Day 7

Good morning from Akatau! Ok, so most of my comments on the bleakness of the city were premature. After walking all over the city, my impressions changed. Downtown is in the center (north).

Holland practicing standing.

Whitney arranged a walking tour up through town, so we strapped babers onto the front pack and took off.  Not much of an official sidewalk existed, so we meandered on the locals' path.

A positive note of walking is getting to really take in the localities. Here we watched kids playing puppyball.

And here we see a desolate-looking playground. In truth, we'd seen many kids playing there (and some wrestling/fighting) the previous night.

Whitney scheduled our first stop to be.... a big ship monument! We don't really know the significance, except that maybe it's the symbol of the city.

One remarkable thing about Aktau is the many roses! I was really impressed with the many rose bushes we saw in public areas, as well as the streets lined with marigolds, coleus, and other small annuals. In an area so dry, I wondered how they watered the plants. Well, they drive up with a big water tankard and hose them down!

Another interesting feature of the city was the many different apartment enclosures we saw. We surmised that when folks buy their apartments, they include a railed deck. But over time, people would rather build up the rail to a wall to effectively add an extra room. As a result, although one side of the building may be a boring concrete edifice, the opposite side is much more varied.

When we got further into town, we found benches around a park dedicated to the exiled Ukrainian poet, so we popped a squat. Actually, quite a bit of beautification projects have taken place, which is needed and appreciated. Like I said, lots of roses.

A group of painters sat on the bench next to us capturing the park and sculpture of the poet, so we photographed them at work.

Further into the city, we found a big rocket ship monument. Not sure the significance, but.. there it was.

Then a few blocks away laid a monument to WWII. According to my mom, Moscow conscripted many Kazakh men and sent them to the second line- this is because they weren't even given guns so had to pick up guns from fallen front line soldiers. By the end of WWII, ~11% of Kazakhs (civilians and soldiers) died as a result.

Our walk tuckered out Holland and Whitney, so they went to bed early.

My mom, dad, and I took an evening walk along the shore. We passed several fancy houses being built and observed that poor workmanship and materials resulted in already-deteriorating structures. Kids played in the sand, couples flirted on benches, a wind surfer navigated waves, and babushkas reminisced. Our path ended at the gate to a yacht club, so we turned back to the hotel, noting how remarkable it was that we spent the evening walking along the Caspian Sea. I don't think that back in 9th grade World Geography, I could have imagined that one day I'd be strolling along this beach.