About life
After graduating from a university in Istanbul I moved to San Francisco. Then I was hired by a Russian international company and lived in Moscow for a while. As part of this work, I came to Astana. Initially I was to live here for not a long, yet the company grew and… here I am! That’s gorgeous as I’ve already fallen in love with Astana.
Astana is beautiful both in summer and winter. Living in Moscow I got used to chillness. The weather here is more severe, though it is sunny in winter. It makes the cold more bearable. The weather in Moscow is gloomy, which makes it nasty and hard to live.
To be honest, I hadn’t not expected much from Astana, yet finally I was pleasantly surprised: people are benevolent, streets are wide and clean, buildings are modern. By the way, I like that cars stop before pedestrians and let them cross the road. It is a bit different in Istanbul.
Living here made me much more patient. In San Francisco or Istanbul people do everything quickly, while in Astana they spend more time on doing their stuff. I couldn’t help starting to behave like them!
At first it was hard to find friends. But it isn’t an obstacle for a foreigner – a great number of events are regularly held here. Alternatively you are welcomed to a Turkish restaurant, where you can find an uncountable number of Turkish friends in a couple of visits.
About the city
There are quite a lot of parks in Astana. The most I like is the one around the Palace of Peace and Harmony and the park named after Kemal Ataturk. I rarely visit Central Park since it's always crowded.
I dare to say that the direction the city is moving is quite right. Simple architecture and skyscrapers are skillfully combined here (the diplomatic town, which looks harmonious).
As soon as I think it would be nice to build something here in Astana, news reports that it is soon to appear. The same was with Light Rail System, which is necessary to be set up in Astana. Additionally, I wish there were more covered parkings here.
About accomodation
In Astana I’ve changed two apartments. By the way, facilities are better than I had living in Moscow. Firstly I lived in ordinary residential complexes with an Ishim view. Now I live in the Highvill which is the best variant, for me at least. Here I can find anything just in a walking distance, next to the park.
Utilities here are extremely cheap, these are the lowest prices among all the countries I have ever visited.
About food
Among all the meals I’ve eaten here, I like pilaf, dumplings, shish kebab, carrots in Korean. To tell the truth, I don’t like beshbarmak as I'm not used to eating horse meat. Kazakhstani people eat a lot of meat. Surely, in Turkey it is also loved, but in order to maintain balance, the meat is eaten with a lot of vegetables and fruits. As for Kazakhstan, people prefer eating pure meat not mixing it with anything.
Once I visited a couple of local Turkish restaurants. They do not exactly reflect the real Turkish cuisine so I did not like them. I’d better go to Uzbek or Azerbaijani restaurants here.
I tend to chill out with my friends in Marrone Rosso in "Keruen". After a long workweek I prefer going to Yakitoriya, Line Brew, White Garden.
About entertainment and shopping
In my spare time I like chilling out with friends or walking in the park.
I prefer "Khan Shatyr” to any other shopping centers. There I buy clothes. "Saryarka" and “MEGA Silk Way” have recently begun showing films in English, therefore, nowadays, I often go there too.
About people
Here I often meet people who speak Turkish. That’s amazing! Once I and a Russian driver were stuck in the middle of the road outside the city and needed a help. He found Kazakh guys who spoke only Kazakh and Turkish. He handed a phone to me, and I managed to explain them the problem. It was an amazing experience.
The thing which confuses me a lot is a constant necessity to prove my identity. We are asked to show original documents all the time, even coming to our partners’ office. I think such formalities need to be simplified as much as possible.
I’ve noticed that in Kazakhstan gender equality situation is much better than in Turkey and that’s great.