Hello
everyone!
After
travelling around the eastern edge of Europe over the Christmas period, we
decided to spend New Year a bit closer to home. Home, of course, is Kazakhstan
thesedays, and we flew from Georgia (the country, not the state) to the biggest
city in the biggest landlocked country in the world – Almaty.
I had seen
most of the sights of the ‘City of Apples’ in October, but Justine had not been
here before, so we traversed a similar route to the one I took on my previous
trip. It was slightly different due to the slight dusting of snow, but at -5’C
wasn’t particularly cold.
Kazakh fun fact: Kazakhs celebrate FOUR New
Years – Western, Russian Orthodox, Old Kazakh and ‘other’ Old Kazakh, called
Nauryz. The last of these is in March. Any excuse for a party!
New Year
celebrations – and New Year trees – were very much prevalent when we arrived
two days before the big event itself was to take place. We visited an expat bar
which was hosting various competitions, ranging from random Kazakh dancers to
wearing very strange hairdos. A friend of a friend came second, winning a large
apple shisha for our table. I happily engaged with this whilst Justine chatted
to some girls we had unwittingly befriended by me almost decapitating one with
a stray pool shot earlier in the evening.
As for New
Year’s Eve, we had a problem. Most Kazakhs spend the moment of movement from
old year to new with their families. This meant that, although we know many
people who were in Almaty, we weren’t sure who we could spend it with. Luckily
Chris, a friend who runs his own language school in Astana, was around and able
to direct us to a relatively cheap bar that he was going to be frequenting.
2,000KZT – or about £9 – seemed perfectly reasonable compared to the 22,000KZT
being demanded by the place we had been the previous night.
Our night
involved…get ready…two bottles of fake champagne…
…drinking
backgammon…
…a bottle of
red wine…
…a meal in
an expat bar that we managed to get for half-price thanks to a sympathetic
waiter…
…two long
island iced teas…
…a five
course meal split between two…
…another
bottle of red…
…a toast
with the President of Kazakhstan from his house in Astana…
…an unknown
amount of vodka and cokes…
…a man with
a snake around his neck…
…a potential
fight with a large Kazakh man who suggested I was gay…
…an unknown
amount of beers…
…pretty
dancers in Santa costumes…
…a toast
with the President of Russia…
…conversation
with two Englishmen in Almaty for 24 hours…
…a giant
cake from which I stole one-third of the middle tier…
…and an
unknown time of leaving which has been worked out as between 5am and 6.30am.
Needless to
say the rest of our time in Almaty was tiring and hungover-fuelled. Tip for you
all: never go on a cable car with a hangover that ends up lasting two days.
Ever. Even if the view from the top of the Kok Tobe is worth it. This is the
picture of me going up in October, as I was unwilling to pose this time round…
We did do
one new thing in Almaty. On December 1, 2011, Kazakhstan’s first ever metro was
opened here. We rode for a short while. It’s not like your standard metro, in
that each of the six stations (more to follow) are intricately decorated with
decorations linked to the name of the stop. The stop for the Green Market, for
example, has designs of places famous for markets, such as Egypt and India. Bit
more fun – not to mention clean – than the Tube in London, that’s for sure. It
should be really, considering it took 23 years to construct…
It was a
very interesting New Year. It was memorable, even though I don’t remember
significant parts of it. We signed off 2011 in style, and I am immensely
looking forward to the adventures that 2012 will bring!!
с Новым годом!!
Happy New Year!
Love you all
Matt
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