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harpergetsfannish:
songs-of-the-east:
Scenes from the 2016 World Nomad Games hosted in Cholpon-Ata, Kyrgyzstan. The World Nomad Games brings athletes from various countries, primarily from the Central Asian region and Russia, to participate in sports native to the Eurasian Steppe. The Eurasian Steppe was home to various nomadic peoples particularly the Iranic-speaking Scythians and Sarmatians, who were a source of fear for the ancient Greeks due to their warriorlike nature and great horse-riding skills; including their mastery of horseback archery. Both groups are believed to have originated in the Eurasian Steppes, but their settlements ranged from China to Poland, and because of this they greatly impacted the genetic pool and cultures of a number of different groups in Eastern Europe and Central Asia such as the people of the Caucasus, Slavs, Turkic people, and other modern Iranic people. The Sarmatians in particular were famed by Greek historians for their female warriors and rulers that inspired the stories of the Amazons.
@glumshoe, this is @bomberqueen17.
@bomberqueen17, glumshoe expressed interest in attending these games. I know you’re going. Any advice?
I haven’t finished making my plans yet! So far I know a couple of things, though:
1) flights to kyrgyzstan are really expensive. And you can either lay over in Istanbul or Moscow. I’m told Istanbul is infinitely preferable, mostly because of the way Turkish Air structures their layovers being much better than how Aeroflot does. I’m also told Istanbul is super cool and we’ll want to hang out there but I don’t know yet how we’re structuring that.
2) Kyrgyzstan is stunningly beautiful and there are many tour companies that would be delighted to coordinate everything for you. But none of them offer a package that includes all of the Games, and we want to see some of the events that aren’t at the hippodrome, so we’ve got to figure out our own way. Getting there is $$$ but once you’re there, it’s pretty cheap to eat and get around and such.
3) You don’t have to learn Kyrgyz, and you don’t really have to learn Russian either, but being able to read Cyrillic seems like a really good idea. So I’m working on that. It’s not rocket science but, это запутывает. I’m trying to pick up a smattering of Russian since that’s what most foreigners speak there. The Games are staffed by a lot of multilingual people, with a focus on English-speakers, so if that’s your destination you should be fine!
4) The games are only every other year so there won’t be another round until 2020, so if you don’t go this time, you’ll have to wait a long time! They’re in September this year.
5) there are a lot of yurt stays available on AirBnB and I’m definitely going to do one. But most people don’t really live in yurts there; the Soviets pushed them into houses more than they did the Mongolians, so while they’re still fairly common as summer homes, most hotels and such are just regular hotels, and most people in the towns live in regular houses.
6) apparently you take dollar vans everywhere to get around. I know those from, like, Jersey City, so. (маршру́тка) We’re seriously considering renting a car instead of relying on those but, they’re said to be, well, I mean, effective. Apparently the roads there are spectacularly awful but uh, my summer job is working on a farm so I feel like I’m probably pretty well-equipped to handle driving a car on not-road roads. We’ll see, that might be hubris. I’ve rolled fewer Jeep Wranglers than a full 50% of my siblings and am tied for fewest with the other 25% of my siblings so that’s not the worst record in the world.
(Your picture was not posted)
harpergetsfannish:
songs-of-the-east:
Scenes from the 2016 World Nomad Games hosted in Cholpon-Ata, Kyrgyzstan. The World Nomad Games brings athletes from various countries, primarily from the Central Asian region and Russia, to participate in sports native to the Eurasian Steppe. The Eurasian Steppe was home to various nomadic peoples particularly the Iranic-speaking Scythians and Sarmatians, who were a source of fear for the ancient Greeks due to their warriorlike nature and great horse-riding skills; including their mastery of horseback archery. Both groups are believed to have originated in the Eurasian Steppes, but their settlements ranged from China to Poland, and because of this they greatly impacted the genetic pool and cultures of a number of different groups in Eastern Europe and Central Asia such as the people of the Caucasus, Slavs, Turkic people, and other modern Iranic people. The Sarmatians in particular were famed by Greek historians for their female warriors and rulers that inspired the stories of the Amazons.
@glumshoe, this is @bomberqueen17.
@bomberqueen17, glumshoe expressed interest in attending these games. I know you’re going. Any advice?
I haven’t finished making my plans yet! So far I know a couple of things, though:
1) flights to kyrgyzstan are really expensive. And you can either lay over in Istanbul or Moscow. I’m told Istanbul is infinitely preferable, mostly because of the way Turkish Air structures their layovers being much better than how Aeroflot does. I’m also told Istanbul is super cool and we’ll want to hang out there but I don’t know yet how we’re structuring that.
2) Kyrgyzstan is stunningly beautiful and there are many tour companies that would be delighted to coordinate everything for you. But none of them offer a package that includes all of the Games, and we want to see some of the events that aren’t at the hippodrome, so we’ve got to figure out our own way. Getting there is $$$ but once you’re there, it’s pretty cheap to eat and get around and such.
3) You don’t have to learn Kyrgyz, and you don’t really have to learn Russian either, but being able to read Cyrillic seems like a really good idea. So I’m working on that. It’s not rocket science but, это запутывает. I’m trying to pick up a smattering of Russian since that’s what most foreigners speak there. The Games are staffed by a lot of multilingual people, with a focus on English-speakers, so if that’s your destination you should be fine!
4) The games are only every other year so there won’t be another round until 2020, so if you don’t go this time, you’ll have to wait a long time! They’re in September this year.
5) there are a lot of yurt stays available on AirBnB and I’m definitely going to do one. But most people don’t really live in yurts there; the Soviets pushed them into houses more than they did the Mongolians, so while they’re still fairly common as summer homes, most hotels and such are just regular hotels, and most people in the towns live in regular houses.
6) apparently you take dollar vans everywhere to get around. I know those from, like, Jersey City, so. (маршру́тка) We’re seriously considering renting a car instead of relying on those but, they’re said to be, well, I mean, effective. Apparently the roads there are spectacularly awful but uh, my summer job is working on a farm so I feel like I’m probably pretty well-equipped to handle driving a car on not-road roads. We’ll see, that might be hubris. I’ve rolled fewer Jeep Wranglers than a full 50% of my siblings and am tied for fewest with the other 25% of my siblings so that’s not the worst record in the world.
(Your picture was not posted)
