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A capital city, again!

After our comfortable train ride we descended the train hoping that our bicycles would still be ok. From the distance we could already see that they were about to be unloaded and that they were ok. Suddenly there was a friendly looking guy standing next to us telling us that he, Asset, was a friend of Ruslan and that he was here to help us. Unbelievable, so helpful!

the malefactor that drove us to Astana

the railway station

After we had loaded our bikes we went to our mini hotel where Asset was already waiting for us. Because equipped with Alexandra’s back wheel he drove us to a bicycle shop. From his car we had a great view of the capital of Kasachstan. An interesting city with weird, futuristic looking buildings, at least Alexandra had never seen something like that before.

Bajterek tower

a part of the Nasarbajew center

The guy in the shop tried to repair the hub of the wheel as he preferred the cheaper way on behalf of his clients, as Asset told us. We could easily tell that this guy knew what he was doing as he was working really quickly and targeted. Finally it came up that he is a good friend and former repairman of professional cyclist Alexander Winokurow. Ooook, that explains everything. 😉
When he couldn’t fix our wheel the cheap way, he seemed a bit disappointed. Then he suggested to change the hub for us as there was no matching wheel to get in Astana. We agreed and just a few hours later we got the repaired wheel back.
Once again a big thank you to Asset who drove us through the city all day long and helped us there, although his pregnant wife was waiting at home for the birth of their first child. 🙂

lovely Asset, Alexandra, the malefactor and Wladimir, the bicycle specialist

The next day we had some time for sightseeing, although the weather wasn’t that great. In general we thought that it would be really hot and sunny in Kazakhstan. In reality it seems that autumn is already coming here in the northeast, it was really chill the last days with temperatures only between 13 and 20 degrees. Anyhow, it was very interesting, but also a bit strange that on many points there was nothing going on at all although there were very nice places.
On the whole we really liked Astana, especially in the sunlight we felt good there.