My little jubilee, the 50th country visited was Liechtenstein. And boy what a ceremony happened. The Principality of Liechtenstein and the Swiss Confederation were celebrating the 100 years of their common Dounae contract. We were about to cross the bridge that was built over the river Rhine, but we were stopped as the celebration was just…
Krapina is my hometown. Zagorje runs through veins. Kajkavian dialect is spoken out loud by my core. So please, allow me to show you a portion of heaven given to us people from Zagorje to enjoy, nourish, and remain proud. Krapina Krapina was first mentioned in 1193. It has always been a favorite site for…
This is a post of a lovely, walkable city that will charm all wine, gastronomy and history lovers. From Markets to Mustard! This capital of Burgundie is calling you to get all its tastes. And you will not know all of these existed! The province was home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until…
Avignon is a city on the Rhône river in the south of France. It is surrounded by walls of Avignon (French: Les Remparts d’Avignon) – a series of defensive stone walls that were originally built in the 14th century during the Avignon papacy and have been continually rebuilt and repaired throughout their subsequent history. We entered through Porte Saint-Michel. The…
This historical province of southeastern France, extends from the left bank of the lower Rhône to the west to the Italian border to the east; it is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the south. It largely corresponds with the modern administrative region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur . The largest city of the region and its modern-day capital is Marseille. Known for its diverse landscapes, miles of…
Michel de Notre-Dame, as we all know as Nostradamus, was an apothecary by profession, and published in the year 1555 a book called Les Prophéties (The Prophecies). In his collection of 942 poetic quatrains, he predicted various future events that experts, and many amateurs, find a way of interpreting into related events occurring in the present day. Some historical evidence suggests…
This is going to be a short post. Sanremo is a city on the west coast of Italy, in the province of Liguria. It is the capital of the Riviera dei Fiori or Riviera of Flowers. Its casino also makes it a sort of Italian version of Monte Carlo. This large building in Art Nouveau…
Vivid green pesto, great wine and fabulous walks … Genoa is a city of indulgence. Driving in the city, noticing it’s fabulous big secession buildings it reminded me of the importance of Italy: banks, trades, imports of goods and businesses… Genoa was a medieval rival to Venice. It’s not been primped for tourists like Venice, though.…
Rapallo was never on my list. I never thought there could actually be something about this city. It lies on the Ligurian Sea coast, just between Cinque Terre and Genoa. As a girl from Croatia, I know it from the history books as the Treaty of Rapallo was signed there, in Villa Pagana, formerly known as Villa Spinola. A treaty…
The five Cinque Terre villages are situated in northern Italy on the Mediterranean Sea, just 3 hours by train from Milan, Pisa and Florence. I have arrived by car and totally enjoyed the national park that spreads across the five villages. La Spezia My journey started in La Spezia. This was the very first stop as I…
Tintine was slowly climbing up the hills of San Marino. Not much pressure should have been put on this car as she had enough of the shocks in the last year or two. The hills around us were rising and soon we found ourselves surrounded by an amazing view. It was San Marino surrounded by…
My Life in Sicily finished after a year spent on this island. It was time to turn on my Tintine (a beautiful red car), hop on a ferry and say goodbye. I was nostalgic as a was driving through Reggio Calabria. But soon I was in Puglia – the region with the best Italian cheeses.…
Upon my arrival to Kazahstan airport, completely dehydrated, sleepy, jetlagged and with the need to go to toilet, I was forced to stand for long two hours in a queue with […]
Upon my arrival to Kazahstan airport, completely dehydrated, sleepy, jetlagged and with the need to go to toilet, I was forced to stand for long two hours in a queue with two men walking around us with the machine guns – completely indulent to help.
There were little children around us, crying and elders unable to stand in line for so long.
My bag was completely damaged, open several times and clearly without my supervision checked and nosed-over.
I took a cab and the taxi driver started to ask me personal questions ending up with political talks and discussions. I closed my eyes in the cab for two mins only and woke up with the car parked beside the highway realizing the taxi driver is masturbating at the first seat watching me in the rearview mirror.
Nevertheless, here is what I captured after spending 3 days in Almaty, formerly known as Alma-Ata, the largest city in Kazahstan. It served as capital of the Kazakh state under the influence of the then Soviet Union. You wouldn’t believe me, but the city is called the Big Apple as old name ‘Alma-Ata’ means ‘father of apples’ in Kazakh, has claimed the honour of being birthplace of the apples.
The city is surrounded with Tian Shian mountain which in Kazakh means the Mountain of Heaven. It is a large system of mountain ranges located in Central Asia. The nature is beautiful and completely untouched but the city is quite polluted. There is also a famous Sunkar International Ski Jumping Complex.
Panoramic view ot the Almaty
Tian Sian mountain with Ski jump
Tian Sia mountain surrounding the city
What I was surprised with is the diversit of people there. Mainly muslim – orthodox religions with people of different origins or mixed ones, i.e caucasian, mongolian races with lots of indigenous groups and tribes participating the society.
Dombra – traditional kazkhstani instrument
Symbols of indigenous people of Kazakhstan.
As mentioned before, the most popuar religions are islam and christian orthodox. Hence, this beautiful buildings: first one is Zenkov’s Orthodox Cathedral also known as the Cathedral of Ascension. It is claimed to be the second biggest wooden building in the world. The second one is Central Mosque. Kazakhstan is a dominantly Muslim country and mosques are scattered around.
Zenkov’s cathedral
Central Mosque
The streets of Almaty are wide and not much to offer in terms of bars, shops, architecture or monuments. But the most impressive part for me was The Golden Warrior: A Kazakh icon of Independence. The monument is a 27 meters tall pillar and on top is a winged snow leopard known in Kazakh folklore as barys. The story behind “Golden Warrior” is very interesting: the man is Scythian warrior found in burial mound, some 70 kilometers from Almaty in 1969. In this burial mound, a skeleton was found with all ceremonial and elite clothes and weapons and its believed to have been an 18 year old Scythian warrior prince dating back to the 3rd century BCE. The Scythians were a nomadic tribal people that inhabited the todays Kazakhstan and described in Herodotus’ The Histories, later they disappeared because of rise of Turks.
The Golden Warrior
The next impressive person worth to mention is Philosopher Al Farabi and his statue. Born in Damascus, Syria in 10 century, a renowned philosopher and jurist who wrote in the fields of political philosophy, metaphysics, ethics and logic. He was also a scientist, cosmologist, mathematician and music scholar who gave the basics of education and judicary basics to the Kazakh state. His name holds Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, also called KazNU.
Al Garabi monument
Al-Farabi Kazakh National University
As mentioned, streets are not quite interesting and entertaining, especially not the Zholdasbekov street – the most famous pedestrian zone in Almaty.Whatever that means… 🙂
… but I found some traditional houses reflecting the late 19 century architecture.
But then I turned to Zelyong Bazaar (Green Market) and got inspired by some tastes, like nan, kazakh bread. There were piles of the big round breads. All of them had a raised edge and some kind of decoration on the central dough, though there are many variations on the theme.
As Kazakhs are nomadic people, their main meal afer the nan is a horse milk and meat and the dishes made of it. On the photo: chocolate made of horse milk. Lovely! 🙂
Sorry, it seems like someone definitely loved to joke with you 🙂
This chocolate was not made of horse milk)
Next time, please, visit more our mountains and our sports complexes. Also, near Almaty you can find the great canyon Sharyn.
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Great… this reminds me of our post on Kazakhstan, this is a paradise in central asia, i am very much attracted to Lake Kaindy . You are luck to travel to so many places.
Your introduction to the city of Almaty certainly wasn’t the best. I love the look of the blue and white houses. I would definitely enjoy trying some of the food, especially the breads.
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This chocolate was not made of horse milk)
Next time, please, visit more our mountains and our sports complexes. Also, near Almaty you can find the great canyon Sharyn.
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