Gambrill and I know a couple of Americans that live near our town and they knew a guy that lived in an apartment in Astana. This guy, also American, was out of the country over New Years and allowed us to stay in his apartment. He lives in the "Northern Lights" complex (arrow), which is between the famous KZ landmark, Baikterek (tower above) and the new, fancy mall that is shaped like a hershey kiss.
The view from the apartment is below. We looked out over the "hershey kiss"- in the background.
For New Years we went out to a restaurant. What says Happy New Year like putting my new mustache wax to work!
A day or so later, we cooked up one of Gambrill's xmas presents- 3lbs of bacon in a can!!
It may not look like much in the can, but it came out looking good and it tasted amazing!
One day we walked over to the aquarium. The aquarium in Astana is the first and only aquarium in the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States- a fancy name for the Former Soviet Union). It is the only aquarium in the world that is located more than 3,000km (1,800+ miles) from the ocean. It also holds the title of "largest aquarium in central Asia" as well. It holds 3 million liters of water (792,516 gallons) and there are more than 2,000 sea inhabitants.
To give you a comparison. The Georgia Aquarium, the largest in the world, has 8.5 million gallons and over 100,000 animals. So although its the largest in the area, most US aquariums would probably be much larger. Below is the piranha exhibit.
Bob and Magda, the two Americans we stayed with.
A rock fish
I really missed my aquarium function on my camera. It took me a while to figure out a setting where I could get decent shots without tons of blur.
Shark It Is Serious! This is a funny text and bad translation to English. It's classic Kazakhstan that they actually tell you how to kill a shark (posted in an aquarium!). I never realized a shark could outrun a motor torpedo boat either. Sorry its cropped bad. But you can still read it ok and know what its saying.
The look out the apartment window at night.
Bob, Magda and I went for a walk one afternoon. We found ourselves down at Ak Orda, the official workplace of the President of Kazakhstan.
Bob and Magda all bundled up. It was cold. One night it got to -36C/ -32.8F. Mostly it hung around -25C/ -13F during the day though. That's cold and it doesn't take long for your face and anything else exposed to ache at that temp.
The Kazakhstan Parliament building is the tall building beyond the gold tower on the left- with the small domed roof.
This is the concert hall and where the opening ceremonies for the Asian Olympic Games will be held on January 31st. Tickets are only $50 and President Nazerbayev will be there.
The Northern Lights complex. Our building is the short one on the right.
Where we stayed.
Kazakhstan's national archives building.
Nur Otan. This means "fatherlands ray of light" in Kazakh and is the only political party represented in Kazakhstan's parliament. The president of KZ is the leader of the party. This is the party office.
Yesterday, on our way back to Karkaraly, we stopped off at the Karaganda bazaar to see our fur guy. This is Dada Vanya. This means "Uncle Vanya" in Russian. Yesterday was Russian Christmas and he was in rare form, drinking vodka and eating kielbasa. He is a fun guy and the only place to go for good fur.
Happy New Year every one. Or in Russian: С Новым годом!
