Almaty: greenery, mountains, and dinners with a Kazakh accent

I recently visited Almaty.

To say that I went there “on business” would be to say almost nothing. To say that it was “very boring business” would be a lie, because I had no time to be bored.

What exactly I was doing there would be enough for three separate articles. Journal articles, I mean, not administrative ones. For now, I will just describe the general impressions.

A green city

The city is so green that you start suspecting a conspiracy of landscape designers.

You walk down the street and it feels as if you have wandered into a park where some unknown jokers decided to stick buildings here and there. There are more squares and flowerbeds than people in a good mood, so walking around, sitting down, and peacefully watching a crow dissolve into the sky is easy.

Although, as the locals whispered to me in strict confidence — do not tell anyone — by mid-summer there is much less greenery, because the leaves burn out in the heat. But in April the city really blooms and smells alive.

Mountains without asking permission

The second thing that immediately forces itself into your field of vision is the mountains: large, majestic, with snowy caps.

Tempted by the cable car — and how could I resist, when it pulls you toward the sky while a backpack with two laptops pulls you back down — I went up.

That was my one and only tourist achievement.

The camera stayed at home like an unpaid hostage. So all the photos are from my phone, which was probably trembling in the mountains from the horror of the view opening in front of it.

But that is fine. Next time, I promise, all this beauty will not hide from my lens.

Food and evening routes

Like a true gastronomic stalker, I went after the local food.

Beshbarmak, baursaks, kuyrdak — you cannot walk past them; they find you themselves.

Of course, the city has cafes and restaurants with different cuisines for different budgets, but I still tried to focus on local food. And in Kazakhstan people love meat in all its forms, which, frankly, suits me quite well.

So besides traditional Kazakh cuisine, you can also have shashlik — I was pointed toward a couple of places with excellent shashlik — and eat doner too.

One curious thing about cafes and restaurants: there are many hookah and lounge bars. Even in a fairly polished place, there is a good chance they can make you a hookah. Whether this is good or bad should be decided by my therapist and pulmonologist, because I did not walk past that pleasure either ;-)

The funniest part is that, in the end, I spent four evenings having dinner in a Czech bar with a Kazakh accent: sausages made of horse meat and lamb, plus stroganina as a snack for beer.

Tango and returning

And, of course, the local tango community deserves a mention.

It exists, it is very welcoming, and people there dance very musically — both leaders and followers. So if you come to Almaty, do not skip the local milongas. Especially since they happen on most days of the week.

In short, I liked the city.

I will definitely return, with grim determination to eat everything I failed to reach the first time, with a proper camera, and with at least one fewer laptop.