Beer with a straw

In Kazakhstan girls who order beer gets it served with a straw.  I never quite understood this...is it more lady like?  Do they think the pint glass is too heavy? Will it makes us cheerful more quickly?  or is it just the way it is??  :-D

This picture was taken at a Thai restaurant where we passed time with a really yummy meal waiting for our 3am flight...

So long Kazakhstan!  I've had a lovely visit!! 

New investment - an Afghan Rug

My new, beautiful Afghan rug bought in Almaty!  It will look great by the sofa!!  Wait for the update to see how it turned out!!!!

Hiking to look for wild tulips

The tulip is from Kazakhstan, so we went to search for the wild tulips.
The most common tulips
in this part of Kazakhstan are also the ones the Dutch scientists have
made most of the cultivated tulips we know in Europe today from. These
two brands are called Greigii and Kaufmani. The red ones in these
pictures are Greigii.
The sun was really strong this Wednesday, so must of us got some level
of sunburn...even tho we had used suntanlotion...
Now we're on the night train back to Almaty and tomorrow we'll see the
famous Medeo skating rink where the USSR set a lot of world records 40
odd yrs ago. We'll also lunch in a yurta, probably drinking fermented
camel milk! Exciting times!

Tuesday 27th April

We wine to a terrible rainy weather... Postponed the horse riding
outing an hour to see if it cleared. It was raining on a off all day,
we got very wet but then dried off quickly when the warm sun came out!
The horses were very obedient and easy to ride, except for Kristines
horse who didn't seem to like the other horses or Kristine, so he
tried to go his own directions in the fog, he then got scared by a dog
and started running...luckily the ranger helped in the end!
We came back to the guesthouse, cold, wet and very happy!! My
beautiful horse for the day in the picture!!!

Night train journey in Kz

Not easy toget a steady, focused picture on the train in Kz... The
Pektopah wagon (restaurant spelled w russian letters) sold cheap
Tuborg. :-)

After we webt to bed, a quite cramped, but otherwise ok 4 bunk room,
the metallic, war sounding speakers at each station woke us up. At
5:35am the 12-hr journey ended... We were picked up and brought to a
guesthouse where we had just over an hrs rest before breakfast was
served. The days outing in the nature reserve could begin after we
received our permits...

Almaty Sunday 25/4

Returned to Almaty Saturday lunchtime. Spent the rest of the day
walking around, buying souvenirs and being tourists. In the evenin we
found an American Grill and Bar and also Soho Almaty Club where
international expats and locals mix.

Sunday we got up, had breakfast and visited the Central State Museum
where the gold man is displayed.

They also had a great museum shop where they sold carpets! We went
crazy! Kristine bought two Kazakh rugs, Tove found an amazing rug from
Turkmenistan, Knut opted for a great one from Iran and my choice fell
on a small Kazakh rug!!

After that we went looking for a cafe. We were in luck, found a
fantastic Italian coffee shop with lovely wine, coffee and sandwiches.

At 5pm we're getting on the train to travel 12 hrs to the west to
visit a national park where we're promised to see lots of wild tulips!!

Until next time... ;-)

Kazakhstan - Altyn Emel national park

After a powernap in hotel from 4:30am to 6am we were picked up to
leave on a three day trip to the Altyn Emel national park!
Had a lovely trip! Visited very varied landscape; lava rocks, sand
dunes, burial mounds, petroglyphs etc. Had a few good hikes. And the
weather is beautiful!!! Not a cloud on the bright blue sky!
Wonderful trip so far!

Almaty sightseeing

the "gang" at a weaponthingie

colourful cathedral

crazy sheep heads at the meat market....

Istanbul wednesday 21/4

A bonus stopover in Istanbul gave just enough time to see the blue
mosque (pic below) and Haga Sofia. Great start on the trip to "the
land I never thought I'd holiday in"

Update with more pictures :-)

"Turen til landet en aldri trodde en skulle feriere i"

Da har "Turen til landet en aldri trodde en skulle feriere i" begynt.

På grunn av asken fra Island kom vi oss bare til Istanbul i dag. Fikk
hjelp til å finne et flott hotell i Gamlebyen, anonymt på utsiden,
men flotte store behagelige rom! Godt fornøyd.

Turen har begynt bra etter en litt forsinket start!!

God natt!!

Bursdagsgave...

....fra min kjære!!! Ny charm til mitt favorittarmbånd fra Tiffanys!!!

Love u too, hon'!!!!!