Journey to Kaz ... the long Silk Road

Well, once we were on the plane to Frankfurt, it seemed the travel would not end. It was a long road but well worth the time. We basically were in transit for what seemed like 2 full days. An eight hour flight to Frankfurt, a two hour layover, 6 hour flight to Almaty then a quick rest in the apartment in Almaty. Lufthansa does a great job with their flights. The US airlines could learn a lesson or two. We were served meals on each flight (two on the first). Free drinks/sodas the whole trip. It was strange to see the flight attendants coming up and down the aisles throughout the night serving wine. On the first flight we had personal TV sets and could watch TV or movies or listen to music.

Once in Almaty, Dema, our driver, brought us to the apartment. I could not believe the number of people out at 1230 in the morning. The city seemed to never sleep. The apartment was nice - 4th floor. We didn't really plan for carrying 4 suitcases and 4 carry-ons up 4 flights of stairs - but we did it! We barely slept 3-4 hours. We had a great wakeup call by the boys at 6am Kaz time. Daniel's first question was "Have you seen the judge yet?" We will see the judge after our 14 day visitation period which starts on Monday.

At 0845 on Thursday am we went to meet with the Sisters. They were very efficient and professional. We signed all the application forms and took care of the financial side of things. It went very smooth. At 1100 Dema took us to the Almaty airport. We took off at 1230 and headed for Astana. It was a quick 1 1/2 hr flight. Once in Astana, Yuri, our driver, took us on the 4 hour ride to Kokshetau. We arrived in Kokshetau around 7pm. It was a very interesting drive. Lots of flat land with small villages.

We arrived at the cottage and got settled in. Our room mates brought us a pizza - boy were we hungry! We got logged onto the internet and off to bed at 1030!