I've just got back from a trip to Kazakhstan. A friend is living out there so I thought, perfect opportunity! I have a confession. I knew nothing about the country when I booked my flights, and so spent the month reading up on its history, geography, culture and people. I learnt the cyrillic alphabet and memorised a few Kazakh words (one, two, three, Wednesday, second). I bought some snow boots, had a tricky hunt finding some Kazakh currency and packed my warmest thermals too. I really had no idea what to expect...the journey was long as it included an eight hour stop over in Turkey, which was great as I got to see some of the beautiful city of Istanbul, climb the historic Galata Tower and drink delicious freshly squeezed pomegranate juice.
I was very pleased my friend came to met me at the airport when I arrived into Kazakhstan...bartering solo with a golden-toothed taxi driver at 9am would have been a tricky introduction to the rest of the week otherwise.
The city of Almaty where my friend is based is the ex-capital of Kazakhstan. Like every other prominent city, it has roads, cars, people and buildings. However unlike other cities I've been to to, this one was covered in deep deep coverings of snow. Really! It was snowing heavily too on the first day of exploration, and any parts of the body that weren't covered by copious amounts of layers turned pink and red and numb. Roads are wide, and the buildings on each side are vast, grey, and imposing. There are lots of sculptures and statues that adorn the open spaces, and people who are out and about are dressed in warm fur coats and hats. We found ourselves in a Muslim area where there was the most beautiful gold domed and blue tiled mosque and stopped off opposite for food discovering pumpkin and some kind of meat dumplings which were totally delicious. I ate horse. Horse! It was great. Vegetarianism seems like such a long time ago...
The next few days were filled with walking around and learning a few words of Russian as I discovered that although Kazakh is the recognised national language everyone speaks Russian. I like the people of Kazakhstan. They are tough nuts. Smile at them and they don't smile back. But persist in the smile (looking a bit loony) and they'll eventually reciprocate, and you feel a mini victory. I met two girls I had contacted online who kindly gave me some tips on what to do with my time, and decided to spend a few days outside of Almaty. Jumping on an overnight sleeper train that evening I woke up in Shymkent, the third largest city in the country.
