WE ARE HERE...WHERE DO WE START!

Well we left as planned on the 24th of Dec 2007...got to the airport in style thanks to Kent and Mandy, they sent us a big bad limo, people at the airport were expecting to see movie stars and then they see us, with our jeans, our big kanuks and our backpacks. I told people at the airport that we are going hiking in Kazakhstan!!!! Our plane was on time and we were off to our next destination...

Amsterdam;
We took a canal tour because we had at least 7 hours to kill, we took a taxi ride from the airport which was an adventure in itself! At first we were trying to take the train but to buy the tickets got way to confusing...and just finding our way around the airport (sleep deprived and all) drove us nuts. When I say us I mean Me, Daniel, Isabelle and her mom Micheline.

Next stop...

Almaty;

What a trip, we slept maybe 2 hours on a 6 hour flight, which turned into a 8 and 1/2 hour if not 9 hour flight. We were getting close to Almaty airport when we had to detour and go to Astana airport because a small private plane crashed...So we flew to Astana and parked it there. Finally after 1 hour re-fueled and took off to our destination. Once landed things got a bit scary and foreign, nobody speaks english anymore, even the people on the plane that were speaking english, all of a sudden couldn't understand a word we were saying!!!! Oh well when in Rome... So I started to speak my version of RusEnglish, Dan followed the style and we accomplished getting into the country. We picked up our 4 giant suitcases, which we will never do again (I think I want to leave Dan's green one here). Tryed to get a trolly, that needed aggression (Dan followed what everyone was doing) and then I watched as Dan, watched our luggage turn on the belt a couple of times. I asked Dan why he wasn't picking up the luggage and he said " where are they?" Now, everybody knows who did the packing!!!! Let me just mention he was sleep deprived.

By the way, there is something very very strange around here, you are not allowed to take any pictures of anything that is in or around a gouvernment establishment, including ourselves up against a wall!!! I did manage to sneak a picture of us on our next flight to Uralsk.

Now back to the Almaty arrival, we (the 4 of us) were spotted by our lovely coordinator Sveta, she was waving to us like a mad woman from across the window. We didn't know her, so we didn't wave back...we just kept saying (with hand gestures) are you waving to us? She would nod yes and we would look behind us just in case she was talking about someone else...this went on for about 3 times until she mouthed SVETA!!!! We are such dorks! I asked her how she knew it was us and she said we aren't pushy enough, she doesn't know me yet, ha! ha! ha!

Then our darling Sveta brought all of us to Vladmirs small car and could only fit our luggage and 2 people, so me, Dan and Sveta walked to our hotel (5 min) which turned out to be not our hotel, just a place to put our luggage until our next flight 8 hours later. So once we did that we proceeded to our real hotel, which took us 1 hour to get there (lots and lots of traffic). I thought we would have time to rest up but, we ate breakfast went to our rooms washed up and then off to the bank which took another 1 hour to get there and another 2 hours in there and then another 1 and 15 minutes to get back to the hotel (now by the way it is a mad rush) we are going to be late for our flight. Sveta has a panicked look on here face the entire car ride, we passed out in the back seat and got jolted up by a crazed Sveta saying" we have to run, run, run" but where? We jump out of the car half asleep running in circles. We needed to pick up our luggage first and throw it into the car (again never bring too much luggage) and run to the airport, check-in and wait for the car with our prized luggage. Sveta had called from the car to advise the airport to wait for us, yet she and one of the flight attends were talking angrily at each other. Just to let you know it went really well because we bought first class tickets (apparently you have a lot of pull) and the plane was late anyways, the joke was on us!

Uralsk

First class was a nice final touch, I would definetly recommend it to anyone. Once in Uralsk (3 hours) we disembarked on the run way outside (it reminded me of old movies). We followed the crowd to...well to the parking lot and then I started to say "niet,niet"everyone was a taxi driver, it kind of felt like we were in Jamaica except for the unbelievable cold and what they were offering (if you get my drift). So, we found an entrace to what looked like an airport arrival, looked for anybody that could look like our next coordinator and we spotted these 2 young beautiful girls holding signs with our names on it. I screamed Elvira is that you??? Yes, Yes who are you? We are the people that will be depending on you for a long long time!!!! HELLO URALSK!!!

To be continued....