Thanks! My friend and I visited these cities as tourists. We wanted to explore some places off the beaten track, so we started in Samara, visited Tatarstan and then stopped in a few cities along the Trans-Siberian railway line (Perm, Yekaterinburg, Tyumen, plus a small detour to Tobolsk). During our trip, a few Russians we met asked if we were there on business (no) and then asked if were studying there (no). When we explained that we were tourists we got a lot of amused looks!

I hope to add my reivew of the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Kazan later this week.