Life in Bishkek

Russian language

Since Nov 21st we are now in Bishkek and we are feeling very well. Our guesthouse "Interhouse" is beautiful and well organized. I had a bad inflammation of my shoulder, what was really not funny, but now it is o.k. Thanks to Ruslan, a doctor from the local hospital who gave me for a period of 10 days injections and infusions.
We started to learn Russian at the London School of Bishkek. It is a very difficult language and I do not like it very much. Honestly, Astrid is much more engaged and she likes it, I do it for my pastime. In school, which is quite a long time ago, I learned Latin, but I still know some rules and they are so different to Russian, so it confuses me. If it would be Spanish or French, I would have more fun, but it is ok.


Sights

At Dec.8th, the birthday of Astrid, we visited the Historical Museum. It is not very big, but it is interesting.
A large part is dedicated to the Civil War in the year 2010 between Uzbek and Kyrgyzs people, where over 2000 people died.

see Wikipedia:
Civil War Kyrgyzstan


Contacts

Bishkek is quite manageable. In different cafes or restaurant we always meet the same people. They are globetrotters, who overwinter here, too, or from different aid organisations as the GIZ (Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit), USAID, HELVETA, Asian Development Bank.......

We meet many locals, too. One of them is a teacher for German language at the SOS Children's home / Hermann-Gmeiner-School. we joined some lessons and it made so much fun.
Please read the separate post for this topic !

Christmas

we celebrated Christmas with many people at Kathy's and Mike's apartement. Kathy is from Australia and Mike from USA. we were 28 people from France, Great Britain, Belgium, Russia and USA, Australia, Austria, Germany..... all in their home and it was great ! life music with guitar, bongo drums and a digeridoo, the instrument of the Aborigines in Down Under (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digeridoo).
Everybody brought some food and a small gift. it was gorgeous :-)

Sports

Due to my illness in Kashgar/China, I did not exercise until Bishkek. the problem with my shoulder was another item not to exercise. Beginning with our arrival in Bishkek Astrid did not exercise. Well we wait for a package from Germany, which includes our running shoes, but two days ago, we stopped our laziness.
We drove by marshrutka (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshrutka) to the Dordoy Bazaar. For me it is not so funny to drive with these small buses.Most of the time they are overcrowded and, because I am to tall for it, I have to stand stooped. 
The Dordoy Bazaar is the the biggest bazaar in Central Asia 

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dordoy_Bazaar) and it is amazing how many goods are offered . The "shops" are sea-containers, on the shop there is another container which is the storehouse. 20.000 people work there and most time it is cheap Chinese stuff. We searched for some running shoes and found "branded articles" for 30 USD each pair and with guarantee of three months... ;-)). It was so cold (minus 12 Celsius) and my backside was frozen. When it becomes warmer we will visit this bazaar again. Astrid has no problems with cold, but with heat (the desert was really bad for her)  and I have no problems with heat, but with cold.... now not the best time for me ;-)

Yesterday we went jogging and it was so great. We estimate, that many people thought that we are aliens from outer space, because sports is not popular in Kyrgyzstan. You have to be very careful while walking or running on the sidewalks. People do not clean it or care for damages, so it is quite dangerous. there is pure ice and many times gully covers are missing...... After stretching and a hot shower we felt like a new man/woman :-)

Shop at the Dordoy Bazaar

Dordoy Bazaar

Guesthouse "Interhouse"

Christmas-Party

Christmas-Party

Christmas-Party

Christmas-Party

Christmas-Party