Kazan is a wonderful and exotic town, capital of Tatarstan. You can get there by boat through the river Volga, from Nizni Novgorod, for instance (that is the way I reached Kazan).
Apart from two historical mosques and the University where Lev Tolstoy and Lenin studied, you should visit one of the loveliest kremlins in the whole Russia, all of white colour dominating the river Volga, which oldest part dates from the XV century.
