Kenesary Khan . He is last khan ‘king’ of Kazakhstan who died fighting the Russians in 1847. He got the above statue on the banks of the Esil River in Astana in 2001. Due to the ongoing events in Kazakhstan in January 2022, I am positing blogs I wrote when I visited the country in […]
Because of ongoing events in Kazakhstan in January 2022, I am reposting this Kazakh Language blog I wrote when I visited the country in 2017: Title image: Kazakh signs with both the Cyrillic and Latin alphabet abound. Very helpful! Kazakh Language: Getting Started In Astana I met friend and co-author Phillip Carter. Our first job […]
Because of ongoing events in Kazakhstan in January 2022, I am reposting blogs I wrote when I visited the country in 2017. From 2017: Confession: Before traveling to Kazakhstan I had never heard of Almaty. Further confession: Upon deciding to go to Kazakhstan I figured I’d better look up the name of the capital. Oh, […]
Because of ongoing events in Kazakhstan in January 2022, I am reposting blogs I wrote when I visited the country in 2017: Title Image: A painting of traditional Kazakh life. National Museum of History, Astana Not every country with -stan in its name is a scary place. Kazakhstan definitely is not. (Update 2022: well, maybe […]
Because of ongoing events in Kazakhstan in January 2022, I am reposting the blogs I wrote when I visited the country in 2017: Kazakhstan is the largest landlocked country in the world. It is the 9th largest in terms of area (1,000,000 square miles). It is 65th in population (18 million) In 2014 I spent […]
On my second day in Istanbul I ventured out of my neighborhood of Beyoğlu and walked across the Galata Bridge spanning the waterway known as the Golden Horn in order to get to the Asian side of Istanbul and the neighborhood of Sultanahmet. I chose the Galata Bridge as the title image. The upper tier […]
This time around in Istanbul I’m staying in the neighborhood of Beyoğlu. It’s on the European side of the city and is considered the “newer” part of town. In the past I’ve stayed in the neighborhood of Sultanahmet on the Asian side of the city. This is the older part of town. The title image of […]
Out first night in Astana. We had good weather so we wanted to eat outdoors and then looked for Kazakh food. Confession: the first night we chose a Georgian restaurant, the Daredzhani, not a Kazakh restaurant. In the middle of the table is a cauliflower dish with walnuts, to the back right a plate of […]
Here I highlight some of the differences but mostly the similarities between Romania and Uzbekistan. Differences between Romania and Uzbekistan First, Romania is in Eastern Europe, and Uzbekistan is in Central Asia. Check out the distance. Furthermore: -Romanians speak Romanian, a Romance language. Uzbeks speak Uzbek, a Turkic language. -Romanians are 90% Eastern Orthodox. […]
The Central Asian countries of Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan share many similarities. However, as a tourist, I was struck by their differences. Note: For some, Azerbaijan counts as being in the Caucasus, along with Georgia and Armenia. However, my guide in Azerbaijan spoke of his country as being in Central Asia. The similarities between Azerbaijan and […]