My last day in the 'stans, so long Central Asia. Bit of a quieter day today, I did a bit of a number on my legs in Kyrgyzstan and am paying for it now. I had planned to explore a gorgous area just outside the city today but my legs are not up to it. Instead I headed to the Museum of Kazakh Musical Instruments, there is a huge musical history here and the unique Kazakh instruments are considered spiritual items.
Wanted to head up here...
Unfortunately the museum was all locked up, despite all information elsewhere saying they would be open, that is something I have noticed generally in Central Asia, opening hours are pretty much a crapshoot, too bad.
Instead spent the day wandering through the shopping district, moving from park to park, coffee shop to coffee shop and patio to patio, just hanging out, reading and relaxing, occasionally stretching my sore legs.
Parks!
Most of the parks also have guns, I am assuming that was a Soviet thing.
More war stuff!
This entire park is dedicated to Panfilov's 28 Guardsmen, a famous Russian-German battle from WWII that according to all modern sources never happened, don't tell the kids in the pic.
(seriously, it never happened, one of the soldiers in the memorial who supposedly gave his life in the battle actually lived until 1980 about 2 blocks from this park, oh well)
Kazakh telecom building, apparently not everyone is a fan, I happen to love it, the tubular mesh is the load bearing portion of the building, leaving almost the entire interior available for telecom and wiring.
Lunch!
In their defence, the menu did say "Soup of 1 Quail".
These channels runs all through the city, collecting rainwater and runoff from the mountains near the city, the water is used to irrigate the parks, it's kinda neat.
Almaty is really lovely and I wish I had more days here, had I know I would have stayed in the area a week, if I was to pick a city in Central Asia to live it would definately be here.
This one's for you Kurtis, I think this was the only American vehicle I saw at all in Almaty.
No comments:
Post a Comment