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 steppe, as well as the evaporating Aral Sea.

A few more hours over the Caucasus and Anatolia I eventually landed again at Atatürk airport, where I would be stopping for seven hours, and meeting up with my good friends from my time in Germany, Onur and Camilla.

Having a wonderful catch up in the city for a few hours grabbing ice cream and dinner by the Marmara, I then made my way back to the airport for my final flight home.

By this point I was again exhausted and looking forward to finally arriving home. Struggling to eat my dinner or nap on the plane (but luckily nabbing a pillow before they all disappeared), by the time of my arrival at Heathrow I was again physically drained and hoping to not get stopped by customs or immigration. I finally found my dad in the arrival pick up and made my last journey home.

The following day I had planned to possibly to go to work, in order to save some annual leave. However when I finally awoke and saw that I had slept for 14 hours and the time was now 13:30, I decided perhaps not. What a trip!