not everyone who walks in this column for the first time will get to Himalayas, or become hikers, even if they never make the mount again, this proud acute feeling of the conquered peak will stay within them forever.
…This tradition keeps on living in the new Kazakhstan, too. The regular climbs to the legendary Komsomol peak (hastily renamed by the sportive org-men the more accustomed to the today’s ear Nursultan) attract in the same way both veteran hikers and newcomers
Medeo skating rink that we’ll love forever!
The alpine skating rink Medeo is more than the sports venue. We may surely say that there’s no other such a popular Olympic brand in Kazakhstan.
And though much time passed since that period when this alpine skating rink was rightly called “the factory of records” – memory remains. And not only with the chroniclers registering the world sports achievements, but also with all those who skated, skate and will skate on Medeo’s speedy ice.
Right after its opening Medeo became people’s favourite place for spending their time off. In those years when the chilling equipment of the rink functioned properly, it was open from September till April. Although for all comers it was open only at weekends, the annual attendance figure reached 150 thousand people!
To visit Medeo with friends, “to go skating” was a usual and common thing for us, young Alma-Ata residents of that time. (Despite the fact that it was never easy to get there by bus.) Sometimes in warm days of autumn the skating rink was fully crammed with skating people. But – so many loving hearts found each other in these crowds! So many sudden collisions led to long-lasting relationships!
As for these photos, they were taken recently. Today the second and the third generations of Medeo fans skate on its ice.
Winter in Zailiyskyi Alatau
In mountains winter reigns longer than it does at their foot. And at the highest peaks, where bare rocks argue with eternal ice, its vacation is shorter than that of any civil servant in Nursultan. The sun will just warm up the tops and melt all the winter snow, but here we go again – black clouds are coming from behind the ridge, and icy rain begins to powder the slopes with the snow grains.
Middle altitude mountains with their lush forests and fir woods are another matter. We have the full-scale summer here. With hovering butterflies, fragrant raspberries and warm sun showers. Both spring and autumn are never reminiscent of bustling and hustling holidays here. That is why winter, as if understanding its soonest resignation, tries to do its best to show off. So, it presses fur boughs with piles of snow nearly down to earth, transforms rapid mountain streams into sparkling crystal, and buries strewn sharp boulders under layers of snow 1 m thick.
Our mountains are calm and quiet in winter. If you skirt few mountain cabins, shashlyk-smelling Medeo and arrogant Chimbulak, you can go deep into such forest serenity and such benchmark primevalness, which is haunted by amateurs from distant places, covering thousands kilometers, crossing many borders, and spending lots of money. Any Almaty citizen is a man of destiny in this regard. To see and feel all this bliss he just has to take a 30-minutes ride by bus and to pay 80 tenge only.
Alma-Ata: the winter tale
I can say nothing about the today’s capital of Kazakhstan, but the former one – Alma-Ata – is lovely at any time of the year. Including winter. Despite the languishing epithet “south”, given to the city, and that it is situated in the same latitude with Istanbul, Rome, Barcelona, and New-York, stems of thermometers once fell here below 38°С. As for the snow, there is so plenty of it here, that Winter Asian Games were already held in the city, and it claims to have Winter Olympic Games with all good reason!
As for the citizens, I won’t palter with truth: our attitude towards winters can’t be called lock, stock, and barrel positive. Predatory bills for heating from utility providers alone can easily envenom anybody’s life. But the pleasure felt by south people in winter, who have been well-warmed and tired during the summer heat, cannot be compared to feelings of inhabitants in those cities where they manage neither to warm up nor get tired during summer.
There is one thing I can declare unequivocally – our city looks so solemn, fabulous and full of light only in the morning after a snowfall, and no other moments. When the sun that has risen from behind the mountain tops in a flash of a second will decorate snow piles and snowy trees with millions of sparkles, flutter with celestial shadows under heavy branches, and shine on rosy cheeks of student girls, hastily going to their lessons. This is an incredible state of mind and soul!
Our Cathedral!
This elegant building in the center of the old park is one of the main decorations of the city for more than 100 years. (Name of city was changed three times: Vernyj – Alma-Ata – Almaty during this time).
Orthodox Saint-Ascension Cathedral was built by the most recognizable Vernyj architect and town planner Andrei Zenkovin 1906; and it immediately became one of the attractions of Semirechye region and pride subject of parishioners and townspeople. Pride hesitet during the severe earthquake in 1911when a lot of buildings were destroyed, but a 44-meter Cathedral withstood (its predecessor, by the way, was destroyed by the disaster in 1897). Let me remind you that it was not some indistinct shocks that townspeople got used to, but the earthquake measuring 8—10 on the Richter scale!
Stability of the Cathedral has proved Zenkov’s anti-seismic construction approach. Wooden frame made from strong Tien Shan firs, fastened together with iron pins in a flexible structure was put on the monolith of reinforced concrete. Many high-rise buildings are being built according to this principle in the southern capital.
Cathedral resisted the next disaster as well; this time it was social disaster, when militant atheists unleashed their anger on everything that reminded of God. The Church, however, was kicked out of the temple; the building was a museum during the Soviet times, well known to everyone who read the novel “Keeper of Antiquities” by Dombrowski. The bells were dropped, but crosses stayed.
Later Cathedral became concert-exhibition hall. And then it was returned to the parishioners again. But regardless of all of this, the true citizens of all political preferences, religions and nationalities continue to love and be proud of this wonderful building in the old park. And our love does not age! I know myself that it is impossible to pass by, even if in a hurry. You will turn from your way just to admire this majestic heritage of the city once again!
Love and dove
In the very heart of Almaty, in an old park, nearby the magnificent Voznessenskiy cathedral, pigeons have reigned for more than one century.
Here, to one and the same permanent cooing and flickering wings flapping, time goes in different manner than at any other place. Time goes slowly here. And if there is some peculiar Almatynian rite of passage, connecting such different peoples and such unlike generations that inhabited and are inhabiting our city, then
