Alive in Almaty!

We’ve arrived in Kazakhstan! 

We had a really nice, really comfortable trip from Frankfurt to Almaty. This time we were on Lufthansa and could feel the difference immediately. Warm cloths for our hands as soon as we were seated followed by a scotch and soda for Brent, Coke “light” for me. Very nice flight crew. Hot tortellini for dinner. Danke schön!

We were going to try to stay awake the whole of the flight so that we’d be ready to sleep by the time we got to Almaty (about midnight Kaz time, but 1pm in the afternoon at home). No way that was going to happen. So, we revised that plan and allowed ourselves a couple of hours of shut-eye, but still managed to stay awake the majority of the time.

(Almaty airport from plane)

We touched down in Almaty right on time. (Almaty, by the way, means roughly, “apple-ness”—‘Alma’ means ‘apple’—this region is the origin of the apple). We, along with Lisa and Todd, proceeded through immigration and baggage claim without hitch. All our bags arrived (yay!) and our contact person—Gulnara—was right there to meet us. It turns out that Gulnara studied English for a short time at the University of Arizona in Tucson (my alma mater)--small world eh? Anyhow, she took us to our apartment, which is quite nice. We’ll be staying for the next two days before we head off to Kokshetau.

We were able to fall asleep right away and slept through the night. I slept soundly, but I think Brent was a bit more restless. Anyhow ,we’re safe, sound, happy, and comfortable in Almaty

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers. Almost there!