a replacement card. I called SFCU back and got on the phone with a manager, who offered less than zero amounts of help. She did tell me that the emergency card was only good for 30 days, so if I was travelling for three more months it would be useless thereafter (why not tell me that in the beginning?). I decided to pass on the credit card and just go with the replacement debit cards, which were already on route.

After that it was time to go, so me and the boys brought all my goods downstairs, packed up the bicycle and, with fresh pasta in my belly, started peddling in the headwind toward Mari El Republic (fortunately, the terrain was fairly flat!). The route was pretty easy going with heavy traffic for the first 30km. I then turned onto a smaller road heading north and ended up on the northern road up to Yoshkar-Ola with a nice side/tailwind. The road improved (from crappy) after 15km and my speed jumped up to about 30km/h. I decided to camp in the forest just beside the Ilet river in Mari Chodra National Park, about 70km south of Y-O. People had warned me about the fantasticness of mosquitoes of Mari El. I quickly found out that the National Park was closer to a mosquito sanctuary, being swarmed by hundreds within seconds of stopping to set up camp. Set up and cooked dinner as quick as I could, and then dove into the tent to seek shelter from the bloodsucking beasts. Had to spend eight minutes killing all the mosquitos in the tent before finally enjoying my crap-tastic tomato macaroni dinner. Went to bed about 10pm listening to Chinese pop music on my shortwave radio.

Day 40, June 6 - Kazan'

0km - 2507km, rain/overcast + humid 20C, no wind, 0 shots, 0 sauna, 1 Lenin, HC

Woke up and decided to leave Kazan' the next day doing a biathlon-like 'penalty loop' to the Mari El and Chuvash Republics. Spent the morning with the boys in the flat contacting some Hospitality Club people to set up some hosting in Yoshkar-Ola and Cheboksary, the respective Republic capitals. By late morning the rain had cleared up and Timur and I headed into town to give me a more thourough historic walking tour of the center. After about an hour, we headed to the 'best Tatar cafe in the world' and had a late delicious soup-and-meaty-mushroom lunch. We met up with Timur's girlfriend and then walked down to the port area with nice vista of the Volga river. I jumped onto a bus and then headed back to Adel's to pick up my phone that had been left the day before in the haste of my departure. Went back to Timur's flat and then called up Visa to get them to submit another emergency credit card request to SFCU (which they apparently did). Jumped back into my cubbyhole on the porch and snuggled in for another 8 hours of somewhat blissful sleep.

Day 39, June 5 - Kazan'

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

Woke up early to write the letter that I had to print, sign and scan in to email to SFCU. Played on the internet a little bit more contacting people in Kazakhstan who might be able to host me in the coming weeks (although my schedule is a a little up in the air right now!). We then had breakfast and headed into town to exchange dollars for roubles and to use the internet cafe to print and scan my signed letter, and then to Adel's language department where I had to use German and French to explain what the hell I was doing in Kazan'. We walked around town stopping on Baumann street to relax in a Euro-style cafe watching all the Kazan'ites saunter by.

Talked to Timur, who had chatted with the police about my missing wallet. They had arrested one of the boys, who denied anything and pointed the blame back at the girls. By now, my missing wallet had just turned into an inconvenience and I was wanting to get on with cycling; however, I still had to check with Visa and SFCU to ensure that all was in order. I headed over to Timur's place in the early evening and checked my email. SFCU had received my email and had cancelled my debit cards and sent off my replacement card to my temporary Kazan' address by FedEx (to arrive within 6-8 business days ... ). Cooked up a pilmany sauce and ate a delicious dinner with the three other flat denizens. Showed a few photos and then set up my little sleeping area on the enclosed balcony. Went to sleep with the piter-pater of rain falling on the eaves.

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.

Day 37, June 3 - Kazan' Police Day

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

Woke up fairly early and started to retrace the evening through the park in the slight chance that I might find a tossed blue wallet. Sadly, nothing came to pass with this and we decided to head to the police station to see if they would be willing to help out. (At the start of the trip getting involved with the Militsia police in Russia was pretty much at the bottom of my list of things to do.) At first they listened with general disinterest, but as the dictation of my story of woe progressed they became a little bit more interested. My guess is that they realized that, as a foreigner, I had more money than the average Russian as was willing to 'grease the wheels' to get things moving. In fact, I effectively offered (through my HC hosts) to pay they police $100 to find my missing wallet. Considering that the salary of your average policeman is $300/month, this seemed like a fairly motivating offer!

The first question was which cards to recover, as both my credit and debit card were missing. I decided to immediately cancel my credit card (which could be used by anyone who could fake being from a Roman-fonted country). However, with the PIN protection on the debit, I thought I would chance it out for a couple of days in case something actually happened. Fortunately, the girls had used their real names, had some pretty identifying tattoos, and one happened to mention the building in which she lived. So we were taken into the police station's innards and sat down at THE computer (yes 1 computer for the local police department) and started up the computer program that contained THE computer file on where everyone lived in Russia (yikes!). We put in the culprit's building number and scanned through for a Ludmila who was around 30. We found two possible candidates, and the cop went off and pulled their internal passport photos, and, amazingly, one was a match. By then the cops had also talked to their 'big-boy' underworld contacts to see if anyone in their 'organizations' could shake a few trees and see if my wallet fell out. (It was kind of surreal to see the station's lead inspector chatting and laughing it up on the phone with local mafia kingpin.)

This started the ball rolling and within two hours we were sitting in the cop car in front of Ludmila's work going in for the arrest. Sadly, she wasn't working that day, but we managed to get all the information needed on her and her friend - both noted for their underworld connections - and that she would be working at noon the next day. Me and the coppers headed back to the police station so that my Russian handwrittened, signed statement (a big yikes!) could be taken. I then signed a letter addressed to the police commissioner saying that I wanted the girls to be punished.

Overall, I was still pretty pissed about what had happened and the money situation I was in; however, I had started to calm down and thoughts of a retreat back to North America started to fade (I have made it further than Napolean and Hitler...) It was an interesting cultural experience - almost a living documentary film - to spend the day in a Russian police station. (Or something like a Slavic version of the TV series 'The Shield'.) Knowing that the cops work on a $300/month salary was pretty eye-opening, as was the lack of any government support in terms of computers, furniture, police vehicles, and petrol ... yes, they have to pay for their gas themselves. It's easy to understand why corruption and bureaucracy are endemic in the Russian police forces, specifically, and the Russian civil service, as a whole. We then headed home at 2000h for our much needed first meal of the day satisfied with the morrow's promise of impending arrests on the mow. I also felt that I now better understood many of the 19th and 20th century Russian-authored novels I've read over the past years ...

Day 36, June 2 - Kazan' Tourist Nightmare day

0km - 2507km, sunny 25C, headwind, 1 shot, 0 sauna, 1 Lenin, HC

Woke up early at Adel's uncle's place, had breakfast, and headed over to Adel's family's flat in the south part of the city. Adel and I then went for a bit of a walk about the center of Kazan', seeing the parks around the central lakes, the old Kremin hosting the central mosque, orthodox church and the presidential manor of the Tatar Republic. We walked up and down the central pedestrian mall amongst the boutiques and cafes lining the cobblestone street and had a couple of beers to take in the local scenery.

Headed back to the flat via the subway, but, before we got home, decided to stop in a local Tatar cafe to have a beer and maybe some shashlik. The local denizens in the surrounding three tables were a little bit interested in why we were speaking in English, and started in with the usual questions. The two girls, both single moms of perhaps dubious character, but lively enough, we jokingly interested in finding a 'free lifetime plane ticket to Canada'. We started chatting with them and three of the boys that worked in the cafe.

After a shashlik dinner and after twilight, we headed up the street in the direction of home. I stopped by a bank machine to grab some money for the next few days and then a little bit of beer for the park. We all were sitting around the sandbox chatting when one of the girls 'accidentally' fell back into me taking us both over backwards. When I got up, I noticed that my wallet was missing and had likely been snatched immediately before. She, and everyone else, denied that they had taken it and made a large production of 'helping me find it'. However, Adel and I didn't believe them - we asked to search them, but the one who had taken it had probably grabbed the cash walked off and threw the wallet away in the acre of uncut park grass. And that's how I fell victim to a classic pickpocket sting operation. Fortunately, they didn't get at my documents and reserve money stash that I had secreted away in the money belt... Had a great next few hours trying to get to sleep thinking about: 1) the blow to my traveling confidence; 2) all the things that I could have to prevent the situation; and 3) figuring out what to do about money. Looking forward to the next few days/weeks of damage control!!!