Walton and Assel at a summer café next to the river Ishim – http://twitpic.com/22dpwl
Jul 04 2010
Walton and Assel at a summer c…
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Aug 22 2009
Babushkas And Uniforms
No, not a link to a real niche orientated web site, but the subject of these two photos, taken on the 4th July, during the continuing celebrations for Astana Day(s).
This first shot was supposed to of just the guys in uniform marching around, but by the time I got the camera out, they had rapidly retreated into the distance, and a gaggle of Babushkas were blocking the frame. Deciding that the contrast between the two groups amused me mildly, I grabbed a quick shot.
Babushkas In Astana Park With Street Patrollers
Later on, we walked through the park, onto the foot bridge over the River Ishim, and up to near Congress Hall (in the old square). They had some sort of civic awards ceremony going on, with interesting dancers, a DJ and various people being awarded for ‘the best teacher in so and so region’. Given the subject, I hadn’t expected to see so much security at the entrance, and within the ceremony itself. You can see the street patrollers (or special forces (!?) if you believe on Astana resident) and police working in perfect discord here. There was also an official competition between the various cafes and restaurants that had set up food stalls in the square, though most entries seemed to be based around barbecued meat.
Astana Day Celebrations Uniformed Security At Award Ceremony
Aug 19 2009
Night And Dawn Lights
Just a single image this time, snapped on the 29th June. To the right you can see the new bridge, with its lights that flash and change colours. In the middle you have Astana Tower, which is inter-connected with Ramstore (or Pam-C-Top if you’re Mum 🙂 ) and the North Wind ‘pub’. Finally there are some residential flats. In between us and those buildings, in the dark, we have the main road, tennis courts & gym, Astana park and the river Ishim.
It Looked Prettier At The Time...
Ah-ha, found another image, before we covered all the windows with mosquito screens, this one was taken on the 3rd July. You can see the rainbow effect here, though obviously the fact that the colours rotate across isn’t so obvious 🙂
Dawn Breaking - Lights Changing On The Bridge Over The River Ishim In Astana
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Jul 14 2009
Riverside Walk And Astana Park Hotel Cafe
So, restarting the catching up for the Anna’s Photos category, we have some shots from the 14th of July again.
OK the WordPress gallery function once more appears to be convinced I don’t want the order I’m asking for with these photos. Beyond manually clicking and dragging the fifteen photos into the desired order, below is as close as I can get. Just imagine the first one is last, instead.
Anyway, Irina, Anna and I decided to investigate what was around if you took a left upon reaching the river Ishim near us, as despite living here for more than three years, we hadn’t yet made it to that part of the (very nearby) city. After walking down as far as the end of the concreted path, we sat on a bench and took a few shots on the camera. Anna seemed happy enough taking in the view by the water, so we continued our walk back across to more familiar territory, crossed under Turan (the name of the road our flat is on, since they moved Sary Arka), and continued walking next to the river. Irina spotted that a hotel (Astana Park Hotel) had a summer cafe advertised, so we decided to pop in and take a look. There are lots of gazebos, a pond with some fish swimming around, and a general summery feel to it.
Whilst the menu wasn’t cheap, the selection was pretty good, the service (that day at least) top notch, and the food tasty. Anyway, see below for a few photos of the place.
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- Fish (Koi Carp??) In Astana Park Hotel’s Pond
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- View Across The River Ishim – Astana
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- Bridge Across The River Ishim – Astana
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- Another Shot Of The Bridge Across The River Ishim – Astana
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- Building Near The River Ishim – Astana
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- Boat On The River Ishim – Astana
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- Anna Next To The River
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- Chris Merriman Next To The River Ishim – Astana, Kazakhstan
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- More Views Across The River Ishim
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- Club That Used To Have ‘Face Control’
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- Some People Practising Tai Kwando In Astana Park
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- High Tech Security Guard Accommodation For River-Side Path
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- Astana Park Hotel
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- Outside Seating At The Riverside Cafe – Astana Park Hotel
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- Astana Park Hotel’s Kebab
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Aug 18 2007
Last Ali BaBa Of The Summer?
We went out for a nice meal this evening. We took a stroll through the park, over the river Ishim, and then through to the area near the main square. Ali BaBa is an out door restaurant, with cover from any rain or wind that is blighting the evening. Tonight’s service was pretty excellent – the waitress was really attentive, to the point of asking if we needed anything when she noticed us looking around the restaurant. Compare this to the attitude you find in some places in Astana, where a snooty waitress will make that she is doing you a favour by wasting any time at your table at all, and you can probably understand why we were impressed. Perhaps the camera caught her attention, and she wanted to leave a good impression?
Anyway, onto the photos…
Irina had Besbarmak (a horse meat and pasta dish)
Click the link below to see the other photos
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Jul 08 2007
Pedalo Photo
A few more photos before I go and grab some dinner.
This is Irina and Alex at the War Memorial here in Astana, just before we went on to the map of Kazakhstan I mentioned before. As I said before, you may well run across similar photos to these over at Alex’s blog, especially as some of these were taken on her camera. However, she will hopefully have a few more interesting words on the days we spent, and from a different perspective.
Here we have Ira and I (modelling one of Tom’s t-shirts) on a pedalo, with Alex taking the picture. We were on the river Ishim here in Astana, and after half an hour could almost steer the boat in the general direction we wanted to go. No one fell in the water, and we did not sink any other boats foolish enough to get in our way, so we had quite a good time. From here, we went on to a restaurant. More on that place later.
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Jul 05 2007
Pedalo A Go-Go
As Alex had not yet seen Astana from the river Ishim, we decided to hire a pedalo (in case that turns out to be an English phrase, those are little boats with water wheel like propulsion, that two people power by pedalling like on a bike) and have a quick jaunt around the area between two bridges. After a not small amount of bickering over just how inaccurate some people’s sense of direction was (steering with two non-equal sources of power and a dodgy rudder is not the most accurate of systems) we quickly settled into a routine. Said routine consisted of not ceaselessly turning in circles, avoiding other boats that dared to cross our intended (though somewhat zig-zag) course and generally having fun. Alex managed to grab a few shots of the scenery, so there is another batch of photos I’ll have to post sometime soon.
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Jun 01 2007
Childrens Conference In The Park
As I recently mentioned here, there is some sort of meeting going on across the road. I spoke to Ira, and she believes it may be related to a children’s conference going on today.
If you look on the left, you can see a poster featuring our beloved President. The area the crowd is in, is one of the entrances to Astana Park, which has a lot of cafes in open in the summer, fairground rides, and eventually leads down to the River Ishim.
I’ll come back and update with more information, as I receive it.