It was time for myself to leave Astana and take the next step. Going to the biggest city of Kazakhstan, the old capital Almaty.
Meeting my host
My host Zarina was a sweet girl who offered to host me Couchsurfing. She was living due to the traffic quite far away from the airport. We were talking a bit, but she was busy with work. That was good for me so I was able to rest a bit.
She had a plan for us that night though. There was some couchsurfing event going on at night, where she wanted to go with me.
The party
It was crazy, we went to this bar during the week and it was just packed, completely crowded. In Astana I didn’t see anything like that. We met the people and it was nice being there. Also the beer was just cheap, 33 cents for a draft beer. Nowhere in the world I’ve seen it that cheap yet. Even when I told other locals later about it, they were strongly surprised. In the group I tried to get connected somehow, but I got at first in a tricky spot, where they wanted me to guess all nationalities on the table. Actually some guesses were correct, which was great. Also I offered everyone to visit me in Hamburg. Though the more I do it, the more I believe people don’t take me seriously.
The plan was to stay not that long, but we changed the plan, due to the amount of fun we had. I was going dancing with some guys from China and had some great conversations besides that as well. It was such a good vibe and everyone was enjoying themselves. There was no getting wasted, just a fun surrounding.
After the party was basically over, we still went out to get some fast food to end the night. It’s always great to eat something after a party, whether you’re drunk or not.
The first full day
For me it was time to explore a bit of the city. Before coming to Almaty I already was in contact with a German girl Piya, who is originally from Thailand. We were meeting downtown, at a really colorful church, the Ascension Cathedral.
Before that I went to eat a pizza at a store recommended to me. It was a distance of around 8 km and of course I did it by walking, to see more of the city.
Before she was there, I was meeting Rose, a girl who Piya wanted to meet herself. Both of them were fine with me joining. It was nice to see Rose, I didn’t have to wait alone and she was super friendly. We connected right away and encountered some pigeons. Crazy to see that some people were just catching them somehow. Before I could have catched one Piya arrived and we went together through the city. We didn’t really see each other so much, we were more likely to have nice conversations together, that’s why we went to a cafe together. Usually not the place for me to be at, but with the right people everything can be good!
When the night arrived it was time to leave, because all of us had plans the next day. For Piya and me it was time for some hitchhiking.
Seeing the bluest lake I’ve ever seen
Great Almaty Lake, read this article for more detailed information!
Hitchhiking there was super easy, we didn’t have to wait five minutes until an old guy was picking us up. For Piya it was the first time doing it. I wanted it to be good, so that was a great start. He didn’t speak English, we got along anyway, which was most important. The translation on the phone helped a lot though.
After being dropped at the entrance and paid the entry fee there were four local women, who just stopped and took us. They were super kind people, for who it was the first time ever to pick someone up, how cool that they chose us for it.
We went with them to the lake which was just stunning. For all details with useful information the other article is the one to read.
A lot of pictures were taken there, but it was hard to not take one, due to the amazing level of the place, just a perfect blue!
Back in the city
It was time to check out the presidents park
We were both quite tired and the sun was shining, so after sharing some food together, she got me some vegetable rice, which was amazing! We went to the grass and just layed down. After I finished taking many pictures of cute squirrels I went to lay down too and fell asleep quite quickly! For sure that was needed and the surrounding was just perfect for it! Very peaceful and nice sunshine above! The time was great, but when the day was finishing, we went to the botanical garden where we were meeting up with Rose again.
She was inviting us to go there with her and botanical gardens are always nice, at least I haven’t been in a bad one. There were so many coys swimming with some swans in a little lake and also some cute looking squirrels were in the botanical garden.
There were places in the garden where people went on purpose to create Tiktok videos, there were some fairy lights with a good surrounding there and it was interesting to see all these people creating these videos!
Leaving Kazakhstan
It was my last night in Kazakhstan already and I was actually sad that I couldn’t spend more time there, because the same as Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan surprised me very positively. So it needs to be explored another time, way better.
After bringing Rose back home and saying goodbye to Piya. It was time for myself to spend some more time with Zarina, who kind of didn’t know that I would be leaving the next day. We were talking every night for quite a while until the morning. Besides the big lag of sleep I had all night, I was very enjoying the time with her. In the morning there were literally 30+ timers going on which gave me some stressing/nervous feeling. Never before received that from phone timers, but it was going on every minute and she was sadly not waking up fully.
I decided to stop it and get some restful last minutes before going to the airport. I decided to offer to just wake her up, when I would be leaving, which was the right decision.
A ride was ordered and then it was time for the next adventure.
What’s coming up next?
Next personal blog will be about arriving in Tajikistan and getting prepared for Afghanistan.
