Brief description of all the photos

Notes for the photographically minded. These pics were taken on a Canon EOS 300, and then scanned on an HP 3400C scanner. The scanner is the weak link in the chain. If any of these pics don't look so good, it's the scanner, not the camera.
(I think the Russian spelling in Latin characters is "Goluboi Zaliv", but I ignored that and called it Guluboy Zalev.)
Location of Ust-Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan. A bit of info about Kazakhstan

ust-kambridge.jpgMe sat on the bridge over the Ulba.

tree.jpgThis is the view from outside the house we were staying in during our time at Guluboy Zalev (Blue Bay).

3latinos.jpg3 South Americans. Well, OK, 2 Spanish, and one English. David, Calum, and Paco.

landscape.jpgThis is the kind of view you see all the time while driving around.

ust-kariver.jpg No description

tsars2.jpg No description

semitchki.jpgThe Russians have this kind of love affair with semitchki (sun flower seeds). The don't like them to be shelled either. This picture just shows a little stand at the side of the road. You pay the price (around 200 tenge to the pound when I was there) and get a little newspaper cone full of them. If you want to look completely Russian, just buy some of these.

chiburechki.jpgThis is me eating chiburechki, which are a sort of deep-fried meat pasty.

calumcannons.jpg No description

duh.jpgThe combination of Blackthorns, and sun maketh man do strange things...

road2dacha.jpgThis is the hill you have to make it down to get to the dacha. Tarmac? What's that? :). We may all mock the Lada, and the Moskvitch, but they handle the roads/potholes/craters much better than our cars would. What's the point of having a lowered car with spoilers if they'll just get ripped off after 10 seconds?

themall.jpgThis is a shopping centre in Moscow, just opposite the Kremlin. Very upmarket shops inside - designer gear all round. Far too pricy for a poor Westener like me. We did buy an ice-cream though.

undergrowth.jpgThis is me and Elenas father walking through the undergrowth near Guluboy Zalev.

rocks.jpgThis is a view of the bay we were staying on from up a mountain a bit.

church2.jpg No description

road.jpgThis is the road from Ust-Kamenogorsk to Guluboy Zalev. Note the high surface quality. ;o)

park.jpg No description

hugedeer.jpgThis was in a museaum in Ust-Kamenogorsk. I'm not sure exactly what it is - Elena knows what it is in Russian, but she doesn't know what the English equivalent is - but I decided to call the picture "hugedeer".

tea.jpgTea, like what one drinks in Blighty, is drunk from bowls like this in Kazakhstan.

path.jpgJust a little path, in the blazing heat.

church.jpg No description

milkshake.jpgElena with a "milk cocktail" - Red Square and the Kremlin are right behind the photo taker.

moscowhere.jpgThis is the point where measurements from Moscow are taken.

mountain.jpgYou can just see a mountain lake on the right-hand side.

rocks2.jpgA pile of rocks outside the house we were staying in in Guluboy Zalev.

rocks3.jpgSome more rocks (the ones on the right hand side of the picture called road.jpg)

fromcar.jpgThis is some factory/school/building snapped from the car.

rocklayers.jpgAnother pile of rocks.

3girls.jpgAs the title says. From left to right, Polina, Elena, and her sister Natasha.

calumcannons2.jpg No description

twosisbridge.jpgThis is Elena and Natasha by the river Ulba.

fatherdaughter.jpgHalf of the sniper family... ;)

blinicaviare.jpgI don't like caviare, but they eat it on pancakes for breakfast. Crazy bunch...

fisherman.jpgA fisherman catching some fish at Guluboy Zalev.

rose.jpg No description

hospital.jpgThis is where my wife was born.

calumweed.jpgLook closely at the vegetation around me. If only I could have got all this lot to Holland, I could have been rich.

stream.jpgDoesn't look as good in the picture as it did in real life.

sis-statues.jpg No description

oldguards.jpgThis is how guards in the olden days would have looked.

bay.jpgDown at the waters edge. The water here was surprisingly warm, considering all the cold mountain streams that feed it. Could be something to do with the hot yellow thing in the sky....

street.jpgFather, and both daughters walking down a street in Ust-Kamenogorsk.

bybridge.jpgMe and Elena by the bridge over the Ulba in Ust Kamenogorsk. Damn hot it was too. That's why we were in the shade.

atgrans.jpg No description

landscape2.jpgA thistle on top of a hill, halfway along a little bumpy track.

metrostatue.jpgThis is the kind of artwork that adorns the metro stations of Moscow. There was better examples, mosaics, paintings, sculptures etc, but we just snapped this quickly.

tsars.jpgApparently, this is what the Tsar and Tsarina might have looked like.

bungee.jpgWe just took this picture in case the rope broke, and we could make some money from the Sun or something.

blackthorns.jpgMe making my way through a pint of Blackthorns at the Ashton Court festival in Bristol, UK.

basils.jpgSt Basils church at the end of Red Square down by the river. I know it's touristy to take pictures like this, but...

mausoleum.jpg No description

oldguards2.jpg No description

birches.jpgThese silver birches are all over Russia and Kazakhstan.

dacha.jpgThis is a dacha where we went. The idea is that they are little "country houses" where after the war people could grow food to stop themselves starving as the farming regions had been destroyed.

road2.jpgThe track to the dachas.

stonypath.jpgA little path leading up a hill. If you happened to be taken short, and you didn't want to face the hole in the ground that they called the toilets, you could wander off, and find a quiet spot.

mountain2.jpgKazakhstan (well, the small area we went to) is full of mountains, lakes, rivers, forests etc.

kremlin.jpgWe took this just after going and looking at Lenin. It's wierd - kind of like a freak-show, or circus. They should bury him - it's not dignified having lots of foreign tourists gawping at him. Mind you, while people will still pay to do so...

bay2.jpgYou can see the house we were staying in here. If you look for the two red-brick houses on the waters edge, we were in the two story one on the left.

bay3.jpgIdyllic.

street2.jpgAnother view of a street.

street3.jpgYou have no idea how hot it was as I took this photo. Sweat pouring off the face, looking for some shade to dash into after it was taken.

underground.jpgThis is a shot of the inside of a metro station. The pic is blurred as it needed about a .5 second exposure time.
For a much better picture of the Moscow Metro, look here

weed.jpgI was quite surprised to find that this little plant grows everywhere in Ust-Kamenogorsk - in the street, in the fields, in gardens - no wonder it's called a weed.

kremlin2.jpgThis wasn't as dark as it looks - I think they messed up the printing of it (in England I hasten to add)

kremlin3.jpg No description

kazakitent.jpgWe sneaked a picture of the inside of this Kazaki tent.

irtish.jpgThis is the river Irtish, at the point that it flows past the dacha we were heading to.

If you're ever in Moscow, and are looking for a really nice restaurant to eat in, check out the Chulanchik restaurant on Prospect Lenina, just over the river from the Kremlin. It does lovely food, at reasonable (for Westerners) prices, and the music, and the interior decor is very nice.
Chulanchik actually translates as little cupboard - as in one under the stairs, where you'd keep the hoover, but it's not like that at all.
Tell them I sent you ;)

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