Sunday Coffee Club: CoffeeDelia

Allow me to clarify: there is no actual organization in Almaty called the Sunday Coffee Club.  This is really just the name I give to the tradition I have just started of trying out a new coffee shop each Sunday.  So far the members are me and E.M. Forster via "A Passage to India."

This morning's meeting took place at a shop called CoffeeDelia.  There are two locations for this coffee shop.  One is on Zheltoksan and Kabenbai Batyr, the other is across Furmanova from the Opera Theater about halfway down the block on Kabenbai Batyr.  I went to the location across from the Opera.

CofeeDelia has a definite modern vibe.  Plain white dishes, and hard lines in the shop's orange, white, and black color scheme give off a certain Euro-cafe feeling of modern sophistication.   Additionally, light instrumental techno muzak plays constantly eventually giving me the somewhat surreal feeling of living in a 'made-for-airlines' tourism commercial.  A mix of traditional and trendy modern seating caters to a variety of customers.  I noticed that they even had a hi-chair available for toddlers.  It might seem odd to point that out, but many places in Almaty don't have child-seating.  CoffeeDelia also boasts free wi-fi which is a definite bonus.

In addition to coffee, CoffeeDelia serves limited Breakfast, Lunch, and dinner menus and also has alcoholic beverages available. The prices are somewhat reasonable  with most meals in the $8-$15 range.  I ordered a "jumbo" Americano (the closest they come to drip coffee here) and a Cheese Croissant and paid about $6.00 for the meal.  The staff were exceptionally friendly and, while the atmosphere was just a bit too upbeat for my Sunday blahs, I still managed to enjoy my breakfast and my book.

Friday Photo: Panfilov Park in the Winter

Cathedral of the Holy Ascension

Apparently this winter has been unusually cold.  Everyone (not just us gringos) complains about the cold.  Last week we suffered a cold snap that had us in the - Fahrenheit range for days.  It was Cold (with a capital C).  On the bright side, fresh snow yesterday means a day or two of great skiing in the mountains...and the cold means there are plenty of outdoor ice-rinks to enjoy (more on that later).  So in honor of the winter weather, here are several pictures of Panfilov Park in the winter.  As you can see, it is still beautiful.

Memorial to the Heroes
with a public works employee cleaning off the winter
dust (the flame is still burning)

If it wasn't for the path, I might mistake this for Narnia

Woods in the park

Monday's Musical Extravaganza

Yes, there will be a movie:

...but wait! Today's post is not about that, it is about stuff I learned on my trip to the museum for musical instruments in Almaty.

The Museum of Musical instruments.  Yes, this is really it.  No, it isn't a war museum...I promise.

The museum is located near the memorial to the heroes of the Great Patriotic War in Panfilov park.  I believe that it is open every day except for Tuesday and admission is just 200 Tenge (about $1.30). The exhibition rooms are well laid out and the instruments are displayed beautifully.  All of the text is in Russian and Kazakh, so do your research first if you don't speak one of those languages pretty fluently.  The bulk of the exhibit covers instruments from Kazakhstan, however there are several rooms dedicated to instruments from other countries in Central Asia and from as far off as India, Africa, East Asia, and Western Europe.  As an added bonus, for 200 Tenge extra, you can enjoy a demonstration of the Dombra, Kobyz, and the mongolian sybyzgy jar flute in a small recital hall that is shaped and decorated like a large Yurt.

One of the exhibition rooms

There are several string instruments commonly found in Kazakhstan.  The most famous is the Dombra (see earlier posts for a demonstration).  The Dombra is lute-like in shape, but with only two strings and significantly smaller.  Also worth noting is is a very short bridge and a small resonating hole.  There is a revival of this instrument at the moment and it is not uncommon to see young people carrying them. There was one Dombra in the museum that had strings on both sides of the body.  I am still trying to imagine someone playing both sides at once.

Equally famous, if slightly less popular, is a string instrument called the Kobyz.  The Kobyz has between two and four strings (depending on when and where it was made) and has a body shaped like hollowed out gourds.  Unlike the Dombra, the Kobyz is a bowed instrument with no frets and an off center tail piece. According to legend playing the Kobyz "maintains the balance between the courses of Life and Death on earth."  It is an instrument that is played by Shaman and supposedly helps guard against premature death (for more about this legend and others connected with instruments of Kazakhstan, click here).  Variations on the Kobyz have hide or wood stretched across the resonating body.

There is also a common bell instrument called an Acatayak.  You will see this in many shapes, from the ends of a staff, to a hand held hammer fashioned in the shape of a horse's head. This is another instrument used by Shaman in healing ceremonies.

A cool map detailing the "where" of all of the Kazakh instruments displayed in the museum

Friday Photo: The Central State Museum of The Republic of Kazakhstan

The Central State Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan is located on Furmanova just above Satpayeva street.  The main hall in the museum is worth seeing even if you don't go into any of the exhibit rooms.  The hall is enormous and grandiose impressing the visitor with the scale alone.  It, like many buildings in Kazakh Architecture, is modeled after the inside of a yurt right down to the central skylight.  This hall often plays host to the semiannual Central Asian Craft Fair (pictured below).

Admission to the four exhibit rooms costs only 100 Tenge.  The exhibit room downstairs features a geological exhibit and an exhibit of the early history of Kazakhstan.  This section includes archaeological artifacts and some impressive recreations of various ancient sites around Kazakhstan. Many of the captions and explanations in this section of the museum are also in English.

In the upper part of the museum are exhibits that chronicle the actions of Khazakh soldiers during the "Great Patriotic War" (the Second World War), a series of exhibits that celebrate the many ethnicities that call Kazakhstan home (including an impressive display of traditional clothing) and the  achievements of the Independent State of Kazakhstan.  There is also a fantastic collection of Abay's original manuscripts and personal effects.

 For anyone planning a visit, the museum is open from 9:30am - 5:30 pm everyday except for Tuesday.

Celebrating the New Year in Almaty Part 3: Lights

The usual post sequence is on vacation this week (along with the rest of Almaty).  Instead I bring you the final installment of the New Year's sequence which includes some pictures of the lights and decorations around town.

Celebrating the new year in Almaty Part 2: Fireworks

Do you know that feeling when even though you know something is going to happen, it still manages to surprise you?  That is how I feel about the fireworks in Almaty at midnight on January first.  In spite of all of the preparation, I found myself overwhelmed to the point of giddiness by what I witnessed.

So I will take a few minutes to explain, and I will show you a video of some of the most photogenic fireworks, and I will tell you that there is no way that came even close to the actual experience.

New Years is a big holiday here in Kazakhstan.  There is gift giving, costume wearing, food eating, and best of all, FIREWORKS.  There have been fireworks going off almost every night for the last week, so I was kind of prepared to see a lot of pretty fireworks at midnight.  What I wasn't prepared for was the magnitude of  "a lot."  Almaty is a city of around 1.5 million people and tonight half of them were lighting something off.

For almost an hour all you could hear was the thunder created by hundreds of fireworks exploding in the sky.  There were no lulls in the sound, no breaks or silences - just pop pop pop pop boom boom pop pop pop boom boom pop pop pop boom boom boom boom boom...and the occasional sound of a car alarm cutting through the rumble.

So, here is a short, hastily edited, and sometimes shaky video of some of the fireworks I saw from the apartment tonight.  The shaking is just me shivering (not the building shaking).

Oh, and it is now 2:27 am, and there are still fireworks going off, though not with the same intensity.

Celebrating the new year in Almaty Part 1: Ded Moroz and Snegurochka

To the best of my knowledge, Christmas is not a holiday in Kazakhstan.  While there may be some families that celebrate something on December 25th, the big holiday here is the new year.  In celebrating the new year, many familiar symbols arise.  One example is the tradition of gift giving at the new year by Ded Moroz (father frost) and his grand daughter Snegurochka.  As you can see from the picture at the top of this post, they fly in a troika (a sleigh pulled by three horses) and you can see a yolka in the back.  Families and schools will sometimes hire a company to provide a Ded Moroz and Snegurochka.  Snegurochka will lead a good time with games and dancing which eventually culminates in the arrival of Ded Moroz and the dissemination of gifts (purchased by the family, of course).  I have to say that, from what I've seen, this culture has the party-games thing down.  Everyone (from toddlers to grown-ups) participates and everyone has a good time.

Another similarity is the Yolka - a fir tree decorated to celebrate the new year which strongly resembles our Christmas Tree:  "In Russia they only started decorating fir trees in 1700. Back then it symbolized New Year, not Christmas. Czar Peter the Great imported the tradition of from Europe and also moved New Year celebrations from September 1 to January 1.  Meaning that in 1700 we Russians celebrated New Year twice and both times with fir trees!" click here for more about this tradition.

Friday Photo: Snow Removal

I came across this scene last week and thought I would share:

If you can't quite make out what is happening, a crew of 8 is loosening the snow at the side of the road.  This big machine slowly follows them scooping up the loose snow and loading it conveyor belt style into the back of the huge dump truck.

That is how it is done.

Weather Report: December 2011

I was just outside and discovered it to be the third REALLY cold day in a row, so I was curious as to exactly how cold it is.  Here is the report as recorded by timeanddate.com

December 16: around 20F, -7C
December 17: around 21F, -6C
December 18: around 20F, -7C
December 19 (right now): 1F, -17C

Luckily, it looks like we are going to thaw out a bit:

December 20: High of 14F,  -10C
December 21: High of 17F, -8C
December 22: High of 24F, -4C

By Friday it will be above freezing and sunny.  I can't wait to see the mountains!!!!

Independence Day

On December 16th, 1986 there was a large protest near what is now the new republic square.  The protest was about the appointment of a Russian instead of a Kazakh to the post of General Secretary of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan.  Needless to say, the authorities did not look kindly on the protesters (they never do) and many people were killed and injured in the confrontation that resulted.  It is in honor of this event that Kazakhstan celebrates its independence on December 16th.

To celebrate the occasion of the 20th anniversary of Kazakhstan's independence, I bring you pictures of the monument at the new square and a brief retelling of Kazakhstan's historic relationship with Russia as I understand, or perhaps more accurately, fail to understand it.

Legal disclaimer: I do not make any claims on the following information being fact.

Once upon a time (in the 17th century to be slightly more precise) there were a group of people living in the seven rivers region of central Asia (what is now south east Kazakhstan).  This was actually three groups of people ruled by separate leaders called Khans, but every once in a while they would agree on something and be one group of people ruled by one person - also called a Khan.

To the east of these people, were some other people (the Zunghars) who were gradually moving West. To the west and north of these people were some more people (the Russian Cossacks) who were gradually moving south and east.  If you have ever played risk, you understand the predicament the three Khanates found themselves in.  Ultimately, one by one, the three Khanates sought protection from the Russian Cossacks, and histories of the two states have been intertwined ever since.

Now,  I could try and explain the complicated politics that lead to Kazakhstan's independence in 1991, but honestly it reads like a Dostoevsky novel with dozens of players and hundreds incomprehensible plot twists.  The short version is that there was a demonstration in Almaty which was followed by some political posturing.  Then a few years later there were a couple of attempted coups on other leaders in other countries.  I'm not sure how that part relates to Kazakhstan's independence, but apparently it does.  Then, apparently, everything in Moscow fell apart and so Kazakhstan became independent.

While the events leading to Independence are apparently only comprehensible to political scientists and secret agencies, today people in Kazakhstan are proud of their independence.  Flags, flowers, and festive greetings are the rule on this four-day weekend.  So hey, bring on the party and с днем конституции!