{"id":7463,"date":"2014-11-04T06:59:22","date_gmt":"2014-11-04T11:59:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=7463"},"modified":"2019-09-28T10:34:30","modified_gmt":"2019-09-28T14:34:30","slug":"bishkek-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=7463","title":{"rendered":"Bishkek Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tuesday November 4, 2014 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Bright sunny day: 48 – 62 degrees F.<\/span>
\n Bishkek is the largest city and capital of the Kyrgyz Republic. It’s a relatively new city, since it was founded in 1825. It is located in the northern part of the country and was on the historic caravan trading routes for centuries. Today it is clogged with traffic and has many cement block buildings left over from Soviet times. Our guide told us that Kyrgyzstan is\u00a0considered to be the most democratic country in Central Asia.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"IMG_0049\"<\/a>Flag of Kyrgyzstan<\/p>\n

The main symbol on the flag is\u00a0the golden sun with two sets of three lines which represents the crown of a traditional Kyrgyz yurt. The sun’s 40 rays represent the 40 Kyrgyz tribes which were unified by the epic hero Manas to fight against the invading Mongols.<\/span><\/p>\n

After breakfast, the group went to visit the State History Museum. The bus parked on a back street\u00a0so we could see the statue of Lenin which was located behind the museum.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_7022\"<\/a>Lenin in a Typical Pose<\/p>\n

We stopped at another monument which had been built to honor the fifteen countries of the Soviet Union. Then we continued to walk around the impressive building onto a grand boulevard.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0036\"<\/a>Current President’s Offices<\/p>\n

The museums, government buildings, and wide streets were built during soviet times. Since independence in 1991, the president and parliament currently occupy the offices.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_7057\"<\/a>History Museum with a Statue of Manas<\/p>\n

\"DSC_7061\"<\/a>Manas has a Commanding View of the Mountains<\/p>\n

\"DSC_7049\"<\/a>Guards<\/p>\n

There were two Soviet-looking guards standing outside the history museum. At first, everyone thought they were mannequins, but Batir informed us that they were real men. I took a photograph. \u00a0Later we saw the ‘Changing of the Guard’ when they stepped down.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0056\"<\/a>Interior of the History Museum<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0067\"<\/a>Yurt Exhibit at the Top of the Stairs<\/p>\n

The yurt on display gave visitors an idea of how the nomads lived. The Kyrgyz people were nomadic throughout pre-historic times until the czar forced the people to settle and Bishkek (first called Pishpeck) was founded in the early 1800s.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0057\"<\/a>The Group Learning About the Yurt<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0065\"<\/a>Ceiling Mural<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0075\"<\/a>Historic Needlework<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0082\"<\/a>The Epic of Manas<\/p>\n

The National Art Gallery was next on our list. Here we saw beautiful Kyrgyz works of art from the early 20th century and exhibits of contemporary art. \u00a0Unfortunately, photography was not permitted in the gallery.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_7074\"<\/a>The National Gallery<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0086\"<\/a>Abacus on the Counter<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0087\"<\/a>My Favorite Exhibit<\/p>\n

About one o’clock, we were driven to a modern upscale restaurant, named Sheep, for a fantastic lunch.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0090\"<\/a>A Restaurant Named ‘Sheep’<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0096\"<\/a>Interior of the Restaurant<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0097\"<\/a>Another View of the Interior of ‘Sheep’<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0094\"<\/a>Delicious Muffin<\/p>\n

After lunch\u00a0we\u00a0went to a residential neighborhood\u00a0to see a demonstration of felt making, which is a speciality craft in this region of the world. The woman was a representative of her village cooperative of craftswomen who make fabric arts. She was very entertaining and actively engaged all of us with music and movement in making a lovely piece. Then we had an opportunity to purchase the crafts she had brought from her village.<\/p>\n

\"DSC_7084\"<\/a>Silk Scarves<\/p>\n

\"DSC_7079\"<\/a>Felt Maker<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0111\"<\/a>Making Felt<\/p>\n

\"DSC_7094\"<\/a>Helper<\/p>\n

The last place we visited today was The Mourning Mother with an eternal flame. This is a memorial to the tens of thousands of Kyrgyz soldiers who died during the Second World War fighting in the Soviet Russian army.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_0137\"<\/a>Eternal Flame<\/p>\n

\"DSC_7106\"<\/a>Road Scholars with a Bridal Party<\/p>\n

I opted not to go to dinner this evening because I had eaten\u00a0a very big lunch. It was good to have some time to myself and I packed and rested up\u00a0for tomorrow when we leave for Tashkent, Uzbekistan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tuesday November 4, 2014 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Bright sunny day: 48 – 62 degrees F. Bishkek is the largest city and capital of the Kyrgyz Republic. It’s a relatively new city, since it was founded in 1825. It is located in the northern part of the country and was on the historic caravan trading routes for centuries. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-central-asia","category-kyrgyzstan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7463"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15892,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7463\/revisions\/15892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}