Another lazy and slow morning. We had breakfast at the hotel buffet, then hung out in the room. Our flight out was at 5pm and we mostly just killed time until then.

We checked out of our room at noon and left our bags in the lobby. We attempted to find a playground that was on Google Maps but didn’t actually exist. So then we came back to the hotel and spent hours on the patio. Millie drew and listened to music, and we spent a while making every variation of paper airplane shown on the internet. We did flying tests to see which was best. The winner was the simple traditional one.

Finally we headed to the airport. This was a big test of our new system to prevent meltdowns, where she gets a star for every step passed with good behavior. For the most part it worked, other than a brief freak out in the taxi. She got paid out from the stars and bought herself some gum.

The flight was very short, about 45 minutes. I always get the window seat and love getting the first look of a place as we are coming in to land. Almaty is huge and alongside a mountain range. It was beautiful.

Getting through passport control was easy enough. The airport is big and modern. Millie was in good spirits and well behaved. I’m unsure if we should credit a good night’s sleep, lots of playtime this morning, the new reward system, or just chance. It reminds me of when she was a baby and we were trying to get her to sleep — I would do anything to recreate positive results.

We got a Yandex taxi and got to our Airbnb. We are staying in a centrally located apartment complex that is huge. It seems like it’s half inhabited with Russian expats (or refugees?). There’s a big playground in the middle so Millie played for a while before we got dinner.

We walked to a nearby kebab place. They had a kids meal that was presented like a happy meal, in a cute box with a toy. Millie has never had a happy meal so she loved it. Nick and I shared delicious lamb and chicken kebabs, served on a bread plate with carved out areas for sauces. Bread doing double duty? Sign me up.

By now it was late so we walked home. The city is bustling, young, and hip. If you had asked me one year ago what I knew about Kazakhstan, I would have had precisely zero answers for you. I certainly couldn’t have told you that there was a large city called “Almaty”. Even as we were waiting at the airport Nick said “until I started reading about this a couple of weeks ago, all I knew about Kazakhstan was that Borat was from here.” Being here feels like being in any other city in a developed country. It’s both embarrassing and eye-opening to realize how much of the world we know nothing about, and it’s such a gift to learn about new places first hand.