Aktobe, Kazakhstan (Part III)

This is the third and final entry into my blog about Aktobe, Kazakhstan. The section will be fairly brief and will cover my general overall impressions from my trip. As always, these are my personal opinions, so feel free to agree or object to anything I have written. Enjoy!

Me with a traditional Kazakh lute and hat

Overall Impressions:

I really enjoyed my experience in Kazakhstan. Even though I saw only one city, I was quite impressed with it's cleanliness and the general demeanor of the people. There are a lot of new buildings and everything was fairly westernized. I have read and seen a lot about the capital city of Kazakhstan, Astana, and it is a place I would like to visit and recommend to any first time travelers to the country. I am embedding a video about  Astana, which shows a lot of cool stuff (for anyone interested in watching). The commentary is in Russian, but the pictures are in English ;)

Other notes that I have: I really enjoyed how people like to be outside and active. The attitude of the people was much more open than I expected. From all of my travels, I have come to realize that the attitude of the local population can really affect the overall impression of a city (in good and bad ways), so it was important to me how I was treated. Overall, I have to say that I enjoyed Kazakhstan quite a bit, especially the culture and food. For any reader, I would suggest that you throw away any stereotypes about the country or the people until you make the trip there yourself and formulate your own opinions!

Nazarbayev Park at dusk

Aktobe, Kazakhstan (Part II)

Part II of my blog entry about Aktobe, Kazakhstan reviews the different attractions around the city. I was only in town for just under a week, so it would be a fallacy for me to say that I saw everything there is to see in the city. I can only write about my experiences and what I've seen, but I like to think that I visited some pretty neat places and would like to pass the experience along to any interested reader, so here we go!

A monument inside Nazarbayev Park, Aktobe, KZ

Parks and Sites:

I would like to comment about how the people of Aktobe enjoy being outside and walking around much more than most people of their neighboring country to the north (perhaps due to a warmer climate). Citizens can be seen at several parks throughout the town at almost any hour of the day. This makes for a very fun and social environment.

The first park which I stopped at in my tour of the city is called Pushkin Park (paying tribute to the famous Russian poet), which is about the size of one city block. The area is more catered towards younger kids, as it has several small carnival rides boarding the perimeter of the park. Visitors can buy several types of sweets and ice cream, or just enjoy a leisure stroll through the park. As I said, it isn't so big, but it is a nice little stop in town.

Me near a statue in Pushkin Park

Another area which is a lot of fun is near to what they call Nurdaulet, which is very near to the city's football stadium. This is where I met a Kazakh boy wearing a Minnesota Wild hockey t-shirt (random!). Anyways, this area directly in front of a Mosque/Mall (two buildings combined into one) and is small in terms of area. There is a small zoo on display in front with less than a dozen animal species. However, this small zoo does hold a giraffe and most impressively, a lion. The atmosphere is very fun and the area is very nice as most of the buildings are new with some interesting architecture.

The park near Nurdaulet

The lion at the park near Nurdaulet

The giraffe at the park near Nurdaulet

The last park which I would like to talk about is the Nazarbayev Park, which is named after the current president of Kazakhstan. This park is by far the largest of the three mentioned in my blog, and the total size must be close to one square kilometer. This area is very interesting because within these grounds, there is a impressive mosque and a church! Past the church is a new city mall which contains an indoor ice rink! Very near to the mall, there is also a nice fountain which plays music and lights up at night, and a modern style monument constructed in commemoration of Nazarbayev. The park extends through a row of trees towards a man-made river, which has several picturesque bridges which can be traversed by foot. Towards one end, there is also a tall pillar/flagpole which is another monument to the current president (and only president in Kazakh history). This area is one of the nicest places in the city and is almost everything is brand new. People gathered here starting from midday into late night. The music fountain plays everything from US pop music to traditional Kazakh songs. This is definitely an enjoyable stop.

In front of the music fountain in Nazarbayev Park

Nur-Gasyr mosque near Nazarbayev Park

Inside Nazarbayev Park

About 15 minutes away from the middle of the city, is a very large man-made lake called Aktyubinskoe More. I was taken here to enjoy a sunny afternoon and to take a nice dip in the water. The area is interesting because there are no houses or buildings next to the lake, so it feels a little empty. Much of the shore is either cliff or rocky, but there are several nice sandy areas for people wanting to get a tan or who just want to swim. This was also a nice area to visit.

Aktyubinskoe More

Next up: Aktobe, Kazakhstan (Part III)

Aktobe, Kazakhstan

While visiting St. Petersburg, Russia, I took the opportunity to apply and receive a visa for the nearby neighboring country of Kazakhstan. The next stop on my list would be the north-west capital city of the Aktyubinsk province, Aktobe. I will take this opportunity to write about my experiences in Aktobe and will divide these with three individual post pertaining to the following subjects:  Food, Parks and Sites, and Overall Impressions. I hope you enjoy!

"Mega" mall and a church near Nazarbayev Park, Aktobe, KZ

Food:

Kazakhstan is the 9th largest country by area in the world and the largest landlocked country. The population is just under 16.5 million people and continues to rise. The capital city was moved from Almaty to Astana in 1997. The Kazakh race is of Asian descent, with many similarities to Mongolians. Contrary to what the previous fact would lead one to believe, the Kazakh language is of Turkic descent. I encourage anyone reading this to take a brief moment to do some online research about the Kazakh people and their country. The Wikipedia entries for Kazakhstan and Aktobe have quite a bit of interesting information. I won't take a lot of time to educate any reader beyond this point, as I would prefer to turn my attention to my experiences within the city of Aktobe.

I had the privilege to be invited to several meals throughout my 5 day stay in Aktobe. I was treated to wonderful hospitality along with more food than I could have possibly eaten. The Kazakh diet revolves around meat and potatoes, with the most popular meat coming from horse. Having had a rough experience with the first time I tasted the animal, I thought I would give it a go again but unlike the first time, the meat would be cooked. The traditional meal, aptly named "5-fingers" because it was historically, but not always, eaten without utensils, featured small medallions of tender horse meat accompanied with potatoes and flat noodles; a truly excellent dish! Small medallions of horse meat are included in several other dishes, but a complete different food made with horse would be Kazy, aka horse sausage. This variation on traditional pork sausage is quite tasty, with a meatier flavor and strong salty flare. I would definitely recommend everyone to try both of these dishes if ever presented the opportunity.

5-fingers - horse meat dish

Kazy - horse meat sausage

If you can't handle the idea of eating horse meat, you probably shouldn't try another traditional food which I experienced: the head of a sheep. As an honorary guest of the house, I was served the symbolic head of an animal. Per tradition, a cow head can also be served, but that tends to be given to a larger group of guests. The parts of the head which were given to me to eat included the brain, ear and eyeball. To any inquisitive reader, eyeballs don't "pop" when bitten into. As any guest should, I tried each and every item presented to me. Surprisingly, the ear was the hardest to eat as it is 99% fat and gristle which makes it get stuck in your teeth and very difficult to chew. The eyeball was the most disturbing to eat, but was actually quite tasty and "normal" in texture. The brain was softer than most meat, but my mind was distracted by the disturbing fact that I had just eaten a sheep's eyeball, so it went down without a problem. To wash it down, I was served glasses Shubat and Kymyz (sour camel's milk with raisins and sour horse milk, respectively) to coat the stomach to help it expand and to prevent any future bowel problems.

The head of a sheep

The amount of food which was presented to me was incredible. Often times, I would eat what I was assuming to be the main course just to find out that they were planning on bring out more and more food. The following picture best describes the time spent to prepare all of the dishes. I have to give my respects to the Zhantikenova family for their hard work and I certainly appreciate the hospitality. The food was always delicious and I am grateful for the opportunity to try many different traditional meals and dishes. Almost everything was prepared fresh by the family and almost nothing was store purchased. The following picture shows how much effort was given to make my time there special (look close to find the plate on the right which is dirty and the plate at the bottom of the table which is really two stacked plates, one from the first course and a clean plate for the second these untouched dishes).

A full table of food...after the first course

Next stop on the blog spot: Parks and Sites (see next post)