WorldWideKittyGlassesProject : Astana to Budapest

Monday, June 17, 2019

Astana to Budapest

The last day of my trip was a COLD one. The whole time I was in Central Asia I was experiencing days that were 30+ C. On my last day, it was 13C!!!! It felt so weird to have to wear a long sleeve shirt and a jacket. I guess it was a nice break from the heat, but it felt so odd. The day I left was election day, so I got to benefit from the free transportation the government set out to get a better voter turn out rate. Since I bought a lot of things in Uzbekistan, I needed to buy a bigger bag to hold my stuff. I went for breakfast first thing in the morning because it was rainy, windy and cold. When the rain stopped I went to the local shopping area. Then I decided to just walk around in a general direction to the downtown area and found some nice parks. Of course I ended up going in some shopping malls, because that is what Astana is really about. Then I had to start my LONG LONG journey back home. In the airplane I had the middle seat which I really hate, but it was the first time ever where the people who sat on both sides of me were super nice and chatty. I don't think I have ever chatted that much on a flight. When I first got to my seat a Kazak woman started to chat to me in Kazak. I looked at her confused and answered in English. She was shocked. This happened to me everywhere in Central Asia. Everyone thought I was local, which was really nice because no one bothered me. On the other side of me was a man from Spain. He went to Kazakhstan for his friend's wedding. Lucky for me, the Kazak woman was also staying the night at the airport in Budapest, so we decided to hang out with each other until we had to part ways. Once it was morning, I took a bus into the city to hang out for a bit until my bus to Praha. My bus back to Praha was comfortable, but there was a deadly accident on the road and we were delayed by 3 hours! I was on the bus for a total of 10 hours. Then I missed the connection for the bus to the village. I didn't want to wait another 2 hours for a direct bus, so I had to take a bus to the neighboring city and walk to the village through the forest. In total I traveled more than 24 hours to get home. Overall the trip was amazing though! I got to see a lot of things I didn't expect to see and met some incredible people. What an adventure!