time flies

I can't believe the two weeks (OK, 12 days) that Steve was here flew by so quickly. We did all the things we're supposed to do in Almaty: Kok-Tobe, Medeo, Chimbulak, the parks, fountains, monuments, museums, lots of restaurants/cafes, and even the opera. I will post a place a day this week to try and catch you all up on the lovely time we had.

We also caught up on sleep, which was verrrrrrrry nice. That's what vacation is for, right? :)

Today I'll post about Almaty city proper. It's a lovely walking city: lots and lots of trees, lots of "shossays" or small green walking streets with benches placed between condo buildings. It cushions you physically and acoustically from the crazy traffic here (and the drivers are VERY aggressive), and provides young couples places to make out at night, partially shrouded by the trees and bushes. Do I wish cities in America could become as pedestrian friendly. I'd be a lot happier, and I think people might actually become more physically fit.

It also has a lot of parks, big and small, with many fountains and a monument or two. Like the Pushkin monument in front of a literary school. Or the Abai monument on his street, etc. We focused more on the fountains than on the busts, so here are a few:

This lovely fountain is across the street from my flat. If it wasn't for a huge billboard, I would be able to see this from my living room window. The fountain changes color, from white to yellow to blue to purple, and Steve had the patience to get the shot while it was purple, my favorite color. (Yes, I really am a 5-year old on the inside.)

The building behind the fountain is Hotel Kazakhstan. In real life at night, the top of the building looks like a tsarina's crown. It's lacy and light and sparkly and lovely. And a great landmark--if I ever lose my sense of direction, all I have to do is look up and look for the crown, and that's where I live.

Here's a shot of me in front of the National Museum of Kazakhstan, with one of the camels you can find througout the city.

And also a shot of the wide wide boulevard nearby. This traffic shot is precisely why I love the quite green strips and side streets so much.

This is a great fountain of the chinese zodiac. It's about 1.5 blocks from my flat. Isn't that nice? You know you'd get your butt off the couch much more often and go for a walk if you had one of these nearby.

This park is called "The Park of Rest" and has amusement park rides, a movie theatre, cafes, lots of stray dogs, loudspeakers with music, and they're even building a water park and little island there. Some of the amusement park rides were very Soviet-esque, and others were like the dead ride ghost park in Bishkek (see http://almatyvera.blogspot.com/2007_08_01_archive.html). But in general, a lovely place to walk. Next time I'll bring a bunch of meat so I can feed the puppies I ran into something more than bread from the market.

Lunch break over.....got lots of catching up to do so back to work I go. Stay tuned for more Almaty pics tomorrow.