I am still having difficulties with my time here, but I’m also feeling that urge to talk about my recent journey…so I figured I’d start and then will pick up when the time allows…but before I begin my travel log, I think, I have to mention a small detail that explains why I’m saying I’m Russian and yet I’m writing about Kazakhstan being my home. I guess, I can count on the fact that everyone knows what Russia used to be not that long time ago…before 1985 it was the Soviet Union with 15 soviet republics, just like states in US. It is only now that many of these republics are screaming for “independence” the reality was that most of them never felt as if they are different entity before the Perestroika. Hence, although I was born in Kazakhstan geographically, I still am Russian by nationality. This was true for any soviet republic. There were native people (Kazakhs, Chechens, Ukrainians, etc) and there were Russians living side by side, regardless of geography. So yes, I am Russian, born in the most beautiful place one can be born in – Eastern Kazakhstan. And that’s where I went to for my recent vacations in June. To have an idea, imagine the World Map. Find where the China is. And then – Mongolia. And – Russia.
Somewhere in between there is a Land that’s not like any other. Not just because I love it, but for her beauty and amazing diversity. I’m talking about the nature, of course. There are steppes and deserts of Asia and the Siberian taiga, and mountains with icy glaciers and rivers and lakes, you name it…Firstly, Eastern Kazakhstan is situated right in the center of Eurasian continent. This gives it a unique sharp continental climate with temperatures as low as - 52C (-61.6F) in winter and as high as +46C (114.8F) in summer. I’d say, for being just one of the administrative areas of the whole republic of Kazakhstan, Eastern Kazakhstan is rather big…Google kindly tells us that its area is 283,300 in square kilometers. (compare with Great Britain – 242,500 square kilometers). So in 2 weeks that I’ve spent there, we’ve been traveling around all the time and still when we draw our routes on the map, we were not impressed with the area covered – such a tiny little square out of what more have been there to explore. But of course, time was not exactly expanding and accommodating all the places we’d like to go and all the people we’d like to meet…As I’ve mentioned before, this is the place where my extended family lives. Uncles, aunties, and all the rest of a gang derived from their families…and when I say I’ve got a lot of relatives, I mean – A Lot. So many that we didn’t manage to see all of them over our 2 weeks stay…But of course, meeting relatives was not the only thing on agenda. I took my Kid with me and my intention was to show him the wonders of my homeland. And since I haven’t been there for somewhat 13 years myself, for me it was pretty much like seeing these wonders for the first time as well…I will try to share some of them here. There are places that certainly deserved to be known. And I believe, Eastern Kazakhstan might just be one of them.
Somewhere in between there is a Land that’s not like any other. Not just because I love it, but for her beauty and amazing diversity. I’m talking about the nature, of course. There are steppes and deserts of Asia and the Siberian taiga, and mountains with icy glaciers and rivers and lakes, you name it…Firstly, Eastern Kazakhstan is situated right in the center of Eurasian continent. This gives it a unique sharp continental climate with temperatures as low as - 52C (-61.6F) in winter and as high as +46C (114.8F) in summer. I’d say, for being just one of the administrative areas of the whole republic of Kazakhstan, Eastern Kazakhstan is rather big…Google kindly tells us that its area is 283,300 in square kilometers. (compare with Great Britain – 242,500 square kilometers). So in 2 weeks that I’ve spent there, we’ve been traveling around all the time and still when we draw our routes on the map, we were not impressed with the area covered – such a tiny little square out of what more have been there to explore. But of course, time was not exactly expanding and accommodating all the places we’d like to go and all the people we’d like to meet…As I’ve mentioned before, this is the place where my extended family lives. Uncles, aunties, and all the rest of a gang derived from their families…and when I say I’ve got a lot of relatives, I mean – A Lot. So many that we didn’t manage to see all of them over our 2 weeks stay…But of course, meeting relatives was not the only thing on agenda. I took my Kid with me and my intention was to show him the wonders of my homeland. And since I haven’t been there for somewhat 13 years myself, for me it was pretty much like seeing these wonders for the first time as well…I will try to share some of them here. There are places that certainly deserved to be known. And I believe, Eastern Kazakhstan might just be one of them.