Summer in Kazakhstan

I have not posted here anything for a while. The reason has been that I did not want to :) I had an excellent summer - finishing up my first (out of two) year of Master studies in Oslo, spending two weeks in Estonia with the friends and with the family, then going for five weeks to Kazakhstan, followed by a short stop in Estonia and small trip to Lithuanian sea-coast with Siim and Peep.

Now I am back to Norway, but I would say a couple of words about my visit to Kazakhstan again. It was an interesting feeling to come back to the country (and to the city - Almaty) where I had spent one year of my life in 2007-2008. It seemed so different, yet so close and so familiar. After first couple of days of re-integration, I started to feel OK, just like a year ago. Not so many things have changed since 1-2 years ago. Perhaps the traffic in Almaty has become somewhat better due to much larger-than-before fines from the road polices.


Two things I have loved the most about Kazakhstan have fortunately not changed either. First, people who are dear to me. Second, breathtaking nature - mountains, valleys, rivers, lakes. I was lucky enough to be able to go to the mountains twice with one night spent in a tent. There are just some pictures here illustrating the beauty of this country.