February 2017 – bioarchnomad

A Weekend Hockey Game in Astana – Barys vs Avangard

Last weekend I got a ticket from a friend to watch the local hockey team, Barys, play in the giant arena near the university campus. She picked me up at a nearby mall and we met another one of her friends at the arena for the game. The arena is quite nice inside, and it was absolutely packed with people for this game. The opening ceremonies with the team introduction and the national anthems of Russia and Kazakhstan were really impressive. The opponent for this game, which I’m pretty sure was the last of the season, was Avangard, the team from Omsk, Russia. As someone who knows nothing about hockey, it was an interesting experience to see and hear everything going on during the game in Russian (I still don’t quite understand what was happening). Unfortunately, the local team lost 3-1, but it was a cool experience nonetheless. I’ll probably end up going back again next season, especially if my Russian is better (maybe I can figure things out!). Anyway, here are some shots from the game.

A Cold Autumn Day at Burabay National Park

My first trip out of Astana was to the popular nature destination of Borovoe (or Burabai in Kazakh). Located just a short three hour train ride away, this is a pretty popular weekend getaway for residents of Astana. There are plenty of resorts and hotels around the lake which are full during the summer months. I went with two classmates and we headed out on the first train north, which left sometime around 6 AM. The train cost only about $3 each way and ran fairly regularly all day. Once we arrived at the train station in the town nearest to Borovoe, we hired a taxi to take us to the end of the hiking route so that we only had to walk into the town instead of doing the same trail there and back.

Early morning at the Astana Train Station

Now, the thing about Borovoe is that the weather is entirely unpredictable. Unlike everywhere surrounding it which is endless steppe, Borovoe has mountains and forests that contribute to its erratic climate. According to most of the forecasts, the weather was supposed to be fine the entire day, and many friends of mine had been there the previous day with beautiful weather. When we arrived, it was cloudy and much colder than Astana (which isn’t so surprising considering its proximity to the border with Russian Siberia). Since there was a cafe at the beginning of the route, we stopped for hot drinks before heading out on the walk.

Unfortunately, during the time we were inside getting warmed up, it started raining outside. It was only a light rain and we hoped it would stop after we started walking, so we began the trek into a forested area nearby. The scenery was lovely, and there were tied rags which are used for religious rituals on many of the trees. After getting turned around in here, we made our way toward the town. Of course, the rain came down harder and harder during the next 3 hours to the point that everything was pretty well soaked through by the time we arrived in town.

dsc_0006-2 — Replica of the standing stones found across Kazakhstan

This stone has some attachment to some ancient practice from what I could gather

Tied rags symbolize many things in local religious contexts

Once we managed to find a restaurant and get food (and have a few incidents along the way) we made the journey back to the train station and to Astana. The train station for Borovoe is incredibly cold for being indoors, so we ended up drinking a lot of hot chocolate from a vending machine to keep warm with all the wind coming inside and hitting our still pretty wet clothes. The train back was pretty late in the evening, and we got stuck with very loud and inebriated soccer fans from a city on the other side of the country who were singing their team’s anthem for hours. Overall though, even with pretty much everything going wrong that could go wrong, it was still a beautiful trip and definitely one I will remember.

The famous standing stone in the center of the lake

Cool root systems on these trees near the lake

A cyclist who was also stuck in the rain

Winter Wandering in Astana

As you can probably guess from both the title and the time of year, its wintertime in Astana. And yes, to answer the question I already know is coming next, it is very cold living in what is essentially south Siberia (but without the trees). Since its usually grey, cloudy, and windy all day in addition to being cold I rarely go outside and explore the city. However, this was the first day in the month of so since I’ve been back from my holiday in the US that the sky was blue and not smoggy/hazy, so I decided to go exploring again even though it was -5ºF/-20ºC outside.

I didn’t exactly go anywhere new or exciting that I haven’t written about before, but the city looks pretty different in the snow. It was interesting to visit places that are packed with people in the summer that are completely dead in winter. For example, the viewpoint for the Presidential Palace usually has people walking around, especially in the park right before the stairs, but today it was only me and a security guard. I saw maybe ten people total walking outside in the park between Khan Shatyr and Ak Orda. I will say that I had to melt ice off of my face a few times, but it really didn’t feel that cold outside when walking in the sun. Most everywhere is plowed or shoveled down to the cement, though I did have to trudge through knee deep snow near the Pyramid when I was trying to find a good view. Anyway, here are some pics of Astana in the winter as a brief update before I catch up on writing about my trips to southern Kazakhstan and Turkey.