Hi guys, remember when I posted last October that I wanted to go to Kazakhstan because I had to have some major dental surgery and I needed to give myself something nice to look forward to? Well it took a while for my plan to come together but I'm flying off to Almaty, Kazakhstan on the 13th February. I will make a 28 hour stopover in Istanbul on the way out because I am taking advantage of the free stopover offer with Turkish Airlines, so I get a hotel room free which gives me one full day in central Istanbul, a city that I know well and love so much. I then arrive in Almaty on the morning of the 15th February and I will spend a total of five nights there before I travel over to Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan for three nights there. I will then fly back from Bishkek via Istanbul again and arrive home in London after 12 days away. This was all a bit last minute because I had my jury duty in January, which meant that I had to hurriedly plan a trip within Europe before that began (I went to Poland, Slovakia and Czechia). But when my jury duty ended sooner than I thought it would, I suddenly realized, hey it is still winter in Kazakhstan and if I get my act together quickly, I can still make this truly epic trip happen. It is still -20 at Shymbulak, one of my destinations in Kazakhstan and my original plan had always been to go see the epic mountains there in the Tien Shan range in all their glory in winter. I just wanted you to know that I'm a man who dreams of having these incredible experiences - I actually follow through with my plans. I have this memory of my late mother in law, we were once traveling together from Ireland to Scotland and I proposed getting to Belfast a little earlier than planned for dinner at a nice restaurant, then having a short walk around the city centre. She actually said, "if you want to see Belfast, you can just look at pictures of it on the internet, you don't need to go there." At that point I thought, okay you're an old person who has given up on life but at least I have rescued your son from you and now I'm going to show him some of the most amazing places on earth. Some people are quite content watching a Youtube video about Kazakhstan but it has always been my dream to go there and experience it for myself. I have 3 countries and 4 languages on this trip (Turkish, Kazakh, Kyrgyz and Russian) - it is gonna be so freaking epic. Many thanks for reading.
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