Hungary Italy and Kazakhstan Day 1
Hungary Italy and Kazakhstan Day 2
Hungary Italy and Kazakhstan Day 3
Hungary Italy and Kazakhstan Day 4
Hungary Italy and Kazakhstan Day 5 – Gellert
Hungary Italy and Kazakhstan Day 6
Hungary Italy and Kazakhstan Day 7 – Bulgari
Hungary Italy and Kazakhstan Day 8 – Cinecitta Studios

Our time in Rome finally had come to a close. While my classmates all headed back to the US – I took off for Kazakhstan. This was my second time to Kazakhstan.

My flight was from Rome to Istanbul and then to Almaty (or Alma-Ata as the local say it) on Turkish Airlines. These miles credited to my United account which I’ve been trying to accumulate a bit more on thanks to the 50,000 United Airlines offer a couple of months back.

I generally find the movies provided by the airlines to be quite subpar. Does anyone really want to watch “Meet Dave” or “Legally Blonde 2”?

I much prefer to bring movies with me to watch like Top Chef or The Amazing Race. Top Chef is pretty entertaining for me though I’ve yet to see one dish that any contestant has done that I could actually replicate at home.

I arrived in Almaty airport at around 3 am. This time I planned to stay at the Holiday Inn which is just around the corner from the Intercontinental. The Intercontinental is certainly a nice property, but I still had a pretty bad taste in my mouth from the last time I stayed there. I stayed there from 7 am – 1 am, less than 24 hours but due to “early checkin” the hotel charged me double my reservation rate.

I arrived at the Holiday Inn and could tell right away this is another fantastic overseas Holiday Inn property. It reminds me of my favorite Moscow property, the Holiday Inn Lesnaya. I was given an upgraded room due to my Platinum status. I quickly crashed after a very long day of traveling.