London to Almaty, Kazakhstan

It was raining in London when we left late on Tuesday afternoon but that didn’t dampen our spirits. The flight to Istanbul was bumpy but we arrived in plenty of time to make what was a very long walk to the departure gate for our flight to Almaty. This was due to leave at 00.45 local time, 22.45 UK time and was a 5 hour flight so we knew we would be a little sleep deprived! What we didn’t expect was another dinner at 3.00 in the morning🤦‍♀️We had thought maybe we would get a breakfast before we were due to land at 8.30 a.m, but no, it was a second dinner, almost the same as the first.There was even less sleep than we anticipated, less than 2 hours so we were feeling pretty rough when we landed.(We are 4 hours ahead of UK time) There we’re some lovely views of the snow capped mountains as we came into land.

Passport control took ages but at least we thought the bags would all be off the flight as it is only a small airport. We were not so lucky and it was well over an hour after landing that the last of the bags finally arrived. Except they didn’t all arrive. One of our group was missing hers so we then had to wait whilst all the paperwork was done for that. The rest of us felt somewhat relieved that this hadn’t happened to us. On the plus side the hotel were still serving breakfast when we arrived so we were able to grab a cup of tea and some fruit before heading to our rooms. I thought I would just crash, but sleep didn’t come easily, maybe because we had to meet up with everyone again only an hour and a half later.

It’s surprising what you can do when you have to! We had lunch at a traditional Kazakh restaurant. Firstly traditional bread. Imagine small , thinner doughnuts, not covered in sugar and served up warm. Actually very tasty. Some salads, then stir fried beef and vegetables and rice, served with fresh, weak black tea. It was all delicious and we were very pleased with our first Kazakh meal.

Then onto sightseeing. Kazakhstan is the 9th largest country in the world and the size of Western Europe, yet has a population of only 19million people, just under 2 million of whom live in Almaty. The political capital is Astana, a new, purpose built city north west of here that has taken over this role from Almaty. Kazakhstan is also known as the home of the humble apple and is famous for wild apple trees that are here..We visited Independnce Square, the theatre, musical instrument museum, the Russian Orthodox Cathedral, a large indoor market that sold everything from nuts and dried fruit, vegetables, fruit and meat (including horse meat😬) to clothes and household items. I always enjoy looking at local markets and wish we had had more time there and also been a bit less tired.

There was only an hour or so when we got back before going out again for dinner and tired as we were, it was too risky to have a nap, so a shower and change of clothes it had to be.

Dinner was again a traditional meal. More bread and salads which are fresh and tasty with some interesting bits of cheese thrown in. Some a bit like feta but not as crumbly, another more creamy, all very tasty! Then it was dumplings. Not our suet ones, but more like Chinese dumplings, stuffed with meat and onions, meat and pumpkin or meat, garlic and chives. Not being a Chinese dumpling fan I was a bit apprehensive but I have to say these were delicious. I’m not sure how we have managed to eat 4 main meals in less than 24 hours but maybe travelling just makes you hungry?🤔😂 Travelling can definitely be exhausting 😂😴