Just a few days (1st July) before Astana Day (also apparently referred to as Capital Day?) Anna, Ira and I all went for a walk through Astana Park, which is just across the road from us. You can see in the background the ‘castle walls’ (OK, no idea what they were supposed to be exactly, but with a brick type effect, and ‘ramparts’ on top, you get the idea. This is the area that stalls selling local products were based. (OK, I say local, but a lot of the people seemed to be from Uzbekistan or Kyrgyzstan). More info on the Astana Day celebrations in a later post.