Leaf Peeping

With all of the trees in Almaty changing color, it's truly a spectacular fall. We had weather in the 50s last week, but this week it's mid-60s with the sun shining brightly through the golden leaves. It makes for a marvelous walk to work in the mornings. And a lovely view out of the windows/balcony facing the courtyard full of trees.

This weekend promises to be just as nice, so I'll have to find an opportunity to do some hiking somwhere. I can't spend such weather indoors. Maybe I'll go to Medeo again? Or maybe I'll walk along the little Almaty river? We shall see what transpires. I think I'll end up at Cafe Delia one of those days, sitting outside and enjoying the wi-fi and people watching.

What is Medeo, you may ask? One of Almaty's sources of pride. It's in the Guiness Book of World Records as the world's highest-elevation skating rink, built up in the mountains. It's near the ski resort Chimbulak. It's a stop for all tourists and all wedding parties. While we were there no less than three wedding parties pulled up (including one in a limo) and they danced, drank, and celebrated at Medeo. It's a tradition. Since I live on the main drag that takes you to Medeo, I'm always seeing decorated cars honking and whizzing their way uphill.

There's also a bunch of stairs (841, to be exact) to the top. Which Steve and I took. The engineers were clever, indeed, when they put this together. You look up and see the end of the steps and think to yourself, "well, that ain't so bad" and you hike up them. Then you look up and there are more. Each set of 150+ steps is inset from the other (it's probably more the shape of the mountain than engineers, right?) so you can't tell how much more you have to go---each time, you think you're almost there. That's how they get you to the top.

Or, you can pay someone to drive you up there.

They're constructing a lift with gondolas that will take you from Medeo to the skiiing in Chimbulak, which is awesome. Bus to Medeo (40 tenge), lift to Chimbulak, and you are hitting the slopes, baybee! Too bad they're still constructing. We watched them use a helicopter with moving wet concrete from the mixing site at the bottom of Medeo to places where they were installing the towers that are going to hold the lines for the gondolas. According to Steve's practiced engineering eye, it was way more cost-effective to fly the concrete and equipment around than try to build roads in the mountains. Very cool to watch. I'm glad he was there to figure out what they were doing, because I had no clue. I've never poured concrete in my life! Though I've always admired cement mixers on the highway...

I will upload pics of Medeo for your viewing pleasure this weekend.