Prazneek = holiday
Everyone is busy this morning getting ready for the holiday celebrations. Our hotel has finally set up their outdoor café. The hotel is already all lit up at night but last night we discovered they had added even more lights around the café.
Since we most likely won’t be seeing our boy for the next 3 days will post some of the photos from Wayne’s camera you haven’t seen yet and some photos from around town that we’ve taken so far and probably more over the next 3 days since we won’t have anything better to do than see the sights.
We forgot to mention yesterday that we were told Lukas Anton actually has a surname. We’re not quite sure how they know this since he was found on the streets. We’re going to see if Zema can find anything out for us. I guess he could have had a note attached to him or maybe the translation of his surname is something like Smith, Jones, Doe….any how we were told the transliteration of his surname is Kyryenko.
Around 9:45am we headed down to the square to get a spot for the festivities. They started about an hour later. We think 90% of the town was in the parade. It started with some flag formations, then there was a dance production followed by a very, very long parade. We’ll have to ask Zema what some of it was. We think the dance production was a representation of the sun symbol on the flag and different groups representing the different ethnic groups in Kazakhstan. They finished the parade with kids and adults representing the different sport groups. We saw all sorts of different elaborate costumes and traditional clothing. The drum major for the marching band was a girl and she wore stiletto heels. We were amazed at the number of women marching in heels in the parade. A lot of the spectators, including the children were dressed up in suits and dresses with heels. Keep in mind it was probably in the 70s today. I was hot in short sleeves.
After the parade we located the Georgian restaurant we had been told about. It was definitely more upscale than the other places we have eaten. It was pricier as well but still much less expensive than the states. The four of us ate, shared a bottle of wine and 3 beers and it only cost around $45-50.
We walked back by the square on our way home and they had set up all sorts of vendors, kids rides and games and shashlik stands. Supposedly the festivities go on all weekend. They were still setting things up in the square around 3pm. They also have all sorts of lights strung around the square and finally have the fountains going. We’ll try and get some night shots of the lights.
Here’s a little glimpse of the festivities. We have way more photos we’ll share over the next few days or when we get back. We took quite a few.
Festival after parade
Kazakhstan Driving School
I think this may be cruel and unsual punishment
Paka,
Lynda and Wayne
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