Happy New Year! For the second time, I celebrated in Bishkek, surrounded by friends, food, and my wonderful husband.
Just like my Christmas trip to Chon-Kemin, I was really happy to spend this time of year with a smaller group of friends than the usual gigantic expat extravaganzas.
(Although, it was probably because all the other expats are back at home or in fabulous tropical locations at the moment. No, I’m not jealous at all. Nope.)
Special highlights of the night:
French cheese!
Delicious food (like cucumber soup in champagne flutes).
Glazed ham!
A special midnight message from President Almazbek Atambayev…
…and an insanely weird, hours-long TV special on OTRK (Kyrgyz public TV), featuring a dancing Ded Moroz and Snegurochka.
And many (many) fireworks. I guess that’s the upside to a country with more relaxed laws regarding firework sales and use. Everybody set off their own batch of fireworks from courtyards, rooftops, windows or wherever there was space. They lasted for hours after midnight. In fact, people are still shooting them off the day after.
Happy New Year! I’m still finalizing my list of 2012 resolutions, but this week-long government-mandated holiday should give me plenty of free time to work on it.
That is a CRAZY amount of fireworks!!
Happy New Year! 🙂
As always, I really like your photos !
Especially the one with french cheese (maybe because I’m French – where did you find it ?) and the two last one which show that kyrgyz people really like fireworks (we were in a yard while it happened, that was crazy…)
The French cheese came from a friend visiting from France, you can’t find it in Bishkek.
Nice pics and views! Was in trouble trying to recognize the place.