Expo - Day 2

On Thursday, August 10, we went back for more to the Expo.  We had bought tickets for the Cirque du Soleil show that evening, so we planned on attending the Expo all day.  We went a bit later in the day - starting after lunch - since the show didn't start until 7:30, and we knew it would be a long day.

Our plan for the day was to make it through all of the pavilions that we hadn't made it through on Tuesday.  We did a pretty good job of seeing everything, even though we missed the Korean pavilion, which was the most popular pavilion of the Expo because it was completely full - and completely booked for return visits by the time we got there.

There were a number of fun pavilions that we saw - the Austrian pavilion sponsored by Red Bull and turned into a fun playground that used different machines to make air that moved machines and made noise was a favorite for the kids.  Oma loved the pavilion about Lithuania and made friends with the worker there by asking so many good questions.  In the end they gave us a nice picture book of the country.  We also went through the USA pavilion.  We didn't see any of our friends from BYU that had been coming to church with us all summer when we went through, so that was our small disappointment for the day.

For dinner we went to a little food court building.  It had a few fancier places, and a pizza and burger fast food type of restaurant.  The girls voted for hamburgers, so we had burgers for dinner.  Oma was quite tired after a long day of walking, so she and I relaxed while Yulia, Babushka, and the girls went into the African pavilion to round out the pavilions that we hadn't seen.  We also took some time to go into the pavilions from the Central Asian states (Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan) that we hadn't been through on the first day.

The highlight of the day was the circus.  They had designed a special show just for the expo that incorporated traditional Kazakh themes as well as the themes of energy and technology from the Expo.  We knew some of the performers - the fire eating act and trapeze artists - from church, so we had extra fun watching for their parts in the show.  The show was fantastic from start to finish.  We don't have pictures from it - just from the warm up while we were waiting for the show to start.  

By the time we finished for the day and walked home, we'd had a very long and very exciting day.  The Expo didn't disappoint Oma or us.  We thought it was an event that was done well. 

Outside the Qatari pavilion - so bright.

Inside the US pavilion

Walking outside the pavilions at Expo 2017

Finland Pavilion - building with wood.

Hungarian pavilion, one of the favorites for the kids!

More Hungarian pavilion.

Hungary III

Hungary IV

Lithuanian pavilion

Looking at our photo book of Lithuania

Oma taking a virtual tour of Lithuania

Italian pavilion 3d- printing.

3d printer in Italian pavilion.

British Pavilion - all about earth and the cosmos.

Low energy, high brightness light bulbs at British Pavilion.

Taking a rest near a tour group

Austrian pavilion

Making music with air

See-saw air machine.

Czech pavilion was very futuristic.

Czech pavilion.

German pavilion.

Also German pavilion.

German pavilion - BMW

German pavilion - energy from conservation and saving energy.

More scenes from the expo grounds. With hundreds of small pinwheels to capture the wind.  There were shaded areas with grass and solar as well, and one with water.

Turkish day parade.

Dinner

African Pavilion

African Pavilion II

African Pavilion III - a market

African Pavilion IV

Turkmenistan - a saddle to show Uncle Burl.

Turkmenistan II

Turkmenistan III

Yurt

Inside the Yurt

Waiting for Cirque!

Getting the crowd ready!

Leaving Expo in the evening with Nur Alem lit up in the background.

Kazakh Folk Instrument Concert

The Expo has begun in Astana.  Besides the actual site with all of the pavilions, the city is geared up for visitors to come and experience Kazakhstan.  Yulia was looking at the different events and found some tickets to go and see the Tlendiyev Kazakhstan National Ethnic Folk Orchestra.  The orchestra plays traditional instruments (like the ones our university orchestra plays) and plays both Kazakh traditional music as well as classical music.

Yulia got tickets for us and told our friend, Ramona, who got tickets for herself and her girls as well as a few friends.  The concert was held at the new ballet theater, which is only about a mile from our house - within walking distance easily - and which we hadn't yet been to.  We dressed up and took the bus two stops and then had to walk about the same distance up the road. The theater is beautiful on the inside and out.  It is a modern style, but since the opera theater is classical, it is a nice contrast.

Some "plant" sculptures on our walk to the theater

On our walk to the theater. Behind us is a row of flags of all of the countries participating in EXPO

A view of the main EXPO building from the theater

Ladies

Our crew at the Ballet Theater

We didn't realize that the twins dressed this way until we got here. If you are wondering what's up, here is the deal: they are wearing Indian shirts (Native American) and Indian skirts (from India)

The chandeliers were incredibly beautiful.

Yulia and I waiting for the concert to begin.

Girls and Babushka before the concert. 

We had bought our seats online.  We sat down (about fifteen minutes early, so VERY early in Kazakh time) and had two groups of people come and try to sit in our seats.  They had hand-written tickets from the expo.  We guess that they had reserved blocks of ticket for there, but that the reservation system wasn't quite synced.  The ushers told us to stay and put the other groups in seats around us.  When the concert started, the theater was only about 2/3 full, which was a shame because it was a very nice concert.

The repertoire consisted of traditional songs with guests vocalists, classical operas, and classical instrumental music.  There were a few songs where they had different instruments doing solos and that was really neat.  We love the round clay flute especially.

Solo number with a violin-like instrument that is held between the knees.  This was probably the most beautiful song overall.

The final bow with all the conductors and singers. 

We had a wonderful time.  When the concert was over we walked to the new mall and had McFlurry ice cream at McDonalds and then walked the rest of the way home.  It was a lovely evening and a lovely concert.

On our walk to the Mega Mall we passed some EXPO buildings. They were still doing some work in places even though EXPO opened the day before.

McFlurries! Yum!