Where In The World is Mike Drish? The Former Soviet Union

Salem (hello) from Kazakhstan! That's right, my one international trip this spring has taken me to brand new, uncharted, never before seen countries (for me), all former Soviet Socialist Republics, the first of which being Kazakhstan. This is all part of the Council of International Schools (CIS) Eurasia Tour. I will be in four countries in five days of work before heading back to the States. Over the next week I hope to provide facts, cool pics, and great stories from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. The time zones will vary, but I am anywhere between 11 hours and 8 hours ahead of the U.S. Central time zone, so it is Sunday morning here at stop #1, Almaty, the largest city in Kazakhstan.

This was the most hectic attempt to leave the U.S. I have had after years of international travel. It all started on Friday afternoon when American Airlines decided to cancel my flight from Nashville to Chicago and rebook me on a flight that would cause me to miss my connection on Turkish Airlines from Chicago to Istanbul. After American expressed their lack of concern I decided to catch a United flight that after several delays finally made it to O'Hare. Due to the short connection I ran through two terminals and made it to the Turkish Airlines ticketing desk to check-in 4 minutes before the flight started boarding...so after rushing through security I made it on the plane as they were boarding. The 10 hour flight to Istanbul went relatively fast. They served drinks and dinner for the first couple hours, I watched some TV and fell asleep after a couple glasses of wine. Woke up 2 hours from Istanbul - I was definitely exhausted after everything travel-related on Friday, I think I could have slept through a monster truck rally. After waking up I ate some "breakfast" even though we landed around 4:30pm local time, watched a couple more episodes of TV shows and then landed. I have to say, this was my first time flying Turkish Airlines overseas and it was an incredible experience. They have an in-flight chef and he was coming out with sample and other things to try - very nice touch. The woman next to me was older and said she had flown Turkish for years, including all the way to South Africa before and it was the same...she loves the airline.

After a layover in Istanbul I boarded another Turkish Airlines flight bound for Almaty. It was a little over 5 hours and along the way I discovered another member of the CIS Eurasia tour was sitting across the aisle from me and another tour member was a few rows back. We arrived in Almaty at 4 in the morning, shared a car to the hotel, and then after checking in I headed straight for my room and promptly fell asleep around 5am local time.

Today we are about to have breakfast and then explore Almaty. The next post will have some information about the city, Kazakhstan, and pictures to give you a glimpse of this city.