The Apple City

Almaty, formerly known as Alma-Alta is the largest city in Kazakhstan, with a population of about 1.5 million people. It used to be the capital of the big K, from 1929 to 1998. In 1998, they moved the capital to Astana, which is up north, more centrally located in the country.

The word "Almaty" actually translates to mean "rich with apple", as Kazakhstan seems to be the birthplace of the apple.

I think it's neat that Stephen and I were living in "The Big Apple" and now we're living here! We must have some weird subconscious obsession with wanting to live in cities that have "apple" in their nicknames.

And apples are Stephen's favorite fruit. At least in his lunch.
Okay, so about the pictures you are looking at: The one above showcases the Soviet-style apartment buildings that most of the Kazakhs live in. Notice how long that apartment building is? It goes on forever! It is one continuous building that is probably about 3 typical city blocks long. I think these apartments usually rent for about $300-500 per month. Cheap, right? Just don't forget that you get what you pay for!

I took all of these pictures from our apartment windows, so I'm blocked by the surrounding apartment towers, but you can see the Tien Shen Mountains in between the buildings above. It is also very smoggy in this picture, but on a clear day, they are absolutely gorgeous.

Notice the smog in the other pictures. You can see it on the horizon. Although the city itself is kept reasonably clean of garbage on the streets and in the parks and stuff, the pollution is pretty bad. They use mostly coal for power and everyone drives a car! Cars, cars, everywhere! Gas is relatively inexpensive here, as it is subsidized by the government. Stephen says it's about $2.30/gallon. There are long gas lines all the time during the day and the gas stations close after dark.

Plus, the roads here are (in my opinion) ridiculously designed. No turn lanes. Usually can't turn left, so you end up having to drive about twice as far as needed, simply because you can't cross the double line in the middle of the road. Although the drivers are insane here, one thing they won't do is cross that line. I'm guessing if they're caught, it's a mean fine.

Stephen especially enjoys the policemen's excessively tall hats. The angle in this picture hardly does it justice, though. It was the only photo I could find up close enough. The police here are known for pulling people over, simply to get some money from them. This is the main reason we will not be driving ourselves here. We'd rather our money go towards a driver who will keep us safe! We have been blessed, in that our driver hasn't been pulled over with us inside yet. I don't doubt it will happen, though! Since our driver is a local, his license plate is white, but if we were to buy a car and drive, the license plate would be yellow, which screams, "We are foreigners. We have money. Pull us over."