June 30- Kok Tobe, and starting to find our way around...

June 30 - Monday, 7:30 am - Hi everyone! Yesterday (Sunday) we met up with Jen and Bert, Gretchen, Pam and Grev and went up the mountain to Kok Tobe (which means 'green hill') in a gondola! The view was lovely - the hills are very green and pretty and we saw both fancy, high-end houses and lower-economy style housing. At the top of the hill are beautiful crafts/ art to buy, games for the kids, and a couple of restaurants. We ate some lunch (pork shishlyk, or shish-kebab) and looked around, then came back down. It seems to be a popular place for families, maybe more because it was Sunday.
We had our first encounter with 'gypsies' on our walk to the Kok Tobe entrance - a group of young children (4-8 years old) were suddenly around us, touching our arms and legs and asking for money. We just kept saying Niet (No) and kept walking. You need to make sure you have nothing in your pockets as these kids are good....
On the way back we stopped at Ramstor for a few groceries then came home and vegged out - that was a lot of walking! Paul slept during the evening and I watched a movie, then I slept during the night and Paul discovered he could watch the NASCAR race live on one of the French channels we get - too funny! Again we were both up at 5 am today - we're hopefully getting closer to following the time here...
We're starting to get our bearings by walking around and determining which are the major streets. The Ramstor is approx 5 minute walk and from there the major streets are Furmanov (East-West, I think) and a block from there is Dostyk (North-South). Dostyk takes us right into the downtown area where Mad Murphy's is, and also the Green Market (large outdoor bazaar) - we'll check that out soon.
The neighbourhood we're in is called Samal, and all the apartment blocks are named Samal-2, then a building #. Our first place was in # 52, Samal-2 - and now we're in # 24, Samal-2. Oh - and the cars here are amazing - all seem to be new Volvos, Lexus, Cadillacs, etc - not sure how they do it!
Today we don't have much planned - probably back to Ramstor and walk around a bit, then this evening we hope to hear from Svetlana that our Visa issue has been fixed and our passports are on their way back to us. Then the real adventure can begin! I've tried to add a few photos to this post - very slow due to the dial up connection so I hope it works! There are 2 of the apartment, and 2 of our visit to Kok Tobe.
Take care - have a great day!
love N&P