Friday 26th August
Keen to achieve slightly more during
our second day in Astana, Caleb and Rich wolfed down multiple bowls of Choco
Loops, which by the way puts Weetabix’s niacin and riboflavin levels to shame.
Focused, energised and ready to seize the day we drew up an itemised agenda of
tasks, assigned owners and agreed deadlines. Item 1; buy some more camping gas
for the stove. Within minutes we had sourced an outdoor leisure centre, found
the canisters we were after and thrust our money at the cashier faster than you
can say optimus primus. A large tick appeared on the imaginary clipboard and we
proceeded to item 2; a full engine oil change.
Thanks to the ever-trustworthy
maps.me, we found a suitable garage who completed the oil change and even
handed us some complementary mugs as souvenirs. The sight of an unobstructed
column of coal-black oil descending from the sump into the mechanic’s
contraption was immensely satisfying. Marigold was ecstatic to receive fresh
Triple QX 10W-40 - it was only 6,000 miles overdue. Everyone in the garage was
so excited to see us that they began plastering their company logo and
signatures all over the car.
To great fanfare, Marigold emerged through the double doors feeling like a million dollars. Driving back to the hostel felt like a lap of honour for Marigold who was flaunting her glitzy red carpet moment at every opportunity. We had completed all the planned tasks for the day and it wasn’t even lunchtime yet. Feeling triumphant we toasted Marigold, lay back in our familiar sun lounging positions and wallowed in how efficient we had become at getting things done.
To great fanfare, Marigold emerged through the double doors feeling like a million dollars. Driving back to the hostel felt like a lap of honour for Marigold who was flaunting her glitzy red carpet moment at every opportunity. We had completed all the planned tasks for the day and it wasn’t even lunchtime yet. Feeling triumphant we toasted Marigold, lay back in our familiar sun lounging positions and wallowed in how efficient we had become at getting things done.
Throughout the Stan’s we were having
slight conversational translation issues. “Privet” pronounced pree-vet (meaning
hello in Russian) to the untrained tongue closely resembles pee-vah, meaning
beer. Puzzled looks stared back at us on occasions when we walked into a room,
waved and said beer or when we ordered three hellos at the bar. Those two words
and “spasiba” were the full extent of our Russian vocabulary, which for the
most widely spoken language on the trip was poor. Nonetheless, our charades
game had become pretty strong.
 |
| £8.82 on crisps, shameless daylight robbery |
At dinner we found a German restaurant at the foot of
the hostel’s tower block (again, all about the efficiencies) and enjoyed a nice
meal. Thinking that the copious bowls of crisps the waiter kept bringing over
were complementary, we had munched through at least one large sack of potatoes
by the time the bill came. To our horror they must’ve been beef wellington and
sea salted truffle flavour as they were more expensive than the beer.
Coughing up a frankly blasphemous amount of money for essentially a fried plant, we sank back to the hostel feeling slightly vexed despite an almost perfect day. It didn’t last long however as excitement grew for what was in store the following day - sightseeing.
Coughing up a frankly blasphemous amount of money for essentially a fried plant, we sank back to the hostel feeling slightly vexed despite an almost perfect day. It didn’t last long however as excitement grew for what was in store the following day - sightseeing.
Posted by: Rich