After the girls had played in the hotel for a while, R.'s sister's husband joined us and offered to drive us around Karaganda. We happily agreed. We headed for some outdoor park with interesting rocks, only to find out that it no longer existed, as a new and beautiful mosque had been built where it had been.
Nearby I saw the Catholic Cathedral that we had visited two years ago as it was being constructed. It's quite beautiful, and would fit in nicely in a town in Europe. However, it was still not complete, and so we did not go inside.
A park dedicated to the Afghan War was nearby, and so we stopped here. There was a large fountain with some children running around in it. Sophia and A. had started to whine again, but the water stopped this. We let them take off their shoes and socks, roll up their pants, and splash in the water. They loved this.
Then we returned to the hotel and said good-bye to A.'s aunt and uncle. We decided to walk down the main street to the Johnny Walker pub, which the Lonely Planet recommended and R. had been to numerous times.
The food was a bit expensive, but I ordered a pepper steak and it was absolutely delicious. I ordered a dark beer on draft (they make their own beer) and it was much better than most the beer I've had here. Even the side of bread we got was delicious, with a wide selection of fresh bread. Sophia's plain spaghetti with a side of Parmesan cheese was quite cheap.
We were too full to contemplate dessert and so we walked back home. It was getting close to midnight, but we'd had a great time--a very full and eventful day!
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