Yesterday now seems like a very, very long day. After arriving to our nice hotel around 3am, we took an hour or so to get settled in, then slept really hard until only about 8am. We woke up very refreshed, took a great hot shower and then fell right back to sleep! Still adjusting to 10 hour time difference I guess.
Marina and Sam (driver, speaks 7 languages) picked us up for a day on the town of Almaty. We ate at nice Russian restaurant. Had what they called pancakes, but what we would call crepes. VERY good, with honey and fresh strawberry jam. Then we went to a local park, which houses a 200 year old Russian Orthodox church. Trivia: this church was built with NO nails. The architect designed it that way, and it was the only building in Almaty to survive the huge earthquake that happened around 1900. We saw a huge beautiful WWII memorial, and lots of decorations in preparation for the upcoming Victory Day holiday. Then on to the "Green Market". Lots of fresh vegetables, kind of like what we call our "Farmers Markets" in GA. But then we got to the meat department. No refridgerators or freezers or containers for that matter. Just lots of raw meat: beef, pork, chicken, horse. Not really too surprising, but we weren't told about the smiling pig heads.
After that, we went off to the mountains, which are maybe 20 minutes from downtown Almaty. Very much like Breckenridge or other Colorado mountain towns. Great skiing in the winter, but hardly used in the summer.
There we saw many examples of a great Kazakh tradition for marriage. The engaged couple gets married - the formal ceremony - first. Then, there are 15 locations around the city at which the wedding reception gathers to celebrate, take pictures, embibe, etc. Basically, 15 small parties throughout the day, with wedding invitees following the couple the whole time, meeting them at each spot for another party. This happens for every traditional Kazakh wedding, and there are weddings every weekend!
We got bottled water and an i-card, now being used to connect via 28.8 dialup to the net, at the Ramstop Mall up the street. Just like any other American mall, only busier.
For dinner, Sam and Marina took us to eat on the other side of the mountain range, to a place famous for its garden dining atmosphere and it's shish-ka-bobs. I had chicken, and we shared a wonderful fresh salad of tomatoes, cucumbers, and white cheese. Delicious. Angel decided on the lamb shish-ka-bob after making sure she heard the word "sheep" correctly. Sam speaks great English, but with many accents, so Angel had to say "baaa baaa sheep?" Both meals were very, very good, especially in the mountain garden dining area of this restaurant.
Home by 1030, and we're now up to episode 6 of season 1 of "24". Only 66 more to go to catch up!
To Taraz via train tonite.
Blessings,
Kevin
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