Waking up in Almaty, a long day was ahead to make it back home. Having originally pondered the possibility of flying home via Astana to view the new capital, after the events of the last few days I was pleased to be making my way home already, and so with Abdo, who was also on my first leg flight, I headed to the airport for my flight back via Istanbul. After three of the five hours into the first flight, and I was still over Kazakhstan, having viewed the vast ...

As you all know, last week I went to visit Onur in Istanbul, the furthest place away from home I have been (although Athens was further south, and Kyiv further east). Although a short trip of just 3½ days, it was jam packed with things to do and see. After visiting Athens in March and from what I had seen and heard before, I was expecting Istanbul to be full of old buildings, but also rather dirty and feel very foreign...but actually I was completely wrong,...