Quick summary.
I left Bishkek for Almaty in a minibus. While in the station took a hard fall over a minispeed-bump thing ... why it was in a path in the dark in the rain? I don't know. But I fell hard on concrete and hurt my wrist and ribs while using both to protect my camera. Camera outside scratched on the edge of the lens, but functional. Wrist - sore for a while, used an ace bandage and pain killers and now it's up to par. Ribs bruises are almost gone, still hurts like hell if I stretch or breath too deep. Oh well. No stretching... back to minibus... took it to Almaty. Had a fever, wasn't fun. Fail. Got to the airport, got a room at the hotel attached. Quick shower, hour nap and then off to Uralsk. Arrived there to discover. DAAAAAMN this place is cold. Really cold. Like the captain announced when we landed at 9 am - it was 5 below zero. COLD. And I've got this annoying fever and red nose and... the hotel we're supposed to stay at that the director stayed at in May... well it's a nice place. But they don't turn the hear on till the 15th. Whoops. Not gonna cut it for a sick Urv. So Ainura and I go to 6 different places checking both quality of the hotel and more importantly - does the heater work. Some had heaters in the room that they said worked, but if you turned on the fan, cold air. Eventually we found a place. At this point we eat lunch. Return to the room at 12 pm. I pass out. Pass OUT. So passed out that at 10 am the next morning I wake up. 22 hours of sleep. Fever easing up a little. Sleep = magic.
Then blah blah stress phone call pack up leave crazy stress 12:50 flight out... somehow catch it. Money is as always a problem as Ainura's flight we can't get as we need to exchange money to get the ticket and the cash counter is randomly closed. We panic a bit, make some calls and eventually I say good luck, farewell and board my flight leaving her with almost all the money and taking $100 for excess baggage fees... Which was less than half of what I needed. But I had my salary in cash so I ended up being okay/spending that/I'm gonna be so broke as a result of this project/OMG where am I going?!?
Moving on. I fly out to Atyrau. Where is that? Good question. I didn't know either. I found it on an inflight map. South of where I was. I arrive an hour later. And wait until 5 pm to board a flight that left at like 7? Then off to Almaty. I arrive near 10 or 11pm (flying east here folks) and then wait till 3:40 for the flight to Istanbul.
I have no clue the time here... I'm flying east now I'm flying west. I arrive in Istanbul just after 6 am and the Delta flight counter opens at 9:15. We've gone west, the time has changed, I have no watch, had no sleep, have been going east and west and the light makes no sense and I'm just too tired. Eventually I find out for $250 they will change my flight to the flight today as opposed to in three days. Sold. Then $205 excess baggage fee because I'm carrying all the stuff I was supposed to leave in the Land Rover I never saw when I was in Uralsk... Whoops. There goes my September pay. Ugh. Then after waiting to sell me the ticket until 11:15 when they knew they had a seat for me, Delta tells me "RUN!" So I do. Check in has started. I rush for passport control, dash through customs, jog down a very long airport with my north face gear making me look much more athletic than I am and arrive to the gate just in time to be pulled aside for extra security and have my bag hand searched, scanned for radioactivity and also have the normal x ray treatment.
Then I wait. Wait 2 hours more. Then we get on the plane. Wait 2 and a half hours more. Then Delta says, sorry... we're not flying today. Panic. Border control. Passport checks for everyone. Waiting to collect our bags. Shuffled onto buses... And magically deposited at a utopia of a hotel.
After getting through the annoying long check in process (I've had enough lines people!) I'm given a key and one of my new friends from the last few hours of waiting (obviously I talked to everyone around me as they spoke English and this after Central Asia was a novelty!) helped me carry the REI bag that's the size of a dead body and then some up to my room. Glorious room! Took a hot shower and came out a smiling human. And then they gave us delicious food (first real meal since the flight from Almaty to Istanbul... which wasn't real. It was fake eggs I swear!) and suddenly life was good. Now I'm well fed, about to rest, in good company, logistics are being managed and delays are not costing me a penny. And added bonus, I have internet. And a kiwi tart for dessert. Oh heaven, I arrived.
Someday I hope to see Istanbul.
But for now I'm loving this extreme comfort giving me a break from airports as well as helping restore my health. Also found chapstick for sale here! The cold in Kazakhstan and the dry air on the flights made them chapped enough to almost bleed... it looked like I was wearing lipstick. Insane. But after obsessively reapplying it in the last few hours I am beginning to smile again without the painful cracks threatening to bleed on me.
TMI there probably. But oh well. Tomorrow at 8 am Delta should be collecting us from the hotel to send us all out to NY and then on to our connecting flights. So if all goes well I'll be back in California tomorrow night before traveling to an even more foreign land... Texas.
