In three days I leave Karkaraly. It will take another 3 days to be home in Atlanta. So this will be the final post from KZ. I'm going to keep this blog going back in the states, but for those of you who have signed on to see the KZ adventures- thanks for reading. It's been fun sharing.
I started this blog in February of 2009. In that time I've had 7,744 visits from 43 countries.
5,127 hits came from the US. I managed to have someone view my blog from all but 4 states.
Romania checked in at second place with 1,163 hits- so thanks to everyone in Romania who read the blog!
So, all things come to an end. The mustache is getting tiresome, so I thought I would show you the full length before it gets cut off. Its been fun to grow. Its taken quite a long time to grow. But I'm tired of getting hair in my mouth when I eat and I'm going back to a much hotter climate...so its going.
I took one last trip last week and went to the other side of Karaganda to KarLag (Karaganda work camp). This was one of the biggest gulags in the Soviet Union. In whole, it housed over 800,000 people and the surface area of the camp was the same size as France. We went to the museum, which is a pretty good one- very western in appearance. The museum is in the old administration building.
I took one last hike up to Lake Baceen a couple of days ago. It's probably my favorite place in the mountains here. I never get tired of going there.
There were some lost Russians that were on the wrong trail and could not find the lake. I found them and led them to it. They asked me where I was from. I said, "America, but don't worry, I know where the lake is." haha. They couldn't believe they were rescued by an American.
Yesterday I went to my old host families for one last goodbye. Ludmila made a salad I liked and a fresh cake. I got to say goodbye to the boys too, which was good.
L-R: Alishair, Ludmila, Gambrill, Gohar, Me, Emir
So that is it. I'm not sure when I'll post again, but there will be more pictures and new adventures I'm sure. Until then, thanks for reading!
