Saturday, June 23, 2012

Friday Photo: In the air


My summer travels began on Tuesday afternoon with a 2:30 pick-up to go to the airport.  What followed has been a long journey (46 hours of travel time) punctuated by spontaneous airport friendships a brief pause in Durango, CO and lost luggage woes.  Today I am on my way (still sans bags) from Durango to the Philadelphia area where I will bask in the warmth (and stickiness) of all of my favorite places and all of my favorite friends (hi guys).

This photo was taken as I left Kazakhstan on Tuesday afternoon.  I should have got my camera out earlier as the view of the mountains as we left the city was absolutely spectacular.

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Sunday story: Finding "Baum's Grove"

Earlier this spring when I was riding the train to Astana, I noticed a park beside the tracks in Almaty that seemed to be a forest riddled with walking trails.  When I returned from my trip I scoured google maps and finally decided that the park I saw must be the one labeled "Baum's Grove" on the map.  Today, I set out to find Baum's Grove.

I did my public transit research, so to be honest there isn't much of a story to go along with finding Baum's Grove.  I took a bus down Abay street and then transferred to the #2 bus going down Furmanova street.  Once I got to the bottom of town, I kept my eyes peeled for the park.  Sure enough, it appeared on the left hand side of the road so I crossed the street and went exploring.

"Baum's Grove" is actually the Almaty Canal Park.  The canal area (currently holding only a small layer of water that is home only to algae and frogs) has been developed for summer water fun.  a set of four water slides line the park and one side has a very shallow grade to allow for wading or even swimming.  The park also has an extensive, largely un-groomed, forest area to the north of the canal which is what I saw from the train window.  This forest has many walking (or biking) paths, some planned, others not so much.  It is the perfect place for a quite walk, or a long bike ride.