Yesterday, while walking through Panfilov Park in Almaty (in the center of town), I was absolutely delighted to encounter one of the most entertaining sights I have yet seen in Kazakhstan. There were at least a dozen wedding parties having pictures taken at the Glory Memorial in the park--cars were lined up at the entrance, decorated with flowers and ribbons. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get a very clear picture of the cars--and I really wanted to get a picture of the car with the 2-foot tall bride barbie tied to the hood. It was klasna, to say the least!
In the park, wedding parties were vying for position to have their pictures taken. At one point, I counted at least 12 groups, but there were likely more (see how many you can count in the first picture). These pictures fail to capture the full effect--but hopefully will give an idea of what I was writing about in an earlier post. I'll be back in Almaty in a few weeks to do some interviews for one of the new Fulbright programs--hopefully I'll have some time to go to the park and take some more pictures.
